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Britvic rejects Carlsberg
Despite offering a sweeter deal, soft drink firm Britvic has rejected another takeover bid from Danish brewer Carlsberg.
The latest bid saw Carlsberg offer 1,250p per share, valuing the firm at around £3.1bn, and was rejected on Monday (17 June).
The news today follows an earlier bid in June which valued Britvic, which makes or operates popular brand such as Robinson’s Fruit Shoot and J20, at 1,200p per share and was also turned down.
In addition to the brands it makes and operates, it has a licensing agreement to manufacturer and distribute PepsiCo products across the UK.
According to a statement from Britvic today, the board and advisers “carefully considered the second proposal” but it concluded that such a deal “significantly undervalues” the firm as well as its “current and future prospects”.
As a result of the statement, shares in Britvic surged 15%, before falling slightly — but are still up significantly by around 10-11% at the time of writing this morning.
Results
The Britvic bids come as CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said late last year that the company had reiterated its full-year organic operating profit of 4% to 7% for 2023, and also launched a new quarterly share buy-back programme, which would amount to DKK1 billion.
CEO of Carlsberg Jacob Aarup-Andersen said it had “delivered solid revenue growth in a challenging environment” and that it would further increase commercial investments to support its growth priorities.
He said: “The company has a strong foundation and a healthy financial position. We’re well positioned to invest in our brands and in our markets to capture attractive long-term growth opportunities. I’m confident that we can accelerate growth in line with the SAIL’27 priorities and continue to drive year-on-year sustainable and profitable results.”
Change in approach
The news also follows Carlsberg speaking in April to the drinks business about its plans to run a global campaign across 120 markets to reposition its flagship beer brand.
Carlsberg global brand director Lynsey Woods said the repositioning campaign centres around “the idea that at every moment, there’s a spark of curiosity” and added that “obviously, we’re playing up to that a bit, suggesting Carlsberg was there for those big moments”.
The “sharpened positioning” has, according to Woods, followed “a huge amount of work in terms of looking into the archives and looking through everything that Carlsberg has done and how it has played a role in people’s lives. It was all about authenticity and bringing authenticity to life. Bringing that into our positioning is now a big part of Carlsberg”.
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