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Diageo-controlled United Spirits has exited United Breweries selling its entire remaining stake of 3.21 per cent stake to Heineken for ₹872 crore.
In a statement to the stock exchanges, United Spirits said it no longer remains the promoter of United Breweries. Heineken will be the new promoter of beer maker, United Breweries. United Spirits said it was selling a total of 85 lakh shares for ₹1,030 per share to the Dutch company. After the sale, Heineken will own 42.06 per cent stake in United Breweries while the UB Group will hold 32.76 per cent.
The divestment of UB shares is part of the monetisation process of some of its non-core assets, United Spirits said in a statement to the stock exchanges.
Following the announcement, USL’s shares rose 2 per cent to ₹3,499.55 while that of United Breweries went down 1 per cent to ₹1,014.10 at the close of Tuesday’s trading.
Proceeds from the sale will help United Spirits to pare its losses. During the fourth quarter of 2014-15, it posted a net loss of ₹1,799.3 crore on a total income of ₹2,051.3 crore. The exceptional loss was due to the provisions made for loans and advances with respect to Whyte & Mackay which was sold to Emperador, a Philippines-based brandy maker.
United Spirits early this year asked its chairman and former owner Vijay Mallya to step down from the chairman’s post as well as the board after an internal probe revealed fund diversion to the tune of ₹1,337 crore to Kingfisher and other UB Group companies.
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