United Spirits Ltd.

United spirits (USL) is trading in high spirit since early deals as UK-based Diageo Plc has confirmed to be in talks to buy stake in the Vijay Mallya-owned firm.

USL is currently trading at Rs 1112.00, up by 58.00 points or 5.50% from its previous closing of Rs 1054.00 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs 1064.90 and has touched a high and low of Rs 1119.15 and Rs 1061.00 respectively. So far 1167555 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 1099.95 on 24-Sep-2012 and a 52 week low of Rs 450.00 on 12-Jan-2012.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 1099.95 and Rs 936.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 14158.56 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 27.78% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 55.95% and 15.80% respectively.

Further, as part of the deal, yet to be finalized, although Diageo may get the right to appoint a majority of United Spirits’s board members including the chairman Mallya, who owns 28 per cent of India’s second-largest maker of alcoholic beverages by market value, is expected to remain the shareholder. Meanwhile, the proceeds of funds raised through stake sale would be utilized for funding the needs of cash strapped Kingfisher Airlines, whose net loss more than doubled to Rs 2,328 crore in 2011-12, from Rs 1,027 crore in the previous year.