Ardagh Group - comment

The final bill to extract Coulson will be $300 million rather than $250 million originally reported, but the deal appears to be close to being finalised. The H1 2025 results for Ardagh Metal Packaging are due tomorrow, and Ardagh Group typically publishes its numbers at the same time. The aim should be to announce an agreement tomorrow if possible. The USD300m payment to Coulson will be funded by increasing the New Money from $1.2bn to $1.5bn, and this is likely to come from the SSNs.

The SUNs will get equity in Ardagh Group (including the value of the AMP and  Trivium stakes). The AMP stake (including the preference shares) is currently worth USD3bn, less the USD800m Apollo loan (to be repaid from the New Money) and the USD300m payment to Coulson.

We expect that the 90% threshold to avoid a court process will be challenging to achieve, so a Scheme of Arrangement in the English court with a 75% threshold looks most likely.

Ardagh Creditors to Pay Coulson Up to $300 Million to Walk Away - Bloomberg