PepsiCo Inc agreed to sell its interest in 24 soft drink bottlers in China to Hong Kong-listed Tingyi Holdings Corp , an acknowledgment that its strategy in China was not working.PepsiCo will initially receive only 5 percent of Tingyi-Asahi Beverages (TAB), Tingyi's joint venture with Japan's Asahi Group Holdings Ltd , a stake the companies valued at about $55 million. PepsiCo has the option of increasing its stake to 20 percent by 2015, when China is projected to become the world's largest market for bottled drinks.PepsiCo's bottling business in China, which has a book value of $600 million, has lost money for the past two years amid soaring raw material costs and intense competition from Coca-Cola Co , whose share of the Chinese market is more than triple that of Pepsi.Coca-Cola's sales volume rose 11 percent in China in the most recent quarter, fueled by its Minute Maid Pulpy, a drink Coke developed specifically for China that recently crossed the $1 billion sales threshold.
PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo) is a global food, snack and beverage company. Shares of PEP fell by 1.29% or $-0.81/share to $61.99. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $59.25 and as high as $71.89. On average, 10731800 shares of PEP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 6307453.
Source
