Moody’s affirms Amcor’s rating; outlook developing

Sydney, August 18, 2009 -- Moody's Investors Service has today affirmed
the Baa2/P-2 issuer/senior unsecured and short term commercial paper
ratings of Amcor Limited (Amcor). At the same time, the rating outlook
has been changed from negative to developing.

"The change in outlook follows Amcor's announcement of its binding offer
to Rio Tinto plc for the purchase of Alcan Packaging's businesses, says
Ian Lewis, a Moody's Vice President/Senior Analyst, adding "completion of
the transaction is subject to a number of key milestones, including (i)
finalization of equity funding, (ii) required regulatory approvals and
(iii) acceptance by Rio Tinto".

"The developing outlook reflects the evolving nature of the transaction
which still has significant hurdles to pass through and a period of
months before the transaction could be completed, says Lewis, who is
also Lead Analyst for the company.

To the extent that the transaction is completed as the company
anticipates, then it is likely that Moody's will affirm Amcor's Baa2
rating and change the outlook from developing to stable, reflecting the
improved financial profile of the Group together with a material
improvement in Amcor's operating profile - including the greater scale
efficiencies and leading market shares - resulting from the transaction.
The stable outlook would also factor in the integration challenges of the
transaction.

"Moody's will closely monitor all aspects of the transaction as it
progresses, with particular attention to the above key hurdles which
remain to be completed, including any anti-trust outcomes which may
affect the combination", adds Lewis.

Amcor's purchase of Rio Tinto's Alcan Packaging businesses, including
"Food Europe", "Global Pharmaceuticals", "Food Asia" and Global Tobacco"
is for a headline price of US$2,025 million, funded by A$1,611 million
of committed equity and US$ 689 million of committed debt funding which
the company has successfully negotiated with its banks, and has a
multi-year term. The transaction, should it be successfully completed,
will place Amcor as one of the largest packaging companies in the world. 

The last rating action was on 18 February, 2009 when the ratings of Amcor
were affirmed and the outlook changed from stable to negative.

The principal methodology used in this rating this issuer was the Global
Packaging Manufacturers methodology, which can be found at www.moodys.com
in the Credit Policy and Methodologies directory, in the Ratings
Methodologies subdirectory. Other methodologies and factors that may
have been considered in the process of rating this issuer can also be
found in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory.

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