AROUND £3 billion has been added to the stock market worth of Scotch whisky giant Diageo after its share price surged by seven per cent on speculation it is a takeover target for South American billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann.
The Johnnie Walker, Bell's and Guinness maker topped the risers chart on the FTSE-100 following press reports in Brazil linking the distiller with an approach from Mr Lemann's 3G Capital, the private equity firm currently merging Heinz with Kraft.
The share price closed up 6.79 per cent, or 119.5p, at 1,880p.
That gave Diageo, which employs about 4,000 staff in Scotland, a market value of £47.2 billion.
The rise in Diageo's shares mirrored gains made by the stock on the company's US-listed shares on Friday, after the London market closed for the weekend. Reports have suggested Mr Lemann has held talks with unknown executives over tabling an offer for Diageo.
The speculation comes after 3G, which acquired Burger King from Diageo in 2010, was linked with a bid for SABMiller from Budweiser owner AB-InBev in the spring.
Affiliates of 3G's partners have held "meaningful" stakes in AB-In-Bev since 1989, according to the company's website.
Diageo made no comment on the speculation.
Veteran whisky analyst Alan Gray said a bid for Diageo would come as a major surprise, given the "astronomical" sum which would be required by would-be buyers to pull a deal off. However, he said Japanese drinks giant Suntory's £9.8 billion acquisition of New York-listed Beam in early 2014, owner of whisky brands Teacher's and Laphroaig, last year had "set the bar" for purchasing major distillery businesses.
And with Diageo significantly bigger than Beam, he said its leaders can point to that deal and say: "That's the yardstick, which would be incredibly expensive."
He also said that, with Diageo and other major distillers experiencing problems in markets such as China and Russia, a bid for the world's biggest drinks firm is more realistic now than when exports were booming in the previous decade.
Mr Gray said: "A lot of the growth the industry was predicting was based on China continuing to expand. If that is suddenly knocked on the head, you need a lot of other markets to make it [the loss].
"I think the industry is still doing reasonably well but yes, the froth has come off."
Asked if he felt Diageo was currently under-performing, Mr Gray said: "I wouldn't specifically say that. I would say they are definitely having a difficult time.
"Clearly that is often a trigger for people seeing an opportunity.
"There is no point in buying at the top of the market, so if things are off a wee bit and the share price is back a wee bit, it does open up the possibility of someone looking at it."
He added: "Obviously the market thinks there might be something in it given the share price is up."
3G merged Burger King with Tim Hortons to form Restaurant Brands International in December.
Then in March it linked up with Berkshire Hathaway to merge HJ Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group, forming the Kraft Heinz Company. That followed 3G and Berkshire's acquisition of Heinz in June 2013.
Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said: "The news adds fizz back to recently hindered DGE shares and offsets late-March speculation that the South-American predator was more interested in food than drink, electing to pursue Kraft for a tie-up with previously-acquired Heinz, which in turn suggested a bid for fellow brewer SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch InBev was off the table."
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