Oaktree Capital, the US buy-out fund, is set to close a deal to take over SGD Group, the maker of perfume bottles for designers such as Chanel & Dior. SGD, one of the world's biggest producers of perfume & pharmaceutical bottles, has struggled with its debt burden as perfume sales fell sharply towards the end of 2008. The company & its 70-bank syndicate have agreed to a deal with Oaktree that will see the LA-headquartered private equity firm inject 140m Euros of new funds & take an 80% stake in the company's equity. The 110-year-old French glassmaker's shareholders, UK private equity fund Cognetas & French fund Sagard, will lose their investments. SGD's creditors will take a 20% stake in exchange for writing off 63% of the group's debt, reducing it to 225m Euros. Of the 140m Euros, 100m will be provided in the form of a loan which will be available for 7 years. In December, the company secured court approval that allowed it to give that loan priority ranking over the remaining 225m Euros debt, which will not need to be repaid until 2016.
