Saint-Gobain today announced the closing of the sale of Verallia to Apollo Global Management LLC and Bpifrance, who now hold respectively 90% and 10% of Verallia’s equity.

With its new shareholders, Verallia is now a fully stand-alone manufacturing group, totally dedicated to glass packaging. This is a new chapter in the long history of the company, which has developed its glass expertise since 1827 and that, over the years reinforced its sales and operations network through new locations in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South America and North Africa.

Today, the French Group whom headquarters stays in France rely on 10,000 employees to serve over 10,000 customers worldwide. Verallia is notably world leader on the wines, spirits and food markets, and is also a major player in the beer segment in a number of countries such as Germany and Brazil.

In the words of Jean-Pierre Floris, Verallia’s Chairman and CEO: “I am pleased to be able to count on the backing of our new shareholders for the implementation of our strategic goals and Verallia’s growth. Our priority remains the search for operational excellence, to offer our customers an exemplary level of quality and service. We will continue our investment policy to develop our plants alongside our markets and continue increasing our team’s glassmaking expertise. We are lucky to work from glass, an exceptional material which is the benchmark for food safety and sustainability and we will remain in the forefront in terms of innovation.”

Robert Seminara, Senior Partner at Apollo, and Jean-Luc Allavena, Operating Executive at Apollo, said:
“We are extremely excited to be acquiring Verallia, which is an outstanding franchise and one of the world’s leading packaging companies. We look forward to partnering with management and its tremendous employee base to support the continued growth and innovation of Verallia.”

Bertrand Finet, Executive Director of Bpifrance Investissement Mid & Large Cap said:
“We are delighted to invest in Verallia and strengthen its French base and its development. We are excited to invest alongside Apollo, with whom we already have successfully worked in the recent past, and to support the management team and employees of Verallia. We fully trust that they will implement the group's ambitious industrial project”.