Daily Mail

Chinese glugging Australian wines

-

A US private equity firm is snapping up Australia’s largest wine maker for £500m as it looks to cash in on China’s burgeoning taste for wine.

The Carlyle group said it will buy Accolade Wines after exports of wine to China rose 63pc last year to £465m, putting it second only to France.

Accolade owns Banrock Station, Echo Falls, Kumala and hardys, the latter of which is the best-selling Australian wine in the UK. The group sells over 35m cases to 140 countries a year including the US, Japan, new Zealand and China.

Chinese drinkers have been knocking back more Australian wine after a trade agreement in 2015 saw import tariffs slashed from as much as 20pc to about 3pc.

The purchase is seen as a major opportunit­y for Carlyle after China introduced retaliator­y 15pc tariffs on wine exports from the US as part of a tit-for-tat trade spat with president Trump.

According to Accolade’s current owner, Champ private Equity, the wine maker is expected to grow China exports by around 80pc this year.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom