Constellation Brands Close to Sale of its Canadian Wine Division
October 16 2016 - 9:50PM
Dow Jones News
Constellation Brands Inc. is close to an agreement to sell its
Canadian wine business to Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in a deal
valued at about 1 billion Canadian dollars ($760 million),
according to people familiar with the deal.
The acquisition could be announced as early as Monday morning,
these people said.
Constellation, based in Victor, N.Y., announced in April it
planned to explore an initial public offering for its Canadian wine
business but put the business up for sale after receiving overtures
from a handful of Canadian wineries and Ontario Teachers', the
people said.
The planned sale highlights Constellation's sharpened focus on
premium spirits, beer and wine. The company has strung together a
series of deals for higher-priced alcohol products over the past
year, buying craft brewer Ballast Point, wine-maker Prisoner Wine
Co. and whiskey-maker High West Distillery.
Constellation is jettisoning its Canadian unit, which includes
such wine labels as Jackson-Triggs and Sumac Ridge, 10 years after
it acquired Vincor International Inc. for C$1.27 billion.
Constellation is keeping Vincor's international wine labels,
including Australia's Kim Crawford, that came with the 2006
purchase.
Publicly traded Constellation began as a bulk wine purveyor in
the 1940s and grew into one of the U.S.'s largest alcohol companies
by acquiring well-known brands like Robert Mondavi and Clos du
Bois. Much of its sales now comes from Mexican beers like Corona
Extra and Modelo Especial, which it bought for the U.S. market in
2013.
Ontario Teachers' was a former Vincor investor and has long
regarded the wine business as a growth industry. The pension fund
is one of Canada's largest and the planned acquisition would expand
its portfolio of consumer-goods companies.
Write to Jacquie McNish at Jacquie.McNish@wsj.com and Tripp
Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 16, 2016 21:35 ET (01:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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