United Spirits

Positioning statement

United Spirits Limited is the largest beverage-alcohol company in India by volume and the listed Indian operating platform of Diageo plc, which controls approximately 55.9% of the equity and holds full management control. The company manufactures, blends, bottles, imports and distributes spirits across every price tier of the Indian market, from mass-market "Popular" whisky through to bottled-in-origin luxury Scotch and Indian single malt. Its economic model has been deliberately reshaped over the past decade from a volume-led, low-margin IMFL conglomerate into a premium-mix business: Prestige & Above products contributed roughly 90% of standalone net sales value in FY2026, against a structurally shrinking Popular tail. The company sells around 65 million cases annually through a distribution footprint exceeding 75,000 outlets, operates a mixed owned-and-tie-up manufacturing network, and carries effectively no net debt. Its competitive moat rests on scale in a state-fragmented, licence-controlled market with high regulatory entry barriers, exclusive Indian access to Diageo's global brand portfolio, and pan-India distribution that mitigates single-state policy shocks. Its principal structural vulnerability is that pricing, distribution and taxation are set by twenty-eight state governments rather than by the company.

2.1 What the company does

United Spirits Limited is engaged in the manufacture, purchase, blending, bottling, marketing, sale and distribution of beverage alcohol and other allied spirits. The company describes its own activity, in its exchange-filed business description, as covering manufacture, purchase and sale of beverage alcohol and allied spirits, including through tie-up manufacturing units and through strategic franchising of certain of its brands. That last clause is analytically important: USL does not manufacture the whole of its own volume, and it does not own the economics of every brand carrying its trademarks. A meaningful share of the Popular portfolio is produced and sold by third parties under franchise or royalty arrangements, with USL retaining a per-case fee rather than the full manufacturing and distribution margin.

The company's own description in FY2026 investor communications positions it as "one of the leading beverage alcohol companies in India" with an outstanding portfolio of premium brands, headquartered in Bengaluru, operating one of the largest manufacturing footprints in Indian alcobev with 34 facilities across India, and manufacturing, selling and distributing Johnnie Walker, Black Dog, Black & White, VAT 69, Antiquity, Signature, The Singleton, Royal Challenge, McDowell's No.1, Smirnoff, Ketel One, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan and Godawan.

Our independent characterisation is somewhat different in emphasis. United Spirits is best understood as three overlapping businesses operating under one legal entity:

(a) A domestic IMFL manufacturing and brand business. This is the historic core — molasses- and grain-based Indian whisky, brandy, rum and vodka produced at scale under owned trademarks (McDowell's No.1, Royal Challenge, Signature, Antiquity, Director's Special Black). It is capital-light relative to its revenue because a large share of production runs through tie-up units, and it is working-capital heavy because of state excise credit terms and inventory maturation.

(b) An import, bottling and route-to-market business for Diageo's global portfolio. USL holds the Indian rights to import, bottle-in-India, market and distribute Diageo's international brands — Johnnie Walker, Black & White, VAT 69, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray, Gordon's, Don Julio, Ketel One, The Singleton. Economically this is a licensed distribution franchise with brand-building obligations. It is the fastest-growing and highest-margin part of the mix and the direct beneficiary of the India-UK trade agreement.

(c) A craft and innovation incubator. Through Diageo India Ventures and The Good Craft Co., the company originates or acquires small, high-price-point Indian brands — Godawan artisanal single malt, Greater Than and Hapusa gins, PIPA rum — and takes minority option-style positions in early-stage alcobev businesses (Maya Pistola, V9 Beverages, Indie Brews & Spirits, Nuvola Spirits).

Until FY2026 there was a fourth, unrelated business: professional sport, through Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited, which owns the Royal Challengers Bengaluru IPL and WPL franchises. That business has been agreed for sale and is now presented as a discontinued operation.

2.2 Revenue model

The revenue model is almost entirely product sale of physical goods. There is no subscription revenue and no material services revenue. The disclosed and inferable revenue streams are:

• Own-manufactured product sales. The dominant stream. Revenue is recognised gross of state excise duty and then reported net; the company and the market track "net sales value" (NSV) rather than gross revenue from operations, because excise is a pass-through that varies enormously by state and distorts comparability. In FY2026 consolidated gross revenue from operations was ₹27,816 crore while consolidated NSV was ₹12,467 crore — implying that roughly 55% of the gross top line is state excise and related levies.
• Tie-up / third-party manufacturing. USL contracts production at units it does not own, retaining brand ownership and commercial control.
• Franchise and royalty income. Certain Popular-segment trademarks are licensed to third-party manufacturers on a per-case royalty. This was the mechanism used to de-risk the low-margin tail before the outright brand disposals.
• Imported bottled-in-origin (BIO) sales. Finished imported Scotch, vodka, gin, tequila and liqueurs from Diageo affiliates, sold at luxury price points.
• Exports. Small and non-strategic. Revenue from outside India was ₹181 crore in FY2025 against ₹27,000 crore of India revenue — under 1% of the gross top line.

2.3 Value chain position

USL sits in the middle of the chain, with structurally constrained control at both ends. Upstream it purchases extra neutral alcohol (ENA), malt spirit, bulk Scotch (largely from Diageo's Scottish inventory), glass, closures and packaging — all commodity inputs where the company is a price-taker; glass and paper carton inflation was flagged as an industry-wide issue in 2026. Midstream it distils (a limited number of owned distilleries, including Alwar in Rajasthan), blends, matures and bottles. Downstream it faces the single most distinctive feature of the Indian market: in most states the government is either the monopoly wholesaler, the monopoly retailer, or both, and it sets maximum retail prices. USL therefore does not own its route to the consumer in the way a global FMCG business does. Its "customers" are, in practice, state beverage corporations, licensed wholesalers, and — in privatised-retail states — private retail chains and on-trade outlets.

2.4 Customer types and end-markets

• State beverage corporations and excise departments — the counterparty in controlled states (for example Tamil Nadu's TASMAC, Kerala's Bevco, Telangana's TGBCL). These generate the receivable and payment-delay risk that periodically strains sector cash flow.
• Licensed private wholesalers and retailers — in states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh following its October 2024 privatisation.
• On-trade — hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs; disproportionately important for luxury and BIO brands and for brand-building.
• Canteen Stores Department (CSD) — the military retail channel, a meaningful volume outlet for mid-tier IMFL.
• Duty-free / global travel retail — small but strategically visible for Godawan and Johnnie Walker.
• Export markets — Godawan is distributed in the USA, UAE and, since December 2024, the United Kingdom.

The end consumer market is India's adult drinking population, the largest whisky-consuming market in the world by volume. Demand drivers are income growth, urbanisation, a widening legal-drinking-age population and, most consequentially for USL's margin structure, willingness to trade up.

10.1 Stated strategy

Management's articulation of strategy in FY2026 and Q1 FY2027 communications rests on four recurring themes:

Premiumisation, framed as "inclusive premiumisation". The CEO has described the strategy as serving both premium and value-seeking consumers simultaneously, arguing there is no contradiction between those trends in a market like India. This is a deliberate softening of the pure-premium framing of the previous administration, and it matters: it signals that the Popular tail will be defended rather than abandoned, and it is the strategic rationale behind the McDowell's No.1 renovation.

Portfolio future-proofing. In the Q1 FY2027 release the CEO stated the company continues to future-proof its portfolio while creating enduring value for stakeholders. Operationally this means participating in and creating categories — white spirits, craft gin, tequila, Indian single malt, Korean and Italian liqueurs — through both organic innovation and small option-style investments.

Capturing "white spaces" value-accretively. The FY2026 release framed the company as excited about the Indian consumer opportunity and confident of capturing it through innovation and by tapping key white spaces through both category participation and category creation in a value-accretive manner.

Sharpening focus on the core. The RCSPL divestment was explicitly framed by the CEO as enabling the company to sharpen focus on the core beverage alcohol business.

10.2 Announced strategic initiatives, last 24 months

10.3 ESG and sustainability commitments

Delivered under Diageo's global "Society 2030: Spirit of Progress" ten-year action plan, localised for India. Targets and progress are set out in Section 20.

10.4 Community and CSR initiatives, 2026

The geographic concentration of these programmes in Andhra Pradesh is not coincidental; it accompanies the company's commercial re-entry into that state.

10.5 Medium-term financial guidance

Management guidance, as stated in FY2026 and Q1 FY2027 communications:

The stated drivers of the H2-weighted FY2027 shape are: normalisation of the Maharashtra base, benefits from the Karnataka policy change, gradual gains from the India-UK FTA, the McDowell's relaunch, acceleration in white spirits and scale-up of the bottled-in-origin portfolio.

The company states that its portfolio comprises over 50 spirit brands enjoyed across India, while other company-sourced disclosures cite more than 80 brands across Scotch whisky, IMFL whisky, brandy, rum, vodka and gin. The variance reflects whether franchised and regional labels are counted. CRISIL's August 2026 rationale describes a portfolio of over 50 brands. Eight brands sold more than one million cases each in FY2026, of which one sold close to 30 million cases.

Below is the catalogue organised by tier. Where a brand's specifications, launch year or pricing are not publicly disclosed, that is stated rather than estimated.

5.1 Luxury and Bottled-in-Origin (imported finished goods)

5.2 Indian craft and luxury

5.3 Prestige & Above — Indian trademarks

5.4 Popular segment (retained brands)

Divested Popular brands (no longer USL). In September 2022 the company sold 32 Popular-segment brands, including Haywards, White Mischief and Honey Bee, to Inbrew Beverages for ₹828 crore. Several legacy brand names still appearing in third-party databases — Pinky, Vladivar, Four Seasons wine, Bouvet Ladubay — should be treated as historic and verified against the current annual report before use.

5.5 Pricing model

USL does not publish a price list, and in most Indian states it cannot: maximum retail prices are fixed by state excise departments. The disclosed pricing metric is realisation per case, which the company reports rose to ₹1,918 in FY2026 from ₹1,605 in FY2023 — a four-year sequential increase demonstrating that premiumisation is translating into realised price and not only into segment-share optics. Individual price points that are publicly disclosed include Hapusa gin at above ₹3,000 per bottle and the Maharashtra MML category at ₹160 per 180ml.

All figures below are consolidated, in ₹ crore, for years ended 31 March, unless the row label states otherwise. Source for the core series: Screener.in consolidated statements (data sourced from C-MOTS Internet Technologies), cross-checked against company results releases of 14 May 2026 and 20 May 2025 and the CRISIL rating rationale of 6 August 2026.

6.1 Income statement

Zeros denote "not disclosed on a comparable basis" rather than nil. FY2022 gross revenue was not verified to a primary source in this research pass. FY2026 NSV excludes RCSPL; the restated FY2025 comparative is 11573, against which FY2026 growth was +7.7%.

6.2 Margin analysis

Standalone gross margin FY2025 is derived from the disclosed FY2026 expansion of 172 basis points to 46.4%. CRISIL records operating margin expansion from 13.5% in FY2023 to 18.3% in FY2026 and guides to 17–19% over the medium term.

6.3 Balance sheet

Cash and net debt are disclosed only for FY2026, from the CRISIL rationale. Goodwill and intangibles are not separately broken out in the condensed statements available and are therefore recorded as not publicly disclosed at this level of aggregation; the FY2026 Integrated Annual Report note on intangible assets should be consulted. Book value per share is derived on 72.74 crore shares.

6.4 Cash flow

Net capex is derived as CFO less free cash flow and is negative in FY2026 because proceeds from disposal of property exceeded gross capital spend in that year; this is a definitional artefact, not a reversal of investment. CRISIL guides to gross capex of ₹280–300 crore per annum over the medium term. Dividends paid are not separately extractable from the condensed cash flow statement and are shown as zero; the cash outflow is embedded in financing activities, which stepped up sharply to ₹1,450 crore in FY2026 consistent with the ₹17 per share distribution.

6.5 Ratio analysis

Current ratio is not computable from the condensed balance sheet disclosure available, which does not split current from non-current items; it is recorded as not extractable at this level and should be taken from the FY2026 Integrated Annual Report.

6.6 Growth and compounding

Source: Screener.in compounded growth tables. The four-year FY2022–FY2026 NSV CAGR computes to 6.4% and net profit CAGR to 22.6% on the series above.

6.7 Commentary on trends, inflections and drivers

Revenue. The top line has compounded at a modest 6–9%, which is the single most important criticism of the equity story and the reason Screener's automated screen flags "poor sales growth of 8.92% over past five years". But the headline understates the underlying transformation. Two deliberate contractions sit inside the series: the September 2022 disposal of 32 Popular brands, and the ongoing structural shrinkage of the retained Popular tail. Adjusted for these, the growth engine — Prestige & Above — compounded materially faster. CRISIL attributes FY2026's 8% revenue growth to a 6% increase in realisations and only 2% volume growth, which is precisely the intended shape: price and mix, not cases.

The FY2023 margin trough. Operating margin collapsed to 13.4% in FY2023 from 16.4% in FY2022, on a 9.3% revenue increase. This was an input-cost and pricing-lag event — ENA and packaging inflation absorbed without commensurate state-approved price increases — and it is the reference point against which management's subsequent margin recovery should be judged. From 13.5% (standalone, FY2023) to 18.4% (standalone, FY2026) is 490 basis points of expansion in three years, driven by premiumisation mix, revenue growth management, COGS productivity and a more stable commodity basket.

The FY2026 inflection points. Three offsetting forces defined the year. Positively, the Andhra Pradesh re-entry contributed materially after the state privatised retail in October 2024, and gross margin expanded 172 basis points to 46.4% standalone. Negatively, the Maharashtra excise reset and MML introduction hit both Popular and lower-Prestige volumes in a state representing roughly 10% of Indian IMFL volumes and, on market estimates, closer to 20% of USL's. Excluding Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the rest of India grew 10.9% with P&A at 11.3% — a considerably healthier underlying number than the reported 7.6%.

Below-the-line noise in FY2026. Three one-offs distort the reported profit and must be normalised. Finance cost of ₹158 crore was inflated by a one-off provision related to an old litigation matter; on a like-for-like basis interest cost fell 7.5%. An exceptional charge of ₹91 crore related predominantly to labour code changes and the multi-year supply agility programme. And PAT was flattered by a ₹219 crore one-off benefit from interest on a tax refund accrued in Q4 and realised after year-end. Stripping the tax-refund benefit, FY2026 PAT of ₹1,830 crore standalone would be closer to ₹1,611 crore — still growth, but of roughly 3% rather than 17.5%. This is the single most important adjustment an analyst should make to the FY2026 headline.

Cash generation and its deterioration. Operating cash flow fell 25% in FY2026 to ₹1,459 crore from ₹1,947 crore, and cash conversion (CFO to operating profit) fell from 94% to 79%. The driver is working capital: the cash conversion cycle lengthened from 109 to 129 days, with inventory days up 19 to 216 and debtor days up 3 to 106. Rising debtor days in this industry are a direct read on state-corporation payment behaviour; contemporaneous reporting in January 2026 flagged payment delays in Telangana and Maharashtra straining sector cash flows. Inventory build is partly deliberate (maturing malt stock for Godawan and BIO inventory ahead of the FTA), but the trend warrants monitoring.

Balance sheet. The company is, for practical purposes, debt-free. Gross borrowings of ₹413 crore sit against ₹3,342 crore of cash, giving net cash of roughly ₹2,929 crore before the RCSPL proceeds. CRISIL records adjusted debt to adjusted net worth at zero times. Equity has compounded from ₹4,953 crore to ₹8,953 crore over four years on retained earnings alone — no equity issuance since the 2014 preferential allotment. The most striking balance sheet development is the decline in net fixed assets from ₹1,712 crore to ₹1,404 crore in FY2026, an 18% reduction that reflects the Supply Chain Agility Programme disposals rather than under-investment.

Returns. ROE has been remarkably stable at 20–22% across the window and ROCE at 26–28% since FY2024. Given net cash of ₹2,929 crore dragging on the denominator, returns on operating capital are considerably higher than the headline. Post-RCSPL, with an additional ₹16,660 crore of cash arriving on a balance sheet that already has more than it needs, the capital allocation question becomes the dominant analytical issue for the equity — addressed in Section 22.

22.1 Management guidance

CRISIL's independent forward view: revenue growth of around 10% over the medium term; operating margin of 17–19%; net cash accrual above ₹1,000 crore; capex of ₹280–300 crore per annum funded from internal accrual.

22.2 Consensus growth expectations

Twenty-six covering analysts rate the stock Buy on average with a consensus target of ₹1,501, implying roughly 15.7% upside from the mid-June 2026 price. Jefferies has forecast a 13% EPS CAGR for USL, against 35% for Radico Khaitan — a differential that captures the entire competitive debate. The forward P/E of approximately 48× reported in June 2026 versus a trailing 50× implies consensus expects only modest near-term earnings expansion, consistent with a market that expects FY2027 to be a transition year.

22.3 Bull case

1. The margin story has further to run, and it is structurally underpinned. Operating margin moved from 13.5% to 18.3% in three years, and CRISIL guides to 17–19% with P&A at close to 90% of revenue. Three specific tailwinds are now live: the FTA cuts the landed cost of the bulk Scotch that accounts for roughly 79% of Indian Scotch imports and which USL blends and bottles domestically; Karnataka's move to strength-based excise with prices deregulated removes a pricing constraint in a state worth 6–7% of P&A; and the closure of Malkajgiri removes the last major high-cost legacy plant. Gross margin already expanded 172 basis points in FY2026 and a further 212 basis points in Q1 FY2027.

2. The comparison base resets and the reported growth rate converges on the underlying one. The gap between reported FY2026 growth of 7.6% and rest-of-India growth of 10.9% is entirely Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh base effects. Maharashtra's MML disruption anniversaries during FY2027. If the rest of India simply holds 10–11%, reported growth mechanically re-rates toward double digits without any improvement in execution — which is precisely why management guides H2 FY2027 above H1.

3. ₹16,660 crore of cash is arriving on a balance sheet that already carries ₹2,929 crore of net cash, against zero disclosed use. That is approximately 15% of market capitalisation, on an asset that generated 4% of revenue. The company has raised its payout ratio in each of the last three years, from 46% to 67%. A buyback, a special dividend, or a transformative premium acquisition are all live possibilities, none of which is in consensus estimates. Even parked in deposits, the proceeds add meaningfully to other income, which already rose to ₹516 crore in FY2026.

22.4 Bear case

1. The company is losing share in the segment it has staked everything on. Between FY2022 and FY2026, Radico Khaitan and Allied Blenders grew premium volumes at 14–21% CAGR while USL and Pernod Ricard managed 2–6%. Radico grew FY2026 revenue 24.7% against USL's 7.7%. Premiumisation is not a proprietary strategy — it is the industry's strategy — and USL is executing it more slowly than smaller, more agile competitors while paying a 59× multiple for the privilege.

2. FY2026 earnings quality is materially weaker than the headline. Standalone PAT growth of 17.5% collapses to approximately 3% once the ₹219 crore one-off tax-refund interest benefit is removed. Operating cash flow fell 25%. Cash conversion fell from 94% to 79%. The cash conversion cycle lengthened 20 days. Debtor days rose to 106 against a backdrop of documented payment delays from state corporations in Telangana and Maharashtra. The quality of FY2026 is the single most under-appreciated risk in the equity.

3. Policy risk is unbounded, uninsurable and has already fired once. Maharashtra raised IMFL duty by 50% overnight in June 2025, causing 10–15% industry volume declines in roughly a fifth of USL's revenue base, and the effects were still visible fifteen months later at −17.5% Popular NSV in Q1 FY2027. Karnataka's liberalisation, framed as a positive, simultaneously damaged low-end realisations through slab changes. Two FSSAI label orders arrived within five weeks in mid-2026, one now under judicial challenge. And the FTA that the bull case celebrates also hands imported Scotch from William Grant, Bacardi and Suntory a 75-percentage-point tariff reduction with which to attack the upper-prestige tier where Signature and Antiquity sit. There is no version of this business in which management controls its own price.

22.5 Catalysts and monitorables — next twelve months

22.6 Analyst verdict

United Spirits enters FY2027 as a structurally improved business trading at a price that already assumes the improvement continues. The transformation of the last four years is real and quantifiable: operating margin up 480 basis points to 18.3%, Prestige & Above saliency at 91.7%, realisation per case up 19.5% since FY2023, net cash of ₹2,929 crore, a CRISIL AAA rating, and a payout ratio lifted from nothing to 67%. Management has executed the difficult, unglamorous work — closing four plants, exiting 32 brands, rebuilding the mix — with discipline.

But the arithmetic of the equity is unforgiving. At approximately 59× trailing earnings, 12.3× book and 47× EV/EBITDA, the market is paying a premium-compounder multiple for a business that has grown net sales at 6.4% over four years and whose premium volumes have compounded at a fraction of the rate achieved by Radico Khaitan and Allied Blenders. FY2026's reported 17.5% profit growth is approximately 3% adjusted for a one-off tax-refund benefit; operating cash flow fell 25%; and the working capital cycle lengthened by twenty days against a backdrop of state-corporation payment delays. The gap between reported and underlying quality is the central analytical issue, and it is not widely discussed.

The FY2027 setup is nonetheless favourable on the balance of probabilities. The Maharashtra base resets, Karnataka turns from headwind to tailwind, the FTA is live, and rest-of-India growth of 10.9% suggests the underlying franchise is healthier than the headline. Layer on ₹16,660 crore of proceeds arriving with no announced use, and there is a credible path to a re-rating that owes nothing to operational improvement.

The honest characterisation is that this is a high-quality, low-growth, policy-exposed franchise priced as a high-quality, high-growth one, with an unusually large and unallocated cash event pending. The narrow spread of sell-side targets — ₹1,350 bear to ₹1,600 bull against a ₹1,512 price — captures this precisely: the market broadly agrees on what the business is and disagrees only about how fast. Investors should watch three things above all others: debtor days and cash conversion, as the tell on earnings quality; the McDowell's relaunch through the festive season, as the tell on execution; and whatever the board decides to do with ₹16,660 crore, as the tell on capital discipline. The first will determine whether the reported numbers can be trusted, the second whether the growth deficit is closing, and the third whether shareholders or the balance sheet capture the windfall.

APPENDIX — SOURCE REGISTER

Primary company sources

• United Spirits Limited, audited financial results for the quarter and financial year ended 31 March 2026, released 14 May 2026 — https://www.diageoindia.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/audited-financial-results-for-the-quarter-and-financial-year-ended-31-march-2026
• United Spirits Limited, unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended 30 June 2026, released 22 July 2026 — https://www.diageoindia.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/unaudited-financial-results-for-the-first-quarter-ended-30-june-2026
• United Spirits Limited, announcement of full divestiture of stake in Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd, 24 March 2026 — https://www.diageoindia.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/usl-announces-full-divestiture-of-its-stake-in-royal-challengers-sports-pvt-ltd
• United Spirits Limited, Board of Directors — https://www.diageoindia.com/en/investors/board-of-directors
• United Spirits Limited, Integrated Annual Report FY2026 — https://www.diageoindia.com (Investors section)
• United Spirits Limited, appointment of Praveen Someshwar as CEO-designate, 13 January 2025 — https://www.diageoindia.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/2025/diageo-india-appoints-praveen-someshwar-as-ceo-designate-hina-nagarajan
• Diageo plc, 2026 Preliminary Results, year ended 30 June 2026, released 6 August 2026 — https://www.diageo.com/en/investors/results-reports-and-events/2026-preliminary-results
• NSE archives, AGM notice and FY2026 Integrated Annual Report intimation, 10 July 2026 — https://nsearchives.nseindia.com/corporate/MCDOWELL_10072026215050_SEIntimation_AGM_Notice_IARFY26_FSD.pdf

Credit and ratings

• CRISIL Ratings, United Spirits Limited rating rationale, 6 August 2026 — https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/UnitedSpiritsLimited_August%2006_%202026_RR_401393.html

Market data and financial statements

• Screener.in, United Spirits Ltd consolidated financials, accessed August 2026 — https://www.screener.in/company/UNITDSPR/consolidated/
• StockAnalysis, United Spirits (NSE:UNITDSPR) — https://stockanalysis.com/quote/nse/UNITDSPR/
• MarketScreener / S&P Global Market Intelligence, United Spirits Limited company profile, segment and geographic data — https://uk.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/UNITED-SPIRITS-LIMITED-45456076/company/
• MarketsMojo, United Spirits shareholding analysis — https://www.marketsmojo.com/stocks-analysis/financial-shareholding/united-spirits-459218-0

News and analysis

• Business Standard — Q4 FY2026 results (14 May 2026); Q2 FY2026 results (30 October 2025); Q1 FY2027 results (22 July 2026); premium mix and policy headwinds (26 July 2026); Maharashtra excise coverage (11 June 2025); Jefferies initiation (16 September 2025); India-UK FTA coverage
• Storyboard18 — Q4 FY2026 advertising and A&P analysis (14 May 2026); FY2026 ad spend (2026); RCB windfall and marketing pivot (25 May 2026)
• EquityBulls — Q4 FY2026 and Q1 FY2027 consolidated results summaries
• ScanX / Sahi / InvestyWise / TipRanks / Whalesbook — Regulation 30 disclosure summaries including the RCSPL amended SPA, auditor change, AGM outcome, Amitabh Pande appointment, Nuvola Spirits investment, and FSSAI orders
• The Spirits Business — Nao Spirits acquisition (June 2025); Nacharam closure (February 2025); UK-India FTA (July 2026); Q1 FY2027 results (July 2026)
• Just Drinks — Nao Spirits control (June 2025); Malkajgiri and Nacharam closures (June 2025, February 2025)
• Drinks International — Nacharam closure detail including VSS terms (February 2025)
• Trade Brains — Malkajgiri closure (June 2026); FY2026 operating metrics and brand milestones (May 2026)
• AlphaStreet — Q2 and Q3 FY2026 earnings detail
• Quartr — Q2 FY2026 and Q3 FY2026 call summaries
• Investing.com — Q1 FY2027 earnings call transcript coverage; Diageo FY2026 results coverage
• Business Today — Jefferies sector note on premium volume CAGR comparison (29 June 2026)
• The Core — India alcobev mass-market squeeze and premiumisation analysis (June 2026)
• CNBC — RCB acquisition coverage (25 March 2026)
• OneIndia — CCI approval of the RCB sale (July 2026)
• Reuters via Zerodha markets — Karnataka excise policy and Q4 FY2026 commentary
• Adgully — FY2026 NSV and EBITDA summary (15 May 2026)
• Expert Market Research — India whisky market sizing (January 2026)
• Univest, Lakshmishree, Smallcase, Bajaj Finserv — peer market capitalisation and sector overview data
• Vinetur / India Briefing — India-UK CETA tariff schedule detail (July 2026)
• afaqs — Diageo India technical centre and The Good Craft Co. profile (May 2026)
• Simply Wall St — CEO compensation analysis; management change disclosures
• India Infoline — Directors' Report extracts including auditor appointments
• JM Financial Services, DivvyDiary, 5paisa — ISIN, stock split and corporate action detail

Covering February 2025 to August 2026. Chronological.