Diageo Offers $1.9 Billion in 2nd Bid to Control United Spirits

Diageo Plc offered to pay 114 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) to gain control of United Spirits Ltd. in a second attempt to extend its reach in the world’s largest whiskey market. United surged to a record.

The London-based maker of Johnnie Walker scotch and Smirnoff vodka offered to buy as much as 26 percent of India’s biggest spirits company for 3,030 rupees a share, aiming to boost its shareholding to as much as 55 percent, Diageo said in an e-mailed statement today. That compares with the 1,440 rupees it offered shareholders in its last open offer in November 2012.