Fosters, the largest drinks firm in Australian, has put its wine division up for sale, finally acknowledging that the business it spent A$7 million putting together, according to The Economist, was a disaster. The company will now return to its traditional role as a purveyor of Australian beer, with more than 100 brands, but the wine foray may have weakened it so badly that it appears to be a buyout target for global drinks companies.
The wine business, under the name Treasury Wine Estates, will be listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange 10 May, following shareholders’ approval 1 May of the demerger and the Supreme Court’s approval 4 May. Fosters renamed its wine business in 2010, but the move met with skepticism. Wine Spectator asked in July 2010 if the new name would make it more attractive to investors, pointing to the likelihood of a selloff, saying then that “analysts believe Treasury could be worth between $1.25 billion and $3.57 billion.”
Fosters added several mid-range and sometimes mediocre wine lines to its business not long before Australian wine was hit by a costly combination of over-supply and under-demand. The wine business, says the Spectator, embraces “30,000 acres, 20 wineries and 50 brands from Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy and California, including icons like Penfolds, Beringer and Chateau St Jean.”
But known names was not enough to turn a profit, says The Economist. “A series of acquisitions, including paying $1.1 billion for Beringer, a Californian label, in 2000 and culminating in the purchase of Southcorp (owner of Penfolds, Lindemans and Rosemount) in 2005 for A$3.2 billion ($3.5 billion), performed so badly that it cost Trevor O’Hoy, Fosters’ chief executive, his job in 2008.”
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