Imperial Tobacco Group plans to bid € 910 million (US$ 1.3 billion) for full control of Compania de Distribucion Integral Logista, Spain’s largest cigarette distributor, following its takeover of Altadis.

Spanish market rules oblige Imperial Tobacco to either offer to buy the rest of the distributor or cut its stake to less than 30 per cent. To comply with takeover rules, Imperial Tobacco will bid € 52.50 a share for Logista, a 5 per cent premium to Thursday’s closing price. Imperial said it could back off if another bidder offered more. "We will reserve the right not to proceed with our takeover if a third party announced a firm intention to file a takeover offer at a higher price," said Gareth Davis, chief executive.
Imperial controls about 59 per cent of Logista following the € 12.6 billion takeover deal with Altadis, which Altadis shareholders accepted on 22 January. Analysts have earlier said that if Imperial did buy out the remaining shareholders of Logista, a £ 5 billion rights issue would be needed. If Imperial sold the Logista stake the equity issue could fall to £ 3-3.5 billion. (pi)