Having previously spun off its U.S. soft drink operations, Cadbury plc (formerly Cadbury Schweppes) now confirms it's ready to put its Australian beverage
business on the block. You might think that the credit crunch would make this a tough time to sell the unit, which according to varying estimates could be worth from $300 million to as much as $600 million.
But according to a report in The Deal, Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer said the company has received sufficient interest to proceed with the sale of the unit, which peddles drinks under the Schweppes, Cottee's, Sunkist and other brands.
So who might be interested? According to Just-drinks.com (registration required),
strong contenders are Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. (which bottles coke products in Australia and well beyond) and Australia's Lion Nathan Ltd., the alcoholic drinks seller owned by Japan's Kirin Holdings.
But here's a wrinkle. As we noted earlier, the Australian drinks business
is integrated with Cadbury's confectionery operations down there rather than being a standalone operation like the U.S. drinks business (now known as Dr. Pepper Snapple Inc.) was. So there's a lot of work to do pulling them apart.
That might be one more impediment (on top of the scarcity of financing) to a sale to a private equity buyer. A strategic buyer, of course, would have the corporate infrastructure the operations need already in place. -
Kenneth Klee
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