The Bhartia family, the promoters of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, are preparing to offload small stakes in three of their listed companies to raise more than Rs 2,000 crore to part-fund a 40 percent stake in Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages (HCCB), the Indian bottling business of the American soft drinks giant, sources told Moneycontrol.
The Bhartia family is likely to sell around 6 percent stake in Jubilant Ingrevia, a 3 percent in Jubilant Pharmova and a 2 percent stake in Jubilant FoodWorks, sources said. These numbers could change, depending on the market condition and investor interest for the individual stocks, they added.
The Economic Times was the first to write about the Bhartia family’s plans to sell minority stakes in Jubilant FoodWorks, Pharmova and Ingrevia to raise funds for the acquisition.
It was in December that the Jubilant Bhartia Group announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 40 percent equity interest in Hindustan Coca Cola Holdings (HCCH) through Jubilant Beverages Ltd for a purchase consideration of Rs 12,500 crore.
HCCH is the parent company of HCCB, the largest Coca‐Cola bottler in India.
Jubilant FoodWorks is the master franchisee of Domino’s Pizza in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It also operates Dunkin’ Donuts and Popeyes in India, alongside homegrown brands Ekdum! and Hong’s Kitchen. As of June 11, its market capitalisation was around Rs 44,457 crore.
Jubilant Pharmova, the group’s pharmaceuticals and contract research arm, has a presence in the sterile injectables, CRO services and novel drug development businesses, allergenic extracts and US radio-pharmacy networks. It has a market cap of Rs 18,207 crore.
Jubilant Ingrevia is the group’s demerged life‑sciences and specialty chemicals company, producing ingredients such as vitamins B3 and B4, pyridine derivatives and ethanol along with CDMO services. Its market cap stood at Rs 10,983 crore as of June 11.
Moneycontrol was the first to write, on January 23, that to fund the HCCB stake purchase, the Bhartias were looking to raise around Rs 6,000 crore in debt from domestic investors such as mutual funds, family offices and high net-worth individuals.
On June 5, the Economic Times reported that the Jubilant Group raised Rs 5,650 crore by issuing non-convertible debentures to leading asset management companies such as HDFC AMC to fund the acquisition.
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages
HCCB is responsible for the manufacturing, packaging, sale and distribution of beverages under the trademarks of the Coca-Cola.
The company has 14 bottling plants in India and covers around 43 percent of the group’s bottling operations in terms of volumes. Its product portfolio includes both carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks and packaged drinking water.
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