Coca-Cola Europe to buy Amatils largest bottler for $6.6bn

Coca-Cola Amatil said Oct. 26 that Coca-Cola European Partners has agreed to acquire it for nearly $6.6 billion to expand its business in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Monday's announcement, the deal values the Sydney-based Australian bottler at A$9.23 billion ($6.6 billion) and is offered at A$12.75 per share, an 18.6 percent premium to its latest trading price.

Coca-Cola Australia is known to be one of the largest bottlers of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the five leading Coca-Cola bottlers in the world. It has a total of 32 production lines, with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

Coca-Cola European Partners, on the other hand, is the world's largest and best-known independent bottler of soft drinks, headquartered in Uxbridge, UK, with 23,357 full-time employees, and together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes and sells a wide range of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages. The three leading Coca-Cola bottlers in Western Europe merged on May 28, 2016 to form what is now Coca-Cola Europe Partners.

Both companies previously bottled and sold Coca-Cola beverages in their respective markets. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year, quarantine measures have severely depressed sales, forcing them to look to other channels.

However, Coca-Cola Amatil said business has improved in the third quarter due to the easing of the quarantine measures and the recovery of mobile channels such as fast food outlets, cafes and convenience stores. The acquisition, which Coca-Cola European Partners took advantage of, will also give it a larger international footprint and scale in the southern hemisphere.