Ardagh Group SA, the glass and metal packaging company, is weighing raising equity after agreeing to pay $3.4 billion of assets being sold by Ball Corp. and Rexam Plc.
Ardagh said on Monday it plans to sell $2.85 billion of bonds to help finance the acquisition over the next 10 days. At the end of last year, Ardagh had debt of €5.4 billion ($6.1 billion), according to its annual report.
"We are actively exploring public and private equity alternatives," Ardagh Chairman Paul Coulson said on a call with analysts.
The company isn’t speaking with potential private equity partners, focusing "largely" on people who are looking for a "very long-term holdings, who want to grow their investments with us," Coulson said.
Last year, Ardagh pulled a planned share sale of its metal-containers unit, citing “challenging” market conditions for initial public offerings in the US Coulson said that it’s now "highly unlikely" that the company would be split.
The yield on Ardagh’s bond maturing in 2022 rose to 4.25 per cent from 4.1 per cent. Ardagh said on Monday it will look at refinancing its debt, including its callable bonds.
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