April 29, 2016 at 8:13 p.m.
Ardagh buys beverage can plants
Business Roundup
Ardagh Group has reached an agreement to buy 19 beverage can manufacturing plants and three related facilities.
Now it needs to borrow a little money to pay for the deal.
The Luxembourg-based Ardagh, parent company of glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, this week announced that it will buy the 12 plants from Ball Corporation and Rexam PLC, which will allow a merger of Ball and Rexam to clear regulatory hurdles in the European Union.
The company then announced it has launched a bond offering for a total of $2.85 million through the issue of $2 billion senior secured notes and $850 million in senior notes.
The proceeds will be used to pay the cash portion of the deal.
Total cost of the deal is $3.42 billion, including assumed liabilities of $210 million.
The acquisition is contingent upon EU regulatory approval.
Involved are ten beverage can manufacturing plants and two end plants in Europe, seven beverage can manufacturing plants and one end plant in the U.S., two beverage can manufacturing plants in Brazil and certain innovation and support facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the U.S.
The transaction will make Ardagh the number three beverage manufacturer in the world. It will be number two in Europe and number three in the U.S. and Brazil.
The combined plants had 2015 sales of $3 billion.
Irish financier and chairman of Ardagh, Paul Coulson, said in a prepared statement, “We are pleased to expand our consumer packaging business with the addition of a leading beverage can business. Whilst we do not currently operate in the beverage can market, the business we are acquiring is highly complementary to our existing metal and glass businesses. The acquired business has an excellent management team and strong customer relationships.”
Just last year, Ardagh considered spinning off its metal can business, so this acquisition amounts to a complete reversal of direction.
Ardagh Group is a global leader in glass and metal packaging solutions, producing packaging for most of the world’s leading food, beverage and consumer brands. Once the deal is finalized, the company will operate 110 facilities in 22 countries, employ over 23,000 people and have global sales of more than $8.8 billion.
The Ardagh Group was first founded as the Irish Glass Bottle Company in 1932. Its Dunkirk plant produces millions of longneck beer bottles each day.
Buying a dream
Comcast, which provides cable TV and internet service to a large part of the local market, is growing again.
The company already owns NBC and the former Universal Studios. This week, it announced it is acquiring DreamWorks Animation, the studio that produced such films as “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda.”
The deal was valued at $3.8 billion. DreamWorks will be folded into Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.
Meanwhile, Comcast posted first-quarter earnings per share of 84 cents, up from 81 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Revenue for the quarter came in at $18.79 billion, against the comparable year-ago figure of $17.85 billion.
Wall Street analysts had expected Comcast to report earnings of 79 cents per share on revenues of $18.64 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Based in Philadelphia, added 53,000 pay-TV subscribers in the quarter ended March 31, after losing 8,000 in the year-ago period.
Festival donation
Jay County REMC and CrossRoads Financial Federal Credit Union have teamed up to make a $1,000 donation to Dunkirk’s Glass Days, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in June.
Both the credit union and REMC are marking anniversaries this year as well. Jay County REMC is marking 80 years, and CrossRoads is marking 65 years.
Site switched
A 1.69 million layer-hen operation will be moved to a site outside the Grand Lake Watershed because of concerns about its impact on the lake.
WDC Eggs, LLC, a partnership between Weaver Brothers Inc. and Cooper Farms, announced the decision last week.
The initial site had drawn opposition from about 150 people who attended a public hearing in Celina.
A new location for the operation has not yet been selected.
New Tyson VP
Tyson Foods Inc., parent company of Tyson Mexican Original of Portland, has named Felicia Collins vice president.
Collins is a food industry veteran with nearly 25 years of experience. Most recently, she served as the chief communications officer/vice president of corporate communications for California-based ingredient producer Ventura Foods where she built the corporate communications function, including the company’s corporate social responsibility strategy, and employee communications and corporate reputation platforms
Prior to Ventura Foods, Collins spent five years with global communications marketing firm Edelman, as group lead for food and nutrition in
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Washington, D.C. and as senior vice president of food and nutrition in the firm’s Chicago office. In this role, she led the agency’s Walmart food business, including the creation and launch of the “Making Healthy Food Affordable” platform with First Lady Michelle Obama, Tyson said in a press release.
Cellulosic shipped
Project LIBERTY in Emmetsburg, Iowa, has produced and shipped several tank cars of cellulosic ethanol even as the plant is ramping up to its full 20 million gallon-per-year capacity, POET Biorefining announced this week.
POET-DSM’s process uses corn cobs, leaves, husk and some stalk as the feedstock for cellulosic ethanol. That material is collected by local farmers and brought to the plant for processing. Besides ethanol, Project LIBERTY produces biogas from its anaerobic digester and steam from its solid-fuel boiler to produce power to run its own processes and export energy to the adjacent grain-based ethanol plant.
POET is the parent company of POET Biorefining-Portland.
The cellulosic project is a 50/50 joint venture between Royal DSM of The Netherlands and POET, LLC.
Quarterly report
Park National Corporation, parent company of Second National Bank in Mercer County, this week announced net income for the first quarter of the year of $18.7 million, down slightly from $19 million in the same period a year ago.
The bank holding company reported consumer loan growth of $11.9 million. Total loans were $5.02 billion, up $236.7 million from a year ago.
Management transition
After ten years as chief executive officer of Ardagh, Niall Wall has announced he will step down in September. Ian Curley has been designated as his successor.
Curley was chief financial officer of Smurfit Kappa Group from 2000 until March of this year. He will join Ardagh in late.
Profit surges
Norfolk Southern Railroad has reported a 25 percent surge in its first quarter profit to $387 million.
The company is planning to cut costs by $650 million by 2020. This year alone, Norfolk Southern plans to cut expenses by $200 million. It operates 20,000 miles of track, including track in Jay County.
Tea recalled
CVS Pharmacy has recalled an organic herbal tea after the product manufacturer said one of its raw material suppliers detected salmonella in an ingredient packaged in a separate item.
The product, which is labeled “Gold Emblem Abound Organic Spiced Herbal Tea 1.41 oz,” also contains that ingredient.
The best-by date of the recalled product is March 18, 2018 with a UPC code 0 50428 541043. According to the FDA, no other best-by dates were affected. The products were distributed in CVS stores nationwide, and about 200 units have been recalled.
Antidote available
Walgreens announced this week that it will make opioid antidote Naloxone available at more than 110 pharmacies in Alabama without a prescription. Naloxone is used in the event of an overdose to combat the effects of heroin and other opioid drugs. It’s now available in more than 1,300 pharmacies.
Quits board
Dollar Tree Inc. says the former CEO of Family Dollar has resigned from the Dollar Tree’s board of directors.
The company announced Friday that Howard R. Levine resigned from the board April 19, saying there were no disagreements between Levine and Dollar Tree.
Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar and its more than 8,200 stores in July 2015 in a merger worth $9.2 billion. Dollar Tree now has more than 14,000 stores combined.
Levine stepped down as CEO of Family Dollar in January, but remained on the board.
Family Dollar was started by his father, Leon Levine, who opened the first store in Charlotte, N.C., in 1959.
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