- ATLANTA: Coca-Cola Inc.
- plans to acquire the North American operations of its largest bottler in a move that mirrors similar deals by its main rival PepsiCo to gain more control of manufacturing and distribution.
The deal calls for Coca-Cola to give up its 34 percent stake in Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., worth $3.4 billion, and assume $8.88 billion in debt.
In a separate deal, Coca-Cola will sell its own Norwegian and Swedish bottling operations to Coca-Cola Enterprises for $822 million. Coca-Cola Enterprises also gets an option to buy Coca-Cola’s 83 percent stake in its German bottling operations.
Coca-Cola Enterprises shareholders will get one share of a new Coca-Cola Enterprises company focused only on European bottling and will get a one-time $10-per-share payment. The company plans to issue debt to finance this payment and the European acquisition.
The deals are expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Coca-Cola said it has halted share buybacks so far this fiscal year as a result of the deal and doesn’t plan to buy back any more shares until the deal closes. Following the deal, Coca-Cola will control about 90 percent of the bottling of its products in North America.
Coca-Cola said it expects cost savings of $350 million over four years and that the acquisition will add to earnings per share by 2012.

