British soft-drinks group Britvic has set a 210 to 250p a share price range ahead of its planned London market flotation next month to give it an enterprise value of £771 million to £857 million.
Britvic, which is the second-biggest softdrinks group in Britain after Coca-Cola, said it aimed to float 71 per cent of the company on the London stock market and said it expected pricing and start of trading on or around December 9th.
The company originally said it was looking to float in a four-year window between 2005 and 2008, but has decided to capitalise on a rising UK stock market.
Britvic's largest shareholder InterContinental Hotels holds 47.5 per cent of the group, while Whitbread and Pernod Ricard each hold 23.75 per cent. The final 5 per cent is held by PepsiCo.
These three biggest shareholders will sell around 71 per cent of the total issued share capital of Britvic, or around 153 million shares.
There is an over-allotment arrangement for up to a maximum of 15 per cent of the share, Britvic added. The float price range will give the group a market capitalisation of £451 million to £537 million, before debt of £320 million.