The Coca-Cola Company announced that it is delaying plans to list Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) as a publicly traded company.
In April 2021, The Coca-Cola Company first disclosed its intention to sell a portion of its shareholding in CCBA via an initial public offering.
Delaying Of Public Offering
The decision to delay the listing is in line with the group’s objective of focusing its resources on innovation and building brands loved by consumers.
The exact timing would be driven by a number of factors, including macroeconomic conditions, according to the announcement.
The Coca-Cola Company will continue to evaluate macroeconomic conditions in deciding future timing for an IPO in 2023.
The company added that its plans to have an Africa-focused bottler trading as an independent public company remain unchanged.
Coca-Cola Beverages Africa
CCBA is the eighth largest Coca-Cola bottling partner in the world by revenue, and the largest on the continent, accounting for over 40% of all of the drinks producer's products sold in Africa by volume.
CCBA services more than 600,000 customers in Africa, with a host of international and local brands, and has more than 17,000 employees.
The group was formed in July 2016 after the successful combination of the southern and east Africa bottling operations of the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages businesses of The Coca-Cola Company, SABMiller plc, and Gutsche Family Investments.
Currently, CCBA shareholders include the Coca-Cola Company with 66.5% and Gutsche Family Investments with 33.5%.
CCBA operates in 14 countries, including its six key markets of South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, and Namibia, as well as Tanzania, Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, the islands of Comoros and Mayotte, Eswatini, and Lesotho.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest A-Brands news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
