The Australian soft drink bottler, Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. is to give a fourth board seat to its new shareholder, San Miguel Corporation of the Philippines, to appease the Philippines Government concern…
The Australian soft drink bottler, Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. is to give a fourth board seat to its new shareholder, San Miguel Corporation of the Philippines, to appease the Philippines Government concerns about the A$ 3.4 billion stock and asset swap. This should allow the two companies to complete the share and asset swap very shortly, following initial delays. San Miguel“s largest shareholder, the Philippines“ Presidential Commission of Good Government, had called for a renegotiation of the deal to give San Miguel a larger stake and more board seats. A few days ago Coca-Cola Amatil“s corporate affairs manager, Mr. Ian Brown, said that the number of board seats had been an area of negotiation since the announcement. Nevertheless, it is understood that Coca-Cola Amatil and San Miguel already have agreed to four board seats in recognition of the 25% stake that San Miguel will hold in Coca-Cola Amatil. Under the terms of the merger, Coca-Cola Amatil will take over The Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. from San Miguel and its Atlanta-based parent, The Coca-Cola Company, in exchange for 293 million shares. The Coca-Cola Company, which owns 30% of the Philippines“ bottler and 40% of Coca-Cola Amatil, will end up owning 33% of the Australian bottler.