Starwood sells to Taittinger

The Taittinger-family will continue in front of the wellknown champagne brand of the same name. The American equity fund, Starwood Capital, has decided to sell the 300 hectares of vineyards, 22 million of bottles in the caves in Reims and whatever assets the company possesses to the bank Credit Agricole Nord-Est. In cooperation with the family it has bid approximately 660 million euro for the whole lot.

This means that Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, grandson of the founder of the company, can stay in the manager's office, which was already his at the time of the American buying last summer. The sale apparently was inevitable after rows between the 38 family members running the activities, where some were under pressure to sell shares in order to be able to pay French wealth tax.

The Starwood Capital fund came and bought the shares of the Belgian financer, Albert Frere, and the Peugeot-family. However, the Americans were only interested in the hotel-part of the empire. A sale of the champagnehouse was expected ever since.

Staff and suppliers happy
Now Starwood says that it chose Credit Agricole Nord-Est and the Taittinger-familys bid because it contained the fastest takeover, simple contract conditions and a will to secure the company and employment in the region. Thus, the fund did not just go for the maximum amount of money, says Patrick Wojtowicz, secretary in the worker's concil, to Bloomberg News.

This council met on Tuesday in order to discuss their opinion about the bid from Taittinger and Credit Agricole Nord-Est. They decided to be happy. Even they cannot veto, the staff have a right to be informed according to French law, and they can always use the rich, French tradition of strikes to create a real and expensive hell for an unpopular buyer. Strikes following an expected take-over was last seen when the house of Lanson was sold in the end of 2005. Unexpectedly Lanson was finally sold to the champagne group Boizel Chanoine Champagne instead of the Franco-American investment fund, Butler Capital Partners, that were the first favourite.

Also the winegrowers that deliver grapes to Taittinger are happy, which should ensure the necessary supplies of grapes. Even Taittinger possesses more vineyards than most big houses, it is not enough for the currenct production and they are therefore dependant on contracts with independent vignerons to buy more grapes.

However, since everybody say they are happy, the future so far seem quiet for a while. Now the next interesting question is when the bank, Credit Agricole Nord-Est, will want to leave with all the money, and if Taittinger by then will be ready to stand up economically on their own.

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