British drinks group Diageo is weeks away from buying a minority stake in the owner of the world's no. 1 tequila brand, Jose Cuervo, a business valued at $3 billion-plus, with talks focusing on whether the Beckmann family will take shares or cash. A deal which will allow Diageo to take majority control of the business at a later date is the current favoured option as the Beckmanns are not keen on selling out completely and are eager to benefit from future growth, sources close to the talks said. (Reuters)
Activist shareholder Ralph Whitworth has built a stake worth about $610 million in PepsiCo Inc. and held meetings with the soft-drink maker's executives. Whitworth's Relational Investors LLC held almost 9 million shares as of March 31, or 0.6 percent of shares outstanding, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. (SF Gate)
Danish brewer Carlsberg has made an offer to minority shareholders of Russia’s largest beer producer Baltika to purchase the remaining 15 percent of Baltika’s stock, the Russian firm said on Tuesday. (RIA Novosti)
n celebrating its 150th anniversary year, Bacardi Limited is kicking off a month-long corporate responsibility initiative promoting volunteerism throughout its company. Through its “Spirit for Life, Caring Together” program, Bacardi celebrates its year-round corporate responsibility activities and declares the month of May for employees to work together on community projects around the world including home building and meal distribution for needy families; fundraisers for educational, arts and cultural programs; clothing and blood drives; young adult mentorship programs; park and community center clean-ups; recycling programs; bat conservation efforts; among others.
In the lawsuit a bankruptcy court trustee had accused law firm K & L Gates of professional negligence for its role in an investigation that failed to uncover massive fraud at Le-Nature's. (CBS)
The Bronx Brewery, the latest craft brewery to come out of New York City, announces a new partnership with The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), a number of Bronx, New York-based community gardens, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension on an Urban Hop Project, bringing hop growing and an Urban Hop beer to New York City. A diverse group of Bronx community gardens, including several community gardens in NYBG’s Bronx Green-up program and a Catholic parish, have planted 125 Cascade hop plants this spring to be grown and harvested for a special Urban Hop beer to be brewed and released by The Bronx Brewery later this year.
