Campari’s deal comes with French Riviera chaser

Davide Campari-Milano is getting more than a popular liqueur brand with its acquisition of Grand Marnier Group.

The Italian distiller also takes ownership of a historic villa in a French coastal town that’s reputed to have the most expensive residential real estate in the world.

The Marnier-Lapostolle family that controls Grand Marnier has owned Villa les Cedres in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat since the 1920s.

The property, surrounded by a 14-hectare botanical garden, is on a peninsula that juts into the Mediterranean between Nice and Monaco.

The neighbours include Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Lukoil executive Leonid Fedun, the Ferrero family of Nutella fame and Curt Engelhorn, the great grandson of the founder of Germ‘‘an chemical company BASF, according to media reports.

Campari said it plans to sell the property and share the proceeds with Grand Marnier shareholders. Buyers may be hard to come by in a market where, according to the French finance magazine Capital, properties can fetch more than 200,000 euros ($220,000) a square metre.

Russian tycoons bid up prices in recent years, but those buyers have disappeared amid the Russian economic slump and the plunge in oil prices, said Alexandra Connolly, who runs a real-estate agency in the area.

‘‘It’s without a doubt the most expensive place on the French Riviera and it’s probably one of the most expensive places in the world,’’ she said. ‘‘Now we’ve had 10 years of people coming in and just paying more and more and more and more and more, and now, if the Russians aren’t there, there’s no real clientele that will come in and can or want to pay those prices.’’

At least one Russian billionaire has already expressed buyer’s remorse in the exclusive region. The area has long been a playground for the fabulously wealthy.

King Leopold II of Belgium owned Villa les Cedres before Louis-Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle bought the property in the 1920s. Campari, which makes Wild Turkey bourbon and Skyy vodka alongside its namesake dark red liqueur, acknowledged that the sale may not happen quickly.