United Spirits has said reports Diageo is mulling its options for its interest in IPL cricket team Royal Challengers Bengaluru are “speculative”.
Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said Diageo, which owns the side through its controlling interest in United Spirits, had held talks with possible advisors.
Go deeper with GlobalData
In a brief stock-exchange filing today (10 June), the publicly-listed United Spirits said: “The company would like to clarify that aforesaid media reports are speculative in nature and it is not pursuing any such discussions”.
Last month, Diageo CFO Nik Jhangiani said the drinks giant could make “substantial changes” to its product portfolio in the form of asset disposals.
Speaking to analysts, Jhangiani said Diageo had identified opportunities to offload assets that were different in scope to the deals the Johnnie Walker maker had conducted in recent years.
“Clearly we see through our reviews that we’ve been doing internally and with the board some opportunities for what I would call substantial changes versus portfolio trimming,” Jhangiani said.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“I can’t say any more than that but clearly it’s going to be above and beyond the usual smaller brand disposals that you’ve seen over the last three years.”
Diageo has offloaded assets including rum brands Cacique and Pampero and Safari liqueur. The group has also sold assets in Africa, although in October it reportedly called off the sale of its Pimm’s gin-based liqueur after failing to secure an agreement with potential buyers.
Jhangiani was speaking after Diageo announced plans to save around $500m in costs over the next three years.
United Spirits acquired its interest in RCB in 2008.
According to Diageo’s annual report, the group owns just under 55.9% in United Spirits.
