ADDITIONAL AFRICA BOTTLERS
Coca-Cola heads for tricky AB Inbev deal
Competition analysts believe it will involve another year of detailed engagements with competition regulators in many African countries
The Coca-Cola Company’s decision to acquire additional African bottlers from Anheuser-Busch InBev will make the multibillion-dollar transaction considerably more complicated than the one that was originally announced in October 2016. Competition analysts believe it will involve another year of detailed engagements with competition regulators in many African countries. Within hours of AB Inbev announcing the completion of its $104bn acquisition of SABMiller in October, Coca-Cola Co announced it was exercising a change of control option relating to a portion of its African bottling operations.The option allowed Coca-Cola Co to take over the 57% stake in its bottling and distribution operations owned by SABMiller. The stake is held in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA). AB InBev (formerly SABMiller) holds 57% of CCBA, the Gutsche Family Investments (a private entity) holds 31.7% and Coca-Cola Co holds 11%. Coca-Cola Co will be paying a slightly lower than expected $3.4bn for the 57% sta...
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