IMPERIAL TOBACCO SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE ALTADIS TAKEOVER

Source from:  Received LONDON, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) 08/14/2007

Britain's Imperial Tobacco said Monday that its shareholders had approved the company's takeover of Franco-Spanish rival Altadis. Imperial Tobacco said in a statement that its shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the acquisition at an extraordinary general meeting on Monday. The maker of Regal, Embassy and Davidoff cigarettes is offering 50 euros per Altadis share, which values the group at 16.2 billion euros (22.4 billion dollars) including debt. Last month, Imperial won the backing of management at Altadis, whose brands include Gauloises and Fortuna. The takeover will transform Imperial Tobacco into Europe's second-largest tobacco group, behind Altria Group's Philip Morris, and will create a company making about 312 billion cigarettes a year. Enditem