HONG KONG: Chinese strategic investors are being courted to take a cornerstone stake in the country’s second-largest wine company Accolade Wines ahead of its looming $1 billion-plus initial public offering. Accolade’s advisers and executives reckon they are a good bet given how enamoured China’s elite are becoming with the booming sales of Treasury Wine Estates and its big brands Penfolds and Wolf Blass in Asia.
As Street Talk revealed on Thursday, Accolade management and CHAMP Private Equity representatives will be in Hong Kong and China next week for a series of meetings to introduce Accolade to potential institutional investors ahead of the IPO in the first half of 2017. It’s understood the team will also press the flesh with Chinese strategic players with a view towards securing pre-prospectus cornerstone commitments.
Australia’s wine exports to mainland China have climbed by 50 per cent in the past 12 months to $419 million. Accolade management and top brass from 80 per cent owner CHAMP will point to the rising sales to Asia of some of Accolade’s key brands, such as Hardys and Grant Burge.
