Cadbury Schweppes to sell European drinks operation

Cadbury Schweppes has confirmed that it plans to sell its European drinks operation, valued by the City at arond £1bn.

The move will not affect distribution of the Schweppes mixers range in the UK, where the Schweppes brand has been owned by Coca-Coca since 1999.

However, ownership of Schweppes, Orangina and other Cadbury brands in continental Europe will pass to the new owner.

To complicate the picture even further, Cadbury plans to retain its US drinks business and so will continue to own the Schweppes name across the Atlantic Todd Stitzer, CEO of Cadbury Schweppes said: "Europe Beverages has a great portfolio of brands, a talented management team and strong routes to market.

"However, the potential for growth and value creation is greater in the group's other operations, and therefore we believe it is in the best interests of our shareowners to investigate a sale of the business."

The sale is likely to attract private equity bids as well as interest from big brand owners such as PepsiCo. A previous move by Coca-Cola to acquire the entire operation was blocked by EC regulators, despite the UK acquisition gettng the go-ahead.