Tobacco Journal - News: Poland To Ban Tobacco Ads/BulgartabacRe-enters Russian Market (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Tobacco Journal - News: Poland To Ban Tobacco Ads/Bulgartabac Re-enters
Russian Market

Source: Tobacco Journal International, Wednesday, 7/28/99

1999-07-22
	
	  POLAND	

	  Poland To Ban Tobacco Ads

 	    Poland’s parliament may implement a total ban on all tobacco
advertisements as politicians are working on an amendment to the Act on
the Protection of Health Against the Effects of Tobacco Usage. However the
International Advertising Agency (IAA) has contended that such a move
threatens free speech, and plans to fight the ban. Tobacco ads are
currently banned in electronic media, cinemas and child publications. (pi)

	  
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	1999-07-27
	
	  RUSSIAN FEDERATION

	  Bulgartabac Re-enters Russian Market

 	    Bulgartabac & Soyuzkontract-Tabak (SKT) have signed an
agreement which allows SKT to sell and distribute all brands of
Bulgartabac within the Russian Federation.  SKT has already opened eight
marketing offices in St.  Petersburg, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Ekaterinburg,
Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Volgograd and Tyumen. SKT also announced to
start the production of BT brands in Podolsk which is planned to reach 3
billion cigarettes annually. During Soviet era, the brands of Bulgartabac
were widely distributed in the USSR. After the fall of the USSR, legal
imports of cigarettes from Bulgaria plummeted to 77000 boxes. However,
according to a careful estimate around one million boxes of BT brands are
currently manufactured and sold illegally in Russia. (AK)

	  
 
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	1999-07-07
	
	  KYRGYZSTAN

	  Standard Commercial and Sunel Announce Joint Venture

 	    Standard Commercial Corporation has entered a joint venture
agreement with Sunel Ticaret T.A.S. of Izmir, Turkey to purchase, process
and market tobaccos produced in Kyrgyzstan. Robert E. Harrison, Standard
Commercial's president and CEO, stated that "Kyrgyzstan has always been a
significant source of semi-oriental tobaccos for the East. The joint
venture will meet the demands of Russian and other East European cigarette
manufacturers for low cost tobacco now and in the future."
	  
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	1999-07-01
	
	  DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

	  400 000 Cigars Go Up in Smoke

 	    A fire in the factory of the Dominican cigar manufacturer La
Flor Dominicana destroyed around 400 000 premium cigars within just a few
hours. The fired was probably due to a short circuit in one of the
company's humidors. The factory's tobacco stocks were not affected by the
fire.
	  
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	1999-06-16
	
	  FYROM

	  Leaf Processing Company Acquired

 	    The Slovenian cigarette maker Tobacna Ljubljana has announced
the take over of a 97 per cent stake of the tobaco processing company
Tutunski kombinat Skopje, based in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM); the deal is worth about DM 8 million. The Slovenian
company plans to sell a 18.5 per cent stake to the Macedonian tobacco
company Makedonja Tabak in the future.
	  
 
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	1999-06-02
	
	  SOUTH KOREA

	  Monopoly Privatisation Details

 	    The South Korean government will sell a 25 per cent stake in
the country's state-owned tobacco manufacturer Korea Tobacco and Ginseng
Corp. during 1999; the privatisation process should be completed by the
year 2000. Foreign companies will be allowed to hold a maximum stake of 25
per cent; however, each foreign investor can hold not more than 7 per cent
of shares. The government will soon choose an advisor to the deal, who
will also determine the price of the shares. KT&G achieved profits of US$
257 million on a turnover of US$ 4 billion in 1998. It holds a 95.1 per
cent share of the Korean cigarette market.