International beer, spirits and wine group Constellation Brands and Australian Vintage have lodged a submission with the ACCC for an informal clearance of their planned merger of their local wine businesses.
Australian Vintage told the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday that if the merger proceeded, the new wine joint venture would be equally owned by Constellation Brands and Australian Vintage shareholders.
The companies announced they were in discussions last month, and have lodged the submission with regulator Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Australian Vintage, formerly known as McGuigan Simeon, last year recorded a loss of $123.64 million for 2008-09 after taking the cost of several years of restructuring, write-downs and impairment charges.
Constellation has also been under pressure and recently chopped 350 jobs from its Australian operations, which include the Hardy and Berri businesses.
That restructure included closing some wineries.
Australian Vintage shares closed steady on 30 cents yesterday.
That values the company at $38 million.
The shares have risen by more than 30% since the possible deal was revealed last month.
