Tobacco.org

Cashing in on Africa's smokers 

Altadis, the Franco-Spanish tobacco company, has managed to steal a march on both British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris to acquire 80%of Moroccos Regie des Tabacs, the countrys tobacco monopoly. With an annual turnover of $800m, four processing units and 20,000 sales outlets Regie des Tabacs provides $600m a year in taxes to the Moroccan treasury.

Altadis, which is one of Europes largest tobacco companies, won the Regie battle with a bid of Dh14.08bn ($1.5bn) or more than twice the minimum bid price of Dh6.4bn set by the state. BAT and Philip Morris offered Dh10.2bn and Dh9bn respectively.

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