(Adds background, particulars on deal from paragraph 2 onwards)

BENGALURU, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Pepsi India bottler Varun Beverages mentioned on Tuesday it’ll purchase South Africa-based The Beverage Company in a deal valued at 13.2 billion rupees ($158.71 million), enabling it an entry into Africa’s largest market.

The Beverage Company bottles and distributes PepsiCo-branded non-alcoholic drinks in South Africa and has 5 manufacturing amenities within the nation, along with operations in Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, and Botswana.

Varun Beverages, one in all PepsiCo’s largest franchisees exterior the United States, has the availability to simply accept minority co-investment from a “large equity fund”, it mentioned in a submitting.

The firm has over 30 manufacturing models in India, packaging and distributing drinks below the Pepsi, Mirinda and Tropicana labels.

The deal is anticipated to be accomplished on or earlier than July 31. 2024, topic to regulatory approvals.

Shares of Varun Beverages closed 3.5% greater on Tuesday forward of the announcement.

The Gurugram-based agency additionally signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jharkhand authorities on Tuesday to arrange a producing plant within the state, with a capital expenditure of 4.5 billion rupees.

($1 = 83.1725 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)