The deal has been approved by Russia's Federal Antitrust Service (FAS) and is to be approved by the European Commission, a spokesman of which said the decision would be made by April 22. By getting Multon, the multinational will acquire 25% of the Russian juice market and become the country's largest producer of alcohol-free beverages.
Coca-Cola is the world leader in the production of alcohol-free beverages, with a turnover of about $22 billion. It owns 24% in the Greek Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC) with a turnover of $5.7 billion.
The final figures for the deal and the size of the stake have not been disclosed. Marat Ibragimov, an analyst with the UralSib financial company, assessed Multon at $700 million, his colleague form Aton Alexei Yazykov set the value at $500 million, and Alexander Svinov of Alfa Bank thinks the deal was worth $600-650 million. But a source close to the negotiations said the buyers paid no more than $500 million.
According to Business-Analitika, the Russian juice market is worth more than $2 billion and will grow by 5-10% in the next two years. In October 2004, Multon controlled 25.6% of the market and its sales that year accounted for $336 million.
The next potential buyer of juice assets in Russia is PepsiCo, say analysts, which may buy Nidan, which is said to be worth $350-400 million.
