Coca-Cola's bid for Chinese juice maker under review: Companies
The Chinese government is conducting an anti-monopoly review of
Coca-Cola's multi-billion-dollar takeover bid for the Huiyuan Juice
Group, the two companies said in a joint statement Tuesday.
"The application under (China's) Anti-Monopoly Law has been submitted
to the Ministry of Commerce. The approval process is progressing and we
are working in full cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce," said the
statement. Coca-Cola announced in September plans to buy Hong
Kong-listed Huiyuan, which controls more than 40 percent of the Chinese
market for pure juice, for 2.4 billion dollars.
If approved, it would be Coca-Cola's largest acquisition in China
and, according to analysts, the biggest ever foreign takeover of a
Chinese firm.
The anti-trust review is required by Chinese rules as the combined
global turnover of the two firms was more than 10 billion yuan (1.5
billion dollars) in 2007, and as they each made over 400 million yuan in
China.
The commerce ministry has said it would review the takeover according
to the principles of a market-oriented economy.
Analysts have said the planned deal is a litmus test of China's
anti-monopoly law that took effect in August.
The bid has until March 23 to pass the review, according to the
statement.
BEIJING, Dec 2, 2008 AFP
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