SABMiller sells bottled water business

SABMiller announced that its Colombian subsidiary Bavaria has agreed to dispose of its Agua Brisa bottled water business and assets, which will be acquired jointly by Coca-Cola FEMSA and The Coca-Cola Company, for a consideration of USD 92 million. The disposal of Agua Brisa is subject to approval by the Colombian competition authorities and other customary pre-closing conditions, with the closing of the transaction expected in late 2008 or early 2009.

In the past financial year, the Agua Brisa business sold more than 2.6 million hl in Colombia, SABMiler said. Agua Brisa presentations of still, sparkling and flavoured waters are produced at 13 plants across Colombia and are currently available in over 230,000 outlets throughout the country.

The Brisa operations in Panama are excluded from the transaction.

Karl Lippert, president of Bavaria, commented: “The disposal of the water business will enable Bavaria to focus on its core strength, the brewing and distribution of beer and malted beverages.”

Mr Lippert’s comments have to be taken with a pinch of salt. SABMiller is not as dogmatically beer-oriented as InBev, for example. Readers will remember that in South Africa, SAB holds a Coca-Cola license.

Either the water business’ margins were low or Bavaria was doing Coca-Cola a favour (oops, we are not allowed to say that). In any case, SABMiller must have had other reasons than the ones it made public for selling Agua Brisa.