Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. has formalized its partnership with Europe’s Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Plc (CCEP) for the acquisition of the local Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc. (CCBPI), from The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) with the signing of a definitive agreement for the joint-venture.
The company said it is valuing the local Coca-Cola at $1.8 billion, of which it will have a 40 percent stake once the deal is completed, by the first quarter of next year.
The sale is subject to a number of customary closing conditions, including clearance from the Philippine Competition Commission.
“The proposed acquisition would build on AEV’s portfolio diversification strategy to enter the branded consumer goods space. AEV is well positioned to support CCBPI’s growth ambition due to the synergies which could be generated from AEV’s other business interests in the country. The proposed acquisition would also build on CCEP’s successful expansion into Australia, Pacific & Indonesia (API) in 2021,” AEV said.
AEV announced the plan to acquire the local Coca-cola operation in August.
Once completed, the two companies will gain a foothold in an operation that has a supply chain footprint of 73 production lines and 19 plants, that enjoys a strong customer base, servicing more than 1 million outlets.
During TCCC’s quarterly results briefing last month, James Quincy, company chairman, said the sale of the local Coca-Cola bottling operation is part of a plan to keep New York Stock Exchange-listed food and beverage company the “smallest bottler” in the world, working to franchise overseas bottling operations.
“In terms of the Philippines, we’ve had actually a good set of recent years in the Philippines, a good bounce back notwithstanding some ups and downs, given availability or as I said, lack of availability of some critical commodities in the marketplace. But actually, overall, we’ve had a very good run in the last number of years. And so we’ve been looking for the right time and the right partners to refranchise to,” Quincy said.
