PEPSICO ANNOUNCES DEALS TO EXPAND
SNACK PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST WITH
MAJORITY-OWNED JOINT VENTURE IN EGYPT
AND ACQUISITION IN SAUDI ARABIA
Company will also make transaction filings on Quaker Oats merger this week;
Chairman reaffirms confidence in Q4 EPS Estimate and 2001 Outlook
PURCHASE, N.Y., Jan. 8 -- PepsiCo, Inc. today announced two strategic
transactions designed to expand the company's snack food business in Egypt and
Saudi Arabia.
A new joint venture will be formed in Egypt combining the salty snack operations
of Chipsy, the current market leader, with Tasty Foods, the country's
second-largest salty snack maker, which is owned by PepsiCo.
Although exact ownership terms of the joint venture were not disclosed, the new
company, to be called Chipsy International, will be majority-owned by PepsiCo.
Chipsy International will have the strength and scale to compete more
effectively in Egypt and eventually expand across North Africa.
PepsiCo also said it has completed negotiations to acquire Tasali Snack Foods,
the leader of the Saudi Arabian salty snack market. Pending government approval,
the assets of Tasali will be combined with those of Saudi Snack Foods, a PepsiCo
joint venture which had been the second-largest snack company in Saudi Arabia.
"These transactions are important steps in our effort to build a global snack
business with the scale to operate efficiently and grow the salty snack category
in developing markets," said PepsiCo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Roger
Enrico.
Enrico also commented on PepsiCo's broader financial outlook. "We are
comfortable with the consensus estimate of earnings per share for the fourth
quarter of 2000," he said. "And we remain confident that we can achieve our
full-year target of 12-13% growth for 2001."
With respect to PepsiCo's planned merger with The Quaker Oats Company, which was
announced in December, PepsiCo said it plans to file this week a registration
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and to make required
filings with U.S. antitrust authorities.
CONTACT: Richard M. Detwiler, Jr., Vice President Public Relations, PepsiCo,
Inc. 914-253-2725
