Ahead of the Bell: Coca-Cola

NEW YORK

Coca-Cola Co.'s chief financial officer will address investors Wednesday, as the company continues its plans for the next decade and its proposed buyout of the North American operations.

Gary Fayard will speak Wednesday morning at the Barclays Capital Back-To-School Conference.

The company has been expanding around the world in emerging markets such as Russia and China. It aims to double its business in the next decade by hooking the rising middle class on its beverages in those regions.

In November, the company announced its plans for 2020, including the goal of reaching $200 billion in revenue by that year.

Sales have doubled in the decade since 1997, and the company expects to do so again.

Part of its plans is cutting costs, which it hopes to do through the buyout of Coca-Cola Enterprises' North American operations.

Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, announced in February that it would buy the North American operations of its biggest bottler for $3.4 billion. It would also assume $8.88 billion in debt. In exchange, the bottler will buy certain foreign bottling operations from Coca-Cola, and its shareholders will get shares for a new company and $10 a share.

Coca-Cola Enterprises has set a shareholder meeting for Oct. 1 to seek approval of the sale.

On Tuesday, the bottler boosted its full-year profit forecast and said it anticipates completing the sale in the fourth quarter.