Prime Business Africa
Coca-Cola Co. is weighing options for its bottling business in Africa, including a sale or initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
The soft drinks giant holds 66.5% of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa and is speaking with potential advisers about its exit options, the people said, asking not to be named as the details aren’t public. A sale or IPO of the stake could value the African business at about $6 billion, the people said. This could change depending on the level of buyer interest, the people said.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelDeliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they’ll lead to a sale or IPO, according to the people. A representative for the African business referred queries to Coca-Cola, which declined to comment.
Coca-Cola initially tried to offload the stake in 2017, when it drew interest from the likes of Heineken NV and Coca-Cola HBC AG, Bloomberg News reported at the time. It had acquired the majority holding less than a year earlier, when it paid $3.15 billion to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev out of the African bottling joint venture.
The Coca-Cola Beverages Africa business serves 13 countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana, according to its website. It accounts for about 40% of the Atlanta-based company’s drinks sold on the continent. Coca-Cola concluded a deal earlier this year to increase local shareholding in its South Africa bottling unit.
A year of global Covid-19 lockdowns at restaurants, amusement parks and stadiums have disrupted Coca-Cola’s global businesses. Organic sales fell 3% in the quarter ended Dec. 31 amid ongoing challenges from the pandemic. Still, the drop was less severe than analyst forecasts and Coca-Cola has predicted high-single digit revenue growth for 2021 as more of the world’s population gets vaccinated.
Prime Business Africa is a business, economy and policy news platform founded in 2021 by veteran journalist and media scholar, Dr Marcel Mbamalu, after he left The Guardian as Editor.
Dr Mbamalu, who serves as Founder and Publisher, set up Prime Business Africa to deliver sharp, data-driven reporting on Nigeria’s markets, trade, investment, and governance trends for decision-makers, entrepreneurs, and policy leaders.
He also writes The Bottom Line, a backpage column for Punch Newspaper every Thursday.
Under his leadership, Prime Business Africa combines deep newsroom experience with a focus on accountability journalism, aiming to bridge information gaps between Africa’s private sector and the global economy.
