Glass bottle and metal container firm Ardagh Group, lead by Financier Paul Coulson, has agreed a deal to buy South Africa's Consol Holdings Proprietary Limited for an equity value of $635m (10.1 billion ZAR). Other figures are under way giving the deal with 1billion $ (resp. 890million Euro) as complete value of the deal. It said it expects to finance the acquisition through a combination of its own cash resources and the assumption of ZAR5.7 billion (€318 million) existing net debt at Consol.
Headquartered in Johannesburg and founded in 1946, Consol operates four glass production facilities in South Africa. Main products serve international, regional and domestic customers, mainly in the beer, wine, spirits, food and non-alcoholic beverage sectors.
In the year to the end of June, Consol reported consolidated revenues of $566m. It said that South Africa accounted for about 90% of revenues, with the rest coming from smaller production facilities in Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Ardagh said that glass consumption in Consol's markets is projected to continue to increase, driven by long-term trends, including population growth, rising income levels and moves to premium one-way sustainable glass packaging.
“We are very pleased to expand our European and North America presence in glass packaging into Africa with the acquisition of Consol, a high-quality business, led by an excellent management team. Consol is a market leader in the region, with great relationships across a diversified domestic and multinational customer base,” said Mr Coulson, Ardagh’s chairman.
Luxembourg-based global packaging group Ardagh operates 56 metal and glass production facilities in 12 countries, employing more than 16,000 people. It caters to beverage, food, pharmaceutical and personal care markets and its customers include the likes of Heineken and Perrier. Ardagh has its origins in the Irish Glass Bottle Company, but no longer has any manufacturing facilities in this country.
Completion of today's deal is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approvals that are expected to be obtained in the second quarter of 2022. Citigroup acted as exclusive financial adviser to Ardagh, and Barclays acted as exclusive financial adviser to Consol.
