Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipuria scraps South African dairy deal, heads to arbitration

Varun Beverages Ltd., the PepsiCo bottler controlled by Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipuria, has terminated its agreement to buy South Africa's Crickley Dairy and referred the dispute to arbitration.

The company said in a stock exchange filing that the deal lapsed because the sellers did not meet the conditions required to complete it by the Sept. 30 long-stop date. The matter has been referred to the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa.

Varun agreed in March to buy all of Crickley Dairy from Clark Holdings through The Beverage Company, known as Bevco, its South African subsidiary. The deal carried an enterprise value of R238 million, or about $14.3 million at the time, and required approval from South Africa's competition regulator.

Crickley was founded by Ken Clark in 1984 and is based in the Eastern Cape. Its milk and dairy products are sold through retailers including Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Spar. Varun had said the purchase was part of a plan to expand into value-added dairy and juice-based drinks.

The collapse is a setback for one of the most active foreign buyers in South Africa's drinks industry. Varun entered the country in December 2023, when it bought Bevco, which holds the PepsiCo franchise for South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini and distribution rights in Namibia and Botswana. In December 2025, it agreed to buy South African soft drinks maker Twizza through Bevco at an enterprise value of R2.095 billion. Twizza runs plants in Cape Town, Queenstown and Middelburg.

Varun is one of PepsiCo's largest bottlers and operates across India and in several African countries, including Morocco, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. It reported revenue from operations of 222.25 billion rupees, or about $2.4 billion, for 2025.

Jaipuria, whose RJ Corp group controls Varun, has built one of India's largest fortunes over several decades by bottling and distributing PepsiCo drinks.