The European Commission announced yesterday its decision to approve the acquisition of Franco-Spanish cigar and cigarette manufacturer Altadis S.A. by Britain’s Imperial Tobacco Group Plc.

Citing its fair competition rules, the EU's Executive Commission said the clearance was conditional on Imperial Tobacco giving up some of its rolling and pipe tobacco and cigar brands. The Commision said the new entity would have had too large a stranglehold on the markets for rolling tobacco in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain; in pipe tobacco in Finland and France, and cigars in Greece.
In each case Imperial Tobacco has agreed to give up one or several brands in order to appease Brussels' competition concerns.
Imperial Tobacco envisages receiving approval of its proposed offer of € 50 (USD 71.26) for each Altadis share from the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission, soon. The offer acceptance period will commence after the CNMV’s issues its approval.
Imperial Tobacco will pay € 16.2 billion (including debt) for Altadis, the maker of Gauloises cigarettes, and would become the world's fourth-biggest tobacco company after Altria (Philip Morris), BAT and Japan. (pi)