Diageo closes in on £200m Gleneagles deal

Drinks giant Diageo is reportedly “close” to agreeing a sale of its luxury hotel and golf resort in Scotland, Gleneagles.

The five-star resort in Perthshire was built in the 1920s as the “Riviera in the Highlands”, it hosted the Ryder Cup in 2014 and the G8 summit in 2005.

The sale could be for a reported £200m although the buyer remains unknown and Diageo has no, so far, made any comment on the matter.

According to the Financial Times, a sale could be finalised this week and would “relieve the pressure” on chief executive Ivan Menezes who has so far overseen poor growth and underperforming shares.

With Menezes apparently keen to focus on Diageo’s core spirits and beer businesses, the paper added that the hotel was looking like “an increasingly unwelcome distraction.”

Along with suggestions the company is planning to sell off its wine interests such as Blossom Hill, there have even been rumours that the Johnnie Walker maker itself will be subject to a takeover – a situation unthinkable under former CEO Paul Walsh who took the company on an uninterrupted acquisitions run before he stepped down in 2013.

The possibility of the Brazilian financiers behind AB InBev buying out Diageo caused shares to jump 8% in early June though they then fell 1% late last week when it turned out there was no truth to the rumours.