Shorewood Offers Cash for U.K.'s Field Group plc

Shorewood Packaging Corp. announced Wednesday it has made a cash offer of 350 pence per share for all of the outstanding shares of Field Group plc. Including the assumption of approximately $50 million of Field Group debt, the offer is valued at approximately $400 million. Shorewood announced on Jan. 25, 1999, that it was considering making an offer for the United Kingdom-based Field Group, which specializes in the design and production of high-quality cartons, containers, printed leaflets and labels.

The potential acquisition of Field will provide Shorewood, which is looking to become a global supplier of quality, premium paperboard packaging, with the ability to serve the combined companies' customer base in Europe as well as North America. Shorewood's recently completed manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, China, will also enable it to serve customers in the emerging Asian markets. The company expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in Fiscal 2000. The offer is subject to customary conditions, including a satisfactory level of acceptance of the offer.

Field operates 17 manufacturing facilities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium and The Netherlands. In its fiscal year ended Apr. 4, 1998, Field generated sales of approximately $400 million and operating income of $42 million. For the six-month period ended Oct. 4, 1998, Field reported sales of approximately $204 million with operating income of $18.3 million.

Commenting on the offer, Marc Shore, chairman and CEO of Shorewood, said, "Both companies have similar customer relationships and similar packaging markets in different geographic sectors, and, equally important, Shorewood and Field share the same value-added solution approach to serving their customers. Strategically, Shorewood will be able to leverage its strong leadership position in the North American music and multimedia packaging sectors to provide Field an immediate platform into these growing Pan-European markets.''

Field produces premium value-added packaging in the United Kingdom, as well as pharmaceutical packaging in Europe. Shorewood Packaging Corp., with 16 plants in the United States, Canada and China, is a value-added provider of high-quality printing and paperboard packaging for the cosmetics, food, home video, music, software, tobacco and toiletries and general consumer markets.