Drinks entrepreneur Peter Brooks toasts $364 million payday after selling P&N Beverages

Former Coca-Cola executive Peter Brooks has roared into rich list contention after selling his drinks company P&N Beverages Australia to Japanese beverages giant Asahi Breweries for $364 million.

P&N Beverages is Australia’s third-biggest beverage maker by volume, and the fourth biggest by value.

The company best known as the company behind soft drinks brands Pub Squash and LA Ice Cola, water brand Frantelle and mineral water brand Waterfords, also supplies a number of grocery chains with home-brand drinks.

The business reportedly had sales of $385 million last year.

Brooks, who established the company more than 20 years ago after striking out from Coca-Cola and is also the firm’s largest shareholder, has not appeared on BRW’s Rich 200 list previously, but is likely to make a serious bid for inclusion in 2011.

He told SmartCompany today that negotiations with Asahi had taken around three months and were driven by a common entrepreneurial problem – he needed to get big or get out.

“I‘ve been in the beverages and food industry for quite some time and it had reached the stage where you…need to get bigger, invest a lot more money and commit myself for a 10 more years,” he says.

“I am at the stage where I am 73 years old. Poor old bastard, I should be pensioned off!” 

Brooks will remain in the managing director’s chair for the next 12 months to start integration of Schweppes and P&N, although this process will take much longer. 

“With the expected growth, there is a need for all the manufacturing facilities we both have at this time and all the people we have.”

Brooks says he has no plans to build another business, although he will keep his hand with his other investments.

“I’ve got few other interests outside of interests of soft drink and I’ll just quietly pursue them. I think I’ll take it easy and enjoy the children and grand children.”

Reports suggest the Asahi paid a price repenting a multiple of 8.2 times earnings for P&N, which is well below the 15.2 times multiple Asahi paid to acquire the Schweppes business last year.

Asahi, which is following a strategy designed to boost revenue from outside Japan to 30% of total sales by 2015, is clearly making Australia a key target.

“Australia is a rare growth market among developed nations and the number of players is also few,” Asahi President Naoki Izumiya said at a news briefing in Tokyo.

The deal still has to gain the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which is likely to closely examine the deal on competition grounds.

Brooks has made a number of attempts to increase the size of P&N Beverages in recent years.

In 2007, P&N made an unsuccessful bid for fruit and beverages company Golden Circle, while in 2008 P&N attempted to bid for Schweppes with the backing of private equity firms KKR and Merrill Lynch Private Equity.

Asahi, has also been mentioned as one of the international beer companies interested in bidding for Foster’s Group’s beer business, although Fosters has not put the division on the sale block.