<http://www.dealcurry.com/20100914-United-Spirits-To-Acquire-54-7-In-Pioneer-Distilleries.htm>
*United Spirits Limited* is set to acquire 54.69% in *Pioneer Distilleries Limited* for $16 Mn (about Rs.74 Cr). It will acquire 73,22,280 equity shares of Pioneer at Rs.101 a share, which is 45% more than Pioneer's closing stock price of Rs.69 on Monday. With this acquisition, United Spirits' in-house capacity of primary spirit distillation will go up to 22.5% of its requirement and provide further supply side security. United Spirit, part of *Vijay Mallya's UB Group* will also make an open offer for an additional acquisition of 26.77 lakh shares, or 20% stake in Pioneer Distilleries. Transaction Note Pioneer Distilleries has 160 kilolitres per day (klpd) spirit facility in Maharashtra. This comprises an active 100 klpd plant using molasses as feedstock and a 60 klpd plant under commissioning which uses grain as input. Additionally, Pioneer Distilleries has a 30 klpd Absolute Alcohol plant and also a letter of intent for bottling of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) from grain. It reported a net loss of Rs.12.13 Cr for Q1 June 2010 as compared with a net profit of Rs.2.01 Cr in Q1 June 2009. Net sales rose 32.9% to Rs.23.63 Cr in Q1 June 2010 over Q1 June 2009. United Spirits, part of the United Breweries Group, sells McDowell's No.1, Royal Challenge, Antiquity whiskeys, Romanov and White Mischief vodka and Four Seasons wines. This acquisition by United Spirits is aimed at shoring up its primary distillation capacity in order to gain better control over its upstream supplies of extra neutral alcohol. United Spirits is strengthening its production capacity at a time when it is looking for the top spot in terms of worldwide volume sales this year. It sold about 102 Mn cases worldwide in 2009-10, helping it to overtake French rival Pernod Ricard S.A. as the world's second-largest liquor company by sales volume. Last year, USL had acquired a 40 Kilo Litres per day (KLPD) facility through the acquisition of *Tern Distilleries Pvt Ltd*, near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. UB Group's other group company, United Breweries Ltd's board has approved the amalgamation of Associate Breweries & Distilleries Ltd., Millennium Alcobev Pvt. Ltd., United Millennium Breweries Ltd., Empee Breweries Ltd. and Millennium Beer Industries Ltd. with itself. Earlier this year in Feb, *Tilaknagar Industries *acquired six brands from *Alcobrew Distilleries India Pvt Ltd* namely White House, White House Premium Whisky, Black Colt, Bachelor Fine Whisky, Negro He-Mans XXX Rum, Golden Chariot having prominent presence in CSD and civil markets. -- Regards Hardik Shah -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en.
