AB-Inbev merger Sabmiller complicates relationship with bottlers of Coca Cola

The Coca-Cola Co. has a tough decision to make as a result of the planned acquisition of SABMiller PLC for its rival brewery Anheuser-Busch InBev NV for $ 104,2 billion.
SABMiller is a major bottler for Coca-Cola in the current consolidation of the soft drink giant is performing in your bottling operations in Africa. But the Belgian-Brazilian InBev, which should become the controller of SABMiller in the agreement that the two closed this week, is a major bottler of PepsiCo Inc. in Latin America.
In addition to Coke and PepsiCo are global rivals, Coca is also frequently cited as one of the targets of acquisitions of insatiable AB InBev. The Director-President of Coke, Muhtar Kent, comes warning executives in recent years that the 3 g Capital Partners LP, whose founders — the trio of Brazilian Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira — are controlling shareholders of AB InBev, could, at some point, trying to buy Coca-Cola.
Coca, the AB InBev and PepsiCo refused to comment yesterday on how the planned merger between producers of beers could affect the engarramento agreements and distribution of soft drinks.
Coke, which is based in Atlanta, has change of control clauses that would allow her he repurchased the bottling and distribution assets of SABMiller or sell it to another company, according to people familiar with the matter.
Coke put much effort in its bottling assets in Africa. In November 2014, she struck a deal to combine its assets with those of SABMiller and with the investment firm Gutsche Family Investments,, to create a joint venture present in 12 African countries and responsible for 40% of the volume of soft drinks from Coke in the continent.
At the same time, coke agreed to sell its German bottling unit in August and is speeding up the sale of assets in the United States.
The efforts are part of a race to get rid of factories, warehouses and trucks and consolidate the distribution due to the slowdown in the growth of sales and profit targets not affected, not to become a takeover target.
"The dilemma for Coke is if she will allow AB InBev in your House?" said Carlos Laboy, an analyst with HSBC's beverages in New York, the AB InBev could try to buy the Coke in three or four years.
The performance of the price of Coca has been lower than S&P 500 index in recent years, but with a market value of $ 181 billion, the company is still among the most valuable publicly traded u.s. firms.
The soft drink bottling business in Africa of Coke with SABMiller and Gutsche has been postponed because the companies failed to secure regulatory approvals from the Government of South Africa. This can create additional delays not only for Coke, but for the meganegócio between the breweries, which will be examined in detail by the Ministry of Finance of South Africa, antitrust authorities and trade unions.
Unions representing South African operations of SABMiller workers are already preparing for the confrontation. The Food and Allied Workers Union, Union of food industry workers, said through a statement released yesterday he was "disturbed" by the news of the acquisition and has vowed to use its international partners to "oppose this transaction using all the ways and means available."
With South Africa's economy slowing and the unemployment rate at around 25%, in part due to the problems of the mining industry, of great importance for the country, any dismissal, reduction of investments or lower collection from SABMiller due to the consolidation of the operations of the breweries should be execradas by policy makers of the country , according to analysts.
Coke could try selling the bottling assets of SABMiller in Africa for another partner, but it is unclear to whom. The assets could generate $ 3 billion, according to some estimates. SABMiller also bottles Coca in El Salvador and Honduras and accounts for about 3% of the global volume of Coke, according to the company.
It wouldn't be the first time a brewery bottles and distributes Coke and Pepsi products in different countries. SABMiller is the bottler of Pepsi in Panama. Carlsberg a/s and Heineken NV distribute Coke in some markets and Pepsi in others, although not on the scale of SABMiller or AB InBev.
Ian Shackleton, drinks analyst at Nomura in London, said that Coke could rightly view the AB InBev as a "Trojan horse" after the InBev have closed a distribution agreement with Anheuser-Busch before buying the brewery in 2008, to create InBev. But he also said that Coke would be reluctant to get rid of the bottling operations from Africa, which could cause a major disruption in a region of rapid growth.
"Obviously it's not an ideal situation for them," said Shackleton, who also believes that the AB InBev could try to buy the Coke in three or four years.
Shackleton and other industry analysts also see a scenario in which the Coke agrees to enter into the umbrella of AB InBev, but only if the company stop distributing Pepsi. They say AB InBev may want to bottle Coke in Africa than Pepsi in Latin America, where it already has an operation in soft drink growth, with brands like Guarana Antarctica.
AB InBev currently bottling PepsiCo drinks in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Peru and the Dominican Republic. Bottling agreements expire at the end of 2017, but are automatically renewed for another 10 years unless the AB InBev or PepsiCo do a written notification before the end of 2015 that want to end the partnership.
The two companies also closed an agreement on combined purchase in the u.s. in 2009 in various sectors of travel technology. Industry watchers have speculated for years that AB InBev could try to buy PepsiCo at some point if the brewery decided to expand its participation in the segment of non-alcoholic beverages.