Jagatjit Industries

Price as on 13/2/98: Rs 62

Price as on 7/2/98: Rs 51

An announcement of a sale of its liquor business to joint venture partner Brown-Forman saw the scrip rising by 21 per cent. Likely to be closed at Rs 500 crore the deal involves sale of all of Jagatjits brands and manufacturing and distilling facilities. Jagatjits portfolio consists of some very popular whiskey brands like Aristocrat, Black Velvet and Fortune Gold, all of which are very competitively priced. This makes the company attractive, even when its management leaves much to be desired.

Brown-Forman plans to complement this low priced range of whiskeys with its up market bourbon range. Some of its popular brands are Southern Comfort , Forester 1870 and Blue Grass. Of these Southern Comfort has already been introduced by the soon to be extinct JV. Brown-Forman has ambitious plans for India -- from a current level of around 300 cases per annum to about 400 cases in the immediate future going up to a hefty 100 cases by the end of the year. Brown-Forman has already got a revamped sales team in place to push its brands more aggressively. A change in management should also be good .