As Current Account was sitting at the keyboard earlier this week, Pernod Ricard had yet to get the go-ahead for the sale of its Orangina soft drinks business to Coca Cola for almost €720 million, but all the indications were that the French regulators would finally give Pernod the go-ahead.

The sale of Orangina is seen as the essential precursor to a €6 billion (£4 billion sterling) bid by Pernod for Allied Domecq, a move that would be seen as just as audacious as Pernod's extraordinary win in the Irish Distillers takeover battle all of 10 years ago. Pernod is far smaller than Allied Domecq, and most in the market believe that the expected €6 billion bid might not be enough to persuade Allied's institutional shareholders to bite whatever reservations they might hold about Allied's performance and strategy.

Various signals have been given that suggest Pernod is gearing up for a bid that would transform what is in effect a French drinks group with Irish and Scotch whiskey interests into a truly global player in the booze business. Allied's brands include Ballantines whisky and Beefeater gin and these would fit snugly into Pernod's current stable of brands, one of the most important of which is Jameson.

Pernod chairman Patrick Ricard has already hinted that the Pernod and Ricard families which control the group would not be opposed to diluting their interests if a share issue is needed to part-fund a bid for Allied. There are also reports that Pernod has lined up a £3 billion debt facility as a second component of the finance package required.

If Pernod does bid and ends up buying Allied, it will of course have the option of offloading the British group's foods business. After all the culinarily fastidious French would undoubtedly feel uncomfortable with having brands like Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins in their business. Quel horreur!

For Ireland, the main interest of a Pernod takeover of Allied Domecq is what the implications would be for Irish Distillers - one of the jewels in the Pernod crown. Thinking back, the £280 million (€355 million) paid by Pernod for IDG 10 years ago looks like the bargain of the decade, given the huge growth in the Irish whiskey business since Pernod absorbed IDG.

Where would IDG and its various brands fit into an enlarged Pernod Ricard? Most in the industry believe that access to Allied Domecq's distribution capacity would be positive for IDG and give Irish whiskey brands to markets where they may not be fully represented.