Business News

Ball Announces Expiration of Hart-Scott-Rodino Waiting Period on AB InBev Plants Acquisition

Thursday 13. August 2009 - Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) announced today that the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) waiting period has expired without a request for additional information from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, with respect to Ball's acquisition of certain of Anheuser-Busch InBev's (AB InBev) beverage can manufacturing assets, including three beverage can plants and a beverage can end plant as well as associated contracts.

Ball also announced that it has agreed with AB InBev to close the acquisition on or about Sept. 30.

“We are pleased with this outcome and look forward to closing the acquisition and welcoming our new employees into Ball,” said R. David Hoover, chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We have developed detailed integration plans which we will begin to implement immediately after closing. We expect the acquisition to be earnings accretive and cash flow positive for Ball and to earn a return in excess of our cost of capital.”