Ardagh enlists Apollo to refinance $700m debt that falls due next year

• Published date: 16 April 2024
• Author: JOE BRENNAN
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Businessman Paul Coulson’s Ardagh Group has secured at least $1.04 billion (€980 million) of loans from US alternative asset manager Apollo to refinance bonds that are due for repayment next year and to mop up some of its riskiest debt at a discount to its original value

The new loans are understood to carry an interest rate below 9 per cent. That is well above the rates on the bonds that are being repaid and reflects how global borrowing costs have spiralled in recent years and the low credit rating that Ardagh carries with leading credit ratings agencies. The new loans are set to mature in 2029.

The new facilities are mainly made up of a $790 million senior secured term loan from Apollo, which will be used to redeem at face value $700 million of senior notes that are due to be repaid in 12 months’ time and which carry a 5.25 per cent interest rate, or coupon.

Ardagh, one of the world’s largest glass and metal container makers, has also entered a deal that would see Apollo, a specialist in debt solutions, go into the market to buy out some of the group’s riskiest bonds at a likely deep discount to their face value. The $1.8 billion of junior debt notes, due in 2027, were sold by a holding company at the top of Ardagh’s corporate tree and were trading at between 27 and 31 US cents on the dollar late last week.

Under this element of the deal, Apollo will swap Ardagh 2027 notes acquired in the market for new loans between both companies. Apollo will receive a premium above the price it pays for the notes in the market. The facility will be capped at $250 million.

Apollo has also agreed to provide an undisclosed amount in additional new term loans “to fund a debt service account” at a unit of Ardagh. All the new loans are secured against a holding company that owns the packaging group’s 76 per cent stake in New York-listed drink...