Saint-Gobain Sells U.S. Jar Unit to Ardagh for $1.7 Billion

Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA agreed to sell the U.S. business of its Verallia glass bottle-and-jar unit to Ardagh Group SA for $1.7 billion in a deal that tops the valuation placed on it in an earlier spinoff attempt.

“It puts a high value on our North American containers business, above the multiples contemplated at the time of the planned IPO,” said Saint-Gobain Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Andre de Chalendar. In 2011, the French company sought to raise as much as 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) by selling 40 percent of Verallia in an initial public offering, only to be prevented by a market slump amid the sovereign debt crisis.