Companies

Bright Food denies Treasury Wine buy talks

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-07-05 15:46

China's Bright Food Group said on Tuesday it is not in talks to buy any Australian wine assets, denying a media report that it was in internal talks on bidding for Australia's Treasury Wine Estates Ltd.

"Currently, we have no Australian wine acquisitions in the works," said Pan Jianjun, general manager of the firm's public relations department.

Pan said that in the future Bright Food could consider acquiring wine assets in Australia, France, Chile and the United States.

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Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Bright Food was considering making an offer for Treasury Wine Estates.

The report sent the shares of Treasury Wine Estates up 11 percent on Monday. Its shares were trading 2.2 percent lower on Tuesday.

Treasury Wine, with brands including Penfolds, Rosemount and Beringer, was spun off by Foster's Group in May to its shareholders after the brewer failed with an expansion into wine that resulted in nearly A$3 billion ($3.2 billion) Australia in write-downs.

Bright Food has been actively looking for acquisitions overseas. However, it has been unsuccessful thus far with a string of failed bids that includes CSR's sugar business and French yoghurt maker Yoplait. Bright Food was reportedly in talks to buy US nutritional retailer GNC and UK's United Biscuits, but talks fell apart over pricing and terms.

Treasury Wine, the world's second-largest wine company behind Constellation Brands, owns vineyards from Hunter Valley near Sydney to Napa Valley in California. ($1 = A$0.931)