Diageo to sell Whyte & Mackay over UK Office of Fair Trade's competition concerns

New Delhi: British multinational alcoholic beverages company Diageo Plc has offered to sell most shares of its lately acquired Whyte & Mackay from India’s United Spirits Ltd. Diageo and United Spirits are both suppliers of spirits in the UK and across the world.The sell-off of W&M, except two malt distilleries, followed to address competition concerns regarding bottled blended Scotch whisky – arising from Diageo’s completed acquisition of USL – were raised by Office of Fair Trading (OFT), UK.

                              

A number of retailers expressed concerns to the OFT about possible price rises for bottled blended whisky sold in the UK as a result of the merger’, OFT said in a press release on Monday. ‘The merger may lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the supply of blended whisky to retailers’, it added.‘These companies are two of the leading suppliers of blended bottled whisky in the UK, especially to supermarkets and other large retailers. Our investigation considered a wide range of evidence and we concluded that the likely loss of competition could give rise to higher prices for retailers, and ultimately consumers’, Chris Walters, OFT Chief Economist and Decision Maker said in this case.Read more at-http://daily.bhaskar.com/