The Coca-Cola Company and the Jubilant Bhartia Group, its Indian partner, may list Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) in India in the future, Business Standard reported, quoting sources.
“They are not a passive financial investor or a passive strategic investor and that’s not what Coca-Cola was looking for here,” the source said, “There’s been no explicit, if you like, confirmation of an IPO, but that’s a possibility.”
In December 2023, Jubilant Beverages announced the acquisition of a 40% stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings, the parent entity of the bottling company, for Rs 12,000 crore. The deal had received approval from the Competition Commission of India on 1 May 2025. In a regulatory filing with the stock exchanges under Regulation 51 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, on 22 July 2025, the company confirmed the deal’s closure.
Coca-Cola is still the majority shareholder but is looking at refranchising its bottling operations and dropping its stake below the majority level, the report added.
Business Standard quoted Akeel Sachak, partner and Global Head of Consumer at Rothschild & Co – the advisor for this deal for Coca-Cola – as saying at a round table, “We started the process of reaching out to a number of Indian families, partners that we thought would be fit as purpose partners in late 2023 and we conducted a competitive process. In September last year, we entered into an exclusive dialogue with the Bhartia family and that led to the signing of the transaction.”
Sachak said the Bhartia family’s track record as a successful franchisee for Domino’s distinguished them from other contenders, adding it is not the long-term intent of the Coca-Cola Company to remain a majority shareholder in the future.
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Naresh Khanna – 10 February 2025
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