Coca-Cola uncaps IPO plans for India bottling business, eyes 2027 listing

The Atlanta-headquartered beverages maker early on Tuesday (India time) said it is exploring an initial public offering of Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings (HCCH), parent of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), by selling a portion of shareholding likely in 2027, with the company continuing to hold significant share. The IPO is expected to value HCCH at well over $10 billion, people aware of plans said.

ET reported in its January 15 edition that Coca-Cola had tapped investment bankers for the proposed IPO to raise $1 billion, at a valuation of $10 billion.

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ET also reported first in its May 3, 2024, edition that Coca-Cola was planning to list HCCB.

The move comes less than a year after Coca-Cola sold a 40% in HCCH to the Jubilant Bhartia Group for nearly Rs 12,500 crore, while retaining 60% control.

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The maker of Coke and Sprite sparkling drinks, Dasani water and Georgia coffee said initial preparations are underway for listing on the BSE and NSE.

“Following the listing, the bottler will be well-placed to continue to pursue growth,” said Sanket Ray, president for India and Southwest Asia and emerging large markets lead at The Coca-Cola Company. “We will focus on growing our portfolio of global and local brands in India.” Two senior executives aware of the plans said India’s largest soft drinks company had started work on the bottling arm’s listing two years ago. “The IPO, which was being planned for this year, is expected to hit the market in 2027, amid delays on account of the West Asia war and an erratic summer,” one of them said. While Coca-Cola India sells concentrate to its bottling partners and focuses on strategy, innovation, distribution and brand building, its bottling business is more or less evenly split between HCCB and multiple independent bottlers.Chairman and co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia Group, Shyam and Hari Bhartia, in a joint statement said the listing is the “next important step in the bottler’s journey and (that the company would) will reap the benefits of the public listing to create value for all shareholders.” HCCB, which began operations in 1997, had a network of over 2,000 distributors and reached over 1.7 million customers, as on March 31. It employs 5,000 people and operates 14 bottling plants across 10 states.

Filings with the Registrar of Companies sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler showed that HCCB reported ₹12,751 crore in revenue for FY25, declining 9% year-on-year. Net profit declined 73% year-on-year to ₹757 crore in the year.

The numbers were impacted by sale of manufacturing plants to Coca-Cola’s existing independent franchise bottling partners in Rajasthan, Bihar, the North East and parts of West Bengal, such as Moon Beverages, Kandhari Global and SLMG, HCCB had said at the time of filing.