Wine and acquisitions: “Vineyards” has been created to assist companies in evaluations and transfers

All the various analyses have said that competition, even in the wine world, will be tougher and tougher in the world after the health Pandemic. Therefore, companies will need to be much more solid, have more resources, and have clearer ideas about their objectives, in order to be able to deal with the markets. This is one of the reasons, as we have often mentioned, it is very easy to imagine that the “merger & acquisition” phenomenon will continue to grow faster and faster. It has already recently filled the chronicles with acquisitions or buying shares of the capitals of wineries and companies by other Italian and foreign wine players, as well as investment funds, joint stock companies, banks and insurance groups. It is precisely in this context that the “Vineyards” project was created as a consultancy platform for companies to manage operations and transfers, looking at maximizing values, and protecting the entrepreneurial stories behind every company and every winery. The Giuri Studio in Florence, led by the lawyer, Marco Giuri, is a reference firm when it comes to regulations, and not only, for wine, and will manage a multidisciplinary team made up of lawyers, accountants, oenologists, agronomists, architects and more, capable of thoroughly evaluating each of the assets that make up the value of a winery. Marco Giuri explained to WineNews, “We created the “Vineyards” project to respond to a void and also to the tangible need of wine companies, that is, making the most of your company both in sales and acquisitions. Although there is enormous interest in Made in Italy wine, there was, instead, no referenced focus, made up of professionals capable of assisting companies in fundamental operations. These transactions range from assessing the value of the company, considering all assets, the actual acquisition or sale, to also providing consultancy to maximize the value, and help the entrepreneur in the process. It is a complete and total assistance service that provides a team of professionals who have been working in the wine sector for many years, and it includes lawyers, accountants, oenologists, agronomists, and architects, to help the company comprehend its value, working with primary values ​​such as transparency, reliability, honesty and work ethic”. The project, as we mentioned, is part of the trend of acquisitions and mergers in the wine world, which had already accelerated in the pre-pandemic era, and which in all likelihood will be even more intense in the coming months.
“We have been working for some time on this idea that is a consequence of external stimuli. Since we also have International relations with lawyers and accountants who work in this sector, we have seen a lot of agitation abroad in professional companies, banks and investment funds interested in Made in Italy wine. The next three to four years will be very interesting in this respect. Furthermore, another equally interesting thing is that one can also think of various solutions to transfers of ownership, or alternatives to the classic sale of the company, such as partial or temporary sale, co-management systems, financial support, as well as the possibility of maintaining a position of administration or management of the property that sells the company. There are many interesting tools to allow a story to continue, because we must never forget that behind all companies there is a personal and family story”.
Up until now, the most frequent and most significant operations have taken place in the most prestigious areas in Italy - Langhe of Barolo and Barbaresco, Tuscany of Brunello di Montalcino, Bolgheri and Chianti Classico, and Veneto of Valpolicella and Prosecco. There is reason to believe that in the near future the scenario will be more or less the same.
“Our observatory has confirmed that the primary interest is towards the classic territories, and Montalcino, Langhe and Bolgheri are the most requested. However, interest is also growing in areas that have different values, particularly in Sardinia and the Marches, therefore, we are moving towards an even more complex scenario. It is quite obvious that beyond the case histories of individual companies, it will also depend on how the territories will be moving in terms of product enhancement and communication in the future, in Italy and especially abroad”.
As we said, there are many assets that contribute to the value of a company, such as the brand, the history, the structures, the prestige of the territory, the success on the wine market and, of course, the value of the vineyards. However, these values, as has often been pointed out, also vary from time to time, not only based on the denomination, but on many other conditions, such as exposure, proximity in respect to other properties already owned by the buyer, and so on. It would, therefore, be very important to have realistic and constantly updated reference values. “It is essential that we create an observatory in order to give real values to the value of the land”, explained Giuri, “which is one of our ambitions for this project, giving real information, updated and periodic, based on the experiences of the professionals involved. It is one of the main objectives of this project”.