P.M. BRIEFING : Crown Cork Buys Canning Units

Continuing its buying binge, Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc. today agreed to buy the food and beverage metal canning units of Continental Can Co. Inc. in a purchase that will make Crown the nation’s biggest maker of metal packaging.

Crown, based in Philadelphia, said it would pay $336 million for the two divisions, which have more than 30 U.S. plants and employ 4,000 workers.

Continental Can is a unit of Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. The food and beverage metal canning units had 1989 revenues of about $1.3 billion.

Crown, which had 1989 revenues of $1.9 billion, is already the nation’s leading maker of crowns and closures for bottles and containers.

In January, Crown bought Continental Can Canada Inc., a unit of CCL Industries, for $330 million. The purchase gave Crown more than half of Canada’s metal can manufacturing market.