Guernsey-based Ardagh Glass has successfully placed a 10-year loan note, raising EUR 125 million. As a result of the successful placing, the firm“s small shareholders will be offered EUR 4 per share …
Guernsey-based Ardagh Glass has successfully placed a 10-year loan note, raising EUR 125 million. As a result of the successful placing, the firm“s small shareholders will be offered EUR 4 per share to buyout their stakes. A spokesman for Ardagh said 23 February 2005 that the company had now received sufficient irrevocable (75%) to enable all resolutions to be passed at an extraordinary general meeting (e.g.m.). A date has yet to be decided for the the e.g.m. Shareholders who decided two years ago to keep shares in the private company instead of accepting the cash alternative of EUR 1.10, have an option to retain an interest in the glass company this time around. They can keep 10% of their existing shareholding, which will be converted into shares in the newly created holding company Caono plc, while taking cash for the balance. The EUR 125 million notes, called senior pay-in-kind notes, have a 10-year maturity. Priced at 99% of face value, they pay a coupon of 10.75%. The proceeds of such issues have until now been used to fund dividend payments to shareholders. Ardagh Glass is the first company to use the structure to raise money to invest in the company. “The book was comfortably oversubscribed with over 50 investors participating and the transaction had lead orders from the regular payment-in-kind investors,” said Mr Ponty Singh, a director in lead manager BNP Paribas“s high-yield capital markets team, which managed the deal with Citigroup. Ardagh makes glass bottles for the food and drink market. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor“s assigned a B+ rating to the notes, while revising Ardagh“s outlook to negative from stable.