Rexam and partner to sell plants to Irish rival for $3.5bn

Ball and Rexam will each sell about a quarter of their fizzy-pop can manufacturing plants to an Irish rival for nearly $3.5 billion (£2.4 billion) to appease regulators concerned about their proposed merger.

Twelve plants in Europe, eight in the US and two manufacturing sites in Brazil will be offloaded to Ireland’s Ardagh Group, led by Dublin financier Paul Coulson, for $3.2 billion in cash. It will also take on $210 million of debt.

Research sites and offices in Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, the US and in Chester in the north of England are also part of the sale. Ardagh has issued a $2.8 billion bond to finance the deal.

Ardagh does not make fizzy drink cans and will adapt the site to make its traditional metal containers used for tinned food.

It leaves Ball-Rexam, which unveiled its merger in February last year, with 75 manufacturing plants across the world, including Rexam’s existing Luton location and Tongwell engineering centre.

The European Commission had demanded the two firms sell off sites because of fears they would have a near-monopoly on the manufacture of cans.