Coca-Cola plans to invest US$2 billion in China over the next three years, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new planned spending will come on top of the US$2.4 billion the firm has earmarked for acquiring Chinese beverage maker Huiyuan Juice Group, and far outstrips the US$1.6 billion Coke has invested in China since 1979. The US beverage giant’s chief executive, Muhtar Kent, said in a statement released Friday that the new investment would be spent on new plants, distribution infrastructure, sales and marketing and research and development. The comments were made after Coca-Cola opened a new US$90 million innovation and technology center in Shanghai. Coca-Cola in September offered to buy Hong Kong-listed Huiyuan in what would be the largest foreign takeover of a Chinese company. The proposed acquisition is pending approval by China’s Ministry of Commerce under the country’s new anti-monopoly law.
For more on Coca-Cola’s Huiyuan bid, read this story in our November issue.