Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings (HCCH), the parent of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. HCCB is the largest Coca-Cola bottler in India. The filing confirms CNBC-TV18’s report of July 3 on the company’s plan to go public.
The IPO is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 99.75 crore shares of face value ₹10 each. The seller is Hindustan Coca-Cola Overseas Holdings, a Coca-Cola group company and one of HCCH’s promoters. There is no fresh issue, so HCCH will not receive any money from the offer. The price band is yet to be announced.
Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Axis Capital, Goldman Sachs and IIFL Capital are the book running lead managers.
The Coca-Cola Company currently holds 60% of HCCH through Hindustan Coca-Cola Overseas Holdings. Jubilant Beverages, part of the Bhartia family’s Jubilant Bhartia group, holds the other 40%.
Jubilant bought that stake under a share purchase agreement signed on December 11, 2024, and amended on July 16, 2025. It paid ₹11,704 crore for 265.99 crore shares. That values the whole company at roughly ₹29,260 crore.
If the OFS is fully subscribed, Coca-Cola’s stake will fall to about 45%. CNBC-TV18 reported in July that Coca-Cola planned to reduce its holding, and that its eventual plan is to exit the bottler.
The promoter list now includes The Coca-Cola Company, Jubilant Beverages, Jubilant Bevco, Shyam Sunder Bhartia, Hari Shanker Bhartia, Arjun Shanker Bhartia, Shamit Bhartia and 2 Bhartia family trusts.
The company describes this as the co-ownership model used by large Coca-Cola bottlers abroad, such as Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Coca-Cola FEMSA and Coca-Cola HBC. In that model, a reference shareholder and Coca-Cola both hold stakes, alongside public shareholders.
The 4 Bhartias on the board are each entitled to ₹51 lakh a year as non-executive directors of HCCB, plus ₹1 lakh a year from HCCH. Jubilant’s right to nominate directors is tied to its shareholding, with thresholds at 30% and 40%.
Hemant Kumar Rupani took over as CEO of HCCB in September 2025. He was paid ₹9.26 crore in FY26. For FY27 he is entitled to ₹9.1 crore in fixed pay plus up to ₹7.55 crore in variable pay. He has also been granted 65.99 lakh stock options.
Thums Up is bigger than Coke
In HCCB’s markets, India’s homegrown cola beats the brand the company is named after. According to the DRHP, Thums Up is the largest brand by sales value in soft drinks and packaged drinking water across the 10 states HCCB serves. That makes it bigger than Coca-Cola itself.
- Thums Up and Sprite each recorded sales of more than ₹10,000 crore in India in the 12 months to June 2026
- Maaza is the largest brand in juices and still drinks, and Kinley is the largest in packaged drinking water, in HCCB’s states
- Coca-Cola’s brands together hold a 37.2% value share in these states, more than 3 times the nearest competitor
- 8 of the top 12 soft drink and water brands in these states belong to Coca-Cola
- On Kantar’s brand power measure, Sprite scores 3.5 times its nearest rival and Thums Up 1.8 times
The filing also shows how much India matters to Coca-Cola globally. India was the biggest contributor to Coca-Cola’s worldwide volume growth from 2021 to 2025, and is one of its 5 largest markets by volume.
HCCB is the largest of Coca-Cola’s bottlers in India. Its territories account for about 38.53% of the concentrate Coca-Cola sells in the country. It operates in all or parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, plus 4 Union Territories.
It sells 41 beverages through about 17 lakh outlets and 2,273 distributors. It runs 14 owned plants and 8 co-packing units, with installed capacity of 1,291 million unit cases a year at its own plants.
A washed-out FY26, then a hot summer
The weather did HCCB no favours in FY26. A shorter summer and a long monsoon with heavy rain cut volumes 6.41% to 690.9 million unit cases. Revenue from operations fell 9.43% to ₹11,549 crore, partly because HCCB had sold some of its territories. The EBITDA margin, excluding other income and exceptional items, slipped to 11.72% from 12.86% in FY25.
The heat came back in April to June 2026, and so did demand. In that quarter:
- Volume rose 15.11% to 249.2 million unit cases
- Revenue grew 16.86% to ₹4,310 crore
- EBITDA was ₹742 crore, and the margin widened to 17.2% from 14.48% a year earlier
The business leans heavily on summer. The April to June quarter alone accounts for 30% to 32% of annual sales volume, which is why a weak summer can dent the whole year.
| Metric | FY24 | FY25 | FY26 | Apr-Jun 2026 |
| Revenue from operations (₹ crore) | 14,022 | 12,751 | 11,549 | 4,310 |
| EBITDA margin (%) | 12.68 | 12.86 | 11.72 | 17.20 |
| Profit (₹ crore)* | 2,812 | 760 | 1,165 | 409 |
| Volume (million unit cases) | 818.2 | 738.3 | 690.9 | 249.2 |
*Profit in some periods includes one-off gains from the sale of territories.
Between FY24 and FY26, HCCB sold its operations in Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, the Northeast, parts of West Bengal and North Gujarat to other Coca-Cola bottlers. In the territories it still runs, revenue fell 2.65% in FY26 and then grew 20.46% in April to June 2026.
The Diet Coke shortage, explained. The DRHP addresses the Diet Coke shortage that hit Mumbai and several other big cities in April 2026, which CNBC-TV18 reported at the time. The company attributes it to a shortage of aluminium beverage cans combined with higher demand. It buys can bodies directly from suppliers, without long-term contracts, and warns that a can shortage can stop it supplying a product even when the drink itself is available.
HCCB has spent ₹8,755 crore on property, plant and equipment since FY24. That includes 2 new plants at Siddipet in Telangana and Lote in Maharashtra.
What investors should weigh
Coca-Cola sets the terms. HCCB depends on its bottling agreements with The Coca-Cola Company, which can be terminated or not renewed. It must buy concentrate only from Coca-Cola or its authorised suppliers, and Coca-Cola decides that price. Concentrate is priced as a percentage of HCCB’s revenue, so the bill rises as sales grow. Coca-Cola can also set the maximum price HCCB charges, and HCCB needs its written consent to raise it.
A few markets carry the business. 5 of HCCB’s territories brought in 75.63% of revenue in FY26. Any economic, political or policy shock in those markets would hit results hard.
Water is a real constraint. The new Lote plant in Maharashtra could not run for about 15 days in FY27 because water was unavailable. The Bidadi plant in Karnataka faced a 12-day water shortage in FY24. HCCB uses 1.57 litres of water for every litre of drink it makes. It reports replenishing water equal to 214% of the volume of beverages it produced in FY26, and says it has stopped drawing groundwater at 7 water-stressed sites.
Competition is getting cheaper. The DRHP notes that Reliance Consumer Products, through Campa, and regional players are expanding with competitive price points. Energy drinks, hydration drinks and ready-to-drink tea and coffee are also drawing in new brands, many selling at ₹10 and ₹20.
Less sugar, more jeera, and plenty of room to grow
Sugar is quietly leaving the portfolio. Drinks with no sugar, low sugar or artificial sweeteners made up 75.91% of HCCB’s sales volume in April to June 2026. The range includes Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, Sprite Zero Sugar, Thums Up XForce and RimZim. Over the last 5 years, HCCB has launched or relaunched 8 brands, including Thums Up Charged, Predator, Limca GlucoCharge and Kinley Lemon Soda.
Local flavours are a growth lever. The DRHP points to flavours such as jeera, aam panna, shikanji, kokum and kala khatta moving into packaged drinks. RimZim Jeera is Coca-Cola’s play in that space.
Quick commerce is small but fast. Its share of India’s packaged drinks market rose from under 0.5% in FY20 to 2.92% in FY26, and is projected to reach 8.35% by FY31. For HCCB, traditional trade such as kirana stores and eateries still accounts for about 81% of volumes.
The DRHP cites an industry report that sizes the packaged drinks market in HCCB’s states at ₹63,730 crore in FY26, and projects it to reach ₹1,18,320 crore by FY31. It also cites rising temperatures as a tailwind.
SEBI will now review the draft papers. The price band and issue dates will be announced later.