Mexico's Coca-Cola Femsa makes high-stakes Latin bet
By
Posted 6:00PM on Friday, December 27, 2002
MEXICO CITY - Coca-Cola Femsa S.A. paid a huge price to acquire Miami-based Panamerican Beverages Incorporated and become an enormous regional business power. <br>
<br>
It cost Coca-Cola Femsa S.A. $3.6 billion dollars for the deal. <br>
<br>
Some investors were uneasy with the expensive deal that will take six years to pay off. <br>
<br>
But in the process, Coca-Cola Femsa S.A. moves from being the biggest Coca-Cola Company bottler in Mexico to the largest in Latin America. <br>
<br>
It's also now the Number Two Coca-Cola bottler in the world. <br>
<br>
The company will serve 167 million consumers in Latin America's most important urban centers, including Sao Paulo, Caracas, Bogota, Mexico City and Buenos Aires.