<B>Southcorp Nears Sale of Packaging Business</B>

Southcorp Ltd. is in final stages of the sale of its $490 million Australian packaging business with closely held Visy Industries most likely to be the buyer, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Southcorp is in talks to settle on a price, the newspaper said, adding that analysts expect the company to have made the sale by the end of the month. Visy may take only part of the division, with management buying out several of the smaller, unwanted Southcorp assets.

It is unclear if Visy would buy the whole division, with various theories existing about possible management buyouts for several of the smaller, unwanted Southcorp assets.

One of the key factors which Visy Industries is believed to be assessing is the value of being able to offer its customers a more complete range of packaging products, outside of its traditional core business of cardboard boxes.