ZURICH - SIG Combibloc plans a Swiss Exchange listing in coming months, the Swissaseptic liquid packaging maker said on Monday, as its main owner, Canada's Onex Corporation , plans an initial public offering (IPO) to trim the company's debt pile.

The IPO seeks to raise about 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) from new shares. Onex and members of SIG management may also include some of their existing shares in the transaction, although the Canadian private equity company plans to retain at least 50 percent.

The debt-cutting move would mark a return of SIG to the Swiss stock market, as the company had been listed before within the Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) conglomerate that made everything from passenger trains to weaponry but over the years trimmed its focus to drink cartons.

Toronto-based Onex is seeking to unload a portion of its stake after paying more than $4 billion for the Swiss group in 2014.

"The planned IPO is a natural next step in our growth strategy," SIG Chief Executive Officer Rolf Stangl said in a statement.

SIG said it had 21 percent of the aseptic carton packaging volume in its core markets, though at 1,672 million euros in annual sales it is dwarfed by larger rival Tetra Laval, maker of Tetra Pak.

In 2019, SIG said it expects to pay a dividend of approximately 100 million euros for the 2019 financial year. From 2019 onwards, the company plans a pay-out ratio of between 50 percent and 60 percent of adjusted net income.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs International are acting as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners. Barclays, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank are acting as Joint Bookrunners, while UniCredit Bank AG and Vontobel are acting as Co-Lead Managers. Rothschild & Co. is acting as independent financial adviser.

(Reporting by John Miller)

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