Coca-Cola bottlers eye European three-way merger

(ShareCast News) - European Coke bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises is in advanced talks about merging with its Iberian and German Coca-Cola bottling counterparts.US-based Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, which has a market value of $10.8bn, has been discussing a tie-up with the listed Coca-Cola Iberian Partners and Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG for several months, according to reports.The German business is the only one of the three that is owned by The Coca-Cola Company.If a merger is completed it would become one of the largest consumer deals ever agreed in the continent.Although Coca-Cola HBC, the Greek-based bottler which is focused on Eastern Europe and listed in London, was not cited in any reports, the deal was said to fit into a recent pattern on Coca-Cola bottlers which, under encouragement from Coke chief executive Muhtar Kent, have been looking at mergers and other measures to increase efficiency to counter falling soft drink sales in many markets.