Ardagh Group Enters Into Exclusive Negotiations to Acquire Verallia North America

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.

14 Jan 2013 --- Ardagh Group, a global leader in glass and metal packaging solutions, announced that it has made a binding and irrevocable offer and entered into exclusive negotiations with Compagnie de Saint-Gobain to purchase from it the entire issued share capital of Verallia North America in a transaction involving total consideration of approximately US$1.7 billion (€1.275 billion).  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 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 US$1.6 billion (€1.2 billion).

Paul Coulson, Ardagh Group Chairman, commented:

“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 CEO, commented:

“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.