Pernod Ricard today won the international auction for the Absolut vodka brand with a €5.63 billion (£4.47 billion) bid for the Swedish government's Vin & Spirit business.

The deal, which saw off rival bids from Fortune Brands and Bacardi, pushes Pernod into joint lead in terms of global wine and spirit sales at 91 million cases a year alongside Diageo.

Pernod said that it expects to make annual savings of between €125 million and €150 million within the next two to four years depending on how quickly it can extract Absolut from its current distribution agreements. Absolut is the world's biggest selling premium vodka with annual sales of around 132 million bottles a year of which almost half sell in the United States.

Today's deal means that Pernod will have to end its rights to distribute Stolichnaya vodka outside its domestic market of Russia.

Earlier this year Diageo pulled out of the Absolut auction preferring to pay £459 million for a half stake in the Dutch makers of Ketel One which is a premium vodka brand in the United States. This deal was delayed by further demands from US regulators last week. Diageo already owns the world's top-selling vodka brand Smirnoff.

Patrick Ricard, chief executive of Pernod, said the deal was the group's third "transformational acquisition" since it bought Seagram in 2001 and Allied Domecq in 2005, adding that the addition of the Absolut brand to the portfolio "paves the way for outstanding growth prospects."

The deal is being financed through a syndicated loan underwritten by six banks: BNP Paribas, Calyon, JP Morgan, Natixis, Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale.