Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is reportedly mulling the sale of its shares in Philippines-headquartered distiller Emperador.
GIC is reported to be in early talks with financial advisers over the divestment of its minority share of the business.
It first bought a 9.64% stake in the Singapore and Philippine-listed global brand and whisky conglomerate in 2014 via its private-equity arm Arran.
According to a report in The Business Times, GIC now owns a 12% stake in Emperador.
Just Drinks has contacted GIC and Emperador for comment.
Emperador, which owns Scotch brands Jura and The Dalmore, claims to be the Philippines’ biggest liquor company and the world’s largest brandy producer. Its portfolio also includes Andy Player whisky and Spanish brandy Fundador.
In the 2022 financial year, Emperador posted revenues of 62.8bn Philippine pesos ($1.1bn), up 12% year on year. This was driven by demand in Asia, North America and Europe, it said. Whisky sales were up 18% year on year to 22.1bn Philippine pesos.
EBITDA was down 9.3% to 13.8bn Philippine pesos for FY22, which the company put down to “higher opex in response to increased reopening around the world”. Gross margins were flat at 10.1bn Philippine pesos “due to higher COGS and opex”.
In July, Emperador announced a $125m investment in Scotch whisky subsidiary Whyte and Mackay – which it says is the fifth-largest Scotch whisky manufacturer in the world. Single malts form 70% of the company’s branded Scotch Whisky business and are a strategic focus, it said in its April results statement.
Emperador will double the size of its whisky maturation complex at its Invergordon distillery in Scotland to 92 hectares from 45.4 hectares.
The expansion will allow extra warehouses to be built over the coming decades, eventually housing up to an additional 1.5 million casks of maturing whisky, Emperador said in a statement at the time.
