Packaging Corp. of America, the fourth-largest U.S. producer of corrugated shipping boxes, has agreed to buy Boise Inc. for about $1.27 billion in cash to boost capacity. Boise Inc. is the trade name used by its corporate entity, Boise Cascade Corp.
Packaging Corp. will pay $12.55 a share, the companies said Monday in a statement, 26 percent more than Boise’s Sept. 13 closing price. The deal also includes $714 million of Boise’s debt and will close in the fourth quarter, they said.
The takeover will increase Lake Forest, Ill.-based Packaging Corp.’s container board production capacity 42 percent to 3.7 million tons a year and boost the company’s presence in the Pacific Northwest, the companies said.
The combined companies generated $5.5 billion in sales and $879 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization last year, according to the statement.
Boise, based in the eponymous Idaho city, also makes newsprint and office paper and owns mills, production facilities and distribution centers in North America and Europe.
