Bemis Company, Inc. (BMS) reported third quarter earnings of 48 cents per share, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 39 cents and year-ago EPS of 43 cents. Earnings growth in the quarter was primarily driven by strong operating performance in the Flexible Packaging business, helped by improved sales mix and successful cost controls by the company. Quarterly sales dropped 8.7% year over year to $898.9 million. The second quarter acquisition of the South American rigid packaging operations of Huhtamaki Oyj contributed 1.9% to the third quarter sales. This was more than offset by a negative currency translation effect of 3.6%. The remaining 7.0% decline in sales came from lower volumes and selling prices, partially offset by improved sales mix. Sales in the Flexible Packaging segment were down 7.5% compared to last year, as positive contribution from acquisition and improved sales mix were more than offset by ...

Rio Tinto PLC (RTP), the heavily indebted miner, has now cashed in over $7 billion in total by selling its non-core assets after its merger with Canadian aluminum group Alcan. Last week, Rio agreed to sell its Alcan composites business to Switzerland's Schweiter Technologies for $349 million. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. The company targets to sell $15 billion in assets to lighten its debt burden it piled up from the $38 billion acquisition of Alcan in 2007. At the end of June 2009, Rio's total net debt was $39.1 billion. However, after the rights issue scheme in July, it managed to cut down its debt to $24.3 billion. It completed the $15.2 billion of rights issue in July. The biggest check the company has received so far from its clearance sales was for divesting its business in ...

Rio Tinto walks away from Chinalco; launches a rights offeringRio Tinto (RTP) decided to walk away from a $19.5 billion deal with Chinalco originally announced in the middle of February, in which the Chinese company could have controlled up to 19% of Rio Tinto PLC and 14.9% of Rio Tinto Limited, and could have benefited from the proposed copper, iron ore and aluminum joint ventures.Rather than this tie-up, Rio Tinto will seek to raise $15.2 billion through a rights offering and will pursue an iron-ore joint venture (JV) with BHP Billiton (BHP). This equity infusion will go a long way to paying down a portion of its hefty debt load largely assumed from the prior acquisition of Alcan -- without having to sell stakes in some of its better mines at what appears to have been a less than favorable point in the ...