Britvic (LON:BVIC) , the soft drinks group behind brands such as Robinsons and Pepsi, has set out plans to acquire independent French company Fruité Entreprises for €237.0m in cash. The deal is being funded through existing borrowing and a share placing that has been launched today by Britvic. Once complete, Britivic will have access to Fruité’s leading market positions in syrups and the ambient pure juice market through its powerful brands Teisseire and Moulin de Valdonne, Fruité and Pressade. Shares in Britivic rose by 1.8% to 447.5p on the news.

Britvic has consistently stated that its strategy is to grow its business by investing both organically and via acquisition in areas where it can drive value from strong brands. The company said that the deal would give it an “excellent platform” for growth in Western Europe and an entry point into the €12.5bn French soft drinks market. Fruité's strengths in dilutables (in the form of syrup) and pure juice are understood to be highly complementary to Britvic's existing balanced portfolio of brands. The company said this should provide opportunities to leverage both operational and commercial best practices from both businesses to grow Britvic’s own dilutables franchise, most notably in brand management, category management and pack and price architecture

Paul Moody, Britvic’s chief executive, said: “With a portfolio of iconic, market-leading still brands and as France's leading independent soft drinks company, Fruité is an excellent strategic fit for Britvic. The contemplated acquisition would extend our soft drinks focus into continental Europe, would drive our already strong portfolio into new markets and would enhance our GB offering. Our successful integration of Britvic Ireland gives us the confidence that we will deliver significant cost synergies and revenue upside, and therefore deliver material incremental value for our shareholders.”

The proposed acquisition is subject to a consultation process with Fruité’s employee representatives which is expected to commence immediately. Britvic said it believed the acquisition would be earnings accretive in the first full year of ownership before integration costs, and would generate a return on invested capital in line with its own weighted average cost of capital in the second full year.

Elsewhere today, Britivic reported its results for the 28 weeks to April 11, with revenues up 4% at £505.3m and pre-tax profits up 39% to £27.8m. The company said it had continued to outperform the GB soft drinks market…

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