Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (CCHBC), the Greek soft drink bottler, has announced that it is to list 5 per cent of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depository Shares (ADSs) or ordinary CCHBC shares.
The company will offer 11,774,270 shares as part of the listing, of which 7,100,058 will come from Socomex, a division of the Kar-Tess group, and 4,674,212 from Refreshment Product Services, a Coca-Cola subsidiary. Socomex has also agreed to set aside a further 1,177,427, or 10 per cent of the shares on offer, as an over-allotment option.
CCHBC said it expected the offering to be completed during October 2002 and has applied to list its ADSs on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CCH. The offering is subject to general market conditions and regulatory clearances. Credit Suisse First Boston is lead manager and adviser for the offering and Alpha Finance is co-lead manager.
CCHBC will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the ADSs or ordinary shares. If the maximum number of shares is sold, the Kar-Tess Group will hold around 38 per cent of CCHBC's share capital while Coca-Cola will have around 22 per cent.
Most of Coca-Cola's leading bottling companies are listed in New York, and the move is likely to raise awareness of CCHBC, one of the largest bottlers of non-alcoholic beverages in Europe and the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in the world by sales volume.
CCHBC is present in 26 countries throughout Europe, and its shares are already listed in Athens, London and Australia.