Orora to raise $1.35b to buy Carlyle’s Saverglass
After days of warming up local and offshore fundies, details of Orora’s funding plans for its big M&A play are starting to emerge.
Nice bottles, Saverglass… we mean, Orora.
Street Talk understands Orora is preparing to raise $1.35 billion from the equity capital markets to bankroll its acquisition of The Carlyle Group’s French bottle maker Saverglass, as first revealed by this column on August 27. The raise is expected to launch on Tuesday.
The pricing was expected to be finalised overnight. But fund manager sources said the offer price would be pegged at a low-teens discount to the theoretical ex-rights price.
Orora is expected to structure the raise as a mix of a rights issue and a broader placement, given its size.
The company is due to pay a 9¢ dividend on October 9 and entered the ex-dividend period on September 1. That implies investors in the raise wouldn’t be eliugible for the October dividend.
The total acquisition value is expected to top $2 billion.
Saverglass makes bottles for high-end alcohol brands such as Grey Goose Vodka and Glenfiddich. The 126-year-old company has been majority owned by private equity giant The Carlyle Group since 2016, and has been looking for an exit since at least 2021.
It’s a significant acquisition for Orora, with Saverglass expected to swell the ASX-listed manufacturer’s revenue by nearly 30 per cent. That’s based on the acquirer’s $4.3 billion revenue for the 2023 financial year and the target’s $US794 million ($1.2 billion) in sales for 2022.
Orora, which was split out of packaging giant Amcor in 2013, has a $3 billion market capitalisation and has been a decent performer. Its management spoke about expanding through acquisitions in North America and Europe earlier this month,
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