Paris, May 31 - French bank Credit Agricole du Nord Est has signed an agreement to buy the Taittinger champagne house and associated vineyards in a deal valuing the assets at around 660 million euros ($849.6 million) including debt, seller Starwood Capital Group said Wednesday.
"Closing of the transaction is conditioned only on required anti-trust approval and is expected to occur in early August 2006," Starwood said in a statement.
The agreement was signed just minutes after Taittinger's works council approved the proposed sale, a required step under French law.
The transaction is expected to return Taittinger's ownership to the family of the same name, which bought the more than 250-year-old vineyard in 1932.
Current Deputy Managing Director Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger was closely involved in the negotiations and is expected to continue to play a role in the company, although how the deal will be structured financially and the extent of the family's involvement remains unclear.
Starwood bought the holding companies that controlled the family's interests last year in order to acquire hotel assets including Paris landmark Le Crillon. It always said it would re-offer the champagne house and its vineyards.
Its sale triggered a frenzied bidding process as the highly fragmented sector goes through a wave of consolidation.
Starwood and its bankers Rothschild & Cie and JP Morgan received numerous expressions of interest, shortlisting 12 firm bids for the Taittinger businesses, eight of which were for the champagne house alone.
Taittinger sold around 4.5 million bottles of champagne in 2005, and with 22 million bottles in stock and 280 hectares of vines, offered a potential buyer the chance of getting a strong foothold in an industry known for jealously guarding its assets.
Starwood said that under the terms of the deal its wholly-owned subsidiary GT Louvre SAS, through which the sale was conducted, had a "short term option" to retain control over sale of one of the vineyards, Bouvet-Ladubay, a leading producer of sparkling wine in Saumur in France's Loire valley.
The champagne industry is dominated by five groups -- LVMH Boizel Chanoine Pernod Ricard Laurent Perrier and Vranken Pommery -- but there are many smaller, privately-held players.
Starwood's GT Louvre SAS unit had said it had received eight firm offers for Taittinger Champagne. This included one from India's UB Group. French media have named Fortune Brands Inc E&J Gallo Winery, Butler Capital Partners and Bain Capital as bidders while Belgian businessman Albert Frere had earlier dropped his interest.