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

I hear the Scweppes deal is very much over the line but if that is the case then it is probably not National Foods, it is more likely to be P&N Beverages or Suntory. My money is on Suntory at this stage due to the high profile of the Lion Nathan Deal with CCA.

What might be holding up the deal is the renegotiaion of the Pepsi bottling agreement with Cadbury Schweppes.  The new buyer would prefer this agreement in the deal to give access to the volume for distribution savings.

Any News?

Tim