Diageo's Creative Accounting

[Josh]

Possibly evil international spirits behemoth Diageo (maker of Bulleit, Dickel, Johnny Walker, et al) has decided to plug a hole in its pension plan with Scotch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/business/global/02whiskey.html

[ThomasH]

Diageo is capable of anything. Why don't they set aside some scotch to use as funding to reopen S-W? I doubt it would cost $645M!

Thomas

[Stu]

Diageo is capable of anything. Why don't they set aside some scotch to use as funding to reopen S-W? I doubt it would cost $645M!

Thomas

Marketing, my friend. Notice that they have already committed to buying them back in 15 years. A decent aging time for malts. It's basically a form of self insurance. The employees have a guaranteed pension fund (barring a fire, etc) and Diageo gets to age it's whisky while retaining it for other expense coverage.