Ardagh to acquire Verallia North America for $1.7bn
Ardagh Group has made an offer of $1.7bn (€1.275 billion) to acquire Verallia North America from Compagnie de Saint-Gobain.
In a statement, metal and glass giant Ardagh said that Compagnie de Saint-Gobain has convened a meeting of its works council to hold mandatory consultations in relation to this binding and irrevocable offer.
The transaction would be subject to US regulatory approval and would be expected to close later this year.
VNA, which has its headquarters in Muncie, Indiana, is reported to be the second largest glass container manufacturer in the US, serving the North American wine, food and beverage industries. It produces approximately 9 billion containers annually from its 13 facilities located throughout the United States and employs approximately 4,400 people. VNA has annual revenues of approximately $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion).
Global packaging operations
Paul Coulson, Ardagh Group chairman, said: “The acquisition of Verallia North America would be another important milestone in the evolution of Ardagh as it would add scale, diversity and value to our global packaging operations.
“The transaction would increase the size of our glass business globally by almost 60% and be a very significant step in developing our operations in the US. It would result in approximately 40% of Ardagh Group’s total sales and EBITDA being generated in the US.”
Niall Wall, Ardagh Group chief executive, added: “We are delighted with the prospect of completing this transaction as VNA is a very innovative business that would allow us to expand our glass operations into the very important wine sector in the US for the first time.
“It represents an excellent opportunity to provide our US customers with enhanced competitiveness and improved levels of service through the achievement of greater operational efficiencies.”
Ardagh also announced that it will raise, partly in euro and partly in US dollars, a total of US$1.45 billion equivalent of debt financing through the issue of Senior Secured Notes and Senior Notes. The proceeds from the issuance and sale of the notes would be used to pay the cash consideration for the acquisition and certain costs.
