Stockholm, July 25 - U.S. spirits group Fortune Brands has bought Vin & Sprit 's 10 percent stake in Fortune's beverage unit, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, for 2.8 billion Swedish crowns ($464 million), the Swedish government said on Friday.
France's Pernod Ricard in March won a battle to buy V&S, the Swedish state-owned maker of Absolut Vodka, beating out Fortune, which produces Jim Beam bourbon and owns the rest of wine and spirits company Beam Global.
The 5.6 billion euro ($8.8 billion) Pernod deal did not include V&S's stake in Beam.
Fortune had been looking to exercise a clause allowing it to buy the V&S stake, though the sides had been unable to agree on a price.
Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell said in a statement the government earned a total 58 billion crowns for the assets of V&S, which will go toward paying down debt.
Sweden is in the midst of its largest-ever privatisation of state assets, an effort the government hopes will net it 200 billion crowns over the course of its four-year mandate.
Pernod said on Wednesday it had closed the V&S acquisition.
'It (the Beam deal) is a good deal ... We are very pleased with it,' Odell spokeswoman Sarah Lundgren said.