Cadbury Schweppes, the British confectionery and soft drinks group, is in talks on forming an alliance with La Casera, the Spanish soda water producer, reported the Financial Times. The group - under chairman Jose Arozamena - is looking to form alliances to create a multinational drinks company. M. Arozamena was reported to have said that conversations with Cadbury Schweppes in London were "in their initial phase." He said La Casera's shareholders - Alpha Corporate and BNP Paribas - were also involved in the discussions, aimed at forming an alliance to compete against Coca Cola and PepsiCo in Spain, France and Portugal. The decision to sell the group came after a restructuring programme that helped the group enter the black last year with profits of Euros 6.17m on turnover of about Euros 83m. Last September, La Casera and PepsiCo filed separate complaints against Coca-Cola and its bottlers at a Spanish court, accusing the US drinks company of anti-competitive practices. Cadbury, which continues to be in talks with French drinks group Pernod Ricard over the purchase of the Orangina brand, said last week that it was confident of achieving its forecast financial targets for the current year. Source: Financial Times
