Emperador moves to buy Louis Royer Cognac

Philippines-based spirits producer Emperador will make an offer to buy Cognac maker Louis Royer from Beam Suntory this week.

Emperador is one of the world’s largest brandy producers (Photo: Emperador)

A preliminary offer subject to approval will be made to Suntory tomorrow, according to a filing in the Philippine stock exchange seen by Bloomberg.

The offer from Emperador, rumoured to be several billion pesos, follows the company recently announcing its aim to greatly expand this year.

Owner and famous property tycoon Andrew Tan is quoted in Philippine newspaper the The Inquirer saying that 2015 would be “the beginning of the rapid expansion of our businesses” in the domestic and global markets. “This year, we expect our revenues to grow by 35%,” he said.

A company spokesperson commenting on the offer said, “Emperador is currently debt-free and is, therefore, in a very strong financial position to further expand its business both globally and domestically”.

It follows another huge takeover witnessed last year, when Emperador took on the Whyte & MacKay Scotch brand from London-based Diageo for around £430m, in order to facilitate the UK company’s buyout of India’s United Spirits.

Likewise, Beam Suntory only came into existence last year after a £10.2bn buyout of whiskey producer Jim Beam by Japan’s Suntory, creating one of the world’s largest spirits producers.