Ardagh Group announces plan to sell €1.8 bn of debt

CHARLIE TAYLOR

The Ardagh Group, the Luxembourg-based packaging giant run by Paul Coulson, has announced plans to sell €1.8 billion of debt.

The moves comes two days after the US Federal Trade Commission approved the sale of six its nine glass container manufacturing plants in the United States as part of a proposed €1.27 billion deal to buy the American business of Saint-Govain unit Verailla.

Ardagh acquired the six plants that make beer and liquor bottles in 2012 but offered to sell them in December 2013 after the commission filed a complaint saying the deal for Verallia was illegal.

In a statement issued yesterday, Ardagh Packaging Finance and Ardagh Holdings USA as co-issuers, said they plan to issue €1.155 billion of first priority senior secured notes due 2022.

They will also issue $430 million of secured floating rate notes due 2019 and $440 million of senior notes due 2021.

The proceeds of the debt issuance, along with the proceeds from the sale of the six glass plants, will be used to repay senior notes due 2017.

Ardagh manufactures glass bottles and containers, and metal packaging such as tins, used mainly by the food processing industry. It also packages products such as Heineken beer, John West salmon and Del Monte fruit.

After the disposal of the six plants, Ardagh will operate 94 production facilities in 23 countries. Founded in 1932 as the Irish Glass Bottle Company, the group now employs some 19,500 people.

Ardagh, which shelved plans to float on Wall Street in 2011, is expected to proceed with plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in the second half of 2015.

Last month, the group reported that sales in the first three months of this year rose 1 per cent on the same period in 2013 to €968 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) rose €13 million to €155 million.