Coca Cola HBC Stock Crash: Too Soon to Invest?

Coca-Cola HBC shares were hammered on Thursday after reports that Russia could take control of the bottler's business there.

The London-listed stock fell as much as 18.6% to 4,014p before closing down 17.9% at 4,052p, wiping out the gains from Wednesday's upbeat third-quarter update. The company says it has had no notice from Moscow, but the sell-off has already broken a key support level on the chart.

Latest Market Moves

• Coca-Cola HBC touched 5,055p in early trade on Thursday before collapsing to close at 4,052p, down 17.9%. The shares had bounced to around 4,125p in early Friday trade.

• Japan Tobacco was locked limit down in Tokyo on Friday, closing 19.3% lower at ¥6,269, after Vladimir Putin signed a decree placing its Russian assets under temporary state management.

• British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands were both trading around 3% lower in early Friday trade, while Coca-Cola Europacific Partners closed 1.3% higher on Thursday.

• The FTSE 100 was down 1.4% at around 10,635 as of Friday morning.

Russia Puts Multon in the Crosshairs

The trigger was a report in Russian newspaper Kommersant.

It said that Bochkari, a beer and soft drinks maker based in Altai, asked Putin last month to place Coca-Cola HBC's Russian subsidiaries, Multon Partners and Multon JSC, under temporary external management, with Bochkari itself running them. The proposal has reportedly won partial backing from some deputy prime ministers.

The timing made it worse. On the same day, Putin signed the decree seizing Japan Tobacco's Russian operations, the latest foreign company to lose control of its local business since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Damage Control and a Reputational Headache

Coca-Cola HBC moved quickly to calm nerves.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, it said it had "received no notification from the Russian government of any changes to its operations in Russia, which have been operated locally on a self-standing basis since 2022." It added that it "does not rely on income or capital from its Russian business to fund the Group's operations outside Russia or to service the Group's indebtedness."

Russia has been an awkward subject for the company since 2022, when The Coca-Cola Company suspended its business there. Coca-Cola HBC stopped making Coca-Cola-branded drinks but kept its plants running under local brands such as Dobry and Rich, which has kept it on lists of Western firms still operating in Russia. Thursday's sell-off shows the market is now worried about the opposite problem: losing the business with nothing in return.

Is More Bad News Coming?

No decision has been announced yet, but the precedents are not encouraging.

Danone and Carlsberg's Baltika business were placed under temporary management in 2023, and both companies eventually exited Russia at heavy losses. A formal decree for Multon would likely leave Coca-Cola HBC facing a write-down on its Russian assets, and more headlines on Western companies in Russia could keep the shares under pressure in the meantime.

On the other side, the group is on track to complete its acquisition of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa by the end of 2026, taking it to 43 markets. That would shrink Russia's weight in the business further, which may help explain why the shares have steadied on Friday.

Earnings Are Holding Up

Away from Russia, the numbers look solid.

Wednesday's third-quarter update showed organic revenue growth of 9% and reported revenue up 9.6% to €3.50 billion, and the company lifted its full-year organic revenue guidance to slightly above its 6% to 7% range.

Profit beat forecasts in three of the five, while sales have beaten or matched them in each of the last four.

Source: company reports. Forecast comparisons based on company-compiled consensus via Reuters (H1 2026, FY 2025) and Simply Wall St (earlier periods); profit forecasts measured on comparable EBIT (H1 2026, FY 2025) and EPS (earlier periods).

Coca-Cola HBC Technical View: Head and Shoulders Neckline Gives Way

Thursday's drop has done real damage to the chart.

The shares sliced through support at 4,100p, the level that held the March and May lows at 4,100p and 4,094p and acts as the neckline of a potential head and shoulders top.

With the stock back around 4,125p heading into Friday's session, the broken neckline is being retested from below. If 4,100p now caps rallies, the textbook target measured from the head sits near 3,000p.

The 14-day RSI has dropped to around 37, so it is not yet oversold. It is also still above the 30 area that has marked the lows since March, which leaves room for further downside before the momentum picture looks stretched.

Source: SpreadEx | Coca Cola HBC, Daily Chart