Trade and private equity buyers being sounded out for Villa Maria Estate

Sir George Fistonich, founded Villa Maria Estate winery in 1961. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Trade and private equity buyers are being approached to either buy or invest in winery Villa Maria Estate.

Investment bank UBS has been mandated for the search and has a handful of interested parties, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column.

In November Villa Maria Estate which is largely owned by Sir George Fistonich, announced it was selling 31ha around its Auckland headquarters and exploring raising capital to accelerate its global growth strategy and ambitions.

But a sale of the entire business would be a step up from that.

The AFR reported that potential buyers believe it could be worth more than A$200 million ($213m), although binding bids were still a while away.

A spokeswoman for Villa Maria said it had nothing further to add from what it had announced already.

"A process is under way and has not concluded so anything else is purely speculation."

Fistonich, who founded the wine company in 1961, stepped down as CEO in March 2018.

Villa Maria Wine Estate is looking to raise capital. Photo / Carolyn Elliot

Trade buyers could include rival wine company NZX-listed Delegat and privately owned Indevin New Zealand which has wineries in Marlborough and Hawke's Bay.

Some Australian private equity players are also said to have taken part in the process.

In November Village Maria Estate chief executive Justin Liddell said it was selling the land in Mangere because the land value had increased to a point where it was not possible to generate a reasonable return on the vineyards.

"We're exploring selling 31 hectares of vineyard and bare land surrounding our headquarters at Mangere. We will continue to operate our Auckland winery, bottling, warehousing, head office and hospitality functions on the remaining 10 hectares."

Liddell also said at the time it was exploring raising capital from interested parties who wanted to support its growth plans and it did not expect any decision to be made until the end of March.

Villa Maria brands include Villa Maria, Esk Valley, Leftfield, Vidal and Thornbury.

It was recently awarded 39 gold medals across the group portfolio at the New Zealand International Wine Show.