OSLO (Bloomberg) — Vin & Sprit AB has not been approached directly by potential buyers of the state-owned Swedish company or its Absolut vodka brand, chief executive officer Bengt Baron said.The distiller is among businesses in which Sweden’s government plans to reduce stakes, though no method or schedule has yet been disclosed. The 45-year-old CEO said he doesn’t have a preferred option for decreasing the state’s ownership or any information about the timing of a potential sale.

“There are many alternatives on what could happen,” said Baron, who won a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. “This is a complex process, and it’s important we work it through in due time.”

Bermuda-based Bacardi Ltd. is among the companies that have expressed interest in buying Absolut, which would give it a leading brand in the vodka market to complement its sector-ldeading rums, Martini Rossi and Dewar’s whiskey brands.

A sale of Vin & Sprit may trigger further combinations in the liquor industry, analysts at banks including Societe Generale SA have said. The company may fetch as much as 4.6 billion euros ($6 billion) in a sale, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. research. Pernod Ricard SA, the world’s second-biggest spirits maker, has said it will consider buying the distiller when it comes up for sale.

“There are so many people putting a price on it,” the CEO said. “We will leave it up to them. I have said that some of the prices are conservative.”

The government has sought legislators’ approval to dispose of stakes in Vin & Sprit and two other companies. Businesses may be sold through six options including initial public offerings or accords such as mergers, the state has said. Karin Forseke, former chief executive officer of investment bank D. Carnegie & Co., has been hired to oversee the planned asset sales.

Absolut is the world’s third-largest premium spirits brand, according to the CEO. The vodka is the second-most- popular in the US after Diageo Plc’s Smirnoff, JPMorgan has said. Competitors also include Stolichnaya, distributed by Pernod, and Bacardi Ltd.’s Grey Goose. Diageo and Bacardi also may seek to buy Vin & Sprit, according to newspaper reports.

The government may opt to sell Absolut separately from the rest of the company, whose products also include Plymouth gin and Cruzan rum. Arcus, a Norwegian wine and spirits maker owned by Swedish private-equity firm Ratos AB, is interested in buying parts of Vin & Sprit aside from Absolut, which it views as too expensive.

The Swedish distiller was founded in 1917 and had a domestic monopoly on alcohol production and distribution until 1995, when the country joined the European Union. Absolut was introduced in 1979 and remains the company’s main brand today. Vin & Sprit had revenue of 10.3 billion euros in 2006.

Vodka brings in almost three-fifths of sales at Vin & Sprit, which has collaborated with artists and designers including Andy Warhol and Gianni Versace on advertisements for Absolut.

Until a sale takes place, “it’s business as usual”, Baron said. “We have an exciting business to run, and we have some interesting targets to achieve. We’re not only looking at acquisitions, we also think there’s opportunity to create brands from scratch.”

The company is not discussing disposals of “anything in particular currently,” according to the CEO. Vin & Sprit agreed to sell its Florida Distillers unit to France’s Belvedere SA last month.

Baron has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked at companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Eastman Kodak Co. before joining Vin & Sprit in 2001. He was appointed as the distiller’s CEO and president in 2004.