Coca-Cola, SABMiller, GFI To Form Coca-Cola Beverages Africa - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - The Coca-Cola Company (KO), British brewer SABMiller Plc (SAB.L, SBMRY.PK) and Gutsche Family INVESTMENTS (GFI, majority shareholders in Coca-Cola Sabco) have agreed to combine the bottling operations of their non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages businesses in Southern and East Africa. The new bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, would serve 12 high-growth countries accounting for about 40 percent of all Coca-Cola beverage volumes in Africa.

Africa offers significant growth potential in beverages, underpinned by rising personal disposable income, a fast-growing population and increasing per capita consumption. With over 30 bottling plants and over 14,000 employees, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa would be the largest Coca-Cola bottler on the continent, with the scale, complementary capabilities and resources to capture and accelerate top-line growth.

Upon completion of the proposed merger, shareholdings in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa would be SABMiller: 57.0%, Gutsche Family INVESTMENTS: 31.7% and The Coca-Cola Company: 11.3%.

In a transaction to be completed in two phases, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa would bring together SABMiller's South African soft drinks bottling businesses, Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI) and Appletiser, and its soft drink bottling businesses in eight other African countries; GFI's bottling interests in Coca-Cola Sabco, including its South African bottler, Coca-Cola Fortune, and its bottling operations in six other African countries; The Coca-Cola Company's South African soft drinks businesses in the form of Coca-Cola Canners, Valpré and Coca-Cola Shanduka Beverages.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa would initially produce and distribute Coca-Cola beverages in nine countries: South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Comoros and Mayotte.