Jubilant Bhartia secures US$600M from Goldman Sachs for acquisition of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages
Goldman Sachs backs Jubilant Bhartia’s major Coca-Cola India bottling deal through hybrid funding of convertible preference shares.
INDIA – Goldman Sachs Asset Management has committed US$600 million to partially finance the equity investment required by India’s Jubilant Bhartia Group for acquiring a 40% stake in The Coca-Cola Company’s Indian bottling arm.
The investment supports a total transaction valued at US$1.5 billion.
Sources familiar with the development revealed that Goldman Sachs’ contribution came through its hybrid fund, which subscribed to convertible preference shares issued by the Jubilant Bhartia Group.
This type of financing, part of the firm’s private credit strategy, offers characteristics of both debt and equity and typically features a longer tenure.
Convertible preference shares enable companies to raise capital without immediately incurring debt or heavily diluting ownership through common stock sales.
This structure helped the diversified Jubilant Bhartia Group secure part of the necessary equity for the deal, which was first announced by Coca-Cola in December.
The transaction involves the acquisition of a minority stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings Pvt. Ltd. (HCC Holdings), the parent of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. (HCCB)—Coca-Cola’s largest bottler in India.
The remaining US$900 million required for the acquisition will be financed through US$600 million in equity and US$300 million in debt.
To raise capital, the group’s subsidiaries—Jubilant BevCo and Jubilant Beverages—issued rupee-denominated bonds equivalent to US$658 million, according to Bloomberg News.
HCCB, headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, oversees Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in 12 Indian states and 236 districts across South and West India.
The company manages 13 manufacturing plants and markets 37 beverage products under eight brands, including Coca-Cola, Thums Up, and Sprite.
In a related move, HCCB is selling its bottling operations in Jharkhand to Moon Beverages as part of a strategy to align investments with growth priorities.
Additionally, the Competition Commission of India has approved Kandhari Global Beverages’ acquisition of HCCB’s assets in northern Gujarat and the Union Territory of Diu, worth Rs 2,000 crore (US$235.2 million).
Kandhari Global already operates Coca-Cola facilities in Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh, and distributes products in Rajasthan.
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