Aust firm buys Matua outright

By DITA DE BONI liquor writer

The wine arm of Foster's Brewing Group will own 100 per cent of Matua Valley Wines within three years.

Just over half of Waimauku-based Matua is to be sold to Foster's Beringer Blass Wines Estates for $11.2 million, with the rest of the company swallowed up in 2004. This depends on Overseas Investment Commission approval.

Matua's Ross Spence, who founded the company with his brother Bill in 1974, said he had some regrets in ceding the company to the Australians, but is excited about the prospects for the company's product now it has access to substantial international distribution networks.

Matua, which has annual sales of around $12 million, has a full range of wines under the Matua, Ararimu and Shingle Peak labels.

It has a relationship with Beringer Blass in New Zealand through subsidiary Cardmember Wines, which sells Matua wine.

The latest deal between the two was struck after Matua's majority shareholders, the Margan Family, indicated that they wanted to sell their 47.5 per cent holding. Mr Spence says interest in the holding from overseas wine concerns was substantial.

Beringer Blass was the buyer that most impressed PricewaterhouseCoopers, the agent charged with selling the Margan holding. But the Australians insisted on taking 51 per cent of the company and the remaining shareholders "did not want to be in a vulnerable position," says Mr Spence.

The price for the remaining 49 per cent in the company will be linked to Matua's future earnings and capital management.

Beringer has indicated particular interest in adding a local pinot noir to its portfolio. At present, pinot noir makes up only a small proportion of Matua's 135,000 cases of wine sold annually, although production will double by 2005. Matua at present exports just 35 per cent of its production, mostly sauvignon blanc, into Australia and Europe.