Dec 11 (Reuters) - Jubilant Bhartia Group said on Wednesday it will buy a 40% stake in Coca-Cola's largest bottler in India, as the Indian conglomerate plans to foray into the country's "high growth" beverage sector.
The group, which owns Domino's Pizza's Indian franchisee Jubilant FoodWorks, did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
However, Indian media reports said the deal was worth 125 billion rupees ($1.47 billion).
The investment "aligns with our strategic intent to expand and diversify into high-growth industries," Hari S. Bhartia, the group's founder and co-chairman said in a statement.
The Indian beverage sector is seeing steady growth, with revenue generated from non-alcoholic beverages expected to reach over $24 billion by 2027 from $17 billion in 2023, a report from data firm Statista showed.
The investment is also expected to strengthen the position of Coca-Cola-owned Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) after media reports showed that the bottler had divested operations in three regions in the country earlier this year.
As of November, the bottler had 16 factories in India.
Jubilant Bhartia, which has four listed companies in the Indian stock exchanges, said it will buy the stake in HCCB via its entity Jubilant Beverages.
Morgan Stanley was the exclusive financial advisor to the deal, the group added.
In October, the news agency IFR reported that the controlling shareholders of Jubilant Bhartia Group were planning to raise $1.4 billion from a mix of rupee bonds and structured debt or equity to fund the stake buy in HCCB.
($1 = 84.8060 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Manvi Pant; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Eileen Soreng
Source: Reuters