Imperial Buys Rival Altadis

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC's $18.49 billion (12.6 billion euro) offer for Altadis -- known for its Davidoff and West cigarettes and Montecristo cigars, among other brands -- has been accepted by 93.5 percent of shareholders of the Spanish-French tobacco company. "I am delighted to announce the successful conclusion of our acquisition of Altadis," says Gareth Davis, chief executive officer, Imperial Tobacco. "This is a significant milestone for Imperial Tobacco, consolidating our position as the world's fourth largest international tobacco company and enhancing our platform for continued and sustainable growth."A rapid integration of the Imperial Tobacco and Altadis businesses commenced in late January.The combined group is expected to generate cost savings of approximately 300 million euro per annum by the end of the second full financial year following completion, plus revenue benefits. In conjunction with this announcement, Imperial Tobacco also unveiled a 900 million euro offer for about 40 percent of Altadis unit Logista SA, which distributes cigarettes, retail goods, newspapers and magazines across European tobacco markets, like Spain, France and Italy, and has annual sales of more than 800 million euro.However, if a third party files a takeover offer for all of the share capital of Logista, at an offer price in excess of the price offered by Imperial Tobacco, then Imperial Tobacco reserves the right to withdraw its takeover offer for Logista and to accept that offer.