Saint-Gobain Plans to Sell Verallia Unit to Apollo -Update

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By Matthew Curtin and Inti Landauro

PARIS--Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA (SGO.FR) is planning to sell its Verallia unit to private-equity firm Apollo Global Management Ltd., concluding a long-standing search for a buyer for the bottle and jar-making business by the French building-materials group.

The French company said it is in exclusive talks with Apollo in a deal that could be worth nearly 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion). Apollo itself is in talks with Banque Publique d'Investissement, a French government-owned investment fund, to sell a minority stake in Verallia, Saint-Gobain added.

The French company has been trying to divest Verallia for several years, and has considered a number of options, including spinning off the glass bottle and jar maker through an initial public offering.

The sale is part of a strategy led by the company's chief executive Pierre-Andre de Chalendar to focus on construction materials, a market where the company can develop high performance products, while withdrawing from more competitive areas such as bottle manufacturing.

Verallia generated an operating profit of EUR230 million on revenue of EUR2.39 billion in 2014, excluding its North American operations, which Saint-Gobain sold separately two years ago for EUR1.7 billion.

The advanced negotiations for the sale of Verallia is positive news for Saint-Gobain as it was counting on the cash from the sale to finance a planned acquisition of a stake in Swiss-based Sika AG, said analyst Flor O'Donoghue at Davy Research.

Saint-Gobain's 2.75 billion Swiss franc ($2.92 billion) bid for a 16% stake held in Sika by the founding family, which represents 52% of voting rights, is currently hotly contested by other shareholders. The operation is currently challenged in Swiss courts.

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]

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