(TheDrinksBusiness) - When Diageo announced the three-stage deal to take a 53.4% stake in India’s United Spirits, analysts gulped. Chief executive Paul Walsh has a track record of hard bargaining, so paying £1.29 billion to control even the company with the world’s biggest volume sales of spirits is heady. Walsh reckons that such is the dynamism of the Indian spirits market that it will grow by about 15% a year and that his United Spirits stake will boost Diageo’s earnings per share in year two and provide a return on the cost of capital by year six. But in comparison with the purchase of Turkey’s Mey Icki last year, the numbers are big.