Beam, Distiller Of Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, Sold To Japanese Company, America Weeps

Rob Fox12 years ago

Beam, the maker of Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, has been sold to Suntory Holdings Ltd., of Japan. Is nothing sacred!?! My grandfather didn’t fight a GODDAMN WAR against the Japanese to have some of America’s greatest liquors end up getting sold to them, and the fact that Maker’s Mark wasn’t even created until 9 years after that war ended is COMPLETELY ERRONEOUS! I feel like I’ve been blindsided. This is like a Pearl Harbor for my liver.

Naturally, all parties involved are using the old “good business move” excuse.

Beam, the maker of Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbons along with other liquor brands, has agreed to be acquired by Japan’s Suntory Holdings Ltd. for approximately $13.62 billion.

Shares of the spirits maker jumped in Monday premarket trading.

…

The combined company is expected to have annual sales of spirits products of more than $4.3 billion.

Beam President and CEO Matt Shattock and the Deerfield, Ill., company’s current management will continue to run the business.

Suntory will pay $83.50 per share, a 25 percent premium to Beam’s Friday closing price of $66.97. The companies put the deal’s value at about $16 billion, including debt.

Suntory plans to fund the deal with available cash and fully committed financing from The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Both companies’ boards unanimously approved the transaction, which is targeted to close in the second quarter.

This makes me sick, like, “I just drank way too much Jim Beam and threw up in my lap during an OTPHJ from my date on the bus to formal,” sick. That is a very specific, very real, and very terrible type of sick.

One man in particular stands to make a whole balls ton of money off the deal, according to Business Insider.

This is a huge score for Bill Ackman, who runs Pershing Square Capital.

As of September 30, 2013 Pershing Square held 20,818,545, or 12.77%, of Beam shares, 13F data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

Assuming he hasn’t pared back his stake, Ackman has made about $371,016,525 on this position since Friday.

Dealbook’s Michael J. De La Merced points out that Ackman was the one who pushed for Beam to split from Fortune Brands a few years ago. Since Beam became a separate company in October 2011, shares have risen more nearly 24%.

A 13F filing for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, shows that Ackman has held the same amount (20,818,545 shares) of shares in Beam. That means he has made around $688,499,336 on this position since that time.

If you all wanted to know where the obscene amounts of money you spent on whiskey was going, look no further than the pockets of Bill Ackman, Whiskey Tycoon (dammit that’s frat). I want to hate him, but making 600 million on whiskey and earning the title Whiskey Tycoon (albeit from me) is a pretty solid TFM. I assume he has not one but two frivolously luxurious swimming pools, one filled with gold coins and another filled with whiskey.

America just got a little emptier today, you guys.

[via Yahoo!, Business Insider]