Ardagh Group sees more than 84% take-up of share swap offer

Swap will see group’s stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging fall to about 75% from 82%

Ardagh Group, the glass and metal packaging group led by Dubliner Paul Coulson, said Tuesday that 84.4 per cent of the holders of an 8 per cent stake in the group that was tradable on the New York Stock Exchange have opted to take up an offer to swap their stock for direct shares in the group's newly listed beverage cans unit.

The final result of the share swap offer, announced on Tuesday, was little changed from the 85 per cent figure released last week as a preliminary result became known.

The share swap will see Ardagh Group’s stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging, which floated in early August, fall to about 75 per cent. It stands at 82 per cent currently.

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Ardagh Group floated 8 per cent of its stock in New York in March 2017, but set about securing a separate listing for its Ardagh Metal Packaging this year to take advantage of the high valuations being put on assets in this area of the industry. The listing was secured by way of a reverse merger early last month into a listed cash shell, or special purpose acquisition company, called Gores Holdings V.

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“As previously announced, in light of the successful completion of the exchange offer, [Ardagh Group] initiated the process for voluntary delisting of [its shares] from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE),” Ardagh said on Tuesday. “Accordingly, the last day of trading of the [Ardagh Group] shares on the NYSE was October 5th, 2021.”

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times