Rexam intends to re-focus its business entirely on the beverage can sector, with the announcement that it has initiated the process to divest itself of its Healthcare business.
In its half-year statement, the global consumer packaging company said the move was consistent with its long-term strategy to “focus on beverage cans and maximise shareholder value”.
Trading for the first 5 months to the end of May showed growth in beverage cans moving “more slowly than planned”, with global volumes up by 1% versus the previous year.
North America continued to perform strongly, the company said, however volumes were “disappointing” in South America and Western Europe in the last two months of the report period.
“It has been a challenging first half, but we have taken assertive action on costs to mitigate the impact on our performance and maintain our capital discipline,” said Rexam chief executive Graham Chipchase.
“Although we are still in the midst of our seasonally important summer period, we are managing the business proactively to overcome these challenges, and we continue to expect full year performance to show improvement over 2012, even if progress is likely to be less than previously anticipated.”
Chipchase added that following the proposed sale of its Healthcare business, Rexam will have “a strong balance sheet and a clear strategy”.
