Currently, Ardagh Group produces packaging for food and drink companies such as Diageo, Coca Cola, Del Monte and other international brands. A merger would result in 40 percent of Ardagh's total sales being generated in the United States.
Verallia North America is the second-largest manufacturer of glass packaging for the food and beverage industries in the United States, behind Owens-Illinois. It produces approximately 9 billion containers annually, and its 13 U.S. facilities employ around 4,400 people. Its annual revenues are $1.6 billion.
Saint-Gobain said it is now consulting its personnel with regard to "the binding and irrevocable offer."
"If the deal is completed, the sale proceeds will be used mainly to strengthen the Group's balance sheet, while pursuing its acquisition policy focused on small- or medium-sized targets," Saint-Gobain's Chief Executive Pierre-Andre de Chalendar said in a statement.
If approved, the deal is subject to regulatory approvals and would close later this year.
Ardagh turned to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Shearman & Sterling.
From Freshfields, the team was led by corporate partner Alan Mason in Paris. New York lawyers were corporate partner Julian Pritchard; finance associate Steve Dejong; and corporate associates Omar Pringle and Libby O'Toole. Lawyers advising from Paris and Washington were tax partners Cyril Valentin and Claude Stansbury; tax associate Alice Rousseau and corporate trainee Edmund Perry.
The Shearman & Sterling team advising Ardagh Group on financing and antitrust was led by European corporate partner Apostolos Gkoutzinis in London and Bertrand??Sénéchal in Paris. New York lawyers were antitrust partner Wayne Dale Collins, finance partner Steven Sherman and antitrust counsel Lisl Dunlop. Assisting from London, Paris, Washington and Frankfurt were finance partners Peter Hayes and Esther Jansen, tax partner Craig Gibian, investment funds partner Nathan Green, finance counsel Gabrielle Wong, counsel Mehran Massih and associate Joji Ozawa.
Saint-Gobain was advised by French firm Bredin Prat and Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Lawyers from Bredin Prat were corporate partners Kate Romain, Sébastien Prat, Olivier Rogivue, and associates Jean-Damien Boulanger, Raphaël Darmon and David Hay, corporate; partner Sébastien de Monès and associate Magali Buchert, tax; and partner Pascale Lagesse, employment. They are all in Paris.
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