Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya-promoted United Spirits on Wednesday said it had acquired Scottish whiskey maker Whyte & Mackay for pound 595 million (nearly Rs 4,819 crore).
The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had acquired 100 per cent of Whyte and Mackay.
"The potential for premium Scotch whiskey in India is enormous and, with the acquisition of Whyte and Mackay, we now have a strong portfolio of international recognised brands that we will immediately introduce into the Indian market and use our strong distribution muscle fully to our advantage," Vijay Mallya, chairman, United Spirits said.
United Spirits will have access to global distribution and can look forward to exporting brands from India, he said.
W&M has popular brands liked Whyte & Mackay Scotch Whiskey, Highland Malt, Isle of Juara Malt Whiskey, Glayva Liquer and Dalmore Single Highland Malt, John Barr, Mackinlays, Cluny and Claymore.
The Scottish whiskey maker had recorded a sales of nine million cases in the last 12 months and sales of 66 million cases for the year ended March 31, it said, adding W&M has a bulk Scotch inventories of 115 million litres.
It has four different malt whiskey distilleries in Scotland with another state-of-art bottling facility in Grangemouth. With this acquisition, United Spirits will have consolidated sales of 75 million cases per annum, it added.
The company said finance for the acquisition was arranged and provided by ICICI Bank and Citibank, and they were advised by UBS, ICICI Bank and Standard Chartered.
Citigroup was the adviser of Whyte & Mackay in the deal. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions that the UB Group had undertaken in recent years, including that of Shaw Wallace for Rs 1,300 crore (Rs 13 billion) in 2005, and more recently French winemaker Bouvet Ladubay, a subsidiary of Champagne Taittinger, for $15 million last year.
UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya arrives at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland.
Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images
