Private equity firm who has aligned with Warren Buffett in the past has commitments of $2.5 billion to start new fund
What often kept The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) investor David Winters of Wintergreen Advisors up at night was that a private equity company, one affiliated with Coca-Cola’s largest shareholder, Warren Buffett, would take Coke private, change management and engage in cost cutting to improve company profitability. Cutting costs was something Winters had advocated for, but he wanted current Coca-Cola management to do the job so that existing Coke shareholders could benefit.
Winter’s fears could be materializing.
3-G Capital’s prime target Coca-Cola
Well-known Brazilian private equity firm, 3-G Capital, who has affiliated with Buffett in the past on takeover deals, is in the process of creating a new fund to target companies in the food and beverage industry, according to a report in Veja magazine, Brazil’s leading news magazine. And their primary target, according to the report: The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO).
Veja’s business columnist, Geraldo Samor, citing sources, is reporting that 3-G Capital’s Brazilian billionaires, Jorge Paulo Leman, Marcus Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira and their 3-G Capital team, have approached leading investment banks and have already received commitments of $2.5 billion for the fund, which has a goal to reach $4 billion to $5 billion.
In the past, 3-G Capital has had a taste for large U.S.-based food companies, including Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD), as well as deals where they worked alongside Warren Buffett. This included the 2013 private equity purchase of H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ), which Winters has cited as a potential model for a Coke acquisition. Buffett and 3G-Capital were again both involved as participants in the 2014 takeover of Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW), a tax inversion deal that moved the company to Canada....MORE
