PARIS, June 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Following a comprehensive process,
Saint-Gobain has granted funds managed by affiliates of Apollo
Global Management, LLC (together with its consolidated
subsidiaries, "Apollo") exclusivity after having received a
purchase offer for Verallia of €2,945 million (enterprise value).
This firm and binding offer is not subject to any financing
conditions.
Apollo is also currently in talks with Banque Publique
d'Investissement (BPI) in connection with BPI's potential
acquisition of a minority stake in Verallia.
Saint-Gobain chose Apollo for the quality of its offer and its
support for the industrial project and for Verallia's
employees.
Verallia is one of the leading manufacturers of glass bottles
and jars in the world, generating €2,391 million in net sales and
€230 million in operating income in 2014 (excluding Verallia
North America, which exited the Group in April 2014). It has 47 plants in 13 countries and
employs nearly 10,000 people.
The agreement between Saint-Gobain and funds managed by
affiliates of Apollo will be able to be finalized following the
customary information and consultation procedures with the Group's
employee representative bodies. The completion of the transaction
is subject to the approval of certain competition authorities,
including the European Commission, and should be effective before
the end of the year.
Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of Saint-Gobain, said:
"The sale of Verallia would complete Saint-Gobain's strategic
refocus on the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative,
high-performance solutions for the habitat and industrial markets,
on which the Group continues to develop."
Robert Seminara, Senior Partner
at Apollo, and Jean-Luc Allavena,
Operating Executive at Apollo, said:
"We are extremely excited to be acquiring Verallia, which is an
outstanding franchise and one of the world's leading packaging
companies. We look forward to partnering with management and its
tremendous employee base to support the continued growth and
innovation of Verallia."
ABOUT SAINT-GOBAIN
In 2015, Saint-Gobain is celebrating its 350th
anniversary, 350 reasons to believe in the future. Backed by its
experience and its capacity to continuously innovate, Saint-Gobain,
the world leader in the habitat and construction market, designs,
manufactures and distributes high-performance and building
materials providing innovative solutions to the challenges of
growth, energy efficiency and environmental protection. With 2014
sales of €41 billion, Saint-Gobain operates in 64 countries and has
over 180,000 employees. For more information about Saint-Gobain,
visit http://www.saint-gobain.com and the
twitter account @saintgobain or download the "Saint-Gobain
Shareholder" application for tablet and smartphone.
ABOUT APOLLO
Apollo is a leading global alternative investment manager.
Apollo had assets under management of approximately $163 billion as of March
31, 2015 in private equity, credit and real estate funds
invested across a core group of nine industries where Apollo has
considerable knowledge and resources, including the packaging and
materials sectors. Apollo has a strong track record in France based on investments in major
industrial companies such as Constellium. For more information
about Apollo, please
visit http://www.agm.com .
Appendix: Verallia key financial
data[1]
For the three For the
months For the year ended twelve months ended
ended March 31, December 31, 2014 ended March 31, 2015
EURm 2014 2015
Net sales 544.4 549.8 2,391.0 2,396.4
Operating income 37.4 45.7 230.1 238.4
Business income[2] 35.7 43.6 211.8 219.8
EBITDA[3] 78.5 87.0 396.9 405.4
Capital expenditure[4] 27.9 40.5 197.2 210.8
1. The summary combined financial information as of and for
the twelve months ended December 31,
2014 was derived from our audited financial statements. The
summary condensed combined financial information as of and for the
three months ended March 31, 2014 and
2015 was derived from our unaudited interim financial statements.
The financial information for the twelve months ended March 31, 2015 was derived by adding the
unaudited condensed interim combined financial information for the
three months ended March 31, 2015 to
the audited combined financial information for the year ended
December 31, 2014 and subtracting the
unaudited condensed interim combined financial information for the
three months ended March 31,
2014.
2. Business income includes all income and expenses (other
than borrowing costs and other financial costs and other financial
income and expense, and income taxes).
3. EBITDA = operating income plus depreciation and
amortization on tangible and intangible assets.
4. Investments in tangible and intangible
assets.
Analyst/Investor relations
For Saint-Gobain:
Gaetano Terrasini, +33-1-47-62-32-52
Vivien Dardel, +33-1-47-62-44-29
Marine Huet, +33-1-47-62-30-93
For Apollo:
Gary Stein, +1-212-822-0467
Noah Gunn, +1-212-822-0540
Press relations
For Saint-Gobain:
Sophie Chevallon, +33-1-47-62-30-48
Susanne Trabitzsch, +33-1-47-62-43-25
Benoît Gausseron (Taddeo), +33-6-46-47-09-49
SOURCE Saint-Gobain