Taittinger back in French hands

The champagne house Taittinger was sold last year to the American company Starwood. Now, Taittinger has returned to French hands. But that was probably more or less part of the scheme originally. Starwood is primarily a hotel operator and the Taittinger Group owned some very prestigious hotel properties. The champagne house just happened to be part of the total package. It is Crédit Agricole du Nord-Est, a co-operative agricultural bank in the Champagne district, that has bought the champagne business for some 660 million euro. But it could have landed in Indian hands: United Breweries Group, a leading Indian brewery group, was in the bidding for the champagne house. Several other parties were in the running for having a new “house champagne”. Read more in Vitisphere and ChannelNewsAsia.com