Britvic tipped for £600m takeover

Robinsons-to-Tango drinks company Britvic yesterday looked set to receive a £600m (€886m) takeover bid from private equity giant Permira.

Britvic only listed on the stock market in December after being floated by its major shareholders, InterContinental Hotels, Whitbread and Pernod Ricard. Since then it has disappointed investors as the changing drinking habits of health conscious consumers led to two profits warnings.

Permira’s head of consumer investment Martin Clarke is expected to table an offer today.

One potential stumbling block is a change-of-control clause held by PepsiCo, which has a bottling and distribution agreement with Britvic. The contract, which has more than 17 years to run, scuppered a previous attempt to sell the business five years ago.