Wine giant Distell announced that it has made a black economic empowerment deal which will benefit the company's employees.

The announcement from the company says that ‘a BEE consortium will acquire an effective 15% in South African Distilleries and Wines Limited (SADW), the company in which all Distell's operations are held'.

A new company, WIP Beverages, will be set up. It comprises Distell employees, Wiphold - the women's investment and empowerment group - and a corporate social investment trust, called CSI,  created to ‘benefit disadvantaged communities in those areas where Distell conducts most of its activities'.

The way the deal is structured - involving the subsidiary SADW - it will have no direct effect on immediate Distell shareholding. The latter is in the hands mostly of Remgro, KWV and SABMiller.

The Cape Times quotes Julian Wentzel of First South Securities who said that the deal ‘failed to resolve issues posed by the counter's lack of liquidity'. In the longer term Distell will have to change its shareholding, he suggested.

(Source: Grape News # 30,September  2005)