Britvic should play hardball: no Fruit Shoots on the cheap for Carlsberg

Britvic, the maker of R Whites lemonade, has already rejected Carlsberg’s offer at £12.50 a share as a ‘significant undervaluation’. Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

The omission in Carlsberg’s £3bn-plus takeover tilt for Britvic, the UK soft drinks firm behind Robinsons barley water, J2O, Tango and R White’s lemonade, has been resolved.

The Danes, pursuing their “beyond beer” strategy, did not forget that PepsiCo could kill the whole adventure by yanking the UK bottling rights for Pepsi, 7Up and Lipton’s Ice Tea from Britvic under a “change of control” clause. The US fizzy drinks titan had agreed to waive the clause if the deal happened, Carlsberg said on Monday.