New Delhi: Varun Beverages, PepsiCo's largest franchise bottler, on Sunday announced to completely acquire South Africa-based firm Twizza through its own local subsidiary- The Beverages Company Proprietary Limited (Bevco). Twizza manufactures and distributes its own branded non-alcoholic beverages. It operates through three manufacturing facilities in Cape Town, Queenstown, and Middelburg with a combined annual production capacity of 100 million cases.
The acquisition is done on "Enterprise Value of ZAR 2,095 million (Rs 1,118.7 crore)", which will be "payable in cash", said a regulatory filing from Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL). "The Board of Directors of Varun Beverages at their meeting held today inter-alia considered and approved to acquire 100 per cent Share Capital of Twizza at an Enterprise value of ZAR 2,095 million through our subsidiary company in South Africa Bevco," it said.
The deal would be subject to regulatory and other approvals, it said. Over the indicative time period for completion of the acquisition, VBL said "on or before June 30, 2026." For the financial year ended on March 31, 2025, Twizza's turnover was at 1,689 million ZAR (Rs 9010.26 million). "The acquisition will enable Bevco to penetrate deeper in the South Africa market through Twizza's three manufacturing facilities located in Cape Town, Queenstown and Middelburg. Twizza also has backward integration facilities at all plants with a total of 5 preform and 1 closure line," it said.
Consequent to the acquisition, Twizza will become a step down subsidiary of the Company. In March 2024, VBL acquired The Beverage Company, South Africa along with its wholly-owned subsidiaries BevCo. This acquisition allowed the Company to consolidate its presence in franchised territories in South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini, as well as territories with distribution rights in Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
On November 13, 2024, VBL entered into a share purchase agreement with Tanzania Bottling Company SA and SBC Beverages Ghana for a purchase of 100 per cent at an Equity value of USD 154.50 million for Tanzania and USD 15.06 million for Ghana. Both are PepsiCo's business. Besides, Varun Beverages Morocco SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of VBL, has an agreement to manufacture and package Cheetos in Morocco.
This is in addition to the existing distribution agreement for PepsiCo's snacks portfolio, consisting of Lays, Cheetos, and Doritos in the territory of Morocco, it said. According to VBL, it is one of the largest franchisees of PepsiCo in the world (outside the USA). In 2024, VBL's revenue was at Rs 20,007.7 crore and sold 1,124 Million case globally.
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