KEY POINTS:
Graeme Hart is finishing off the year with a $3.5 billion play for packaging assets around the world.
His company Rank yesterday disclosed it was buying International Paper's drinks packaging division for $725 million and launching a takeover bid for listed Swiss packaging group SIG that values the firm's shares at $2.8 billion.
The bid puts Hart in the thick of a takeover battle. His offer trumps an earlier bid for SIG - by Norway's Elopak and private equity group CVC Capital Partners.
If he gets both assets they would link with the packaging business of Carter Holt Harvey - the former International Paper subsidiary he acquired at the start of this year for $3.3 billion - and will set the billionaire on his way to become a force in international packaging.
"Combined, the two businesses would have sales of $US2.75 billion ($4 billion), employ 7700 people and would offer a range of beverage and food packaging solutions from a global network capable of servicing regional and multinational customers," Rank said last night.
Carter Holt's packaging business has sales of about $600 million.
Before the announcement, SIG's shares in Switzerland were trading at 358 Swiss francs ($423.8), below Hart's bid of 370 franc but above the Elopak offer of 325 francs.
SIG manufactures cartons for food and drink products, as well as machinery and in 2005 it had sales of $2.7 billion. It employs more than 4700 people and is divided into two divisions - Combibloc and Beverages.
Rank said the acquisition of International Paper's beverage packaging arm was expected to close on January 31, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and other conditions.
It specialises in producing liquid paperboard packaging for fresh milk, dairy and juice. It includes a 700,000-tonne pulp and paper mill at Pine Bluff in Arkansas - similar in size to the Carter Holt Harvey Kinleith mill - as well as other facilities scattered across the US, Canada and Asia.
The business employs about 3000 people and produces more than 670,000 tonnes annually of packaging. The business had net sales of about $US859 million in 2005.
The deal caps off an epic year for the billionaire, that started with the privatisation of Carter Holt.
This month he completed the break-up of Burns Philp - the Australian food company which he bought into in 1997 - when he sold his Bluebird snack business to US food and drinks giant Pepsico for $245 million.
In May, Burns Philp's Uncle Toby brand was sold to Nestle for about $1.1 billion. That and the float of the Goodman Fielder business last year gave Burns Philp $2.9 billion, net of debt. Hart privatised Burns in November for $1.5 billion.
At the time analysts said he had enough equity to raise money for acquisitions worth more than $12 billion. That was not counting the unknown level of equity he has in Carter Holt Harvey.
He has since sold most of the group's forests to American firm Hancock for about $1.5 billion.
Hart is also understood to have looked at Australian packaging company Amcor. Market commentators say the frenzy of private equity in Australia has pushed prices higher than Hart is interested in paying.
BIG MONEY
* March: after paying more than $3.3 billion, Hart gains full control of Carter Holt Harvey.
* May: Burns Philp sells Uncle Toby's business to Nestle for $1.1 billion.
* August: Hart makes full takeover bid for Burns Philp.
* October: CHH buys nine ITM hardware stores. CHH sells forest assets for $1.5 billion.
* November: Hart gains full control of Burns Philp.
* December 7: Sells Bluebird for $245 million.
* December 19: Agrees to buy International Paper's drinks packaging business for $725 million and launches bid for Switzerland's SIG.
