Want to own a prestigious Champagne house? The going price for Pommery, which LVMH is expected to sell to Vranken Monopole SA within two weeks, is between US$202-263 million. For this small consideration Vranken Monopole can expect to receive the wine brand, the chateau in Reims and about 20ha of vineyards. Pommery has taken a hammering in the market after the turn of the millennium, and sales last year dropped by 50% to just 4 million bottles. This is not altogether surprising, since from a quality perspective, its wines simply do not stack up to their competitors. Founded in 1976, Vranken Monopole is a relatively new champagne house that now owns Heidsieck Monopole. Its debt to equity ratio before this purchase is 222%. Strangely, Pommery was initially founded in 1836 as a maker of still red Champagne of the style still existent today as Bouzy Rouge. Mme Louis Pommery, another venerable Champagne widow, is credited with turning the house into what was for a considerable time one of the largest and most spectacular in all Champagne.
