ATLANTA (Bloomberg) — Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest soft-drink maker, said second-quarter profit fell 23 percent after its largest bottler wrote down the value of North American assets because of a decline in soda and water sales.

Net income dropped to $1.42 billion, or 61 cents a share, from $1.85 billion, or 80 cents, a year earlier, because of Coca-Cola Enterprise Inc.'s costs, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said yesterday in a statement. The shares fell the most in almost four years in New York trading.

Gains in China, Latin America and Eastern Europe countered little-changed sales in North America, where debt-laden consumers paying more for food and gasoline are forgoing purchases of bottled water and soda. Higher ingredient costs also led to a $5.3 billion writedown by Coca-Cola Enterprises to reflect the reduced value of franchise licences and goodwill.

"I think of this as a half-full, half-empty kind of quarter," Jason Pride, the research director at Haverford Investments, said yesterday in an interview. "You have to look at Coke, and the bottler group very differently. Coca-Cola is the one that has wide profit margins and is not as leveraged." Haverford has $6 billion in assets under management, including more than 1 million Coca-Cola shares.

Revenue rose 17 percent to $9.05 billion from $7.73 billion in the three months ended June 27, Coca-Cola said.

The amount of drinks sold world-wide rose three percent, led by a five-percent increase overseas. Pride and Bill Pecoriello, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimated a global gain of four percent. Excluding the write-down, the soft-drink company earned $1.01 a share. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated average profit of 96 cents a share. Ten predicted sales of $8.83 billion.

The $5.3 billion write-down by Coca-Cola Enterprises lowered its profit by $7.06 a share. Coca-Cola, which owns 35 percent of the bottler, said its earnings were reduced by 40 cents.

Coca-Cola Enterprises chief executive officer John Brock has been unable to halt the decline of Coca-Cola Classic or sell enough non-carbonated drinks such as Vitaminwater to make up for falling soda sales in North America, which accounts for 70 percent of its revenue.

More-profitable convenience-store sales of soda and water have dropped, making Coca-Cola Enterprises' right to distribute Coca-Cola products less valuable, the Atlanta-based bottler said.

Coca-Cola also said it would repurchase from $1.75 billion to $2 billion of its shares in 2008. Previously, it said it may buy as little as $1.5 billion in stock. The company has bought back $1 billion worth this year.

Sales have been rising in China, India, Russia, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Philippines, led by the company's flagship Coca-Cola, then-President Muhtar Kent said during a conference call in April.