Brait, Old Mutual, Sanlam and Sphere to exit glass manufacturer

Consol Holdings has announced that its shareholders have entered into a sale and purchase agreement with the Ardagh Group, a global supplier of glass and metal packaging. Consol’s current shareholders are a private equity consortium including Brait, Old Mutual Private Equity, Sanlam Private Equity and Sphere, that acquired the business in 2007 and have continued to invest in Consol’s business growth over the past 14 years.

The Ardagh Group intends to acquire 100% of the ordinary shares of Consol Holdings for an equity value of R10.1 billion (about $634.9 million), which includes the company’s operations in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Consol Holdings is the holding company for Consol Glass South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria as well as Juniper Glass in Ethiopia. It has been producing glass packaging for over 75 years, and is the leading glass packaging manufacturer in sub-Saharan Africa by manufacturing capacity. Across the continent, Consol has also grown the business through acquisitions of Glassforce in Nigeria in 2014, Central Glass in Kenya in 2015 and a greenfields glass factory investment in Ethiopia in 2019.

Completion of the acquisition is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approvals, which are expected to be obtained in the second quarter of 2022.

Barclays acted as exclusive financial advisor to Consol and Citigroup acted as exclusive financial advisor to Ardagh.

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