While the potential takeover of SAB by AB InBev may be seen as a blow to the potential takeover of CCA, it does present the potential for some quite major changes within the beverage industry.
When one company goes large, the rest tend to try to follow suit to remain competitive ie look to acquire.
This could actually propagate an acceleration by Kirin towards acquiring CCA, or alternatively, another large Coke bottler could come into the frame.
The South American bottler is well regarded within TCCC so they may lend a helping hand if they are dissatisfied with CCA.
Additional to this, the SAB-AB InBev entity would need to shed either Pepsi OR Coke bottling assets at the time of merger.
This would mean Coke bottling assets would be coming on market, potentially for CCA to acquire OR it could result in a newly formed entity split from SAB-AB InBev that may be hungry to expand OR if they shed the Pepsi assets, the new entity would be bigger and still free to acquire CCA.
In short, SAB getting gobbled up could be very good news for CCA shareholders.
CCL Price at posting:
$8.80 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
