Emperador Inc to Buy Whyte & Mackay - New Report Tells the Whole Story

LONDON, May 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Emperador Inc's move for Whyte & Mackay will give the Scotch whisky producer yet another new owner, while Diageo is left to rue the divestment of assets it had hoped to keep, according to a new report from just-drinks.

In late 2012, Diageo began its purchase of a major stake in Whyte & Mackay's parent company, India's United Spirits. The move for United Spirits, which bought Whyte & Mackay (W&M) in 2007, signalled the probability of a sale of the Scotch company.

Late last week, Philippines-based Emperador confirmed that it has agreed with United Spirits to acquire W&M for GBP430m (US$729m). The price of the transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approval, equates to 19.3x W&M's EBITDA estimate for FY 2014.

Late last year, Diageo offered to sell W&M's central operations, as well as its Invergordon, Jura and Fettercairn distilleries to calm competition concerns in the UK raised by the country's Office of Fair Trading. At the time, Diageo hoped to keep hold of the company's Dalmore and Tamnavulin distilleries.

However, sources close to the situation told just-drinks last week that Emperador's purchase includes all of W&M's assets.

Earlier this week, just-drinks published a detailed report telling the full story of the sale of Whyte & Mackay. The 3,000-word report on the Whyte & Mackay purchase starts with Diageo's acquisition of its initial stake in parent United Spirits, and ends with Emperador announcing its intention to buy Whyte & Mackay, late last week.

About just-drinks.com 

Established in 1999, just-drinks is a leading online resource for the global beverage industry, publishing around 20 news articles, analysis features and insights every working day. Under the direction of managing editor Olly Wehring, its experienced team of journalists, consultants and analysts provide a unique and comprehensive blend of reports and interpretation of the beverage industry, including key events, trends, interviews and research that are delivered to over 92,000 business executives per month.

Through its web site, webinars and in-depth management briefings, just-drinks offers insight into soft drinks, wine, beer, spirits and bottled water industry developments and supply-chain trends, brand and corporate strategies, CONSULT research platform, enterprise technologies such as PLM and ERP.

Furthermore, just-drinks supplies news on manufacturing developments and how the drinks industry is performing around the world.

For details of how just-drinks is helping decision makers make decisions, visit http://www.just-drinks.com

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