India's First Wine, Food and Hospitality Website, INDIAN WINE ACADEMY, Specialists in Food & Wine Programmes. Food Importers in Ten Cities Across India. Publishers of delWine, India’s First Wine.
 
 
Skip Navigation Links
Home
About Us
Indian Market
Wine & Health
Wine Events
Hotels
Retail News
Blog
Contact Us
Skip Navigation Links
Wine Tourism
Book Review
Launch
Winery
TechTalk
Photo Gallery
Readers' Comments
Editorial
Media
Video Wall
Media Partners
Ask Wineguyindia
Wine & Food
Wine Guru
Perspectives
Gerry Dawes
Harvest Reports
Mumbai Reports
Advertise With Us
Classifieds
US Report on Indian Market Released
Top Ten Importers List 2015-16
On Facebook
 
On Twitter
Delhi Wine Club
 

Posted: Monday, October 27 2008. 10:35

Indage Puts Loxton Deal on Hold

The much publicised purchase of the Australian Loxton Winery, by Champagne Indage has been put on hold as the buyer has not been able to raise the necessary finances to close the deal within the agreed time period.

The A$60 million sale of South Australian winery owned by the third largest winemaker Australian Vintage, previously known as McGuigan Simon was to be completed earlier by September 30 but was delayed due to some regulatory hurdles and rescheduled to close on October 31.

Australian Vintage said last Friday that Champagne Indage had failed to arrange financing to complete the deal. "It's only in the last 24 hours or so that they notified us that they wouldn't be able to complete the purchase by October 31," Australian Vintage chief executive Dane Hudson reportedly said on Friday.

The deal is looking increasingly shaky according to a report. According to several Indian media reports, Indage is now seeking to raise Rs. 1.2 billion ($A37.5 million) in new shares, a herculean task in today's economic scenario.

The financially stretched Australian Vintage has been trying to sell this winery, one of the top five by volume in Australia, for the past 18 months.

According to the news report, Indage also failed to honour an agreement to pay Australian Vintage the $3 million deposit on Loxton last week. "To date we haven't received the deposit but that is part of the discussions we're having with them at the moment," he said.

However, when delWine contacted, Ranjit Chougule, Managing Director of Indage to clarify about the deal, he was quick to respond. ' The deal is not off – but only delayed mutually by both the parties. We are trying to conclude within this year,' he said.

With the current economic scenario it may not be easy to arrange financing for the deal and Australian Vintage might have to look at the contingency plan it claims it has. There may be cancellation penalties which might be enforceable, in case the deal is called off by Indage.

Champagne Indage had established a foothold in Australia through the purchase of Tandou winery in South Australia last year. The announcement in March of the Loxton buyout had created waves in the Australian and Indian wine circles.

Indage shares have nose-dived from a high of Rs. 981 to touch the yearly low of Rs. 146 last Friday, plunging 75% on the Mumbai Stock Exchange during the current economic meltdown. With 14.58 million shares issued and the rupee piercing the Rs. 50 to a dollar mark, the net capitalisation of the company has come down drastically to approximately  $42.15 million.

http://business.smh.com.au

       

Want to Comment ?
Name    
Email       
Please enter your comments in the space provided below. If there is a problem, please write directly to arora@delwine.com. Thank you.
 

Captcha
Generate a new image

Type letters from the image:


Please note that it may take some time to get your comment published...Editor

Wine In India, Indian Wine, International Wine, Asian Wine Academy, Beer, Champagne, World Wine Academy, World Wine, World Wines, Retail, Hotel

     
 

 
 
Copyright©indianwineacademy, 2003-2020 |All Rights Reserved
Developed & Designed by Sadilak SoftNet