PPG Sells Flat Glass Operations to Mexico’s Vitro

US coatings specialist PPG Industries has agreed to sell its flat glass manufacturing and glass coatings operations to Mexico’s Vitro for around $750 million. The agreement will see Vitro – Mexico’s largest glass producer – acquire production sites in Fresno, California; Salem, Oregon; Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and Wichita Falls, Texas; four distribution/fabrication facilities across Canada; and an R&D center in Harmar, Pennsylvania.

Michael McGarry, PPG’s CEO, said the divestment is another major step in the company’s transformation to focus on paints, coatings and specialty materials. These three product areas will comprise 98% of PPG’s portfolio on completion of the Vitro deal and the sale of its European fiberglass operations to Nippon Electric Glass, which was announced last month.

Adrián Sada Cueva, CEO of Vitro, said the investment will strengthen the company’s construction glass business by allowing it to participate in US and Canadian markets and in the high-performance glass coatings segment where the firm has no significant presence. The Monterrey-based firm emerged from a lengthy debt restructuring process in 2013 and solid its glass container business to Owens-Illinois last year for more than $2 billion.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2016.