Coca-Cola close to buying NA bottling ops: source

If the deal goes through Coke would buy Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc's North American operations. North American operations accounted for 70 percent of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc's net operating revenue in 2009, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal did not report details of the transaction, but said on its website on Wednesday that the combined equity and assumed debt of the deal would exceed $15 billion.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a deal would be weighed by boards of both companies on Wednesday night.

Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Enterprises could not be reached immediately for comment.

Such a deal would represent an about-face for Coca-Cola, which pioneered the model of separating the bottlers from the concentrate company decades ago. It would also follow a similar deal by rival PepsiCo Inc , which is aiming to close on the $7.8 billion acquisition of its two largest bottlers this week.

Since PepsiCo first launched its bid for its bottlers in April, with the aim of streamlining its decision-making, cutting costs and reducing tension between it and the bottlers, analysts and investors have questioned whether Coke would have to follow suit.

Coke Chief Executive Muhtar Kent has repeatedly expressed his commitment to the current franchise system, where it sells beverage concentrate to a network of independent bottlers that mix the drink, bottle it, and distribute it.

Coke is both the largest supplier and the largest shareholder of Coca-Cola Enterprises with a roughly 35 percent stake.

(Reporting by Jessica Hall in Philadelphia, Clare Baldwin and Martinne Geller in New York, editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Carol Bishopric)

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