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Drinks

Suntory To Buy Beam For $16bn

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Suntory To Buy Beam For $16bn

Just days after finalising the £1.3 billion acquisition of British drink brands Lucozade and Ribena, Japanese drinks group Suntory is set to take ownership one of its major rival's entire portfolio with a massive takeover.

Suntory said it plans to buy US rival Beam, paying $13.6 billion in cash for the shares to make the Japanese company the world's third-largest maker of distilled drinks. 

Including the assumption of Beam's debt, the deal is worth $16 billion and is expected to close in the second quarter.

The acquisition brings together Beam's Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbons, Courvoisier cognac and Sauza tequila with Suntory's Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hibiki and Kakubin Japanese whiskies, Bowmore Scotch whisky and Midori liqueur.

Investors in the maker of Jim Beam and Canadian Club liquor will get $83.50 in cash per share, Osaka, Japan-based Suntory said today in a statement a whole 25% above Beam’s closing price on 10 January.

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Suntory, the maker of Yamazaki whiskey and the Premium Malt’s beer, is seeking to boost overseas growth as the population in its home country shrinks and ages. In 2012 reports indicated that Suntory were considering making an offer for Beam alongside Diageo, but that never materialized.

The takeover is the biggest this year and the sixth-largest ever in the beverages industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and there are unlikely to be any competing bids from drinks companies like Diageo or Pernod-Ricard.

© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling

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