By Elvira Pollina
MILAN (Reuters) - Campari (LON:0ROY) will seek further M&A opportunties after completing the buyout of French cognac house Courvoisier, the new head of the Italian drinks group said on Tuesday.
The group completed the 1.22-billion euro ($1.3 billion)acquisition of Courvoisier last week, earlier than expected by analysts. It was the largest ever deal for Campari, whose brands include the Aperol aperitif, Espolon tequila and Wild Turkey whisky.
"Our M&A activity will continue after Courvoisier, our strategy is still to grow both organically and inorganically",
Chief Executive Matteo Fantacchiotti told Reuters in an interview.
"What I can tell you is that we have as always a lot of dossiers open and some negotiations that are reasonably advanced", said Fantacchiotti, who took the helm of the company in April, replacing longstanding head Bob Kunze-Concewitz.
The company earlier reported a 4.9% drop in operating profit in the first quarter, broadly in line with expectations in what is a relatively quiet time of the year. Fantacchiotti struck a positive tone and said the outlook for the year remained unchanged, helping to drive Campari's shares up 5%.
The company's operating profit came in at 151.5 million euros while like-for-like sales edged up 0.2% to 663.5 million euros in the quarter, helped by growth in demand for Campari and Aperol.
The figures compared with 654 million euros in an LSEG consensus for sales and a projection of 150 million euros for the adjusted operating profit.
SPRITZ STILL IN DEMAND
Fantacchiotti said he saw further scope for growth in sales of Aperol Spritz, while also highlighting the Espolon Paloma cocktail and non-alcoholic Crodino as other drinks likely to prove popular over the summer.
"We remain confident about continued growth momentum to deliver profitable growth", he said.
Fantacchiotti said Campari remained "really confident" over the group's ability to grow in China as part of a long term strategy, also thanks to Courvoisier, which makes about 9% of its sales in the country.
Beijing opened an anti-dumping investigation into brandy imported from the European Union, potentially exposing cognac makers to tariffs on their products.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for what he called "his open attitude" in the probe.
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