Imperial Tobacco Says Cash Offer Accepted

Source from:  MADRID, Spain (AP) by Altadis Shareholders January 22, 2008 01/23/2008

British-based tobacco giant Imperial Tobacco Group PLC on Tuesday said its cash offer for Altadis SA has been accepted by 93.5 percent of shareholders of the Spanish-French tobacco company, paving the way for the completion of its 12.6 billion euros ($18.26 billion) acquisition. The deal would allow Imperial, known for its Davidoff and West brand cigarettes, to close the gap with rivals such as Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris business, Japan Tobacco Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC. Imperial said in a statement that it received close to 236 million Altadis shares, according to preliminary calculations, well above the minimum acceptance level of 80 percent set in Imperial's takeover bid conditions. The final result of the takeover offer is expected to be disclosed by Spain's market supervisor, the CNMV, on Friday. After that, Imperial said it plans to disclose its intentions in relation to cigarette distributor Compania de Distribucion Integral Logista SA. Analysts have speculated that Imperial could sell Logista to focus on core cigarette and cigar manufacturing operations. Altadis, the manufacturer of Fortuna, Gitanes and Ducados cigarette brands, is also the world's leading cigar distributor through its 50-50 venture with the Cuban state-owned cigar company Habanos. The approach from Imperial took place at a time of weakness for Altadis, which has suffered from a steep decline in profit and has been forced to cut costs as core Spanish and French cigarette markets have been hit hard by tougher anti-tobacco regulations, cutthroat price competition and higher taxes. Imperial first approached Altadis in March with a nonbinding bid of 45 euros per share, which Altadis turned down. The British company was again rebuffed when it returned with a higher offer of 47 euros per share in April, valuing Altadis at 12.03 billion euros. It raised its bid one more time, to 50 euros per share, in order to secure the support of Altadis' board, as private equity firms CVC and PAI Partners launched their own 50-per-share euros, nonbinding offer in May. Imperial plans to delist Altadis from Spanish and French stock markets after the takeover. Imperial Tobacco shares were down 71 pence ($1.4), or 3 percent, to 2,327 pence ($4,562) in London. In Madrid, Altadis traded up 0.26 euros ($0.38), or 0.5 percent, to 49.91 euros ($72.34). The British and Spanish markets traded generally flat after retracing earlier losses when the U.S. Federal Reserve surprised investors with a 75-basis-point cut in interest rates. Enditem