Coca-Cola Buys Aujan Drink Stake to Expand in Middle East

Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft-drink maker, agreed to acquire about half of the equity in the beverage business of Saudi Arabia-based Aujan Industries in what the companies described as a $980 million transaction.

Coca-Cola will purchase 50 percent of the Aujan entity that holds the rights to the Rani and Barbican brands and 49 percent of Aujan’s bottling and distribution unit, the companies said today in a statement. The deal, which excludes Aujan’s Iranian manufacturing and distribution business, is expected to close in the first half of 2012, the companies said.