Ardagh to sell six US glass plants as part of Verrallia puchase

Glass manufacturing group Ardagh is to sell six former Anchor Glass plants to meet the terms of an agreement with the US mergers watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Last week Ardagh completed its € 1.3 billion purchase of rival packaging group Verallia North America (VNA,) after US regulators gave the deal the green light on condition that it offload six manufacturing plants belonging to a Florida-based subsidiary, Anchor Glass, a business it bought in 2012 for € 720 million.

This morning the group, which is led by Paul Coulson, announced that it would sell six former Anchor Glass plants, together with certain related assets, to an affiliate of KPS Capital Partners, a private equity fund manager with over $6.1 billion of assets under management.

Ardagh, which supplies everything from tins for John West salmon to Heineken beer bottles, had agreed to buy bottle-maker VNA from French group Saint Gobain in January 2013, but the deal had stalled on competition grounds.

Following the acquisition of VNA and the completion of the divestment of the six plants to KPS, Ardagh’s North America glass division will generate annual revenues of approximately $2 billion (€1.4bn) from 16 glass manufacturing facilities, employing 5,000 people.

Globally, Ardagh will now operate from over 100 locations in 24 countries, employing 20,000 people with global sales of some € 4.8 billion.