Imperial Extends Altadis Offer Period

Source from:  tobaccojournal.com 08 Jan 2008 01/09/2008

Imperial Tobacco Group is extending its offer period for Franco-Spanish cigarette maker Altadis to 18 January to allow shareholders more time after the Christmas and New Year holiday. The offer period had originally been set to run to 11 January, but will be extended to the maximum of 70 days under Spanish takeover rules, or until 20 January, but as that date is a Sunday the offer period will close on Friday 18 January. Imperial said on Tuesday it will not extend the acceptance period beyond 18 January unless a competing offer is filed with Spanish market regulator CNMV. The last day a competing offer can be filed is 14 January. Altadis has already agreed to the takeover by Imperial at € 50 euros a share in cash valuing the Gauloises and Fortuna cigarette maker at € 12.6 billion, and the deal has been cleared by regulators in Brussels and Madrid. Enditem