Coca-Cola Femsa SAB, the largest soft-drink bottler in Latin America, agreed to buy Brazil’s Vonpar SA for 3.51 billion reais ($1.09 billion) in a deal that marks the company’s third acquisition in the country since 2013.
The purchase will boost Coca-Cola Femsa’s volume in Brazil by 25 percent, according to a statement Friday by the Mexico City-based company. Vonpar, one of the largest privately-owned bottlers in the Brazilian Coca-Cola system, generated sales of 2.03 billion reais in the 12 months ending June 30.
With the Vonpar deal, Coca-Cola Femsa will control distribution areas encompassing 43 percent of Brazil’s population as the bottler relies on dealmaking to accelerate its international expansion. In its earlier deals in the South American nation, the company spent $1.86 billion for Spaipa SA Industria Brasileira de Bebidas and $448 million on Cia. Fluminense de Refrigerantes.
“The transaction is positive, it’s a strategic acquisition that will allow KOF to continue consolidating its presence in Brazil,” Miguel Mayorga, an analyst at Corporativo GBM SAB, said by telephone, referring to the bottler’s stock ticker. “It’s a lot of money but KOF has a solid balance sheet.”
Coca-Cola Femsa climbed 2.5 percent to 151.97 pesos at 9:29 a.m. in Mexico City, the biggest advance on the benchmark IPC index.
Southern Brazil
The Vonpar acquisition has an enterprise value of 3.58 billion reais, according to the statement from Coca-Cola Femsa. The Brazilian company sold 190 million unit cases of beverages in the last 12 months, including 23 million cases of beer. It posted 335 million reais of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Vonpar’s footprint in the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina border on Coca-Cola Femsa’s existing operations in Parana. Vonpar has three bottling plants, five distribution centers and almost 4,000 employees serving more than 15 million consumers.
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