This is kinda interesting:
Sunday May 23, 8:13 am Eastern Time
Smurfit mulls takeover by U.S. unit -report
DUBLIN, May 23 (Reuters) - Ireland's Jefferson Smurfit Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SMFT.L), one of the world's leading packaging companies, is considering a plan which would see it taken over by its U.S. associate, Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (Nasdaq:SSCC - news), the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
In its Irish edition, the newspaper quoted sources close to Smurfit as saying a reverse takeover would make sense and was likely to take place before 2001.
Smurfit was unavailable for immediate comment on Sunday.
The newspaper said, on current market valuations, Smurfit's 34 percent stake in the U.S. group accounted for more than half of Smurfit's own capitalisation.
The report said U.S. analysts had suggested a reverse takeover because they believed the parent company was being neglected by European investors and would fare better in the United States, home to the world's largest paper makers.
Smurfit, after being hit hard by the Asian economic crisis which depressed packaging prices, has turned round its fortunes, chiefly by slashing containerboard production capacity.
Its shares, however, are still trading below their sector counterparts despite recent gains. The stock closed at 2.4 euros in Dublin on Friday and at 158.5 pence sterling.
Smurfit-Container Corp. was formed last year by the merger of Jefferson Smurfit Corp in the United States and Stone Container Corp., one of its main U.S. rivals.
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