Britvic Plc (LON:BVIC), a UK-based soft drink producer, saw its share price drop on Thursday as it announced sales of three bottledling facilities in France.
The company confirmed it had completed the sale of its juice assets in France, Refresco, after receiving approval from the French Competition Bureau in July.
The company said the sale includes three juice manufacturing sites, associated private label juice business and fruit brands.
Britvic said it retains ownership of the pressed and fruit shoot brands. It says it will be manufactured by Refresco as part of a long-term partnership.
He said the deal would not affect the Taesley and Moulin de Bardonne brands or the private label syrups business. All of these are made at Crawl production sites.
The company’s statement continued:
“This transaction supports our stated strategic priorities to improve our Western European market operating margins, but our team can also focus on growing our local favorites and global premium branded soft drink portfolio.”
Following the update, the company’s shares fell at 6.27% or 51.50p, with 769.50pa shares at 01/10/20 13:00 GMT. This is shy with 880.91pa share of the analyst consensus target price, representing a 14% upside at current levels.
Currently, the MarketBeat community has a “low-performance” stance of 54.23% on stocks. The company’s P/E ratio is 13.73, slightly above the average of 13.64 in the consumer defense sector.
