FE Editorial : Not quite on the rocks

Financial analysts are fretting over the premium valuations that British liquor-maker Diageo will be paying for a stake in Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits much like they frowned upon Tata Motors when it bought the marquee Jaguar and Land Rover brands back in 2008. Tata Motors borrowed heavily to foot the $2.3 billion bill for the loss-making JLR; Diageo will be much less indebted after it knocks back a 53.4% stake in USL for about $2 billion even though the deal doesn’t come cheap at 20 times March 2012 ebitda. As Breakingviews columnist Quentin Webb points out, it would take Diageo a good six years to earn a return higher than its 12% cost of capital. But the world’s biggest maker of spirits, which has waited a long time to set foot in the Indian market, must surely know that. And it would have figured by now that teaming up with the market leader would be the easier way into the Indian market; negotiating high entry manufacturing and distribution barriers in a country where every state has its own sets of liquor laws and politicians can be tricky. Given the scarcity of prospective partners, it’s been a long wait, but given Mallya’s track record with other partners, the alliance should pay off. 

India, for Diageo, would be a play on consumers getting a lot more up-market, a trend that promises to get bigger as the catchment grows and per capita consumption goes up. The firm,

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