Vina San Pedro Tarapaca : Chinese company acquires stake of VSPT Wine Group

Tuesday January 23rd, 2018

Santiago, Chile. January 16th 2018. VSPT Wine Group, Chile's second largest wine producer and exporter, recently announced that Yanghe Distillery Co. acquired 12,5% stake of the winery. One of the largest and most important distilled drink producers in China, last Wednesday 3rd January, acquired the shares which belonged to minority shareholders. The purchase value was $65 million USD.

The main controller of VSPT continues to be the Chilean brewer, CCU S.A, which through its subsidiary CCU Inversiones S.A. owns 67.22% of the shares of VSPT. However, Pedro Herane, CEO of the winery, commented on the event in the following way, 'Without doubt, this new partner is a very good signal for the company and so we are very optimistic'.

Yanghe Distillery Co. is a large-scale and experienced partner in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, recording annual sales of over $3 billion USD. In 2012, it entered the wine industry with the brand Sidus, a Chilean wine produced by different Chilean wineries for the Chinese market. Nevertheless, it is widely renowned for the production and sale of spirits, and its main product is the Baijiu liquor.

VSPT Wine Group is the second-largest Chilean wine group and leader in the fine wines segment in the domestic Chilean market. It is comprised of 9 wineries: San Pedro -renowned for its brands GatoNegro, Castillo de Molina, 1865 Selected Vineyards and Cabo de Hornos-, Tarapacá, Misiones de Rengo, Leyda, Santa Helena, Viñamar and Casa Rivas in Chile, as well as Finca La Celia and Tamarí in Argentina.

As for the Chilean wine Industry, China led during 2017 the growth of wine exports, becoming the main destination for Chilean wine.