Daniele Ricard to become Pernod chairman: report

PARIS (Reuters) - Pernod Ricard (PERP.PA) board member Daniele Ricard, 73, will replace her late brother Patrick Ricard as non-executive chairman of the world's second-largest spirits maker, French website Wansquare reported.

The board approved Daniele Ricard's appointment at a meeting earlier on Wednesday, it said.

A Pernod Ricard spokeswoman confirmed that the board had met to review full-year accounts for publication on Thursday. She declined to comment on the report.

Patrick's nephew Alexandre Ricard, 40, will also become deputy chief executive, while incumbent chief executive Pierre Pringuet takes on the additional role of vice-chairman, Wansquare added, without citing sources.

Patrick Ricard, whose father Paul founded the manufacturer of the eponymous aniseed-flavoured liquor in Marseille in 1932, died suddenly on Friday, aged 67.

Analysts had told Reuters last week that Alexandre Ricard was expected to become chief executive, fulfilling his uncle's wish that the founder's French heirs remain at the helm of a global business that includes Jameson Whisky and Absolut Vodka, alongside Ricard and Pernod pastis.

Pringuet, the first person outside the Ricard family to hold the CEO post, is due to retire in 2015. The family is Pernod Ricard's largest shareholder with a 14 percent stake.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)