Coca-Cola Co. on Thursday said an earlier completion of a major European bottling merger will drag results in the current quarter.
Coke now expects the net impact of acquisitions, divestitures and other structural items to be a 5 to 6 point headwind on revenue and a 4 to 5 point headwind on income before taxes in the second quarter.
Last August, three Coca-Cola Co. bottlers agreed to a merger combining $12 billion in revenue across 13 European countries, part of a global consolidation push by the U.S. soda giant to cut costs amid slowing sales.
Publicly traded bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., which makes and distributes Coke in eight European countries including the U.K. and France, combined with Spain’s privately held Coca-Cola Iberian Partners SA and Germany’s Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG, the latter owned by Atlanta-based Coke.
The tie-up, which was completed May 28—about one month before expectations—formed the world’s largest independent Coke bottler by revenue.
By Anne Steele
Source: Wall Street Journal
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