Imperial to Start Altadis Integration

Source from:  tr.itsmyiq.com Jan 25, 2008 01/28/2008

The Imperial Tobacco Group will start to assimilate Altadis' operations following the acceptance by shareholders of Imperial's €50 per share offer. The Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that acceptances had been received in respect of about 95.81 per cent of Altadis shares, surpassing the 80 per cent minimum that had been set as a condition of the offer. Imperial says that it will now make compulsory acquisitions of all of the outstanding Altadis shares. And it says that it will launch a tender offer for the shares in Logista that are not already owned by Altadis at a price of €52.50 per share. This values the outstanding Logista shares at about €910 million (excluding treasury shares) and values the entire share capital of Logista (excluding treasury shares) at about €2,300 million. The acquisition of Altadis is to be financed through new bank facilities and an underwritten rights issue, which Imperial estimates will be no more than £5 billion and which will be completed by July 18. The integration of the two companies will be aided by Jean-Dominique Comolli, the chairman of Altadis, who is accepting an invitation to join Imperial's board as non-executive deputy chairman. And while Altadis' chairman of the executive committee and group CEO, Mr. Antonio Vázquez Romero, has decided not to accept the offer of a position on the board and the position of chief executive officer of the combined cigar and logistics businesses, Imperial says that he has accepted an invitation to act as a consultant to the enlarged group to support the integration process. Imperial estimates that the enlarged group will generate cost savings of about €300 million a year by the end of the second full financial year following completion (year ended September 2010), plus revenue benefits, though it said that full access to the Altadis business would now bring greater visibility of the level and timing of the cost savings. "Coupled with the substantial cost savings that we expect to achieve, we believe this represents an excellent deal for Imperial Tobacco and one that will create significant value for our shareholders," said Gareth Davis, Imperial's chief executive officer. Enditem