Refresco acquires American competitor

Dutch juice and soda bottler Refresco acquired American competitor Cott’s bottling division for 1.25 billion dollars (1.1 billion euro), becoming the world’s largest independent bottling company in the world.

Double turnover and capacity

Thanks to the acquisition, Refresco has become the market leader in the United States and Mexico and will obtain 29 facilities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Its capacity will also be nearly doubled, to 12 billion liters and it will also add 1.7 billion dollars (1.5 billion euro) in turnover to its own 2.1 billion euro turnover from 2016. Over the next three years, it should also achieve a 47 million euro synergy. The acquisition should be finalized before the end of the year.

Refresco not only acquired a company, but also performed a 200 million euro capital injection with new shares. That did not please shareholders, who sent the share plummeting down on Tuesday.

Apparently, the talks between Cott and Refresco started in October 2016 and Refresco had long considered acquiring its American competitor.

Now that it has bought Cott, it seems very unlikely Refresco will be sold to French private equity firm PAI. There had been rumours, but it may have become too large to be considered a PAI prey.