The government gave its approval Tuesday for PepsiCo to buy a controlling stake in the Wimm-Bill-Dann Dairy & Juice, one of Russia’s biggest producers of juice and dairy, for $3.8 billion.
The approval means PepsiCo is now poised to wrest back the lead in Russia’s juice and dairy market from Coca-Cola, which bought a controlling interest in another company earlier this year.
“Russia is positive about this acquisition,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Pepsi decision was announced by Interfax after a meeting of a government commission on foreign investment, which Putin heads.
(Bloomberg)
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