Coca-Cola Beverages Africa not for Coca-Cola Icecek

By Olly Wehring

Coca-Cola Icecek started its evaluation into buying control of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa last year

Coca-Cola Icecek has withdrawn its interest in buying into Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, five months after launching a consideration of a majority stake in Africa's largest Coca-Cola bottler.

Turkey-based Coca-Cola Icecek, the fifth-largest bottler in the Coca-Cola system, said late yesterday that it has completed a "comprehensive evaluation" into buying a 54% holding from The Coca-Cola Co. The soft drinks giant exercised its put option on SABMiller's 57% stake in the CCBA joint-venture late last year, after Anheuser-Busch InBev completed the purchase of the brewer.
Coca-Cola Co owns 68.3% of CCBA, with privately-owned Coca-Cola Sabco accounting for the remaining 31.7%. The group has set a deadline of 2018 for having a new CCBA partner in place.
"We have concluded that other, as-yet-undefined, future regional opportunities would potentially be a better strategic fit," said CCI yesterday. "Consequently, CCI will continue to engage with TCCC to identify appropriate territorial expansion opportunities in other geographies but will not be submitting an offer for CCBA."
In early-November, CCI said it would "engage with investment banks to evaluate any potential alternatives in relation to TCCC's announced intention to sell this stake (in CCBA) to a strategic partner".
A month earlier, analysts named Coca-Cola HBC and Coca-Cola European Partners as the front-runners to take control of CCBA, with a price of between US$3bn and $4bn being suggested.