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Drinks group Diageo is selling its subsidiary Guinness Ghana Breweries, days after denying reports that it was considering a sale of the entire Guinness brand.
The London-listed company said on Monday it was selling its 80 per cent stake in the Ghana subsidiary to French wine group Castel, which already acts as a brewing and distribution partner to Diageo in a number of African markets. A sale price of $81mn has been agreed.
The disposal follows speculation about Diageo’s portfolio of brands as it prepares to announce annual results next week. The company over the weekend was forced to deny reports that it was considering a sale of Guinness or its 34 per cent stake in Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits division of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH.
Investors and analysts expect Diageo to lower its ambitious midterm sales guidance of 5 to 7 per cent at its full-year earnings on February 4, following a period of slow growth.
Guinness Ghana, which is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, is the latest subsidiary Diageo has offloaded as it switches to what it calls an “asset-light” model in markets with greater currency and economic volatility such as in Africa.
Diageo has already sold Guinness Cameroon to Castel for £389mn and Meta Abo Brewery, its brewery in Ethiopia, to a unit of the French company.
In 2024, it sold its 58 per cent stake in its Lagos-listed subsidiary Guinness Nigeria to Singaporean conglomerate Tolaram for N81.60 per share or about N103bn ($70mn) during a broader exodus of western companies from the market on the back of a long-running currency crisis.
Diageo has also offloaded a string of underperforming brands over the past year, including Venezuelan rum Pampero and Dutch liqueur Safari.
