Deals
Coca-Cola May Need Regulatory Nod to Buy Out AB Inbev in Africa
- Coca-Cola, SAMBiller won approval to merge bottling operations
- Original deal went through 18 month regulatory process
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Coca-Cola Co.’s plan to buy out brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV from an African bottling joint venture originally agreed to with SABMiller Plc may have to go through a second regulatory process just five months after the initial deal was concluded.
The combination of Coca-Cola and SABMiller’s bottling operations for non-alcoholic beverages in southern and eastern Africa was approved by South Africa’s competition authorities in May, 18 months after the tie-up was announced. After AB InBev completed its takeover of SABMiller earlier this week, Coca-Cola said it plans to trigger a change of control clause to buy SABMiller’s majority stake in the venture.