Irish packaging group Ardagh will repay some debt with the extra $150 million it raised from Wednesday's bond issue.

Ardagh earlier this week said that it was borrowing $1.565 billion to refinance an existing debt and pay €270 million to shareholders, including chairman Paul Coulson.

In response to demand, the group upped its offer slightly on Wednesday by $150 million and said that it would use the extra cash raised to repay some of its €8 billion debts.

The group is primarily using the money to repay €1.21 billion in payment-in-kind notes – a type of bond – that fall due in 2019, and on which it was paying interest of 8.375 per cent for those issued in euros and 8.675 per cent for those issued in dollars.

It will replace these loans with similar bonds that mature in 2023 and on which it will pay a combined rate of 6.8 per cent.

Ardagh Packaging Holdings, the group's overall parent, will assume this liability and service the debt with dividends from the operating company.

Ardagh earns revenues of €7.8 billion a year from making bottles and cans for the global food, drink and consumers goods industries.

It operates 110 factories in 22 countries and employs 23,000 worldwide, 60 of them in the Republic.