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Billionaire Vijay Mallya’s UB Group will buy a stake in an Indian alcohol maker and merge its breweries, including a venture with Heineken NV, with United Breweries Ltd., the owner of the nation’s biggest beer brand.
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United Breweries, the Bangalore-based maker of Kingfisher beer, rose as much as 2.9 percent to 448 rupees in Mumbai. The shares traded at 439.10 rupees as of 12:01 p.m. local time after the brewer said in a stock exchange filing it would absorb the group’s brewery units and acquire Millennium Alcobev Pvt., its venture with Amsterdam-based Heineken.
United Spirits Ltd., the group’s whiskey and rum making unit, separately announced that it would buy a 54.7 percent stake in Pioneer Distilleries Ltd. to boost capacity. United Spirits fell 1.3 percent to 1,602.30 rupees.
The Pioneer purchase will increase United Spirits’ alcohol manufacturing capacity by 160 kiloliters a day, according to the statement.
United Spirits will spend 740 million rupees ($16 million) to buy 7,322,280 shares of Pioneer at 101 rupees apiece, or a 44 percent premium to the stock’s closing price yesterday. Pioneer rose as much as 5.1 percent to 73.85 rupees. United Spirits will also make an open offer for a further 20 percent of Pioneer.
