Suntory Buys Jim Beam

choi

In chronological order.

(1) Mike Esterl and Hiroyuki Kachi, Bourbon Buzz Fuels Deal for Jim Beam; Beam’s shares rallied 25% on the news, but finished slightly below the offer of $83.50 a share. Wall Street Journal, Jan 14, 2014 (front page).
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702304549504579318191784128798

Quote:

“Osaka, Japan-based beer and soft-drinks maker Suntory Holdings Ltd agreed Monday [Jan 13] to buy Beam Inc, the owner of Jim Beam [and other brands of] bourbons and the second-largest maker of American whiskey behind Brown-Forman Corp. The acquisition would catapult family-owned Suntory from No 15 in global liquor dollar sales to No 3, behind only UK-based Diageo PLC and France's Pernod Ricard SA, according to alcohol industry tracker IWSR. Beam, based in Deerfield [a Chicago suburb], Ill, currently is No 4 globally.

“The traditional American spirit [bourbon whiskey] is made mostly from corn, aged in charred oak barrels and typically hails from Kentucky. Its popularity is building as some consumers grow tired of vodka, the top-selling US spirit. Long in the doldrums, US bourbon has made a comeback in the past decade and production in 2012 rose above one million barrels for the first time since 1973.

“Beam traces its flagship bourbon to 1795, when Jacob Beam sold his first barrel, the first of seven generations and 30 family members of master distillers. One of them, James or "Jim'' Beam, restarted production after Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

“Matt Shattock, Beam's president and chief executive, and the current management team will continue to lead the Beam business from the company's headquarters outside Chicago, Suntory said.

“Unlike chief U.S. whiskey rival Brown-Forman, Beam isn't family controlled. Many other large liquor companies, like rum maker Bacardi Ltd., are either family controlled or not publicly listed. That has kept a cap on big-bang deals in the still-fragmented liquor industry. The four largest spirits companies have a combined 9% of global volume and 22% of dollar sales, according to Bernstein Research. The four largest players in the beer industry by contrast control 47% and 49% of global volume and dollar sales, respectively.


Note:
(a) The print edition (but not online) has a graphic that shows global ranking of liquor makers, but the graphic is not important.

(b) “Suntory brings to the party Japanese whiskeys Yamazaki, Hakushu, and others, plus Midori liqueur.”
(i) Both whiskies, Yamazaki 山崎 and Hakushū 白州蒸溜所 are produced at 山崎蒸溜所 (in 大阪府) and 白州蒸溜所 (in 山梨県
), respectively.
(ii) The midori corresponds to the kanji 緑, but the Midori is written in English only, not in Japanese (even in Japan). See
Midori (liqueur)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_(liqueur)

(c) "Suntory also owns European soft-drinks company Orangina * * * It is a big brewer, selling beer under the Suntory brand."
(i) “Created in 1933, Orangina was the brainchild of Dr Agustin Trigo Mirallès, a Spanish pharmacist who lived in Valencia and had briefly served as [its] mayor” (quoting the recently published book “Fizz”). Dr Trigo called it Naranjina.
(ii) Orangina
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangina
(French Algerian Léon Beton bought the concept and recipe for Naranjina in 1935)
(iii) Spanish-English dictionary:

* naranja (noun feminine; from Arabic nāranj, from Persian nārang, from Sanskrit nāraṅg): “orange” the fruit
* naranja (noun masculine): “orange” the color
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/naranja
(iv) A maker distills spirits (including whiskey) but brews beer.

distilled beverage
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distilled_beverage
(or spirit, hard liquor or liquor; sectin 1 Nomenclature; section 2 Etymology)

choi

(2) Hiroyuki Kachi and Phred Dvorak, Suntory Enters World Stage; Beam deal to present overseas management challenges for Japanese company.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702303819704579320470878396540

Quote:

(a) “For the privately held, family-run company that started 115 years ago as a wine shop in Osaka and was still pulling nearly 80% of its ¥1.85 trillion ($17.96 billion) in revenue from Japan last year, that expanded global presence could prove tough to manage, experts say.

(b) “Suntory's founder, a 20-year-old merchant named Shinjiro TORII 鳥井 信治郎, started the company in 1899 and obtained a reputation for an aggressive style that encouraged risk-taking, embodied by his expression ‘yatte minahare.'’

"’I explain it as “take a risk” or “go for it,”’ said Nobuhiro TORII 鳥井 信宏, a great-grandson of the Suntory founder and who currently runs the beverage unit. ‘What it means is to aggressively take on new challenges.’

“Under the founder, and other family members who succeeded him as president, Suntory management also became known for its willingness to wait a long time for results. The company took 46 years to make a profit on beer.

“Last year, Suntory listed its beverage unit to generate more money for deals, netting $3.9 billion. But the parent company is still 90%-held by family members, a stake that last April made [Suntory CEO/] President 社長 Nobutada SAJI 佐治 信忠 the second-wealthiest man in Japan, after Fast Retailing Co [Uniqlo a subsidiary] Chief Executive [and founder] Tadashi YANAI 柳井 正, with assets valued at $10.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine

Note:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b)
(i) yatte minahare  やって みなはれ
is said to be “very ancient Osaka dialect” (“ずいぶん古い大阪弁”).
greenSpider, 「みなはれ」の使い方？
OKWave, Nov 1, 2011
okwave.jp/qa/q7106624.html

* zuibun 随分【ずいぶん】 (adv): "very; extremely"
* Osaka ben 大阪弁 【おおさかべん】 (n): "Osaka dialect"
(ii) The modern word (in root form):
yatte miru  やって見る 【やってみる】 (v): "to have a go; to try and do (something); to take a chance with something"  

The verb is a combination of two modern verbs:
* yaru やる (v): “to do”
* miru 見る 【みる】 (v): “to see”

(c) The report mentions two Japanese analysts.
(i) Takaaki UMEZAWA  梅沢 高明
(ii) Takayuki KITO  鬼頭 孝幸

, which appears in the Japanese-language of the report.
Hiroyuki Kachi and Phred Dvorak, サントリー、世界市場で正念場迎える. ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル日本版, Jan 15, 2014.

As you can see, Mr Kachi uses English byline even in Japanese-language reports.