An advertisement of Huiyuan Juice [Photo: sina.com]

U.S. soft-drink giant Coca-Cola Co. has offered to buy Hong Kong-listed beverage producer China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd. in an all-cash deal valued at up to US$2.4 billion, according to a Dow Jones report on Wednesday.

Coca-Cola said it is offering HK$12.2 per Huiyuan share - or triple the stock's last closing price of HK$4.14 - in its biggest China acquisition by value to date, the report on the CNN Money website said.

Three of Huiyuan's biggest shareholders, which together control almost 66% of the company's shares, have given "irrevocable undertaking" for the deal, the report quoted Coca-Cola as saying.

The three shareholders are Huiyuan's parent, China Hui Yuan Juice Holdings Co., which owns a 38.5% in the company, Groupe Danone S.A. (BN.FR), which has a 21% stake, and Warburg Pincus Private Equity LP, which has a 6.4% stake.

Muhtar Kent, chief executive of Coca-Cola, said that as a long-established juice brand in China, Huiyuan is highly complementary to the Coca-Cola China business.

Analysts believe that since Coca-Cola dominates the Chinese diluted-juice market, it hopes to make inroads into the pure-juice sector.

Coca-Cola will buy all the outstanding shares, bonds and options of Huiyuan and take the company private after the acquisition, Reuters reported.

Huiyuan controls about 43 percent of China's pure juice market, according to AC Nielsen figures cited by Huiyuan, the wire service reported.