Moody's assigns Aa3 rating to Coca-Cola's proposed three-year, five-year, seven-year and 10-year notes; outlook stable

Nevin Barich

NEW YORK , October 29, 2013 (press release) – Moody's today assigned an Aa3 rating to Coca-Cola's proposed 3 year (floating and fixed rate), 5 year, 7 year and 10 year notes. All other ratings for the company and its affiliates remain unchanged. The rating outlook is stable. The notes will be issued to fund the repayment of the company's 0.75% Notes due 2013, Floating Rate Notes due 2014 and 3.625% Notes due 2014. The rest of the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Coca-Cola Company's Aa3 rating and stable outlook reflect the system's leading position in the global carbonated soft drink industry, including its ownership of one of the most valuable consumer brands in the world, a highly-diverse global operation network, a growing non-carbonated portfolio and unrivaled distribution. These strong qualitative factors are tempered by the need for additional investments to turn around the company owned bottlers, weak demand for CSDs in some markets and the challenges of the global macroeconomic environment.

The company has demonstrated success in its efforts to reinvigorate growth and to improve the financial performance of its bottlers, although profitability growth will be more difficult to, continued challenges facing carbonated soft drink sales in developed markets and with slower growth expected in some emerging markets. Improved efficiency in North American bottling operations and continued investments in brands are setting the stage for continued strong performance going forward. These factors are all credit positives for Coca-Cola. Gross system debt to EBITDA has crept in recent years up as cash balances have been building overseas, but net leverage has remained relatively stable.

The Coca-Cola Company ("Coca-Cola"), based in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world's largest manufacturer, marketer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups.

The principal methodology used in this rating was Global Soft Beverage Industry published in May 2013. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

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