Coca-Cola to Buy China Huiyuan Juice for $2.3 Billion...

Coca-Cola Co. agreed to buy China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd. for HK$17.9 billion ($2.3 billion), its biggest overseas acquisition, as the sodamaker tries to build its share of non-carbonated drink sales.

The world's biggest soft-drink maker will pay HK$12.20 a share in cash, almost triple its price of HK$4.14 last week, the companies said in statements today. Huiyuan shares closed today at HK$10.94 in Hong Kong.

Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent's second acquisition since taking over in July will give Coca-Cola about 20 percent of China's fruit-juice market, helping it compete with PepsiCo Inc. as U.S. soda sales slow. Coca-Cola will pay more than twice the valuation of Huiyuan's closest local rival.

``It's a bit expensive, but it's better than building everything from zero,'' Fiona Wong, consumer analyst at Sun Hung Kai Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong, said in a telephone interview today. ``The Huiyuan brand is very well known in China.''

Coca-Cola's purchase of Huiyuan, which is subject to Chinese regulatory approval, would be the biggest foreign takeover of a company in the Asian country, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The deal values Huiyuan at 46.6 times this year's estimated earnings, according to Bloomberg data. Uni-President China Holdings Ltd., the Shanghai-based maker of fruit drinks and instant noodles, trades at 20.03 times estimated earnings.

Juice Sales

Coca-Cola declined 30 cents to $51.66 by 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Huiyuan shares had fallen 49 percent this year until Aug. 29, when the stock was halted pending today's announcement.

Chinese fruit and vegetable juice sales will probably grow 16 percent to $12.3 billion this year, according to Euromonitor International. That's more than double the growth of carbonated drinks, forecast to rise 7 percent to $7.94 billion.

The acquisition shows that ``global players still value exposure to China,'' which has the world's worst-performing stock market this year, said Shi Bin, who manages the equivalent of $1.8 billion at UBS Global Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., from Seoul. ``Mergers and acquisitions like this will provide strong support to the market.''

Coca-Cola, with a market value of $120 billion, has said it expects more than 80 percent of future growth to come from non- U.S. markets including China. The company's sales by volume in China rose 18 percent last year.

Market Leader

Coca-Cola's biggest acquisition was Energy Brands Inc.'s Vitaminwater, based in Queens, New York, for $4.1 billion last year. Its first purchase under Kent was Agua Brisa, SABMiller Plc's Colombian bottled-water unit, for $92 million last month.

Huiyuan is the biggest fruit and vegetable juice company in China by market share with 10.3 percent, followed by Coca-Cola with 9.7 percent, according to Euromonitor. The Beijing-based company had 42.6 percent of the market for 100 percent juices last year, Huiyuan said March 31, citing AC Nielsen.

Established in 1992, Huiyuan sells about 220 beverage products including fruit and vegetable juices as well as nectars, with a majority of them sold under its own brand name. It also has the ``Quan You'' brand and children's juice products sold under the ``Le Le Yuan'' brand.

Huiyuan products are sold mostly in China, but also in the U.S. and Southeast Asia including the Philippines and Singapore.

Political Past

Zhu Xinli, Huiyuan's founder and president, has agreed to sell his 42 percent stake and will become honorary chairman after the takeover. Group Danone SA, the second-largest shareholder with 23 percent, also agreed to sell. The 56-year- old Xinli was formerly deputy director of the foreign economic and trade department of Yiyuan County in China's Eastern Shandong Province.

Huiyuan raised $307 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering in January 2007. Net income tripled to 640 million yuan ($93 million) last year on sales that grew 29 percent.

Coca-Cola's operating profit margin was 39 percent last year for the division that includes North Asia and the Middle East, compared with 22 percent for North America. Both units account for about a quarter of operating income.

The deal will help Coca-Cola make savings in raw materials such as packaging and fruit and allow expansion into ``other beverages,'' Kenth Kaerhoeg, spokesman for Coca-Cola Asia, said in a telephone interview today. ``The more packaging and fruit you buy, the bigger discount you get.''

`Dynamic' Market

Buying Huiyuan will ``strengthen our business in China, especially since the juice segment is so dynamic and fast growing,'' Kent, 55, said in a statement on Business Wire. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has operated in the country since 1979. Kent, who has worked at Coca-Cola or its bottlers since 1978, is a former manager of the company's Asia unit.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is advising Coca-Cola on the deal while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is Huiyuan's adviser.

Coca-Cola projects earnings to be reduced by 3 cents to 4 cents a share in the first year after the acquisition. The deal will boost earnings by the third year after the purchase, it said.

Under the deal, Coca-Cola will buy all Huiyuan's outstanding convertible bonds, the Beijing-based company said in a statement.

Coca-Cola plans to keep the Huiyuan brand.