The British multinational Imperial Brands, owner of the Spanish Altadis, has agreed to sell its premium tobacco business, for a total of 1,225 million euros ($ 1.3 billion), as reported by the British conglomerate in a note published by the newspaper. The country.
The sale will be made through two separate operations to two “individual investor consortia” and the proceeds will be for debt reduction.
On the one hand, the firm Gemstone Investment Holding keeps the cigar business in the US, Premium Cigar USA, for 185 million. On the other, the Canadian Allied Cigar Corporation acquires the rest of the business for 1,040 million.
The transaction should be completed in the second half of this year. According to the company, the cigar business contributed 91 million to the 1,937 million euros of profits before taxes from Imperial Brands.
“It has been a complex transaction that has involved partners and assets in many geographies,” said Imperial Brands CEOs Dominic Brisby and Joerg Biebernick.
According to the note published by Imperial, the sale price of its “premium cigar business” means multiplying the division’s operating result in 2019 by 11.8, which “recognizes the luxurious nature of the business’s products and its profile of international growth. “
Imperial Brands obtained 80 million pounds (more than 99 million dollars) of profits before taxes in 2019 precisely from its premium cigar business, which it maintained as a 50% joint venture with the state-owned Cubatabaco (Habanos SA), for the that sold the Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo brands.
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