US based firm, Ball Corporation Thursday announced it had increased its stake in its Brazilian joint venture by an additional 10.1%. Ball Corp. said it had acquired the additional economic interest in Latapack-Ball Embalagens Ltda, its beverage packaging joint venture in Brazil. The deal now hikes Ball Corp.’s overall ownership in the joint venture to around 60%.

Under the terms of the deal, the joint venture’s results will now be consolidated and reported in Ball Corporation’s metal beverage packaging, Americas and Asia segment from the third quarter of 2010. Ball is hopeful that it will be reporting some gain in the third quarter on its previous ownership interest in the Joint venture, Latapack-Ball. Latapack-Ball runs metal beverage packaging manufacturing plants in Tres Rios, Jacarei and Salvador in Brazil.

The joint venture expects to attain 2010 sales pegged at about $360 million. R. David Hoover, Ball Corp.’s chief executive officer and chairman said the firm has an established presence in Brazil that boasts over 15 years of operations in the country. For that reason, the Brazilian market has increasingly become a significant region for Ball Corp.’s products, said Hoover.

Ball Corp’s business in the region is witnessing some considerable growth and Ball expects it to contribute to its future success. This is despite the fact that the growth’s impact on Ball’s earnings per share will be limited in 2010, as the firm already reports 50% of the net income of Latapack-Ball.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,000 people worldwide and reported 2009 sales of more than $7.3 billion including discontinued operations.

Latapack-Ball is one of the most important suppliers of aluminum cans for beverage companies in Brazil. It provides state-of-the-art technology in the production of aluminum cans and ends, maintaining a strict program of compliance with security and environmental protection standards.

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL), originally Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, is an American company famous for producing glass canning jars. It’s currently headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The company has expanded into other areas such as avionics, space systems, metal beverage and food containers, aerosol containers and plastic containers.

10 Sep 2010.