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Equity Firms Bid For European Tobacco CompanyMADRID, May 4 — Two private equity groups, CVC Capital Partners and PAI Partners, have made a bid of 12.8 billion euros ($17.42 billion) for Altadis, the maker of Gauloises cigarettes, trumping an earlier offer from Imperial Tobacco of Britain and setting the stage for a bidding war. The buyout firms offered 50 euros a share ($67.95) for the French-Spanish company, Altadis said on Friday, topping an already sweetened offer from Imperial 47 euros ($67.83), which Altadis had rejected as too low. Altadis, which also makes Cohiba cigars and Gitanes and Fortuna cigarettes, has the second-largest market share in Spain and France, after the Altria Group. Altadis said it would have no comment on the latest bid until its board met in the next few days. A spokesman for Altadis, Miguel Angel Martin, said the new offer signaled that the equity groups considered the company appetizing and found credible its higher goals for sales and margins. A new wave of consolidation in the tobacco sector has been much anticipated in Europe, where companies are struggling with smoking bans, higher taxes and restrictions on advertising. In December, Japan Tobacco paid 7.5 billion euros ($14.8 billion) to acquire the Gallaher Group. In the Altadis bid, the company said the groups offer was contingent on gaining access to its books and winning the support of the board and of 75 percent of shareholders. Analysts said on Friday that the move could spur a higher bid from Imperial, or prompt the company to team with the private equity groups and start a joint bid. That would probably result in Altadiss being split up, analysts said, since the private equity companies would be interested in Altadiss logistics business and Imperial in its cigarette and cigar operations. Imperials chief executive, Gareth Davis, said Altadis was not his only option. Imperial could buy smaller tobacco groups, he said. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationHBOS crashes on to Australia’s high street...Nokia Increases Profit and Market Share... RBS faces up to angry investors at AGM... Murdoch’s ?Head of Content?... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Equity Firms Bid For European Tobacco Company |
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