ATLANTA - Caraustar Industries Inc. said Monday it would buy Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.'s Industrial Packaging Group for about $79.8 million.<br>
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The Smurfit business consists of 17 paper tube and core plants, three uncoated recycled paperboard mills and three partition manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada.<br>
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Caraustar said it will continue to operate the paperboard mills, which are in Tacoma, Wash., Lafayette, Ind. and Cedartown, Ga.<br>
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However, Caraustar expects to take a charge of about $5 million in costs associated with the anticipated closing of several other facilities.<br>
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The acquisition is expected to close on or before August 22.<br>
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The Smurfit business had 2001 annual sales of about $138 million excluding intradivisional sales.<br>
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Caraustar mills will begin supplying about 31,000 tons annually of uncoated recycled boxboard that Smurfit has been purchasing from others. This additional tonnage should allow Caraustar to increase its uncoated mill capacity utilization rate to about 100 percent, the company said.<br>
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Atlanta-based Caraustar expects the acquisition to add 3 cents to 4 cents a share to its fourth quarter earnings and 20 cents to 25 cents a share to 2003 earnings.<br>
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Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. is based in Chicago.<br>
