MEXICO CITY, April 1 (Reuters) - Mexican bottler Arca Continental said on Friday it plans to invest more than 12 billion pesos ($605 million) this year in different projects to strengthen its operations throughout the Americas, a 67% increase over last year.

The second-largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America said in a statement that approximately 50% of the capital expenditures will go to operations in Mexico and the rest to its units in the United States and South America.

Arca Continental said in its fourth quarter results report its capex for 2021 had totaled 7.2 billion pesos.

($1 = 19.8341 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Noe Torres; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Chris Reese)