Tata Consumer Products said in a stock exchange filing that the company wishes to update that the unit has called off talks regarding a possible transaction to acquire Bisleri.
Tata-Bisleri Deal: The country's biggest drinking water deal has gone into 'water' i.e. drowned. This information has been given by the unit of Tata Group itself. Tata Consumer Products today said it has called off discussions with Bisleri for a possible acquisition of the packaged water company. Had this deal been done, the Tata group would have become the leader of the packaged water segment.
Tata Consumer Products said in a stock exchange filing that the company wishes to update that the unit has called off talks regarding a possible transaction to acquire Bisleri. Also confirmed that the company has not made any definite agreement on this matter.
Why did the deal get stuck?
There was a report in November that the owner of Bisleri International, the country's largest bottled water, would hand it over to the Tata Group for about Rs 7,000 crore. Earlier this month, media reports said that the talks regarding valuation were stalled. Bisleri's owners were looking to raise about $1 billion from the deal, with Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter saying that talks with Tata have hit a roadblock as the companies could not agree on a valuation.
Tata would have reached the top
Tata Consumer Products has the Himalayan Natural Mineral Water and Tata Water Plus brands. The acquisition of Bisleri would have expanded its portfolio of bottled water brands in India. Tata Consumer is moving aggressively in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) space and is targeting to be among the top 3 in the sector. Especially at a time when Reliance is trying to spread a strong foothold in the FMCG segment. Acquisition of Bisleri would have catapulted Tata to the top spot in the packaged drinking water segment.
Talks were going on for two years
It is being said that Bisleri had several contenders at different times including Reliance Retail, Nestle and Danone. Talks are going on with Tata for two years. In November, Bisleri chairman Ramesh Chauhan made up his mind to sell the company to Tata after meeting Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran and Tata Consumer CEO Sunil D'Souza a few months earlier. Bisleri was originally an Italian brand that set up shop in India in 1965 in Mumbai. The Chauhans had acquired it in 1969. The company has 122 operational plants and a network of 4,500 distributors and 5,000 trucks in India and neighboring countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment