New York, April 7 - Italian drinks company Gruppo Campari, owner of Skyy Vodka, would consider buying any brands from Absolut vodka maker Vin & Sprit that the Swedish company's new owner, Pernod Ricard SA, might put up for sale, its chief executive officer said on Monday.
The company, which trades as Davide Campari-Milano SpA, has made 12 acquisitions in 12 years and is "constantly on the lookout" for new purchases, Chief Executive Bob Kunze-Concewitz said in an interview.
But in an e-mailed statement, Pierre Pringuet, managing director of France-based Pernod, said on Monday the company did not plan to sell any brand except those necessary for antitrust reasons.
With a costly 5.63 billion euro ($8.9 billion) bid, Pernod emerged last week as the winner of an auction run by the Swedish government to privatize its state-owned spirits company Vin & Sprit, maker of Absolut vodka, Cruzan rum, Plymouth gin and Fris vodka.
Last week, Pernod's deputy managing director in charge of finance, Emmanuel Babeau, said in an interview that Pernod would likely sell Plymouth, and that any sale would likely take place within six months of closing the Vin & Sprit deal.
Pernod already owns the Beefeater and Seagram's brands of gin.
"We don't have a gin ... and Plymouth is a nice brand," Kunze-Concewitz said, adding he will wait and see whether the high-end brand comes on the market. "Overall, we look at anything that comes on the market. We're pretty open-minded."
Kunze-Concewitz, an Austrian citizen who joined Campari from Procter & Gamble Co, where he managed fragrance brands, including Hugo Boss and Lacoste, said the company could easily spend another 600 million euros on acquisitions and maintain the current investment grade of its debt.
Besides international brands, Campari is interested in developing its business with regional brands in certain geographic regions, the executive said.
"We're looking in Latin America and Eastern Europe," Kunze-Concewitz said, adding that Campari already has good businesses in Brazil and Argentina.
Brazil is the largest market for Campari, the company's namesake red aperitif, while Argentina is the largest market for its Cinzano vermouth, he said.
Kunze-Concewitz also affirmed the company's mid-to- long-term forecast for annual organic revenue and earnings growth of 5 percent.