Sonoco Pays Off $121 Million in Maturing Bonds

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Sonoco, Hartsville, S.C., USA, this week announced that it paid approximately $121 million in principal and interest of its 6.5% bonds, which matured November 15. Barry Saunders, Sonoco's VP and CFO, noted that the majority of the debt payment was executed with available cash and concludes approximately $300 million in debt repayment made by the company since the end of 2011.

"Following the $550 million acquisition of Tegrant Holdings in November 2011, we have focused on using our strong free cash flow to further strengthen our investment grade balance sheet and meet our near-term debt reduction goals," said Saunders.

As a result of the debt repayment, Sonoco expects to end 2013 with net debt of approximately $820 million, which would give the company a net debt to total capitalization ratio of 33.6% and a net debt to EBITDA ratio of approximately 1.4 times.

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