Apollo to buy Verallia from Saint Gobain for €2.9bn

The corporate spin-off values the company at around 7.2x EBITDA following a competitive process, which is believed to have also included GPs such as CVC Capital Partners, Ardian and Blackstone. State-backed investor BPI France is currently in talks with Apollo for the purchase of a minority stake as part of the deal.

Apollo declined to comment further on the transaction.

The disposal was motivated by Saint Gobain's strategy to refocus on its core building materials operations.

The deal, which is still subject to approval from the competition authorities and is expected to complete by the end of 2015, would be the largest French private equity buyout since the onset of the financial crisis – surpassing the €2.1bn SBO of Spie by Clayton Dubilier & Rice in 2011.

Prior to the Verallia deal, the last French LBO to break the €1bn enterprise value mark was that of Labco, inked by Cinven in May 2015 for €1.2bn.

Company
Headquartered in Courbevoie, Verallia produces glass bottles and jars, with a specific focus on the champagne and cognac industries. It operates 47 plants in 13 countries and employs 10,000 people. For the 2014 financial year, Verallia posted revenues of €2.4bn, with an EBITDA of €405m.

People
Robert Seminara and Jean-Luc Allavena worked on the deal for Apollo.

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• Unq2015July