Ardagh Group‘s creditors-turned-owners are pressing ahead with plans to dismantle the packaging multinational built by Irish financier Paul Coulson over 25 years, with a deal announced on Monday to sell its food-cans joint venture.
The company, which traces its roots back to the 1932 foundation of the long-defunct Irish Glass Bottle Company, said it would receive $90 million (€80.2 million) in net proceeds from the sale of its 42 per cent stake in Trivium Packaging to Connecticut-based packaging group Silgan Holdings.
Trivium’s majority owner, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is also selling its stake to Silgan in a deal that puts an enterprise value on the highly-indebted business of $3.4 billion (€3 billion).
The deal comes less than a week after the Luxembourg-based Ardagh Group, which recorded $9.6 billion of sales last year, excluding Trivium, got the go-ahead from a court in the grand duchy to proceed with a plan to sell its 76 per cent-owned drink-cans unit, Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP).
AMP, which is listed in New York and has a market value of $2.8 billion, is the most valuable part of the corporate giant built by Coulson through a series of debt-fuelled acquisitions over the years.
That was before he lost control of the business last year to a group of senior unsecured and junior bondholders – who were owed $4.2 billion – in a significant debt restructuring. The deal saw legacy equity holders, led by Coulson, being paid $300 million to walk away.
[ Ardagh weighs selling African glass unitOpens in new window ]
The new owners were reported earlier this month to be weighing the potential sale of Ardagh Group’s African glass business. Conversations over a possible sale of the unit, which Ardagh bought in 2022 for an enterprise value of $1 billion, are said to be at an early stage.
The Trivium sale is expected to close in mid-2027 and is subject to required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, Ardagh Group said.
“The sale agreement of Ardagh Group’s minority investment stake in Trivium represents a favourable outcome for all stakeholders,” said Ardagh Group chairman Mar Porto. “For Ardagh Group, the disposal of a noncore investment helps to simplify our overall business and organisational structure, with the net cash proceeds expected to be used towards reinvestment in the business or towards debt reduction.”
Ardagh Group’s net debt amounted to $8.89 billion at the end of June, which equated to 6.1 times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the preceding 12 months.