Japan Tobacco Rises by More than 7% Due to Government Share Sale Delay

Source from:  China Post  11/21/2012

Japan Tobacco (JT) shares jumped more than 7 percent in Tokyo trade on Monday after the government said it would delay selling part of its stake in the former monopoly.

Choppy markets and a general election next month, which could see a change in leadership, were among reasons for putting off the sale of part of its 50-percent holding in the tobacco giant, a finance ministry official said Monday.

JT shares were 7.15 percent higher at 2,425 yen in afternoon trade.

To help fund its reconstruction budget after last year's quake-tsunami disasters, Tokyo had planned to cut its stake in JT to about one-third this year, booking a profit of more than 500 billion yen (US$6.15 billion) after the sale, the official said.

But a spokesman for Japan Tobacco, whose brands including Camel, Benson & Hedges and Winston, said the firm was still ready to buy back shares from the government. Enditem