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IFC to invest $85m in PepsiCo's India bottler

  • Andrew Woodman
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International Finance Corporation (IFC) is investing $85 million in Varun Beverages, the largest South Asian bottler for soft drinks giant PepsiCo.

Varun Beverage is the flagship enterprise of RJ Corp and holds bottling and distribution franchise rights from PepsiCo across India, Sri Lanka and Africa. It has nine bottling plants in India and one each in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Morocco.

The business employs over 4,200 people, a number that is expected to nearly double to 8,000 over the next few years as operations expand.

The capital injection is part of a broader effort to raise $300 million to support organic and inorganic growth initiatives. This includes expanding Varun's distribution franchise business in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Morocco, Zambia and Mozambique.

According to a disclosure, the project will be financed through a combination of equity investment by IFC, internal accruals and additional equity and debt to be raised by the company.

Prior to this investment, Varun Beverages previously received backing from Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE), which invested INR2.5 billion ($56 million) for a 5% stake in 2011. SCPE then followed up with a further INR1.7 billion in October 2012.

 

 

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