Mallya’s Spirits run high
Shares in United Spirits rallied 34.7 per cent on Monday reaching a multi-year high of 1,832.95 rupees, in a wave of relief that a long-awaited deal seems finally to be going ahead.
After Mumbai’s markets closed on Friday, the world’s largest spirits company, Diageo, formally announced it will pay £1.2bn to take a 53.4 per cent stake in the Indian drinks group. Continue reading »
United Sprits downgrade adds pressure to Diageo sale
For the better part of a year, rumours have floated that billionaire Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya was on the verge of saving one of his troubled companies by selling a stake in another. But which one?
After lots of rumours of deals involving his companies United Spirits, United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines, a change in credit rating may force his han. Continue reading »
Diageo/Mallya: deal or no deal?
What’s going on in the so-called negotiations between Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya and Diageo over Diageo possibly buying a stake in Mallya’s drinks company United Spirits? With United Spirits shares shooting up recently, the two companies on Tuesday issued a statement confirming that they were in discussion about “possible transactions” with “no certainty” of a deal.
But that’s not new. Daigeo chief executive Paul Walsh said as much last month. And plans for a deal date back to 2008. Probably the two sides have simply decided to get the facts on the record before the flamboyant Mallya takes the stage this week at annual meetings for his three key companies – United Spirits, United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines. As beyondbrics has reported, shareholders are likely to give him an uncomfortable time. Continue reading »
Mallya unlikely to have “good times” at AGMs
The annual general meetings of Indian companies are, by and large, fairly uncontroversial affairs (unless you are, say, Vedanta). It’s usually a softball affair that sometimes includes the singing of a song by certain shareholders inspired by the chairman’s greatness.
This week, billionaire liquor baron Vijay Mallya will face a series of AGMs for his United Spirits, United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines, and odds are there won’t be any singing of songs. They promise to be rather more uncomfortable affairs. Continue reading »
Corporate watch: whisky’s number 1 weighs up expansion
The Indian producer of the world’s number-one selling whisky, Officer’s Choice, has a few things to mull over. One of which is how to raise funds to fuel its expansion plans.
Allied Blenders & Distillers will come to a decision on how to raise Rs5bn ($90m) within the next 6-8 months, said Deepak Roy, chief executive of the privately-held company that owns Officer’s Choice – which, according to a July report by the UK-based International Wine & Spirits Research, sold 17.1m cases last year, compared to 16.7m for second-placed Johnny Walker. Continue reading »
Kingfisher reports worst-ever quarter
It was perhaps fitting that Kingfisher Airlines released its worst ever quarterly results on the same day Indian opposition politicians called a nationwide strike to protest a petrol price hike. Kingfisher knows a thing or two about high fuel prices and it is no stranger to strikes. Continue reading »
| About this blog | Headlines email | Blog guide |
| Regulars | Series | Archive |
Stefan Wagstyl
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh