Coca-Cola Buys Bottling Operations for $12 Billion

Coca-Cola announced on Feb. 25 it had acquired the North American operations of its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises, in a deal worth around $12 billion.

The cashless deal also called for Coca-Cola to sell its own bottling operations in Norway and Sweden.

The acquisition of the bottler's North American assets and liabilities would consider Coca-Cola's current 34% stake in CCE, valued at $3.4 billion, and assume $8.88 billion of CCE debt.

Concurrently, the deal would see CCE buy Coca-Cola's bottling operations in Sweden and Norway for $822 million.

The bottler would have the right to acquire Coca-Cola's 83% stake in its German bottling operations 18 to 36 months after closing for fair value.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010