Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) is growing in Asia. The company chaired by Catalan businesswoman Sol Daurella yesterday announced an agreement to buy the brand’s Philippine bottler, in an operation that values ??it at 1.64 billion euros – 1.8 billion dollars -. CCEP will get 60% of the capital and the remaining 40% will be in the hands of the Filipino group with Basque origins Aboitiz Equity Ventures, which until now was the owner with The Coca-Cola Company. The announcement and good results boosted the stock market by 3.46%.
The purchase will be made in cash and will make CCEP the largest Coca-Cola bottler by product volume, a position it already held by revenue. The operation remains pending closure in the absence of the preventive audit, already at an advanced stage, other formalities and the approval of the regulators. It is expected to close before the end of 2023. “It offers a great opportunity to acquire a consolidated and well-managed business, with attractive profitability and growth prospects. It’s a natural step”, said Damian Gammell, CEO of the CCEP. The group entered Asia in 2021 with the acquisition of the Australian Amatil, with business in Indonesia. The Philippines would be the thirtieth country of operation for a company that already supplies a total of 600 million consumers.
With 19 factories, Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines includes a market of 115 million inhabitants, the second largest in Asia after Indonesia. It employs 9,000 people and in 2022 obtained sales of around 1,550 million euros and a pre-tax profit of around 82 million.
CCEP is 35% controlled by Olive Partners, a company in which the shareholder families of the original Spanish bottlers are represented and in which the Daurellas own the majority. Yesterday the company reported this to the market and reported a profit of 854 million euros until June, 26.5% more than the same period of the previous year. Revenues grew by 8.5%, up to 8,977 million euros, thanks to the increase in demand. The Iberian market (Spain, Portugal and Andorra) contributes 1,541 million to sales, 12.5% ??more, and is only surpassed by the British market, with 1,570 million (7.5%). France is, in any case, the fastest growing market. It rises by 18%, up to 1.2 billion.
The jump to the Philippines is another step in the internationalization of the seven Spanish bottlers that merged in 2013 to create Coca-Cola Iberian Partners. In 2015 there was a second major integration on a European scale, with firms operating in Spain, Portugal, Germany, France or Belgium, among other countries, which created Coca-Cola European Partners. Then came the purchase of Amatil and the conversion to Europacific Partners. The CCEP, based in London, has 81 factories and employs 33,300 people, to which the new purchase will have to be added. In Spain, the workers amount to 3,800, 800 of which in Catalonia. Cobega, parent company of the Daurella family business, is based in Barcelona.
The Philippines gives more dimension. “It aligns with the goal of sustainable and strong growth through diversification and scale, and underpins medium-term goals,” the company insisted. In the future structure of the Philippine firm, CCEP will appoint the CEO and have 3 board members, 2 from Aboitiz Equity. In the purchase, CCEP was advised by Rothschild
