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Coca-Cola’s proposed sale of Costa Coffee is at risk of collapse and the soft drinks giant is holding last-ditch talks with private equity firm TDR Capital this weekend in an attempt to salvage it.
Asda owner TDR was selected as Coke’s preferred bidder for Costa earlier this week after a board meeting in New York, according to people familiar with the matter. However, talks with Coke and its advisers at Lazard have stumbled over the price, according to one of the people.
Coke will make a decision next week on whether to shelve the sale process altogether, the people said.
The deal on the table includes Coke retaining a minority stake in Costa, one of the people said, adding that the size of the stake could be adjusted in Coke’s favour in order to get a deal done.
Coke wanted to get roughly £2bn for Costa, the Financial Times previously reported.
The drinks group paid £3.9bn to acquire Costa from Premier Inn owner Whitbread in 2018. But the business has since struggled against competition from independent operators and mass-market rivals such as Greggs.
Rising costs of everything from coffee beans to staff wages have pushed the business’s finances into the red. In 2023, Costa reported an annual loss of £13.8mn on revenues of £1.2bn, according to the most recently available set of accounts at Companies House.
TDR, which co-owns petrol forecourt business EG Group, is seeking to buy Costa’s UK and international business, excluding its operations in China, one of the people said.
Other bidders for Costa included Bain Capital’s special situations division, which owns Gail’s and PizzaExpress. Centurium Capital, the private equity owner of China’s Luckin Coffee chain, has also been involved in the auction, according to people familiar with the process.
Private capital firms Apollo and KKR have both dropped out of the process in the past few months.
Coke announced this week that chief executive James Quincey will be replaced by chief operating officer Henrique Braun in March. Quincey, who told analysts in July that Costa had “not delivered”, will become executive chair.
Coke did not respond to a request for comment. TDR and Lazard declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Ivan Levingston