Three bidders remaining for Coca-Cola bottler

Three letters of intent have been submitted to acquire Coca-Cola Korea Bottling Corp. An executive at Coca-Cola Korea who declined to be identified said SPC, City Venture Capital and Coca-Cola Femsa are candidates to purchase the bottling company.
SPC is the mother company of Paris Croissant, Korea’s biggest bakery franchise, and the local operator of Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin Donuts and others in Korea.
“SPC is trying to expand its business into the beverage market with the acquisition,” said Lee Un-taek at Daehan Investment and Securities.
City Venture Capital is the venture capital fund that acquired the non-memory chip division of Hynix Semiconductor. Woongjin Food said yesterday it is participating in the bid through City Venture.
The third applicant is Coca-Cola Femsa, the bottler of Coca-Cola products in Mexico and Latin America. It is owned in roughly equal parts by Femsa, a Mexican brewer and the Coca-Cola Company of the U.S.
Dongwon Group, CJ and other possible buyers did not submit letters of intent. “With major players such as CJ out of the competition, the price of Coca-Cola Korea Bottling will be lower than expected,” Lee said. Industry watchers predicted the firm would sell for about 475 billion won ($510 million).
Coca-Cola Korea Bottling Corp. has been on the market since February, when Coca-Cola Amatil, the Australia-based company that owns the Korean subsidiary, announced it would spin off the troubled firm.
Coca-Cola Korea Bottling was established by Coca-Cola Korea after it bought the Coca-Cola bottling divisions of Doosan, Woosung Food and Honam Food for 1.2 trillion won in 1997. Its total sales were 600 billion won in 2002, but fell to 498 billion in 2005. It suffered a net loss of 34 billion won in 2005 from a 30 billion won profit in 2001.

By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]