Billionaire brothers Shyam and Hari Bhartia’ Coca-Cola Bet Nears a Payoff as Bottler Plans $1 Billion IPO

Bhartia Brothers’ Coca-Cola Bet Nears a Payoff as Bottler Plans $1 Billion IPO

Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings, the parent of Coca-Cola’s largest bottler in India, is preparing an initial public offering that could raise about $1 billion at a valuation of around $10 billion. The company is expected to file a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in the coming weeks or months, with a listing on the BSE and National Stock Exchange targeted for 2027. Rothschild & Co. is advising, and Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Axis Capital and IIFL Capital Services are working on the offering.

The offering is expected to consist largely of shares sold by existing owners. The Coca-Cola Company holds 60% of the business, and Jubilant Bhartia Group, controlled by brothers Shyam and Hari Bhartia, holds 40%. The split of shares to be sold has not been disclosed, and Coca-Cola is expected to remain a shareholder after the listing.

For the Bhartias, the timing is notable. Their group agreed to acquire its stake in December 2024 for about ₹12,500 crore, roughly $1.5 billion, implying a value of about ₹31,250 crore for the whole company. At $10 billion, roughly ₹95,000 crore, the proposed valuation would be close to three times that level, and the Bhartias’ stake would be worth about $4 billion. For executives and investors, the IPO is a test of how much India’s public markets will pay for consumer growth, and of whether a bottling business facing intensified competition can justify that price.

Why Coca-Cola is selling bottles, not brands

The listing is part of a global strategy. For more than a decade, Coca-Cola has been refranchising its company-owned bottling operations, transferring manufacturing and distribution to independent partners so that it can concentrate on brands, marketing and concentrate sales. Bottling generates large revenues but lower margins and requires heavy capital investment.

The shift has been dramatic. Company-owned bottling accounted for 52% of Coca-Cola’s consolidated net revenue in 2015 and 13% in 2024. Following the planned sale of a controlling interest in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa to Coca-Cola HBC, announced in October 2025, the company expects that share to fall to about 5%. Chief financial officer John Murphy has said the company wants to “focus on things that we are good at, which is building brands and being a good franchise partner to our bottlers.”

India has followed the same pattern. In 2024 and 2025, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) transferred operations in several regions, including North Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar and parts of eastern and north-eastern India, to independent bottlers. The stake sale to Jubilant Bhartia brought in a local partner with deep distribution experience. An IPO would allow Coca-Cola to realize further value while retaining an interest in the business.

What investors would be buying

HCCB makes and distributes Coca-Cola, Thums Up, Sprite, Fanta, Limca and Maaza through 14 manufacturing plants and eight contract packers, serving more than 1.7 million retailers. It employs about 5,000 people.

Its recent financial statements are distorted by the refranchising program. For the year ended March 2025, revenue fell 9% to about ₹12,751 crore, and net profit declined 73% to about ₹757 crore. The prior year had included large one-time gains from sales of bottling territories. On a like-for-like basis, the company reported revenue growth of 5.9%, an EBITDA margin of 13.2% and an adjusted pre-tax margin of 7.2%.

Those figures make the proposed valuation appear demanding. At about ₹95,000 crore, the valuation would equal roughly 125 times the fiscal 2025 net profit and more than 50 times EBITDA, by CEOWORLD Magazine’s calculation. Investors will look for evidence of higher earnings in the prospectus, including the company’s results for the year ended March 2026. The company has said it expects growth after a first half affected by poor weather and macroeconomic pressures.

The Campa challenge

The most significant commercial risk is competition. Reliance Industries relaunched the Campa Cola brand in 2023 at aggressive prices, including bottles priced at ₹10, well below those of established brands. Regional players have also gained ground. According to NielsenIQ data cited in Indian trade reporting, the combined market share of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo fell from about 93% to about 85% in the first nine months of 2025, while smaller and emerging brands nearly doubled their share.

For a bottler, a price war is particularly challenging. Bottlers bear the costs of manufacturing, packaging, logistics and retail distribution, and they often must absorb promotional costs to defend volume. Competition from a group with Reliance’s retail reach and financial resources could pressure HCCB’s margins even as overall consumption grows.

The opportunity remains large. India’s per capita consumption of soft drinks is low by international standards, and rising incomes, urbanization and expanding refrigeration in smaller towns support long-term growth. The listed performance of Varun Beverages, PepsiCo’s largest bottler, shows that investors have been willing to pay high valuations for well-run Indian bottlers that combine growth with operational discipline.

A strong market for listings

The timing reflects strong demand for Indian equity offerings. Indian IPOs raised almost $10 billion in the July–September quarter, a record for that period, and more than $13 billion across nearly 250 offerings this year through September. Large multinational subsidiaries, including LG Electronics’ Indian unit, have tested investors’ appetite for listings of established consumer businesses.

For Coca-Cola, a public listing would also provide a transparent market valuation for its remaining stake and greater flexibility for future sales. For Jubilant Bhartia, it would create a liquid market for an investment financed with substantial borrowing and equity from Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Why this matters for business leaders

For multinational executives, Coca-Cola’s approach demonstrates how a brand owner can retain influence over a market while reducing capital intensity, by combining local partners with public listings.

For investors in Indian consumer companies, the IPO will test how far valuations can stretch when growth prospects are strong but competition is intensifying.

For family business groups, the Bhartias’ stake shows how partnering with a multinational on a carve-out can create substantial value, provided the exit market is receptive.

Executive Takeaways

What changed: Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings is preparing a $1 billion IPO at about $10 billion, nearly three times the valuation implied by Jubilant Bhartia’s 2024 investment.

Why it matters: The listing advances Coca-Cola’s global shift away from bottling and will test investor appetite for Indian consumer businesses amid a price war led by Reliance’s Campa.

What leaders should do next: Assess consumer IPOs on underlying earnings rather than headline growth, monitor the impact of low-price competition on bottler margins, and consider local partnership models when restructuring capital-intensive operations.

Over the next 12 to 24 months, the indicators to watch are the financial disclosures in the draft prospectus, the final valuation and the split of shares sold by Coca-Cola and Jubilant Bhartia, market share trends against Campa, and the performance of Indian IPOs more broadly. The principal uncertainty is whether investors will value HCCB as a growth company or as a capital-intensive bottler facing margin pressure. Coca-Cola has already decided which business it prefers to own. The IPO will show what public investors think it is worth.

Have you read?
Greece Golden Visa Program. Hong Kong Residency-by-Investment Program.
Hungary Golden Visa and Residency-by-Investment Program. Italy Golden Visa and Residency-by-Investment Program. Jersey Residency-by-Investment Program.

Follow CEOWORLD Magazine on: Google News, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Facebook.

Note: The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of CEOWORLD Magazine, its Editorial Board, or management. Content is provided "as is," may contain monetized links, and is not professional advice. See our Ethics & Guidelines for details. Reproduction requires prior written permission.

Contact info@ceoworld.biz for inquiries or media requests.