This is subject to The Coca Cola Company not using its last offer rights, which it holds for 90 days.  It would be a hard road for the guys from Atlanta to get the business with the ACCC having a close look at the Schweppes bottling arrangements for the Pepsi brand.

The cash sale price of the business is £550 million ($A1.19 billion), which is sightly more than market expectations.

Asahi Breweries

The Age reported that:

BusinessDay believes that unsuccessful bidders included Suntory, the Australian-based Coca-Cola Amatil (which has Coca-Cola as a 30 per cent shareholder) and P&N Beverages.

So I was close but no cigar.

Tim

“Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Company holds special rights to negotiate with global giant Cadbury before anyone else on the sale of Cadbury’s Schweppes business in Australia”

This makes for an interesting scenario with the Coca Cola   Company owning 30.4% of Coca Cola Amatil which has rejected the Lion Nathan (Kirin) offer.

I understand that negotiations are well underway with a number of parties but a decision has been delayed for a number of months.

Tim