Mexico's Femsa to sell stake in Jetro for $1.4 billion

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican retail and bottling giant Femsa said Wednesday it had reached a "definitive" agreement to sell its stake in Jetro Restaurant Depot for $1.4 billion, furthering its strategy to simplify its business, and sending its shares up.

The transaction will close in the second quarter of this year, when it will receive $467 million upfront, with the final chunk paid in the subsequent two years, it added in a statement, without specifying who the buyer.

Shares in Femsa rose over 4% during the day, while Mexico's main stock index was trading down almost 1%.

The sale comes as part of Femsa's new strategy, announced in February, to concentrate on its core retail and bottling businesses.

Similarly, the company announced earlier this week it was selling $3.63 billion worth of its shares in Heineken, the second share offering in its divestment of the Dutch holding.

The bid to simplify Femsa's operations will ultimately give it bandwidth to develop new projects and alleviate its share price, analysts said at the time.

Banorte analysts said Wednesday the unexpectedly fast sale of Femsa's minority stake in Jetro was positive overall.

"It reflects the positive conviction of the company to achieve its established objectives," the analysts wrote in a note. "In addition, having a greater cash position could be used for debt repayment."

(Reporting by Raul Cortes and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Valentine Hilaire and Aurora Ellis)