Hartsville, South Carolina, USA 15 November 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Sonoco (NYSE: SON) today announced that it paid approximately $121 million in principal and interest of its 6.5 percent bonds, which matured today.

According to Barry Saunders, Sonoco's vice president and chief financial officer, the majority of today's 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 percent and a net debt to EBITDA ratio of approximately 1.4 times. Sonoco currently has an investment grade credit rating of BBB+ and Baa2 from Standard & Poor's and Moody's, respectively.

About Sonoco

Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and displays and packaging supply chain services. With annualized net sales of approximately $4.8 billion, the Company has more than 19,900 employees working in 347 operations in 34 countries, serving some of the world's best known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is a proud member of the 2013/2014 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information on the Company, visit our website at www.sonoco.com.