Coca-Cola offloads 21.5% stake in Appletiser brand in South Africa

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa has sold 21.5% of the Appletiser brand to a combination of investors and employees.

It includes a 17.5% stake, which has been sold to investment firm African Pioneer Group. The company manages a portfolio of investments on behalf of nearly 100 shareholders, who are predominantly from the black communities of South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Its investments have included Parmalat and Woodlands Dairy.

The soft drinks giant has also sold a 4% stake to Sipho Excellent Madlala, a 20-year veteran of Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa who at various points in the past 15 years has been a channel manager, area manager and district manager for the company.

The sale is designed to empower more black shareholders to own a stake in the company. It comes a year after Coca-Cola announced ‘good progress’ on its female empowerment targets and coincides with planned investment in its South African operation, as revealed in its full-year results in February.

During 2016, the company deconsolidated its South African bottling operations and disposed of its related equity method investment in exchange for equity method investments in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) and CCBA’s South African subsidiary. As part of the transaction, the company also acquired and licensed several brands.

It included buying out Anheuser-Busch’s majority stake in CCBA for $3.15 billion in December.

CCBA covers much of the southern and eastern portions of the African continent – including important markets like Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana, as well as South Africa.