New owner for manufacturer Wicky lemonade | Financial

Refresco has been owned by the French PAI and British Columbia Investment Management in recent years. Recently, it looked as though the bottler might make an IPO in the United States. It has now been decided to transfer a majority stake to KKR.

seven billion

How much money is involved has not been disclosed, but Bloomberg news agency heard from insiders that Refresco has a price tag of about €7 billion. The existing shareholders still retain a significant minority interest.

Refresco was previously listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, until the company was acquired by a consortium led by PAI and disappeared from the stock exchange in 2018. At the time, Refresco was valued at €3.4 billion. Since then, the company has become worth considerably more. In the summer of last year, the company acquired three more American production locations from Coca Cola.

Bottler

Refresco claims to be the largest independent bottler in Europe and North America. The company started in 1999 as Menken Beverages, which in turn grew out of the family business Menken. The company continued as Refresco a year later and grew rapidly through acquisitions, including of the British Gerber Emig. Today more than 10,000 people work there.

KKR, the new owner, is no stranger to the Netherlands. The investor previously invested more money in the holiday parks of Roompot, fiber optic platform Open Dutch Fiber, parking service provider Q-Park and software developer Exact. In addition, it was recently announced that a consortium led by KKR is acquiring bicycle manufacturer Accell. That is the company behind brands such as Batavus and Sparta.

—