A whisky auction site set up by two brothers from the Speyside area is eyeing global expansion after selling a major stake to an investment group managed out of Hong Kong.
Whisky Hammer was founded in 2016 by brothers Daniel and Craig Milne who are originally from Macduff, Aberdeenshire, close to Speyside, an area renowned for the production of Scotch whisky.
The auction site, and its sister retail business Still Spirit, is poised for expansion after selling a 49 per cent stake of the Scottish family business to Rare Whisky Holdings, a whisky investment group run out of Hong Kong.
The multi-million-pound deal will deliver a 2.6-times return to retail investors on their original investment, who participated in a crowdfunding campaign just two years ago.
The success of Whisky Hammer has been recognised by Rare Whisky Holdings, which is the same management team behind the Platinum Whisky Investment Fund, the first private equity fund in the world to focus on rare single-malt whiskies.
Platinum Whisky Investment Fund launched in 2014, raised $12 million (£8.7m) and is in the final stage of its wind down, exiting at more than $24m in seven years.