SELLING Huiyuan to CocaCola was the biggest strategic move by the company and was a totally normal business step, Zhu Xinli, president of China's largest fruit juice firm, said on Saturday.
"Selling Huiyuan is not because we are facing management difficulty or development bottleneck, but a business act according to the market rules," Zhu said.
The cooperation with Coca -Cola will help the Chinese firm enter Coca-Cola's global procurement system and will benefit Huiyuan, its employees and consumers, he said.
Coca-Cola said last Wednesday that it has offered to buy China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed company that owns the Huiyuan juice business throughout China, for about US$2.4 billion in cash, in what would be the second-largest acquisition in the United States-based company's history.
Three major shareholders of Huiyuan are said to have accepted the offer. They hold around 66 percent of Huiyuan shares. But the offer needs to be approved by China's Ministry of Commerce.