Following up yesterday’s news item which provided an alternative view to that posed on Decanter.com’s site concerning the relationship between former Southcorp chief winemaker Philip Shaw and Reynolds Wines, an article by Helen Matterson in The Australian newspaper helps to fill in the gaps. The party really interested in Reynolds is, as Shaw identified to me, Babcock & Brown, a US-based venture capital bank. While Babcock & Brown is no longer seeking purchase Reynolds outright, it is working with an Australian reinsurance company, AssetInsure. According to Helen Matterson, AssetInsure is believed to have given notice that it will exercise an option to acquire the Reynolds assets. Babcock & Brown has a half interest in AssetInsure, which bought Gerling Global Reinsurance Co of Australia in September. Philip Shaw says that Babcock & Brown’s current interests in Australia are worth around A$2 billion. These days Shaw’s main business focus is the vineyard and winery he is developing for himself in the region of Orange. It is extremely unlikely that he could make a success of it as well as undertaking any long-term role for another significant business, irrespective of how close it might be to his home base.
