Burger King has 11,500 outlets worldwide

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group, has confirmed it will sell its Burger King hamburger chain for $1.5 billion to a private consortium led by Texas Pacific.

The deal, announced on Friday, had been widely anticipated and comes after drawn-out negotiations which brought the price down by about one third from a $2.26 billion deal initially struck in July.

The London-based company -- which markets Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker scotch, Guinness and Baileys liqueur -- said it would provide some of the debt financing for the deal.

In addition to Texas Pacific, the consortium includes other private equity groups Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.

Burger King, known as the "Home of the Whopper," has 11,500 outlets worldwide. It opened its first restaurant in Miami in 1954. In 1989 it was bought by GrandMet, which later merged with Guinness to become Diageo.

Diageo (DGE) shares were up 2 percent to 678 pence in early afternoon trading in London on Friday.

The group has been casting off businesses like Pillsbury to focus on its fast-growing alcoholic drinks market. It bought Seagram's drinks unit for $8 billion in a joint bid at the end of 2001.

"Our strategy to focus on premium drinks has resulted in, basically, transactions in excess of $20 billion," Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh told CNN. "The drinks business has far higher margins... and, therefore, that is the business we are dedicated to build."

In September, Diageo said full-year profit rose by a third but warned it would be challenged to meet its financial targets in the current year.

Net income rose 1.62 billion ($2.5 billion) in the year to June 30, from 1.21 billion a year ago. Earnings per share came in at 48.7 pence a share, up 36 percent.

Pretax profit before one-time items rose 3 percent to 2.04 billion, in line with analysts' expectations.