United Spirits said it sees significant revenue growth opportunities from its acquisition of Whyte & Mackay. The UB Group will provide access to India and other large emerging markets, allowing an acceleration of Whyte & Mackay''s growth plans, the release said.

"The potential for premium Scotch whiskey in India is enormous and, with the acquisition of Whyte and Mackay, we now have a strong portfolio of international recognised brands that we will immediately introduce into the Indian market and use our strong distribution muscle fully to our advantage," Mallya said.

United Spirits will have access to global distribution and can look forward to exporting brands from India, he said.

Whyte & Mackay is a leading distiller of Scotch whisky, owning brands including The Dalmore, Isle of Jura, Glayva, Fettercairn, the eponymous Whyte & Mackay blended Scotch and the Viadivar vodka brand.

United Spirits also owns several other Scotch Whisky brands such as Mackinlays, John Barr, Cluny and Clayrnore amongst a host of others, the release added.

The company has delivered strong revenue and profit growth as a result of internationalizing its premium brands and maximizing the returns from its attractive bulk whisky assets.

Subsequent to the acquisition, Vijay Mallya will become chairman and chief executive of Whyte & Mackay and current head Vivian Imerman will assume charge of strategic advisor to chairman and chief executive.

"We have a large and growing business in India and have made recent forays into Russia and China. United Spirits have created some of the world''s largest brands of drinks. Until today, the only missing link in our portfolio has been Scotch and due to the shortages and rapidly increasing prices of Scotch Whisky, we needed a reliable supply source to secure our future considering that we use scotch in our Indian blends," Mallya said.

Mallya said Whyte & Mackay''s valuable Scotch whisky inventories and production assets justify the acquisition price.

He said debt financing of the acquisition is within target and that the combined profits of United Spirits and Whyte & Mackay are expected to be accretive from the first completed year of operations, even after accounting for the cost of funds applied to the acquisition.

ICICI BANK and Citibank arranged finance for the transaction, while UBS, ICICI Bank and Standard Chartered acted as advisors.