Varun Beverages to acquire franchise rights for Pepsico products; scrip jumps 2%

NEW DELHI: Shares of Varun Beverages jumped nearly 2 per cent on Monday afternoon after the company's Chairman Ravi Kant Jaipuria told ET Now that the company was planning to acquire franchise rights for Pepsico products in south India, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The agreement will be for a national bottling, sales and distribution footprint in 7 states and 5 Union Territories, subject to receipt of necessary statutory approvals.

The scrip hovered at Rs 778.05, up 1.77 per cent, at around 12:16 pm while the benchmark BSE Sensex was down 0.71 per cent at 35,555.85.

Upon completion of these acquisitions, the company will be a franchise of PepsiCo beverages business across 27 states and 7 Union Territories of India.

The proposed acquisitions are in line with the company's strategy to expand into contiguous territories and will help to acquire greater scale, operational productivity and efficiency leading to higher revenues and profitable growth.

Meanwhile, the shares of Varun Beverages opened at Rs 765 on BSE against its previous closing of Rs 764.50.