Japan Tobacco Inc, the world's third-largest traded cigarette maker, bought 100 percent of Gallaher Group PLC, the maker of Benson and Hedges cigarettes in Europe, through a ?7.5 billion (US$15 billion) takeover bid.
The Tokyo-based maker of Camel cigarettes completed the acquisition, it said in a statement yesterday. Japan Tobacco is gaining the biggest share of the Russian market through the purchase. Gallaher had said it expected Japan Tobacco to conclude its takeover by April 18.
Tobacco companies are making acquisitions to move into emerging markets as western European governments crack down on smoking and to boost profit by reducing costs after expansion. Gallaher purchased Russia's biggest cigarette maker in 2000. Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, the producer of West cigarettes, offered 12 billion euros (US$16.3 billion) for Altadis SA this month.
Japan Tobacco said on Dec. 15 it aims to become bigger than British American Tobacco PLC, the industry's second-largest publicly traded company.
The acquisition of Gallaher will make the company the leader in the Russian cigarette market, Europe's biggest. Japan Tobacco expects the purchase to double its market share in the country to 34 percent. Altria Group Inc leads the Russian market, which consumes 370 billion cigarettes a year, according to Gallaher.
Gallaher's main brands include LD, one of the biggest tobacco labels in Russia, and Sovereign, the most popular cigarette in Kazakhstan. In the UK it sells Silk Cut and Mayfair cigarettes as well as Benson and Hedges.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the