RS Investment Management Comments on Crown Holdings

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May 28, 2013
Crown Holdings (CCK) manufactures steel and aluminum cans for the food and beverage industry. We were first attracted to Crown as an investment because of the stable end-demand for its products given that, even in recessions, purchases of canned goods do not materially change. In addition, the can industry has become increasingly consolidated in the more developed markets, resulting in disciplined behavior around both pricing and volumes. The result has been steady returns on capital and a business that produces a consistent and healthy stream of free cash flow.

Crown historically has returned its excess cash flow to shareholders through share repurchases. However, growth in emerging markets, particularly Asia and South America, provided Crown with the opportunity to recently deploy some of its excess capital into new projects with high returns. As such, Crown provides us with an opportunity to own a business with both very attractive underlying characteristics and additional growth opportunities. While the pace of growth has slowed and there are fewer potentially attractive new capital projects since we first purchased the stock, the company now has more free cash flow to allocate to share repurchases.

Crown has been a steady performer since we initiated our investment. We see this as a business that is resilient in most economic environments, while continuing to provide investors with significant cash flow, trading at a very reasonable valuation.

From RS Investment Management's first quarter 2013 letter.