The Keepers buying half of Spanish brandy maker
The Keepers Holdings Inc., businessman Lucio Co’s liquor importation and distribution company, is acquiring half of the company that makes Alfonso brandy, the top imported brandy in the Philippines.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its has approved the plan to acquire up to 50 percent of the total shareholdings of Bodegas Williams & Humbert, SA.
The Keepers said its Board of Directors appointed Isla Lipana & Co. (PwC) to render a Fairness Opinion on the intended transaction. No pricing and details have been approved yet, pending the release of PwC's Fairness Opinion.
Bodegas Williams & Humbert is a Spanish company with over 140 years of history producing alcoholic beverages. It is the producer of Alfonso which accounts for 60 percent of The Keepers’ revenue.
The Keepers reported a 39.5 percent jump in net income for the first half of 2022 to P980.7 million from the P702.8 million earned in in the same period last year.
It said this is due to a combination of the strong sales recovery performance, better margins with a corresponding better management of cost and operating expenses.
Increase in the interest income as well as net foreign exchange gains realized also contributed to the growth.
The Keepers’ consolidated net sales for the six-month period ended June 30, 2022 amounted to P5.5 billion, 27.4 percent from P4.3 billion for the same period in 2021.
The strong growth in sales is attributable to the robust sales performance from all categories particularly the recovering demand and consumption from the on-premise channel as well as the gradually increasing demand from the travel retail market resulting from the easing community restrictions.
All these developments contributed to the overall 23 percent growth in sales volume during the first semester despite some price increase implemented which accounted for about 10 percent of the sales revenue growth.
Moreover, the wines and specialty beverage categories posted higher growth rates which are 57 percent and 106 percent, respectively, reinforcing the consistently growing sales driven by brandy category driven by the group’s flagship brand, Alfonso Brandy.