The Coca-Cola Company has been operating in China since 1979. Its business is best known for its carbonated beverage brands Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta.

In recent years, the company has actively developed a series of still beverages, including fruit juice drinks Minute Maid Orange and raw leaf tea drinks, to provide consumers with more choices.

In line with this development strategy, The Coca-Cola Company plans to strengthen its beverage business through this acquisition.

"Huiyuan is a long-established and successful juice brand in China, which complements Coca-Cola's China business." said Muhtar Kang, CEO and President of The Coca-Cola Company. "China's juice market is booming and growing rapidly. This acquisition will

"This move will deliver value to our shareholders and provide The Coca-Cola Company with a unique opportunity to strengthen our presence in China and provide Chinese consumers with beverage options that cater to their needs."

If the acquisition is successful, The Coca-Cola Company will leverage its international expertise as a multinational beverage company to further develop the Huiyuan juice brand to meet the changing needs of Chinese consumers.

The acquisition is expected to improve operational efficiency, especially through the use of Huiyuan's production equipment across the country, and Coca-Cola's distribution network and raw material procurement capabilities, which will bring synergies.

The success of this proposed acquisition depends on the approval of the relevant Chinese authorities.

The Coca-Cola Company stated that its current plan is to retain Huiyuan’s existing business operating model and will re-evaluate the business and synergies in the future.

It is foreseeable that if this acquisition is completed, China's juice market will face great changes: Coca-Cola will rely on its huge financial strength to incorporate Huiyuan Juice, the "biggest" in this market, into its subsidiary, and its carbonated beverage market will continue to shrink.

In an environment where the healthy juice market continues to grow, Coca-Cola is likely to dominate the juice market in the future and will have no rivals.

Huiyuan's brand and production will not be affected. Coca-Cola China's head of public relations, Li Xiaojun, revealed to the media that the motivation for the acquisition is "optimistic about the development potential of China's juice drinks."

For the overall development of Coca-Cola, the company hopes that still beverages will develop well. Huiyuan juice will join Minute Maid Orange, original leaf tea, etc. to enrich the variety of Coca-Cola beverages.

When asked whether the acquisition was suspected of monopolizing China's juice market, Li Xiaoyun said, "We do not constitute a monopoly in China."

Li Xiaojun said that the Huiyuan juice brand will still be retained, and Coca-Cola will bring advanced technology to Huiyuan, which will be more beneficial to Chinese consumers.

Qu Bing, assistant to the president of Huiyuan Group, said yesterday: The matter is still in the tender offer stage, but this transaction will certainly not affect Huiyuan's existing juice production.

Coca-Cola's market share will be far ahead. According to data, Huiyuan Juice is currently the company with the largest market share of pure juice in China. In 2007, Huiyuan Juice sales reached 2.656 billion yuan, an increase of 28.6%.

In the first half of this year, Huiyuan beverage production totaled 540,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 11.11%.

Other well-known fruit and vegetable juice brands include Uni-President, Nongfu Orchard, etc.

According to the AC Nielsen report, China's fruit juice drink market grew significantly in 2007, and fruit and vegetable juices were the fastest growing soft drinks.

In terms of value, fruit and vegetable juices have become the second largest beverage market after carbonated drinks.

Huiyuan predicts that by 2012, the growth of fruit and vegetable juice beverages will exceed that of the carbonated beverage market.

According to data from Euromonitor International, Huiyuan Juice holds a 10.3% share of the Chinese juice market, followed by Coca-Cola with a 9.7% market share.

According to data released by Huiyuan itself, as of the end of 2007, Huiyuan's sales of 100% fruit juice and medium-concentration fruit and vegetable juice accounted for 42.6% and 39.6% of the total domestic market respectively, continuing to occupy a leading position in the market.

It can be seen that once Coca-Cola completes the acquisition of Huiyuan, its share of the Chinese fruit and vegetable juice market will be significantly ahead of its competitors.

The acquisition will be subject to anti-monopoly review. After the news of Coca-Cola’s acquisition of Huiyuan Juice was released yesterday, third-party sources related to the merger revealed that the merger involves relevant content of the newly promulgated Anti-Monopoly Law and will be submitted to the Anti-Monopoly Department of the Ministry of Commerce for approval.

Coca-Cola also confirmed this statement.

Li Xiaojun said that after the intention agreement is signed, the two parties will sort out various application materials and apply for approval from relevant departments, including the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce.

According to legal experts, according to the latest regulations of the State Council, if a foreign-funded enterprise merges and acquires a mainland enterprise listed on the Stock Exchange, it will meet the standards for applying for antitrust review by the Ministry of Commerce if one of the following two conditions is met: (1) Both parties have entered into a global merger and acquisition in 2007

The total turnover within the scope exceeds 10 billion yuan, and the turnover of both parties in China in 2007 exceeds 400 million yuan; or (2) the total turnover of both parties in China in 2007 exceeds 2 billion yuan, and the turnover of both parties in 2007 exceeds 2 billion yuan.

The turnover in China exceeds 400 million yuan.

"Initially, I feel that Coca-Cola's acquisition of Huiyuan must have met this standard." The above-mentioned expert said.