Can't sell it?! Coca-Cola gives up selling Costa!

▲

click on the attention| Daily Boutique Coffee Culture Magazine Coffee Workshop

Recently, the British "Financial Times" reported that global beverage giant Coca-Cola has given up selling its British coffee chain Costa because the private equity acquirer's offer failed to meet expectations.

In August 2025, British Sky News exclusively disclosed that Coca-Cola was working with investment bank Lazard to evaluate the sale of Costa. People familiar with the matter said that Coca-Cola had made preliminary contacts with private equity institutions. Media reports at the time stated that the coffee brand that Coca-Cola bought for 3.9 billion pounds in 2018 was evaluated and sold at only 2 billion pounds.

In November 2025, Bloomberg and other media reported on the sale process, saying that Costa's proposed sale attracted the interest of many well-known investment institutions such as Bain Capital, KKR, and Ruixing's major shareholder Dazheng Capital. However, sources revealed that the preliminary valuation offer for Costa Coffee is no longer a half-discount, but a quarter of the purchase price, or about 1 billion pounds.

Interestingly, although Costa's bargaining fell and it seemed easier to sell, the bidding negotiation process was actually not smooth. Sources revealed that Dazheng Capital, American investment funds Apollo, KKR, etc., which participated in the bidding in the early stage, have successively withdrawn from the bidding. By the late stage of the Costa sale, only two buyers were left in the negotiations, and the two companies offered 1.2 billion pounds and 1.4 billion pounds respectively.

Interestingly, in mid-December 2025, the media claimed that Coca-Cola was in final negotiations with TDR in an attempt to save the Costa sale plan. TDR is said to be seeking to acquire Costa's UK and international operations, but not its China operations.

Judging from Costa's financial performance, its global revenue in 2024 will be 1.2 billion pounds, its loss in the UK market will expand to 13.5 million pounds, and its China business will have accrued impairment losses of 48.6 million pounds.

Costa's China business has undoubtedly become the hardest hit area for its losses. The number of stores has continued to shrink in recent years. The former "strong rival of Starbucks" has lost its glory and has become a coffee brand forgotten by consumers. Because of this, TDR singled it out during negotiations and did not want to acquire its China business.

Amid speculation that Coca-Cola might reach a deal with the higher bidder TDR, the Financial Times quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Coca-Cola terminated negotiations with the remaining bidders for Costa Coffee in December 2025 and suspended the auction that lasted for months. The process. As for the biggest factor in the failure to negotiate the deal, it is undoubtedly the "price." The bids from the bidders are all lower than Coca-Cola's expected 2 billion pounds.

However, the report quoted "a person familiar with Coca-Cola's internal thinking" as saying that the company may still restart plans to sell Costa in the medium term.

Picture from: Internet

Disclaimer: Some pictures in this article come from the Internet, and some content on the website, such as pictures, will respect the copyright of the original work and indicate the source. However, due to the huge quantity, there will be some pictures and texts that have not been marked in time. Please forgive me. If the original author has any disputes, he can contact the website to handle them. Once verified, we will correct them immediately. The "Coffee Factory" will organize and edit them. Please indicate if the copyright is infringed, please inform us to delete them. Thank you ~!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473