Treasury Wine shares hit 4-year high after Diageo deal
Investors are toasting Treasury Wine's good health. The Australian winemaker’s stocks are soaring after completing a deal with drinks giant Diageo, made official last week.
UK brands Blossom Hill and Piat d'Or are moving Down Under after FTSE 100-listed Diageo agreed to sell most of its major wine assets to Treasury Wine Estates for $552m (£357m).
Treasury’s shares soared 14 per cent on the news, to hit their highest level since May 2011. Shares in the Australian firm, which now has a market value of £2.54bn, are up nearly 54 per cent in the past twelve months.
By buying most of Diageo’s UK and US wine interests, Treasury has instantly doubled its US revenue from premium wines, the company has said. As well as UK brands like Blossom Hill, the winemaker has acquired US brands like Napa Valley Beaulieu Vineyards and Sterling Vineyards.
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Diageo, which recently sold off its 57.9 per cent stake in the Jamaican brewer Desnoes & Geddes to Heineken, said that with this sale the company would have released £1bn from sales of non-core assets in the three months since July.
Ivan Menezes, Diageo’s chief executive, said of the sale:
Wine is no longer core to Diageo and this sale gives us greater focus.