UK Groups Eye Turkish tobacco

Source from:  ft.com By Lucy Warwick-Ching September 26 2007 10/31/2007

British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco will both consider bidding for the state-owned Turkish tobacco company in what will be the government's third attempt to sell the business. "We have always said we would take a look at it and that is what we'll do now it is up for sale," said BAT, the maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Turkey's government is understood to be planning a roadshow in London this week for the long-delayed privatisation of Tekel Cigarette. Imperial said: "Tekel is something that we have said we would look at. We already have around 3 per cent of the tobacco sales in Turkey but we will monitor developments here while continuing to focus on Altadis." Enditem