China rejects Coke bid to buy major juice maker

(Xinhua/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-18 15:59

BEIJING -- China has rejected Coca-Cola Co.'s $2.3 billion bid to buy a major Chinese juice producer, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced Wednesday.

The purchase of China Huiyuan Juice Group, the nation's largest juice maker, would have been the biggest foreign acquisition of a Chinese company to date.

The proposed purchase was rejected on anti-monopoly grounds, MOC said on its website. "The bid may harm competition...in China's beverage market."

The ruling is the first of its kind since China promulgated its anti-monopoly law last August.

Huiyuan juice and bottles of Coca-cola on sale at a supermarket in Yichang, Hubei province, on September 3, 2008. [Xinhua]

Shares of the Hong Kong-listed Huiyuan were suspended from trade after plunging 20 percent amid speculation Coca-Cola may abandon its bid for the company.

The juice maker's stock last traded 19.4 percent lower at HK$8.3 before being halted early in the session.

Coca-Cola Co. was expected to abandon the deal as doubts rose that Chinese regulators would want the beverage giant to relinquish the Huiyuan name, a well-known brand throughout China.

The deal itself is set to expire around March 23 unless granted approval, according to terms set by the two companies. However, they could agree to extend or renew the deal.

Coca-Cola offered on September 3 to buy Huiyuan for HK$17.92 billion (US$2.3 billion) in cash. Rival juice producers have since warned that the acquisition would give Coca-Cola too dominant a position in China's beverage market.

In late September Coca-Cola filed with the MOC for anti-trust approval. According to the anti-monopoly law, mergers or acquisitions must go through an anti-monopoly review if the deal involves a company with a revenue of over 400 million yuan in China or all companies involved have a combined revenue of 10 billion yuan worldwide.

Huiyuan's founders and major shareholders already had endorsed the sale.