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UNIVERSAL Robina Corp. (URC) announced on Tuesday
that it bought shares of a company that would provide its water
source and manufacturing site for its recent acquisition, Nestlé
Waters Philippines Inc.
In a disclosure to the Philippine
Stock Exchange, URC said it bought shares of South Luzon Greenland
Inc. (SLGI) at a cost of P7.5 million.
SLGI has been in the business of
extracting, developing and supplying water resources since 1995. It
also holds water rights and owns, constructs and operates
machineries, systems and other waterworks structures.
URC said the definitive
agreements for the sale of Nestlé Waters’ drinking-water bottling
unit were signed on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, Nestlé
Waters would turn over the Hidden Spring trademark to URC, which
will also get the license to bottle and sell Nestlé Pure Life
without changing its name “as a respect to the Nestlé quality.”
Nestlé Philippines has divested
its water business, which has not been performing as expected, to
focus on its core businesses that include milk, coffee and other
beverages. Nestlé Waters said it will pay all employees a
separation package as provided by company policy and an existing
collective bargaining agreement.
--Likha C. Cuevas
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