Campari to Acquire Grand Marnier

Campari, based in Italy, is the sixth largest world spirits company. It announced on Tuesday that it agreed to purchase Grand Marnier in a deal that values the liqueur maker based in France at 684 million euros equal to $759 million.

Campari announced that it was offering Grand Marnier cash to buy shares for 8,050 euros apiece, which represents a premium of 60% to the value of the stock. It has already agreed to purchase shares that represent 17.2% of the business from members of the controlling family shareholders.

Campari, which is known best for Spritz cocktail that contains Aperol the orange aperitif, has grown through a number of different acquisitions that started in 1995. It is hoping that the French brand helps it to cash in on the classic cocktail renaissance that is especially big in the U.S.

In a prepared release, Campari said that Grand Marnier was a perfect fit for Campari’s strategy of acquisitions. It will join the portfolio of Campari of five brands that are high margin, whose sales increased by 10% during the 2015 second half.

Campari also is the owner of Wild Turkey, Cinzano, Aperol and of course Skyy Vodka.

This latest deal gives Campari a share of 1% of the entire market, said data taken from the site The Financial Times.

Diageo and Pernod Ricard, the two largest distillers control over 21% of the overall market. The global spirits industry remained fragmented as compared to beer even with a number of merger and acquisition activity of late.

The four big spirit companies represent over 33% of the sales, while the top four beer breweries represent more than 50% of the revenue from the beer industry.

Campari announced that it wanted to delist Grand Marnier shares from the stock exchange in France.

Shares in the Italian spirits makers were up 1% while shares for Grand Marnier had been suspended from any further trading.

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