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India: Coca-Cola lands Monster merger clearance

By  |  November 19, 2014

Coca-Cola Company has secured regulatory clearance from the Competition Commission of India to merge with Monster beverage Corp for its energy drink endeavor, reports say.

The deal involves a merger between Coca-Cola European Refreshments, Monster and Monster subsidiary New Laser, but sees Coca-Cola acquiring less than 17 percent of New Laser directly.

Following the takeover, reports say the energy and non-energy drinks portfolio of the companies would be reorganized between Coca-Cola and Monster, seeing New Laser taking on the energy drink assets from Coca-Cola, while Coca-Cola would then buy non-energy drink assets from Monster.

Finally, New Laser would then completely merge with Monster.

While the CCI found that Coca-Cola has a strong presence in the nation, it found Monster’s market share to be minimal, allowing the transaction to preserve competition in the industry.

Full content: NDTV

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