Ball Announces Accelerated Stock Repurchase

Ball Corporation announced today that it has agreed to repurchase approximately $200 million of its outstanding common stock in a privately negotiated accelerated stock repurchase transaction with J.P. Morgan, using cash on hand and available borrowings.

Subject to certain conditions, the transaction will commence today and reduce Ball's outstanding common stock by a total of approximately 5.1 million shares.

"Ball's packaging and aerospace businesses continue to generate a significant amount of free cash flow, and today's announcement is consistent with our balanced capital deployment strategy which includes returning value to shareholders in the form of share buybacks," said Scott C. Morrison, senior vice president and chief financial officer.

The shares are subject to a market price adjustment provision at the conclusion of the transaction which may require a settlement to be made by Ball, or to Ball, based generally on the volume weighted average trading price of the company's shares over an agreed upon period of time.

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high quality packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2011 sales of more than $8.6 billion.