Philip Morris, RJR and BAT Interested in Thai Monopoly (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

                        September 11, 1998
 Thai Tobacco Monopoly Stake
 Interests 3 Foreign Cos - Report

 Dow Jones Newswires

 BANGKOK -- Thailand Tobacco Monopoly, or TTM,
 managing director Ong-Ard Champoonta said in a
 newspaper interview Friday that three international
 cigarette manufactures could take a stake in the
 state-owned company.

 The Nation newspaper quoted Ong-Ard as saying U.S.
 companies Philip Morris Cos (MO) and RJR Nabisco
 and U.K.'s B.A.T Industries PLC (BTI), had expressed
 interest in buying some of the 49% of TTM which the
 government plans to privatize.

 "We would like to be similar to Japan Tobacco, which is
 still a monopoly though it has other investors," Ong-Ard
 told the Nation.

 The Thai government is committed to privatizing most
 monopolies by the end of 1999 as part of a International
 Monetary Fund $17.2 billion economic rescue package.

 According to the Nation, authorities have agreed with
 the IMF to complete a study outlining TTM's strategic
 options by the first quarter of next year.

 TTM launched two new brands of low-nicotine
 cigarettes Thursday in a bid to recapture its share of
 the light cigarette market.

 The nation quoted Ong-Ard as saying foreign
 manufactures had captured 96% of the light cigarette
 market since Thailand opened up to imports in 1991.

 Foreign imports, however, are only 8% of the standard
 cigarette market, with Philip Morris's Malboro brand
 accounting for about half of this figure, the report said.


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