Emperador may borrow £129 million for W&M takeover
Emperador, the alcoholic drinks division of Alliance Global Group, is looking to borrow around £129 million to help finance the acquisition of Scotch maker Whyte & Mackay.
Alliance Global chairman Andrew Tan told the Manila Standard Today that the company would borrow at least 30% of the total acquisition cost of Whyte and Mackay, which amounts to around £430 million.
“We don’t need to raise much because the company has very little debt. I think with the entire purchase price, which is about £430 million, we probably need to raise 30% of through borrowing and the rest we can fund,” Tan said.
“The company has a lot of cash and no debt in the last 10 years. We will just need to borrow a little plus the cash we have in the balance sheet,” he added.
Separately, Emperador president Winston Co told reporters gathering at the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Monday (23 June): “With the acquisition, we can fast track company growth and dominate the Philippine market and became a global player as well.”
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As the drinks business reported in May, Emperador signed an agreement with United Spirits to acquire Whyte & Mackay group and its units, which the company expects to immediately increase its earnings.
Whyte and Mackay is the fifth largest maker of Scotch whisky in the world with a history of more than 160 years and ownership of additional brands including The Dalmore and Jura. It also holds substantial aged whisky inventories. The group has a production capacity of 50 million litres of alcohol a year with five distilleries and one bottling plant in Scotland.
Emperador earlier said it planned to double its net income to £155 million by 2016-2017 from last year’s £78 million through expansion and acquisition.
