Ardagh Glass, the Guernsey-based glassmaker that owns Rockware in the UK, Heye Glas & HEYE International in Germany & Abruzzon Vetro in Italy, has had its credit rating revised from stable to negative by the ratings group Standard & Poor's. This follows Ardagh's issuing of additional debt in the form of pay-in-kind (PIK) notes. S&P also assigned BB long term corporate credit rating to Ardagh's newly-formed holding company Caona plc, which will change its name to Ardagh Glass Group plc. The outlook is negative. Ardagh will use the proceeds of the proposed PIK transaction to fund growth & to buy out minorities. The deal will leave Ardagh with proforma total debt for December/04 of Euros 430.5M & Euros 31M of unfunded pension liabilities. Meanwhile, S&P has assigned B+ long term credit rating to Gerresheimer Alpha, the new parent of Gerresheimer Group.
