Japanese drinks giant Suntory said on Monday it would buy the top-selling lucozade and Ribena brands from British drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for $2.1 billion.
The deal, part of Suntory’s bid to expand overseas to counter a shrinking domestic market, was expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Energy drink lucozade and the Ribena juice brand would help Suntory’s food and beverage unit move closer to hitting a 2.0 trillion yen ($20 billion) annual sales target in 2020, the Japanese firm said.
The non-alcoholic drinks unit, which debuted on Tokyo’s stock exchange in July after a $3.9 billion share sale, said it would “actively pursue” more cross-border deals.
Parent company Suntory Holdings -- which also distributes other foreign names including Jim Beam bourbon in the domestic market -- spun off the lucrative non-alcoholic unit as it eyes more foreign acquisitions.
“We are expanding our business in emerging markets and strengthening our business platform in order to improve profitability by further developing our existing brands and growing our production and sales,” the company said in a statement.
Suntory said the deal would cut costs while giving it a foothold in Britain, the second-largest drinks market in Europe.
“Complementing our existing brands, the addition of the sales network associated with these two global brands will give us a platform in countries where GSK already operates such as Nigeria as well as Malaysia and thereby enable us to expand the sales of our whole brand portfolio,” it added.
The 210.6 billion yen ($2.1 billion) purchase comes after Suntory bought Europe’s Orangina Schweppes Group for about $3.3 billion in 2009.