Britvic today (25 June) revealed it would suspend its share buyback programme off the back of Carlsberg’s takeover bids earlier this month.
The Robinsons squash owner first announced the share buyback programme on 3 June of its ordinary shares up to a maximum consideration of £75m ($95m).
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On Friday (21 June), it was revealed Britvic had rejected two multi-billion-pound takeover bids in the last three weeks.
The soft-drinks group has given notice to investment bank Morgan Stanley to suspend the programme at close of UK trading today. It said it would evaluate the recommencement of the programme should circumstances change.
In the last five days of trading on the London Stock Exchange, Britvic’s share price has shot up over 19%. However, at 11:36 BST today, its share price was £11.64, down 0.68% on the day.
Meanwhile, Carlsberg’s shares have fallen more than 8% in the five-day trading period.
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By GlobalDataYesterday, Carlsberg and PepsiCo struck a deal over the UK and Irish bottling rights for the US giant’s products should the brewer buy Britvic.
It was reported by The Times on 21 June that Carlsberg was preparing to make a third bid for the group, valuing it at $3.58bn.
Carlsberg, one of the world’s largest brewers but with a portfolio that takes in soft drinks, said a deal would enable it to “capture appealing long-term growth opportunities from Britvic’s comprehensive portfolio of leading brands in an attractive segment of the beverage market where Carlsberg already has a strong track record”.
The company already markets its own soft drinks, with brands including Tuborg Squash Light in Denmark, Tuborg Soda in Greece and Xixia in China.
The second offer to buy Britvic represented an implied enterprise value multiple of over 13 times the Fruit Shoot maker’s adjusted EBITDA of £302m for the twelve-month period ended 31 March 2024, according to Carlsberg.
In Britvic’s first-half results for its fiscal 2024, the business booked a 10.9% rise in revenue to £880.3m ($1.11bn) for the six months to the end of March, helped by “price/mix”, but the company did manage to also grow volumes.
