Mexican Coca-Cola bottler Femsa sold about €3.3 billion of its shares in the Heineken Group, divesting its stake in the Dutch brewer as it plans to focus on its main businesses.
Shares of Heineken NV dropped as much as 3% Wednesday morning, while Heineken Holding NV fell 0.9%.
Femsa’s board of directors in February approved a plan to get rid of its Heineken investment, which it no longer considered an essential part of its strategy. The Mexican company is the largest convenience retailer in Latin America, operating about 20,000 stores and more than 3,600 pharmacies across the region.
Heineken NV said Wednesday it bought €333 million worth of the stock. The Dutch brewer said it expects its purchase to boost its earnings per share.
After the share sale, Femsa, whose full name is Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB, no longer holds any stock in Heineken NV or Heineken Holding NV except for shares underlying its exchangeable bonds.
The convenience retailer may expand stores into areas near the US-Mexico border and will also look at potentially buying a regional chain in the US, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Rodriguez said in February in a meeting about its new strategy.
Read more: Femsa Eyes US Retail Chain in Wake of $4 Billion Heineken Sale
The Mexican company picked up a 20% stake in Heineken in 2010 but trimmed it to 14.8% in 2017. Femsa sold another stake in February.
Last year Femsa struck a deal to buy Switzerland’s Valora, which operates about 2,700 cafes and convenience stores, for as much as $1.2 billion to push into Europe.
(Updates with Femsa strategy in sixth paragraph)
