Officer’s Choice maker Allied Blenders revives share sale plan

BENGALURU: Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt. Ltd (ABD), India’s third largest liquor firm, is reviving plans to go public and aims to launch its share offering by the end of 2018 at a rough valuation of around $1.8 billion, a top company executive said.

The company plans to use the capital from the initial public offering (IPO), which will involve a 10% stake sale initially with an issue of around Rs1,000 crore, to trim debt and set up a malt spirit plant at its existing distillery in Telangana.

“We will definitely do it (the IPO) this year. Work is going on progressively but, of course, we have to keep a watch on the markets,” ABD’s executive vicechairman Deepak Roy said.

ABD has been planning an IPO for years. In August 2015, it had announced plans to go public over the following 18 months. In 2017, the company had planned to file its red herring prospectus well before the year ended and had mandated JM Financial and Credit Suisse to manage its IPO.

JM Financial and Credit Suisse continue to advise ABD on this.

“We felt it prudent to wait because of market conditions, and because our business was impacted by highway liquor sales ban and demonetisation and everything. Now, things are back to normal,” Roy said.

The liquor industry’s sales were hit in 2017 after the Supreme Court banned the sale of all alcohol near state and national highways leading to a significant, albeit temporary, closure in retail outlets.