Ball, Rexam to sell assets to Ardagh to gain merger approval

BROOMFIELD — Metal can manufacturer Ball Corp. and acquisition target Rexam announced on Monday that they’ve struck a deal to sell $3.42 billion in assets to Luxembourg-based Ardagh as they try to gain regulatory approval of their merger.

Broomfield-based Ball reached a deal early last year to acquire rival Rexam for $6.64 billion. In December, the company gained regulatory approval in Brazil for the merger. The divestitures announced Monday help satisfy terms of conditional approval granted by the European Commission in January.

The deal announced Monday, should the Ball-Rexam acquisition be finalized, includes the sale of:

• Seven Rexam metal beverage can manufacturing plants and one Rexam end plant in the United States.

• Eight Ball beverage-can manufacturing plants, two Ball end plants and two Rexam beverage-can manufacturing plants in Europe.

• And two Ball beverage can manufacturing plants in Brazil.

Ball officials said Monday that the assets to be divested generated 2015 revenue of approximately $3 billion. Ball expects to close on its acquisition of United Kingdom-based Rexam by the end of June.

After the closure of the acquisition and divestments, the new Ball organization would operate 75 metal beverage manufacturing facilities and joint ventures in the Americas, Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The acquisition is expected to yield Ball net annual cost synergies of more than $300 million versus non-recurring integration costs of $280 million over the first three years.

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