Ball “ready to sell” plants worth €1.5 billion
Ball Corporation announced today that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of approximately €1.5 billion in aggregate principal amount of U.S. dollar-denominated Senior Notes due 2020 and euro-denominated Senior Notes due 2020 and 2023. The exact terms and timing of the offering will depend upon market conditions and other factors.
Ball intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with borrowings under its credit facilities and cash on hand, to fund the cash portion of the purchase price payable in connection with the consummation of Ball’s acquisition of Rexam PLC. Ball continues to work with regulators to obtain the regulatory clearances required to close the acquisition, and at the present time, the aggregate global divestitures under discussion have estimated aggregate annual revenue in the range of $2.5 billion, using 2014 foreign currency translation rates and 2014 aluminum input prices.
The discussions with the regulators are ongoing and are not finalized, and there can be no assurance that Ball will reach satisfactory resolution with the regulators or that the amount of required divestitures will not change. In addition, Ball believes that after the consummation of the acquisition of Rexam PLC, it will be able to achieve net annual cost synergies in excess of $300 million in the third financial year of operations of the combined company.
Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Deutsche Bank Securities; BofA Merrill Lynch; KeyBanc Capital Markets; Mizuho Securities; and Rabobank are acting as joint book-running managers of the offering.
Ball has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus dated November 27, 2015) and will file a preliminary prospectus supplement with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates.
Ball Corporation supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2014 sales of $8.6 billion.
