Pernod Ricard makes bid for Absolut

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2008 | by Theresa Howard

Pernod Ricard moved closer to bumping Diageo as the world's biggest spirits player with a deal announced Monday to acquire the Swedish state-owned parent of Absolut vodka for $8.3 billion.

The French spirits company outbid several others for the world's best-selling premium vodka, including U.S.-based Fortune Brands, Absolut's current distributor.

Pernod will climb from fourth to second among global spirits sellers with its purchase of Vin & Sprit. Pernod, which bought Allied Domecq for $16 billion in 2005, has been on a quest to be tops in the $200 billion worldwide booze business.

"Our intention is to grow and become the leader," said Pierre Pringuet, Pernod Ricard's managing director, in a conference call.

The company will move within...

Premium Content Partnership | MyWire provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works. MyWire

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)