Coca-Cola Enterprises Outlook Bubbles Up

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Coca-Cola Enterprises(CCE) reiterated that it expects its pending transaction with Coca-Cola(KO) to close in the fourth quarter and increased its full-year earnings guidance to a range of $1.78 to $1.82 a share as the company continues to see "solid" growth opportunity in Europe.

The guidance forecast is in line with the consensus estimate of $1.81 a share and is an increase from the previous full-year guidance of $1.73 to $1.77, and pertains to the current company structure.

In February, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Coke entered a deal where Coke would acquire Coca-Cola Enterprises' North American business in a substantially cashless transaction, and the former would acquire the latter's bottling operations in Norway and Sweden for $822 million.

Coca-Cola Enterprises said the key remaining steps in its transaction with Coke include antitrust approval in the U.S. and Canada and shareowner approval.

A shareowner meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 1 to consider the transaction.

After completing the transaction, the new Coca-Cola Enterprises expects to repurchase about $1 billion of its shares within the following 18 months and to pay an expected annual dividend of 50 cents a share.

Coca-Cola Enterprises is flat at $29.37 in pre-market trading, while Coke has edged 0.1% lower to $57.49

-- Written by Andrea Tse in New York.

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