Ardagh Group’s new owners are mulling the potential sale of its African glass business as they look to break up the packaging conglomerate to monetise its assets.
Conversations over a possible sale of Ardagh’s Africa business are still largely internal and at an early stage, and there is no guarantee a process will formally kick off, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ardagh declined to comment.
Paul Coulson, who started by taking control of the long-defunct Irish Glass Bottle Company in Ringsend, Dublin, built Ardagh over 25 years into an international glass and metal packaging giant with more than $9 billion (€8 billion) of annual sales, on the back of a series of debt-fuelled deals in so-called junk-bond markets.
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That debt became unsustainable when earnings were hit after the Covid-19 pandemic by inflation, soaring interest rates and soft consumer demand on both sides of the Atlantic.
[ Ardagh looks to sell $3.14bn metal containers businessOpens in new window ]
Late last year, bondholders who were owed $4.2 billion took control of the group with legacy equity holders, including Coulson, being paid $300 million.
Ardagh’s assets are expected to be sold over time rather than through a single transaction, with the various segments probably being marketed to different pools of buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified as they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Ardagh’s glass packaging business also spans Europe and the US, but the African unit is likely to be the first one to be lined up for a sale, the people added.
The African asset is viewed as a high-quality and growth asset, with about 90 per cent of the business coming from South Africa and the rest from Ethiopia, Nigeria and Kenya.
Ardagh was barred from selling its metal-packaging business by a district court in Luxembourg last month, potentially complicating the new owners’ efforts to capitalise on one of the group’s most valuable assets.
The order followed an application from a group of minority creditors who had challenged last year’s restructuring deal. In response, Ardagh had said it was “vigorously challenging the order and has made an application for it to be withdrawn”.
The combined glass packaging businesses in Europe and Africa posted $1.34 billion of revenue in the first six months of 2026, a 7.5 per cent jump year-over-year, according to Ardagh’s most recent report to investors. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation stood at $214 million, a 1.4 per cent decline from the same period last year. – Bloomberg
