bangalore drinks giant diageo has readied plans to take charge at united spirits usl where it is buying a more than 2billion stake in multiple stages the londonlisted maker of johnnie walker and smirnoff is setting up a project team to link up usl with its global practices kicking off an eagerly watched transition process with ramifications for the indian alcoholic beverage sector a diageo internal memo last week reviewed by toi suggests putting together a programme team for transitioning usl once the intended stake buy receives regulatory clearances the deal to acquire up to 534 stake in the indian liquor heavyweight is awaiting nod from competition commission of india cci and the securities exchange board of india sebi a new programme team has been established to plan and when the transaction closes deliver the appropriate work to link up the business with diageos processes and systems said a joint communication from diageo india md abanti sankaranarayanan and new business president andrew morgan this is the first clear signal from the acquirer about impending changes at indias largest liquor company with more than 50 share of domestic branded spirits sales and also a big contributor to federal exchequers in taxes it also said diageos devraj doss was appointed as finance lead for the new india business from march 1 andrew morgan as the head of new businesses will also oversee diageos other acquisitions in asia but will be closely involved with transitioning usl which is clearly the biggest emerging markets acquisition for his company a diageo spokesperson could not be reached for immediate comments more inductions to the programme team are expected as diageo looks to influence usls business practices once cci clears the initial 193 stake purchase with management rights usl would then make a preferential allotment taking diageos stake to over 27 which will trigger a mandatory open offer pushing the british behemoths shareholding up to 534 however these moves will have to be cleared by sebi the programme team is most likely the initial phase in transitioning usl which is expected to be a challenging integration work over the next few years sources said diageo could slowly uncork top level changes at usl starting next fiscal but will be cautious in navigating indias heavily regulated alcobev industry which is prone to political interventions