Guinness is good for you. Or at least Diageo the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan is, if you are a shareholder in either concern. The two are planning a special capital distribution to shareholders in a bid to win their approval for the proposed merger, on which the owners of both companies will vote at the end of this month.

The payout is to be a healthy 70p per share, which will go down nicely with Guinness's 12,000 Irish shareholders, which include many of its employees, and with the many Irish holders of Grand Met stock.

The special payout is due to be made next February assuming the deal goes through and after that will come a tasty extra tipple of a 12.5p per share interim dividend in April. Cheers!