This archive report was first published on 28 October 2019.
On October 28, 2019, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) approved the acquisition of Almasi Beverages Limited by Coca-Cola Sabco East Africa (CCBA), a subsidiary of Coca-Cola.
As part of the approval, CAK ordered CCBA to retain 1,739 permanent employees, representing about 99 percent of staff, in its merged entity with Almasi.
The deal, set to be completed next year, involves Centum selling its entire 53.9 percent stake in Almasi and 27.6 percent of issued shares in Nairobi Bottlers Limited (NBL) for Sh19.5 billion.
According to CAK, the merged entity must retain 1,749 employees of the total 1,760 permanent employees for a three-year period following the completion of the deal.
Additionally, CCBA must reserve at least 20 percent of the total storage space of the coolers lent to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for products of competitors, except for the brands of Coca-Cola's three largest global non-alcoholic ready-to-drink competitors.
The acquisition is expected to boost Coca-Cola's efforts to increase its customer base in the local non-alcoholic drinks market, which currently stands at 70 percent.
