Jump to full article: Canadian Press, 2001-12-04
Author: ROSS MAROWITS / Canadian Press
Intro: A Canadian tobacco company's effort to buy into the American market may go up in smoke because Santa Fe Natural Tobacco is favouring a takeover bid from R.J. Reynolds Holdings over one from Rothmans Inc.
But Toronto-based Rothmans said Tuesday it will collect a big breakup fee if New Mexico-based Santa Fe formally accepts a sweetened $340-million US cash bid from America's second-largest tobacco maker. . .
Santa Fe's additive-free cigarettes, made from organic tobacco and sold in distinctive packages bearing the silhouette of a pipe-smoking American Indian in a feathered headdress, account for just about one per cent of the U.S. market of 46.5-million smokers.
But it complements RJR's additive-free Winston brand - one of the top 10 brands in the United States with about five per cent of the U.S. market, said Payne.
R.J. Reynolds said it plans to maintain Santa Fe as a wholly owned subsidiary with a head office in New Mexico and a plant in Oxford, N.C.
"It is our intention to operate the company, much as it is operating today," said Payne.
Jump to full article » |