China's Bright Food Group mulls bid for Foster Group’s Treasury Wine Estates
02 Jul 2011
China's Bright Food Group is mulling a bid for Australia's Foster Group's Treasury Wine Estates Ltd , Bloomberg reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Treasury Wine Estates, which had a valuation of $2.2 billion (A$2.3 billion) in its first day of trading on 9 May 2011, was spun off by Foster's Group in early May after a decade-long expansion into wine making in Australia and the US at a cost of nearly $6 billion.
It had paid $3.2 billion in 2005 to acquire Southcorp, then Australia's largest wine maker.
Australia's biggest brewer has been struggling to turn around the fortunes of its wine division writing down $278 million for vineyards, brands and inventory in 2009 and has taken around A$3.47 billion in writedowns and goodwill impairments since 2004 due to oversupply in the global wine industry.
Treasury Wine Estates has a unique portfolio of premium global brands, which includes iconic brands such as Beringer, Chateau St Jean, Lindemans, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Rosemount, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, Stags' Leap Winery, Matua Valley, Etude, Castello di Gabbiano, Australia's Seppelt, Coldstream Hills, and Devil's Lair.
With over 12,000 hectares of vineyards, Treasury Wine employs over 4,000 winemakers, viticulturists, sales, distribution and support staff across 12 countries.
The company's first wine acquisition was Mildara Blass Ltd in 1996 for $482 million while it paid $2.6 billion in cash and debt for California's Beringer Wine Estates Holdings Inc in 2001. With its $3.2 billion purchase of Southcorp Ltd in 2005, it cemented its ranking as the world's second-biggest winemaker behind Constellation Brands Inc.
