Imperial Tobacco Sells 97% of New Shares

Source from:  Thu Jun 12, news.yahoo.com LONDON (AFP) 06/12/2008

Imperial Tobacco said on Thursday that it had sold 97 percent of new shares it recently offered investors to help fund its multi-billion dollar takeover of Franco-Spanish rival Altadis. "Imperial Tobacco announces that it has received valid acceptances in respect of 329,215,281 new shares, representing approximately 97.19 percent of the total number of new shares offered to shareholders," the group said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Imperial offered new shares worth a total of 4.9 billion pounds on May 20. The rights issue was the third biggest ever conducted in Britain, while the new shares were each valued at 43 percent below Imperial's closing price on May 19. A new tobacco giant, incorporating well-known brands Embassy cigarettes and Montecristo cigars, emerged in January as Imperial Tobacco won control of Altadis in a deal worth 12.8 billion euros (18.8 billion dollars). The takeover created Europe's second-biggest tobacco company, behind Altria Group's Philip Morris, making about 312 billion cigarettes a year. Enditem