Graphic Packaging Holding Company Agrees to Acquire Contego's European Food Carton Business

Under the terms of the transaction, Graphic Packaging will pay approximately £71 million in cash and assume approximately £10 million in other net liabilities in an all cash transaction to be funded with existing cash and debt under the Company's current revolving line of credit.be

20 Nov 2012 --- "We are excited about the acquisition of Contego's Food and Consumer Carton business as it extends Graphic Packaging into new end markets, expands the Company's global footprint and provides new opportunities for growth," said David Scheible, Graphic Packaging's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Contego operates throughout Western Europe with state of the art facilities in the U.K. and the Netherlands. Combining Graphic's current European business focused in the beverage markets with Contego's strong market share position in the European food and consumer products markets will allow us to broaden our customer base and enhance our competitive positioning. Similar to our strategy in the U.S., we are committed to growing our European business around food and beverage markets and optimizing our supply chain footprint around our customers' needs. There are solid synergies in this combination and we believe the Contego Cartons acquisition is an important step in strengthening our competitive positioning in Europe."

Under the terms of the transaction, Graphic Packaging will pay approximately £71 million in cash and assume approximately £10 million in other net liabilities in an all cash transaction to be funded with existing cash and debt under the Company's current revolving line of credit. Contego Cartons operates three folding carton facilities that convert approximately 150,000 tons of paperboard annually into folding cartons for the food and consumer product industries. Two of Contego Carton's facilities are located in the United Kingdom while the third facility is in the Netherlands.  The acquisition is subject to standard closing requirements and is expected to close in late December.

Forward Looking Statements

Any statements of the Company's expectations in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements, including but not limited to those regarding the effect of the acquisition on the Company's competitive position, expected synergies and earnings and the timing of the closing, are based on currently available information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's present expectations.  These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to successfully integrate the acquisition and achieve synergies, the timing of regulatory approvals, inflation of and volatility in raw material and energy costs, cutbacks in consumer spending that could affect demand for the Company's products or actions taken by our customers in response to the difficult economic environment, continuing pressure for lower cost products, the Company's ability to implement its business strategies, including productivity initiatives and cost reduction plans, currency movements and other risks of conducting business internationally, volatility in the credit and securities markets and the impact of regulatory and litigation matters, including the continued availability of the Company's net operating loss offset to taxable income, and those that impact the Company's ability to protect and use its intellectual property.  Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements, as such statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update such statements.  Additional information regarding these and other risks is contained in the Company's periodic filings with the SEC.