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Imperial Tobacco Group PLC has agreed to divest a number of fine cut and pipe tobacco brands to Philip Morris International for a consideration of ?254 million.
The divestment of a small number of brands in certain European markets was a condition of the European Commission's approval of the Group's acquisition of Altadis.
The divestment is subject to European Commission approval and includes the fine cut tobacco brands Interval, Bergerac, Santoya and Wervicq (France), Van Nelle (Italy and Canary Islands) and Picadura (Spain) and the pipe tobacco brands Bergerac (France) and Kilta (Finland).
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Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (Imperial) announces that it has today filed the accounts of its wholly owned subsidiary, Altadis, for the year ended 31 December 2007 with the Spanish Mercantile Registry. . . .
The Cigarette Division grew significantly during the year with strong positive performances in Spain, Morocco and the Middle East. . . .
The performance of the Cigar Division was impacted by the weakness of the US dollar. At constant exchange rates, economic sales rose by 2% and EBITDA by 1%.
In the USA, product launches and additional advertising and promotion expenditure to address Q1 sales declines showed positive results later in the year in spite of challenging market trends.
Sales of Cuban cigars grew by 6% in dollar terms with improvements in both mature and emerging markets.
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT.L) announced it has completed the disposal of its 49.95% shareholding in Aldeasa, S.A., held through its subsidiary Altadis, S.A., to Autogrill Espana S.A., a subsidiary of Autogrill S.p.A.
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of Davidoff and West cigarettes, said costs related to its takeover of Altadis SA will lop 140 million pounds ($281 million) from the current fiscal year's profit.
The expenses concern the value of inventory, elimination of inter-company sales and depreciation adjustments, Imperial said today in a statement. Sales are meeting its forecast so far in the year, according to the Bristol, England-based company.
Imperial Tobacco Plc, the world's fourth-biggest cigarette group, said on Wednesday it was trading in line with its expectations as the group moves towards the close of its half-year at the end of March.
Imperial Tobacco PLC (ITY) said Wednesday that the trading performance of its core business as well as the recently acquired Altadis is currently in line with its expectations.
The company which recently completed the EUR12.6 billion purchase of Franco- Spanish rival Altadis said in a trading update that its performance for the year to Sept. 30 remains in line with management's forecasts.
"Furthermore, the operating performance of Altadis since completion of the acquisition on Jan. 25, 2008 has been in line with our expectations," it said.
The expenses concern the value of inventory, elimination of inter-company sales and depreciation adjustments, Imperial said today in a statement. Sales are meeting its forecast so far in the year, according to the Bristol, England-based company. . . .
The western European cigarette market will shrink by 1 percent to 2 percent over coming years, Philip Morris International said yesterday. The contraction has slowed following smoking bans and tax increases that cut into consumption in past years, PMI executives said.
Tobacco use will kill 1 billion people this century, a 10- fold increase over the previous 100 years, unless governments in poor nations raise taxes on consumption and mandate health warnings, the World Health Organization said in February.
Tobacco use will kill 1 billion people this century, a 10- fold increase over the previous 100 years, unless governments in poor nations raise taxes on consumption and mandate health warnings, the World Health Organization said in February.Bloomberg story on Imperial's purchase of Altadis. It's unusual to see a purely business story also point out the health costs of tobacco.
Imperial Tobacco's $15 billion takeover of Altadis already has looked pretty smart. Will it be even smarter now that Fidel Castro has resigned as the leader of Cuba?
If you had asked Altadis a year ago, the answer probably would have been yes. Altadis has the world's biggest share of cigar sales and owns a 50% stake in Cuba's state-owned Habanos SA, which makes Cohiba cigars. But Altadis can't sell those prized cigars in the U.S. because of the country's trade limits on Cuba. If Castro's successor--most likely his brother--is more favorable to U.S. officials, Altadis could be sitting on a gold mine. It already has 25% share of the cigar market, or about twice as much as its closest competitor.
Imperial Tobacco increased pricing on the 9.2 billion pounds ($17.9 billion) financing backing its acquisition of Franco-Spanish cigarette maker Altadis (ALT.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) to take account of difficult loan market conditions before launching the deal to a wider syndication on Monday, banking sources close to the deal said.
Imperial Tobacco said it has asked Spain's bourse regulator CNMV to suspend trading in Altadis SA shares from the end of the market session Feb 11 until the tobacco group is delisted.
Imperial Tobacco, owner of the Lambert & Butler, Davidoff and JPS cigarette brands, intends to buy the remaining shares it does not own in Logista, a Spanish logistics company, for about €910m (�675m).
Imperial acquired 59.62 per cent of the Spanish company when it bought Altadis, the Spanish maker of Gauloises and Gitanes cigarettes, a deal that was completed yesterday.
Gareth Davis, chief executive, said the company had to buy Madrid-based Logista because it would be too hard to find a bidder during a three-month deadline imposed by regulators.
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc plans to pay 910 million euros ($1.3 billion) for the shares it doesn't own in Compania de Distribucion Integral Logista SA, Spain's largest cigarette distributor, after a takeover gave it a majority stake.
Imperial, Europe's second-biggest publicly traded cigarette maker, inherited its 59.6 percent stake in Logista after gaining control of Altadis SA in a 12.6 billion-euro bid. Chief Executive Officer Gareth Davis said it's buying Madrid-based Logista because it would be too hard to find a private-equity bidder during a three-month deadline imposed by regulators.
A new tobacco giant incorporating well-known brands Regal cigarettes and Montecristo cigars emerged Tuesday as Britain's Imperial Tobacco won control of Franco-Spanish peer Altadis.
Imperial said in a statement that Altadis shareholders overwhelmingly backed its takeover bid for Altadis worth 12.8 billion euros (18.8 billion dollars).
The takeover will create Europe's second-largest tobacco company, behind Altria Group's Philip Morris, making about 312 billion cigarettes a year.
The combination of the world's fourth and fifth biggest tobacco groups will bring together Imperial Tobacco brands Regal, Embassy and Davidoff, with Altadis' Montecristo and Gauloises.
Imperial Tobacco is unlikely to bid for Logista in order to prepare it for a full sale at a later date, a source with knowledge of the situation told mergermarket.
The UK tobacco company has said that it will announce what it will do with Logista, the Spanish logistics company, the day it announces the results of its takeover of its parent company Altadis, expected by 24 January.
Under Spanish takeover law, Imperial Tobacco has to reduce its stake below 30% or launch a full takeover bid within three months of that date. If anyone buys Altadis’s full 59.6% stake in Logista, they would have to launch a mandatory bid for the distribution company.