Pernod Ricard SA, a major global distiller, Fortune Brands Inc. purchase Allied Domecq Plc, famous for its Malibu rum brand for $14 billion. This is the largest acquisition in the liquor industry in the past eight years. The transaction will offer Pernod access to the US market for alcoholic drinks where demand has been rising quicker than in Europe.
Allied Domecq accepted an offer of 670 pence a share, announced Pierre Pringuet, Pernod’s co-managing director, today.
The latest big acquisition was the merger that created the giant Diageo Plc in 1997. The deal was worth $40 billion.
London-based Diageo has sold spirits worth 8.9 billion pounds in fiscal 2004, and for Pernod this number was at 3.6 billion euros. Allied Domecq sold goods worth 2.6 billion pounds.
``The strategy will be very successful in the long term,’’ said Bruno Catoire, a fund manager at Paris-based Cholet-Dupont Gestion.