Competition Commission Provisional Findings

RNS Number : 7230G

Britvic plc

10 June 2013

 



NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.

For Immediate Release

11 June 2013

Britvic plc

Competition Commission Provisional Findings

Britvic plc ("Britvic") notes today's announcement from the Competition Commission ("CC") that it has provisionally approved the possible merger between Britvic and A.G. BARR p.l.c. The CC's provisional decision is that the possible merger is not expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition.

Britvic will continue to cooperate with the CC throughout the remainder of the inquiry.The CC is expected to announce its final decision by the end of July 2013.

The full details of the CC's provisional findings are available on the CC's website at:

http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/our-work/directory-of-all-inquiries/ag-barr-britvic

Britvic's Chairman, Gerald Corbett, commented, "We welcome the Competition Commission's provisional findings and await their final conclusions by the end of July. 

In the meantime, as we enter our busiest time of the year, Britvic's management team, under our new Chief Executive, is focused on delivering its new strategy and continuing the trading momentum established in the first half of the year.  This new plan, underpinned by £30m of cost savings, a proportion of which is to be invested in international growth, has now been communicated to our shareholders and has been well received.  We are totally focused on the execution of this and delivering on the vision of a growing, international and increasingly profitable Britvic.

Our company is in a different place to last summer when the terms of the merger were agreed. The cost savings from merging are less, we are performing better, we have new management and we have a new strategy to deliver good growth internationally as well as in the UK. These are among the issues the board will reflect on in August once the Competition Commission's conclusions are known in order to ensure that it acts in the best interests of Britvic's shareholders."

Enquiries

Investors:

Rupen Shah/Steve Nightingale                       [phone]

Media:

Susan Turner/Marisa Fitch                            [phone] / [phone]

Mike Smith/Nick Cosgrove (Brunswick)         [phone]

Important Information

A copy of this announcement will be made available, free of charge, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in restricted jurisdictions, on Britvic's website at http://ir.britvic.comby no later than noon (London time) on the day following the date of this announcement. For the avoidance of doubt, the contents of those websites are not incorporated into and do not form part of this announcement.

You may request a hard copy of this announcement by contacting the Company Secretary of Britvic at [e-mail](or on [phone]) or by writing to Britvic plc, Breakspear Park, Breakspear Way, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 4TZ. You may also request that all future documents, announcements and information to be sent to you in relation to the possible merger should be in hard copy form.

 

END

 

 

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