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Philip Morris International expects earnings per share to rise 10 percent to 12 percent annually in the long-term after the cigarette company gets spun off from Altria Group Inc later this month, it said on Tuesday.
At the same time, Altria said its remaining businesses -- Marlboro cigarette maker Philip Morris USA and a 28.6 percent stake in beer maker SABMiller PLC -- should post long-term annual earnings per share growth of 8 percent to 10 percent.
The forecasts came in a news release ahead of an analysts' meeting to lay out plans for the companies after the March 28 spinoff of Philip Morris International.
The remaining Altria business should provide annual shareholder returns of more than 12 percent, including its dividend, the company said.
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Brewers SABMiller <SAB.L> and Molson Coors Brewing <TAP.N> have agreed to combine their U.S. operations to create a business that will have annual sales of $6.6 billion and be the second-biggest market player behind Anheuser-Busch <BUD.N>.
The venture, MillerCoors, will generate around $500 million of annual cost savings by the third year after completion of the deal, which is subject to the approval of the U.S. competition authorities, the two groups said on Tuesday.
Smoking bans are likely to accelerate the shift already under way. S&N estimates that the ban in England that begins on Sunday will hit beer sales in pubs and bars by 5% and cut operating profits by £10m in the next six months. Smoking bans in Ireland and Scotland have knocked beer sales by up to 7%, and England will not fare any better, reckons Mark Hastings at the Beer and Pub Association.
Market researchers predict that more than a third of the global beer consumption will move to Russia and China.
A man may have found out firsthand just how nasty the competition is between the world's two biggest beermakers.
Isac Aguero, 24, said he was fired from his job with a Miller Brewing distributor, the same day a picture appeared in The Journal Times of Racine of him drinking a Bud Light, which is brewed by Anheuser-Busch Co.
The photo, taken Feb. 5, was part of the newspaper's weekly "On the Town" feature, which depicts the city's night life. . . .
"It was a Saturday and I wasn't at work," he told The Journal Times. "They can't tell me what beverages I can drink.
"Bud Light's my beer of choice, I always drink that. Just because I work there, do I have to change what I drink?"
INVESTORS IN ALTRIA GROUP GOT GOOD NEWS Thursday when the tobacco giant, parent of Philip Morris, said it likely will split itself into two or three parts once its legal problems recede.
Wall Street cheered the unexpected announcement. Altria's shares rose 5 points to 54 last week, and in a breakup, its pieces could be worth over $70 a share.
At a Morgan Stanley consumer conference in New York, Altria Chief Executive Louis Camilleri called the company's tobacco business "significantly undervalued"
British brewer SABMiller (SAB.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it was not aware of any change in Altria's (MO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans for its 36 percent shareholding in SAB after the U.S. company said it was mulling a break-up.
Dealers said Altria's comments increased the likelihood the U.S. firm would sell its SAB holding when it is allowed to do so from the end of June 2005.
Altria owns 430 million SAB shares as a legacy of the latter's purchase of Miller.
U.S. tobacco-to-food giant Altria is more likely to sell its $6 billion stake in London-listed brewer SABMiller (SAB.L: Quote, Profile, Research) from next summer after the U.S. firm said it was mulling a break-up, dealers said on Friday.
SAB, the world's third biggest brewer, said on Friday it was unaware of any change to Altria's (MO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans for its 36 percent holding and it had not indicated what its long-term plans were. Altria was not immediately available to comment.
"It (the stake) has been seen as non-core and something they will dispose of, and if Altria is broken up it's hard to see any home for that stake within the new demerged organisation," one analyst said. "It might accelerate that process."
Altria Group Inc. said third-quarter profit rose 6.3%, helped by a lower tax rate and higher income from its stake in brewer SABMiller PLC.
The maker of Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes and majority owner of Kraft Foods Inc. said it also benefited from increased sales of its cigarettes overseas. The results were offset by earnings declines at Kraft Foods, which suffered from higher commodity and marketing costs.
If current foreign-exchange rates hold, the company should be able to reach the higher end of its prior earnings forecast for 2004 or $4.55 to $4.60 a share, said Chief Financial Officer Dinyar Devitre, during a conference call. Altria had given a prior forecast range of $4.50 to $4.60 share.
Smoking...is prohibited in the seating bowl and any enclosed areas, including inner concourses, restrooms, the Cadillac Club and Executive Suites. Locations where smoking is permitted:
* Colonnade Concourse
* Promenade Walkway (upper south rim of stadium)
* Miller Lite Party Deck . . .
First-time violators of the smoking policy will be asked to exchange their ticket stub for a "Smoking Card". Any patron refusing to exchange their ticket stub, will be ejected from the stadium. If a patron is then caught smoking in a non-smoking area for a second time, he or she will be ejected from the stadium.
More than a year after saying it plans to rename itself Altria, Philip Morris will launch a campaign in late January to herald the new name. The tagline: "Where people and performance make a difference." . .
Creative by Leo Burnett in Chicago is in development; it will focus on why PM is changing its name and what Altria stands for. While critics contend PM is trying to throw a cloak over its cigarette-manufacturing legacy, corporate executives say Altria is a better vehicle for building an identity as a diversified consumer-products company.
The goal of Burnett's campaign is to let consumers know that Altria is the holding company for Kraft, PM USA and PM International, and that those entities will not change their names. The spots will be unlike PM's previous corporate-image effort, which showed PM employees bringing water to flood victims and aid to war refugees. That effort backfired when activists publicized that PM spent more money--$80 million during 2001, according to CMR--on promoting its good works than on actual assistance.
There are three rules for starring in a Miller Lite ''reality'' TV ad: No swearing. No smoking.
No getting drunk.
''It's like being in high school,'' ad co-director Nate Crooker said as a joke.
The whole point is to get people to drink beer.
Crooker and his partner, Brian Jackson, prepped ''spokesdrinker'' Joe Swisher Friday night for the reality ad that will air for two weeks in October. The ad makers will follow Swisher, 25, and friends Josh Kramer and Phil Crowhurst tonight as they hit the town and drink Miller Lite.
Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE:KFT), the largest North American food company, on Wednesday backed its earlier projections for cost savings from its integration of cookie and cracker maker Nabisco.
Kraft said its sees 2002 savings of roughly $300 million from the addition of Nabisco, which it purchased in late 2000. The company also backed prior annual savings forecasts of $600 million once the Nabisco integration has been completed.
Kraft Foods Inc.'s Callard & Bowser-Suchard unit plans to target adult consumers by adding tangerine- and citrus-flavored hard candies to its line of Altoids confections, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The food company, which is 84 percent owned by Philip Morris Cos., started selling the new flavors in May and June, the Journal said. This marks a move into a new category, as the Tangerine and Citrus Altoids are hard candies and not mints, the paper said.
WASHINGTON (July 10, 2002 2:12 p.m. EDT) - The federal government has reached an agreement with Philip Morris Cos. to protect retirement benefits for more than 9,500 workers at its subsidiary Miller Brewing Co., which is being sold to London-based South African Breweries.
Miller Brewing's pension obligations are underfunded by about $150 million, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. estimated Wednesday. The corporation is the government's insurance program for private workers' pensions.
Philip Morris has agreed to make up the shortfall in case the money is needed to cover benefits promised to Miller Brewing workers and retirees.