Coca Cola bought Huiyuan Juice
By stlplace on Sep 2, 2008 in IPO
(Update Sept 5) It seems there are anti-trust concern about this acquisition. Some source says if this merge approved, Coca Cola will have 40% of juice market share in China. Another concern is, like many Chinese companies (Sohu, Netease), Huiyuan is actually registered in Cayman Island, theoritically it is M&A between two foreign companies. It seems the recently approved Chinese Anti-trust law did not say clearly how to treat such cases. Maybe my wife (China licensed attorney) will know.
(Update Sept 3) More analysis at 21cbh in Chinese. Coke paid about a PE of 42 for Huiyuan, not surprisingly high considering the huge potential in Chinese juice market.
(Original) It was not too long ago Huiyuan Juice, one of the largest juice producer in China, went public in Hongkong Stock Exchange. Now Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) is buying it for 17.9 billion HKD, at more 200% premium of the stock closing price (4.14 HKD) as of August 29. Coke is paying 12.20 HKD per share.
Chinese story at 21cbh. English story at Bloomberg.
(source: the standard)
