Ajay Piramal is closing in on the specialty bottles business of French glassmaking giant Saint-Gobain, called Desjonquères.
MUMBAI: Ajay Piramal is closing in on the specialty bottles business of French glassmaking giant Saint-Gobain, called Desjonquères. The deal, if it goes through, is estimated to be worth around €600 million, or over $750million.
Investment bankers are said to be working out the modalities in London currently.
Ajay Piramal, chairman of the group, refused to commentwhen contacted by DNA Money, calling it “media speculation”.
An email to Saint-Gobain Desjonqueres on Monday went unanswered.
Sources, however, said Vijay Shah, director of Gujarat Glass, a Piramal group firm that is one of India’s biggest specialty glass manufacturers, is spearheading the move which could end in a leveraged buyout. The acquisition will be made through Kojam Fininvest, the holding company of Gujarat Glass.
Kojam, a listed company, holds 54% in Gujarat Glass. Piramal Enterprises, the group’s holding company, in turn, holds 54% stake in Kojam.
In early October, Saint-Gobain decided to sell the specialty bottles unit Desjonquères, estimated to be worth €600 million (around Rs 3,400 crore). The business delivered sales of around €550 million in 2005, with production sites in France, Germany, Spain, the US, Brazil, China and Russia, backed by a global sales network.
Desjonquères and its subsidiaries are part of the Saint-Gobain group’s packaging sector, and develop, produce and sell specialty glass bottles for the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, liquor and high-end perfume industries.
The company, however, is not expected to exit the glass packaging sector. The Saint-Gobain Group has been reviewing strategic options for its specialty bottles business, which include Desjonquères and subsidiaries since the past couple of months.
The company had announced in September that the review may lead to one or more partnerships with industrial or financial investors.
Desjonquères was acquired at the end of the 1960s and has since undergone rapid expansion within the group, both in France and abroad.
If the deal materialises, this would be the second overseas acquisition by Gujarat Glass. In October, 2005, the company had acquired The Glass Group Inc of the US for Rs 81 crore. This had catapulted Gujarat Glass to the world’s top three flaconnage manufacturers.
The acquisition will also exponentially enlarge the consolidated turnover of Gujarat Glass from the current level of around Rs 800 crore.
It supplies perfumery glass to global brands such as Estee Lauder, Coty, L’Oreal and Elizabeth Arden in the US.
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