[Intl-tobacco] Investors Reopen Azerbaijan's Sole Tobacco Plant (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

 Investors Reopen Azerbaijan's Sole
 Tobacco Plant

 BAKU, Feb 2, 2000 -- (Reuters) Investors in the
 sole tobacco plant in the former Soviet state of
 Azerbaijan reopened the plant on Tuesday after
 spending $50 million on its modernization.

 European Tobacco Inc. won a 92.5 percent stake in
 the tobacco factory last August through voucher and
 cash auctions of the company's shares.

 European Tobacco's Baku director, Nabil Al-Asfar,
 said that by mid-February the factory would be
 working at full capacity producing one million
 cigarettes a day and would satisfy demand in the
 Azeri market.
					
 The factory is to buy tobacco mainly from regions in
 western Azerbaijan, where it is grown.

 Production at the plant had fallen to 12,000 metric
 tons of tobacco a year down from 60,000 metric
 tons in Soviet days.

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