DIAGEO is reported to be narrowing down a list of bidders for Scotch whisky maker Whyte & Mackay.
More than 20 companies are believed to have noted an interest in buying the Glasgow business.
Private equity firms Lion Capital, TPG and KKR are among those thought to be in the running as well as Thai Beverage, Stolichnaya vodka owner SPI Group and Italian drinks company Campari.
Former Whyte & Mackay chief Vivian Imerman, who runs London based investment firm Vasari, has also expressed his desire to run the company again.
Diageo is being forced to offload Whyte & Mackay to satisfy competition watchdogs following its long running acquisition of a stake in Vijay Mallya's United Spirits. It is not yet known whether Dalmore and Tamnavulin, distilleries and brands which Diageo wanted to retain, will be included in the deal.
Separately, Beam Inc shareholders have voted to approve its £9.8 billion takeover by Japanese drinks giant Suntory.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article