Carlsberg Britvic deal gets approval from Britvic shareholders
On Monday 8 July, Carlsberg announced it had reached an agreement to acquire Britvic with the company’s Board, clinching the deal with an offer of £3.3bn ($4.23bn).
Today, Britvic announced that shareholders have added their voice of approval to the deal. Around 165 million votes – 99.7% of those cast – were in favor of the transaction. A total of 83% of Britvic shareholders were in agreement.
A total of 75% of Britvic investors were required to vote in favor for shareholder approval to be gained.
The next step is to obtain regulatory clearance for the deal, with the companies hoping to complete the deal in the first quarter of 2025.
Introducing Carlsberg Britvic: Synergies between beer and soft drinks
Carlsberg’s acquisition of Britvic was announced in July. However, the Danish brewer had to work hard to obtain a deal: Britvic's board previously rejected two offers made in the prior weeks (Carlsberg initially offered £2.99bn followed by £3.1bn, before reaching the agreed price tag of £3.3bn).
The Britvic Board unanimously accepted the deal on July 8. However, analysts speculated at the time that shareholder approval was not necessarily a done deal.
In a separate deal, Carlsberg will buy Marston’s Brewing Company’s 40% stake in brewer Carlsberg Marston’s for £206m.
That will mean that the newly created Carlsberg Britvic can operate across beer and soft drinks and make the most of synergies between the two (both beer and soft drinks, for example, are commonly served in cans: creating an opportunity for joint procurement of cans and even the possibility to run canning for both drinks on the same line).
R&D is another area where beer and soft drinks can share resources: on areas such as sustainability and flavor development.
And Carlsberg estimates it can create £100m in cost synergies over the first five years.
While Carlsberg is considered first and foremost as a brewer, 16% of its volumes in Western Europe already come from soft drinks.
In the UK, acquiring Britvic (which is entirely in the soft drinks business with a portfolio ranging from juice to iced coffee to Pepsi MAX) will see the new Carlsberg Britvic portfolio made up of around 30% soft drinks (by volume).
Find out more about how the portfolio of the new company will shape up here.
