The Pepsi Bottling Group, the world's largest maker and distributor of Pepsi beverages, said today that it has commenced cash tender offers in the United States and Mexico to complete the acquisition of Mexican bottler Pepsi-Gemex.
Pepsi-Gemex, headquartered in Mexico City, is the second largest bottler of Pepsi-Cola beverages outside of the United States and owns Mexico's largest purified water company, Electropura.
The tender offers will expire at 5 pm (EST) on 5 November 2002, unless the offers are extended.
Enrique C. Molina Sobrino and PepsiCo have each agreed to tender approximately 40 per cent and 34.4 per cent, respectively, of the total outstanding capital stock of Pepsi-Gemex. Pepsi-Gemex's board of directors has recommended that all other Pepsi-Gemex shareholders accept the offers and tender their shares.
The US cash offer is for all global depositary shares (GDS) at Mxn 106.38 per GDS, and for all series B shares and all ordinary participation certificates (CPO) held by holders who are not resident in Mexico at Mxn 5.91 per share and Mxn 17.73 per CPO.
The purchase price in the US tender offer will be paid in US dollars. The price will be calculated using the average of the US dollar to Mexican peso exchange rates reported on each of the five consecutive US business days ending two US business days prior to the expiration date of the tender offer. The exchange rates used for this calculation will be those reported by Reuters and Bloomberg on their respective FXBENCH pages as the New York closing rate.
The Mexican offer is for all series B shares and CPOs at the same prices offered in the US tender offer. The purchase price in the Mexican offer will be paid at the election of the holder in Mexican pesos or US dollars calculated as described above.
The complete details of the offers are in the US Offer to Purchase and related documents, and the Mexican Folleto Informativo and related documents as filed today with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) of Mexico, respectively.