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’Fortune favours Diageo (and Bacardi)
Time for some fantasy M&A.
How might Diageo go about constructing a bid for the alcoholic drinks business of Fortune Brands? It’s up for grabs after the US conglomerate announced plans to split in three.
Whisky Galore
Here’s an interesting way to make a good a pension fund deficit – fill it with 2.5 million barrels of maturing Scotch whisky.
This novel idea has been dreamt up by Diageo and forms a key part of a 10-year funding plan for the drinks group’s UK Pension Scheme (which at the time of the last the triennial actuarial had a deficit of £862 million).
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Aviva Q1 life and pensions sales up 15 per cent – statement.
- Diageo’s Nick Rose to stand down as CFO – statement.
- Serco says H1 performance strong, FY on track – statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- BNP Paribas reveals €5bn Greece sovereign exposure – statement.
- Commerzbank reports first profit in seven quarters – statement.
- Deutsche Bank ups stake in China’s Hua Xia bank to 19.9 per cent – statement.
Today I shall short Adecco, Danone, Deutsche Telekom, Diageo…
M&A is back (exclamation point!), thanks to the Kradbury affair, and with it lists of possible acquisition targets to buy.
RBS have made their own contribution to M&A speculation on Wednesday morning with a compendium of six potential acquirers to short.
China Investment takes Diageo stake
China’s sovereign wealth fund has acquired 1.1 per cent of the Diageo drinks group, giving it a stake worth £221m in a sign of its emerging strategy to spread its investments over different global markets and asset classes.
CDS update: Credit markets outperform equities
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
European credit indices outperformed their equity counterparts today, continuing the trend from yesterday. The Markit iTraxx Europe index tightened 152bp,
LVMH eyes sale of Moët to Diageo
LVMH has indicated it may be willing to sell some or all of its two-thirds stake in Moët Hennessy, its wine and spirits business, to partner Diageo. LVMH, part of the French luxury empire controlled by Bernard Arnault,
CDS report: Credit markets in sombre mood, Diageo warns on profits
Weaker performances in equity markets weighed on European credit Thursday morning, traders said. Trading activity was muted, with many investors wary ahead of the release of retail sales data in the US this afternoon,
[Bud & Becks] A white knight for Anheuser?
It is probably premature to speculate on who might spoil InBev’s beer party, moving to agree a friendly merger with Anheuser Busch in preference to the cost-cutting, zero-base budgeting team from Belgium and Brazil.
Alcohol-fuelled M&A gossip? Diageo/ Anheuser/ SABMiller…
Nice to see the merger-mongers are not far behind those declaring an end to the credit crisis and a cautious return to normality.
Wednesday saw speculation – and persistent speculation at that, if you accept that the share prices concerned were moving against the trend – of an $80bn merger in the drinks sector.
SAB Miller to counterbid for Scottish & Newcastle, FT Alphaville understands
This is RAW market info, but it comes from sources with demonstrable form: SAB Miller is plotting an alternative takeover offer for Scottish & Newcastle that will value the British brewer at around 850p a share or £8bn.
Roche boss in Diageo move
Franz Humer, chief executive of Swiss drugmaker Roche, is to be the next chairman of UK drinks group Diageo. Mr Humer, a non-executive director on Diageo’s board for the past two years, will replace Lord Blyth as part-time chairman of Diageo in July 2008 after giving up his current joint role at Roche as chairman and chief executive.
S&N move gaining momentum
Scottish & Newcastle is once again talk of the town after an FT report on Monday that the brewer has been sized up as a potential acquisition target by SABMiller and Diageo, two of the drinks industry’s biggest heavyweights.
Project Spice — who might have spoiled the party?
In considering Diageo’s proposal to carve up Scottish & Newcastle between them, SABMiller gave considerable thought to who else might step in to partner the UK drinks giant if it declined – and to which companies might be prompted to launch a counter-bid once S&N were in play.
Project Spice — the £7bn Diageo UK spin-off idea
Diageo has been considering a plan to hive off its entire British drinks business — spirits brands such as Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff as well as its Guinness stout operation — into a separate joint venture company that would also hold Scottish & Newcastle’s British beer business,
Project Spice — froth to fact on Scottish & Newcastle
In the words of Malcolm Wyman it was just “old rumours bubbling up and resurfacing again.”
Since a trading update 10 days ago, SABMiller’s chief financial officer made his comment on the future of his smaller rival,
Project Spice – the real plan to break up Scottish & Newcastle
Diageo and SAB Miller, two of the world’s most powerful drinks companies, have held detailed discussions with a view to breaking up Scottish & Newcastle, the British brewer that owns a half share in Russia’s largest beer business.