Imperial Tobacco Confirms Forecasts

Source from:  biz.yahoo.com LONDON (AP) Wednesday September 19 09/20/2007

Imperial Tobacco Says It Expects to Meet Full-Year Forecasts Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, the maker of Davidoff cigarettes, said Wednesday it expects to meet forecasts for the full year and believes Spanish regulators will approve its offer for Altadis in the next few weeks. Imperial, which also makes Golden Virginia loose tobacco and Rizla rolling papers, has offered 12.6 billion euros ($17.4 billion) for Altadis SA, the maker of Gauloises, Gitanes and Ducados cigarettes and Montecristo and Don Diego cigars. "We await approval of our offer document from the CNMV, the Spanish regulator, which is expected in the next few weeks," Imperial said in a statement. The European tobacco industry has been consolidating, with multinationals buying each other to obtain economies of scale as smoking bans curtail tobacco use in Western European markets. "Bans on smoking in public places have been introduced in Wales, Northern Ireland and England during the past six months," Imperial said. "As anticipated, these have resulted in an initial decline in cigarette market volumes. We expect this impact to diminish over time." In the U.K., the company said it boosted its market share and boosted profitability with pricing improvements and cost savings. It also said the six-month contribution from U.S.-based Commonwealth Brands, which it bought earlier this year for $1.9 billion (1.4 billion euros), helped improve the overall operating margin. "We have continued to grow our cigarette volumes and margin in the second half with particularly strong performances from our key brands Davidoff, West and JPS," the company said. Imperial Tobacco shares fell less than 1 percent to 2,207 pence ($44.04) in London. Enditem