The Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese-mainland juice producer Huiyuan Juice tumbled 42.17 percent Thursday after authorities rejected a buyout bid by industry giant Coca-Cola on antitrust considerations.

Trading of Huiyuan shares were suspended on Wednesday shortly after the open of the Hong Kong stock market, before the Ministry of Commerce announced that the buyout bid of Huiyuan by Coca-Cola was rejected on concerns of potential monopoly.

Share price of Huiyuan opened 51 percent lower at Thursday's open and once dipped to 3.88 HK dollars, leading to the de facto deflation of the price premium at which Coca-Cola had previously made the offer.

It recovered some of the lost ground thereafter to close at 4.8 HK dollars a share, with turnover ranking the second for any single shares on the market.

Huiyuan was the leading pure juice producer on the Chinese mainland, with a designed capacity of producing more than 22 million tons of juice. Industry survey showed that Huiyuan had 40 percent of the market for pure and medium-diluted juice.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2009)