New Delhi, Dec. 23 -- Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL)'s acquisition of South Africa-based Twizza (Pty) is less about shoring up near-term earnings and more about extending its growth runway beyond India. While the domestic business remains resilient, stiff competition is creating challenges. Africa offers scale, even if the payback is slower.

Twizza manufactures and distributes non-alcoholic beverages and operates in a mature yet sizable ready-to-drink market, which is about 40% the volume of India's. "Though the market is mature, we are confident of a market share-driven double-digit volume growth in the geography, basis VBL's strong track record for turnarounds in Zimbabwe and Nepal (>50% share now)," said an Emkay Global Financial Services ...