Why Frigoglass sold $225m glass operations to GZI

The management of Frigoglass has explained reasons for selling its glass operations to GZI Mauritius Limited, the holding company of GZ Industries Limited, the largest beverage can manufacturer in West Africa.

Frigoglass SAIC Athens announced recently that it had entered into an agreement to sell its glass operations to GZ, where it would receive a net cash of $225 million from the transaction.

The operations sold to GZI consisted of all of Frigoglass’ glass container operations in Nigeria and Dubai as well as the complementary plastic crates and metal crown businesses in Nigeria.

Speaking on the rationale behind the decision, Harry David, chairman, Frigoglass board of directors, said the company divested its glass operations to focus on the full growth potential of its cooler business.

Reiterating this position, Torsten Tuerling, CEO, Frigloglass, said the move would allow the company to focus on developing its cooler business into a new dimension.

“We have identified promising opportunities for profitable, sustainable growth in our cooler business, driven by product innovation, service expansion and focusing on capitalising on our unique footprint,” Tuerling said, after the announcement.

“Focusing our energy and investments on the core cooler business will allow us to achieve unprecedented customer excitement and drive long-term shareholder value creation,” Tuerling said further.

Motti Goldmintz, CEO, GZI, said the transaction represented an important step for the company towards achieving its long-term strategic ambition.

“Together with our strong aluminium can business, the acquisition of the Frigoglass glass, plastic crates and bottle crowns businesses, allow us to provide our market leading beverage customers with a complete range of packaging solutions. We are excited about this landmark transaction, enabling us to capitalise on the strong long-term container glass growth opportunities, a critical building block for establishing a leading pan-African packaging materials platform,” Goldmintz said.

Frigoglass, also known as Beta Glass plc, operates in Lagos; Agbara, Ogun State, and Ughelli, Delta State.

Odinaka Anudu