(Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co said on Monday it would buy the remaining stake in BodyArmor it did not already own for $5.6 billion, as the soda maker amps up its sports drink portfolio to take on market leader, PepsiCo Inc’s Gatorade.
The deal, which values BodyArmor at about $6.59 billion, comes as a shift in strategy for Coca-Cola, which spent the last year offloading or discontinuing brands to focus on its core sodas during the pandemic.
Coca-Cola, which had first acquired a 15% stake in BodyArmor in 2018, said on Monday the sports drink maker will be managed as a separate business within its North America operating unit.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
