East African Bottling Share Company (EABSC), the bottler of Coca-Cola products, is awaiting government decision to acquire one of the state-owned sugar plants slated to be privatized soon.
Currently, Ernest & Young, a transaction advisor hired for the privatization of the plants, is undertaking a study to prepare a roadmap to transfer the ownership of the sugar estates to private ownership.
Nine sugar plants are expected to be privatized before the end of 2022, with Coca-Cola intending to acquire one of them. Executives of Coca-Cola is yet to decide the sugar plant they want to acquire. However, they have already expressed their interest to buy one of the sugar plants when the tender is floated.
"We are eagerly waiting until the government floats a tender," said an employee working at East African Bottling.
Owned by Coca-Cola Beverage Africa, the Bottling company intends to undertake many reinvestment projects as it is losing a lot of money because of depreciation after being not able to repatriate profit for over a decade.
The company decided to buy sugar plants to partly avert the sugar shortage it has been facing for years. "If Coca-Cola buys one of the plants, it does not only be able to fully source sugar locally, but also export the surplus," said an employee of EABSC.
