Coca-Cola may abandon its proposed $2.4bn takeover of China's leading juice company after anti-trust regulators signalled it would have to relinquish the China Huiyuan Juice brand after the acquisition, according to people familiar with the matter.
The planned deal, the largest ever foreign takeover of a Chinese company, is the first major test of the country's revamped anti-monopoly regime which was given extra teeth last August. Its failure would be a blow to multi-national companies seeking to make acquisitions in China.
Regulators in Beijing have been assessing the anti-trust implications of the deal since it was announced last September and recently told the US company that approval depended on a number of conditions.