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Suntory of Japan said yesterday that it had completed a US$16 billion buyout of the firm behind Jim Beam bourbon, creating the world's third-largest high-end spirits maker.
It has acquired all outstanding shares of Beam for nearly US$13.9 billion while taking on US$2 billion of debts at the United States firm.
As a result of the deal, Beam has been renamed Beam Suntory. The new firm intends to integrate the spirits business of Suntory Liquors of Japan this year.
"The transaction creates a company with the strong No3 position in the global premium spirits market," Suntory said in a statement.
Beam markets a range of bourbons and internationally known whiskies, having evolved from a small family base in the US state of Kentucky.
Combined sales of Beam and Suntory's spirits business were US$4.6 billion last year, the statement said.
Beam Suntory will be headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, and led by chairman and chief executive Matt Shattock, who has been chief executive of Beam since 2009.
"By combining the world leader in bourbon and Japan's leading spirits company, we have created a stronger global business with an even better premium portfolio," Shattock said.
Suntory, one of Japan's biggest brewers and non-alcoholic drinks makers, is widely known in the country for commercials featuring Hollywood movie stars including Tommy Lee Jones. Its eponymous whiskey played a starring roll in the 2003 Bill Murray film Lost in Translation.
The buyout marks the latest foreign acquisition by the family-owned Japanese firm as it looks abroad to head off a declining domestic market.
Company president Nobutada Saji told the Nikkei business daily last year that Suntory was eyeing a deal that would amount to a "once-in-a-lifetime gamble".
It far eclipses the value of previous Suntory acquisitions, including the US$1.56 billion purchase of the Lucozade and Ribena soft drinks brands in September.
Suntory said it would finance the deal mainly with bank loans of 800 billion yen (HK$60.6 billion) and 600 billion yen of cash. It also inherited 200 billion yen worth of bonds from Beam.


Suntory's US$16b Beam buyout creates No3 high-end spirits maker

The combined entity will have a better premium spirits portfolio.

Business

Companies

Suntory of Japan said yesterday that it had completed a US$16 billion buyout of the firm behind Jim Beam bourbon, creating the world's third-largest high-end spirits maker.
