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Loews Corp to Add Consolidated Container to its Portfolio

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Loews Corporation (L - Free Report) recently announced its decision to acquire plastic packaging manufacturer Consolidated Container Company LLC from Bain Capital Private Equity. The Multi line insurer will pay approximately $1.2 billion for the buyout.

The transaction, which is likely to be completed by the second quarter of this year, will be funded by cash and debt equally.

Consolidated Container is an Atlanta-based rigid plastic packaging manufacturer. The company offers packaging solutions for beverages, food and household chemicals. Post acquisition, the packaging manufacturer will become part of New York-based Loews Corp.’s newly formed business – Loews Packaging Group. The deal will help Loews Corp. to further boost and diversify its operations as well as strengthen its network of manufacturing locations throughout the U.S.

Loews Corp. revealed that the decision to buy Consolidated Container was taken after careful analysis of the packaging industry for a considerable period of time. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) Multi line insurer believes that Consolidated Container will be a perfect fit for its portfolio. Given that the packaging industry is highly fragmented with no major players and scope for solid cash flow generation, Loews Corp. believes that the packaging manufacturer will not be subjected to any major technological disruption. Furthermore, the Multi line insurer expects the latest transaction to accelerate its overall growth.

Notably, shares of Loews Corp. gained 0.83% year to date, outperforming the Zacks categorized Multi line Insurance industry, which lost 0.03% in the same time period. We expect prudent acquisitions, strong operational performance and a robust capital position to continue driving the stock higher.



Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the insurance industry include James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (JRVR - Free Report) , MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG - Free Report) and Cincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF - Free Report) . Each of these stocks holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here

James River Group offers specialty insurance and reinsurance services in the U.S. The company delivered positive surprises in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 3.60%.

MGIC Investment provides private mortgage insurance and ancillary services to lenders and government sponsored entities in the U.S. The company delivered positive surprises in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 21.74%.

Cincinnati Financial deals in the property casualty insurance business in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in all of the last four quarters with an average beat of 9.17%.

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