Here is the story about Imperial buying Altadis which owns 50% of Habanos.
Imperial closes in on Altadis deal
By Our City Staff
Published: 18 July 2007
Imperial Tobacco was close to securing a €12.8bn (£8.7bn) deal to take over Altadis last night.
Imperial is today set to announce a €50-a-share all-cash bid for the Franco-Spanish company, the maker of Gauloises and Gitanes cigarettes.
The Altadis board met last night to complete the negotiations. The deal will consolidate Imperial as the world’s fourth largest tobacco group.
It has long seen Altadis as a target to add to its operations in Europe. In addition to Gauloises and Gitanes, Altadis owns the Cuban cigar brands Montecristo, Cohiba and Romeo y Julieta. It is the world’s largest maker of cigars, and holds a 50 per cent stake in Habanos, the state-controlled Cuban maker of cigars.
The imminent deal comes after the private equity group CVC struggled to finance its bid for Altadis, and will end a lengthy takeover saga. Imperial’s initial offer of €45 a share was rejected earlier this year. It raised its offer to €47 a share but that was also rejected by the Altadis board.
In May CVC tabled a €50-a-share approach but CVC’s bankers became reluctant to sign off the firm’s covenant-lite loan to buy Altadis amid jitters in the credit markets.
Imperial is expected to launch a rights issue worth £4bn. Financing the deal are Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Santander.
Gareth Davies, Imperial’s chief executive, is expected to run the combined group.
END STORY
I am not sure if Imperial does any business in the US but you can bet the Bush Administration will not let them now that they own half of a Cuban company.
Also, is Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup in violation of “trading with the enemy” laws because they funded a company to help it buy half of Habanos?
Of course I think it is silly but will these funders get fined from OFAC?
Bush is a lame duck with little time left in his administration. He has a 23% approval rating in the polls. Why would he challenge those giants? He isn’t that stupid!
He might do that to make a point that he/Republican candidates are tough on Cuba. Of course it would be silly but if he is tough on Cuba and terrorism, how can he let US financial institutions finance the purchase of a “terrorist” organization like Habanos?
I do believe that these financial institutions broke the “trading with the enemy” laws.
I will notify them of this post and see if they want to comment.
