PB looks like a great play on America Latina! Here's an excerpt from a Forbes mag in April 1997.
Note:stock has split since this was published and is now about $34.
HERE'S A cheaper way to play Coca-Cola: Buy
Panamerican Beverages (PB). Listed on the NYSE at a
recent 56 1/4, it trades at 24 times 1996 earnings, a little
more than half Coca-Cola's P/E.
Mexico City-based Panamerican is Coca-Cola's largest
Central American bottler, distributing to 700,000 outlets. It
dominates Colombia, Costa Rica, southwest Mexico and
the So Paulo region of Brazil. Sales were almost $2
billion last year, an increase of 23% over 1995.
Panamerican has a solid balance sheet-$250 million in
cash-and has shown 20% annual earnings growth for 20
years. The company has never posted a loss, even in the
Brazilian and Mexican recessions of the 1980s and 1990s.
Panamerican plans to acquire bottlers in Central and South
America. Scott Weiss, an analyst at D.A. Campbell Co. in
Los Angeles, says: "Great economies of scale [will] be
reached in the next few years in Brazil and Central
America through franchise consolidation." Projected
revenues are $2.3 billion for this year; earnings should rise
from $2.20 in 1996 to $3.14 in 1998.-Julie Androshick |
