Saverglass sale hits snag with remaining bidder Lone Star

Min Ho and Francesca Veronesi
21 October 2021

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The auction for Carlyle’s Saverglass is at a standstill with remaining bidder Lone Star, according to five sources.

An existing shareholder agreement with the chairman Loïc Quentin de Gromard, who has been with the French high-end glass bottle manufacturer since 1985 and has been influential in the running of the business, is expected to have an implication for the next investor, two sources said.

Sell-side advisers at Rothschild marketed the business off EBITDA of around EUR 130m in a sale process launched earlier this year. Towerbrook and ICG were reportedly involved in the auction, which was launched earlier this year.

Saverglass, which has factories spanning France, Belgium, UAE and Mexico and a global distribution network, is earmarking around EUR 150m of capex for the upcoming year, two of the sources said. The future capex spend is a worry for bidders and lenders, they said.

Saverglass' Mexican plant, which was opened in 2018 to the tune of USD 120m, is expected to make an investment that would double its current capacity due to demand from North American clients, according to a report in the French media in January.

The company has made investments of around USD 550m over the last eight years, according to a statement published at the time of the acquisition of Belgian bottling plant MD Verre in 2019. The plant will require around USD 55m of further investment over the next three years, according to the announcement.

Lonestar is in a strong position to bargain for a lower valuation from Carlyle based on the shareholder contract and high capex profile of the business, one source said: "These are all the topics that are up in the air at the moment."

Saverglass designs, manufactures and decorates bottles for premium alcohol brands. It produces 56% of its bottles for spirits, 42% for wines and the remaining 2% for other categories, according to its website. Over 500,000 tons of glass are made per year.

Carlyle and Lonestar declined to comment. Saverglass and Rothschild did not reply to a request for comment.