Investor Olivier Goudet lifts Treasury Wine Estates shares

Treasury Wine Estates ended 2025 with a surprise rally after a prominent European investor revealed a significant stake. The move has reignited speculation about the future direction of Australia’s largest wine group.

Treasury Wine Estates’ shares ended a dismal 2025 on a sudden upswing. This came on news that French billionaire Olivier Goudet had become a shareholder, taking an AU$244m (£122m) stake in Australia’s biggest wine group in the closing weeks of the year.

Since the news broke on Christmas Eve, TWE’s shares have climbed 10% with almost five million changing hands on the day, well above a normal day’s trading level for the stock.

Recovery follows profit warning and write-down

That was only days after slumping to their lowest level in a decade following new CEO Sam Fischer’s December 17 downgrade to the company’s prospects and a $A450m writedown in the goodwill value of its US business.

TWE’s earlier investor update on October 13 had triggered an initial sharp sell-off, and Platin’s largest one-day outlay came the same day — AU$16.1 million for 2.6 million shares — as the stake was topped up into weakness.

Goudet has a reputation as an aggressive investor in troubled companies and has built a 5.05% stake of about 41 million shares in TWE since the beginning of October through direct purchases and via his Luxembourg-based private investment group Platin SARL, which is also a shareholder in US-listed Swedish food group Oatly.

Private equity speculation returns

Goudet has said nothing about his intentions but with TWE’s shares falling more than 50% in 2025, speculation had been constant that the group could once again attract private equity attention from investors ready to rebuild the group, echoing Vinarchy’s takeover of Accolade and the subsequent acquisition of Pernod Ricard’s wine interests.

Here commentators point to Goudet’s significant stake in the JAB Holdings group, which sprang out of the former Reckitt Benckiser foods business.

Goudet is also an adviser and has a close relationship with the global consumer brands investment group, which has stakes in businesses such as Keurig Dr Pepper, Canada Dry, Pret a Manger and Krispy Crème doughnuts.

Potential influence on future strategy

With the stake in Treasury Wine Estates, Platin and Goudet have become significant players in the company’s share register and could have a major impact on its future direction, including strategy, operation, possible mergers and acquisitions or the raising of capital.

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