[Intl-tobacco] BAT enters Turkey with 10 year investment (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

BAT enters Turkey with 10 year investment
Source: Reuters, Friday, 6/29/01

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - British American Tobacco Plc said on Friday it
was entering the Turkish tobacco market, the seventh largest in the world,
with an investment of between $150 and $200 million over ten years.

The company, which is the world's second largest tobacco group, said it
had finalised agreements with local Turkish partners Duzey Pazarlama and
Sunel Tobacco to manufacture and market a range of its own international
brands in Turkey.

BAT, which operates in 180 countries, produces cigarette brands including
Lucky Strike, Benson & Hedges, Dunhill and Rothmans.

Both Turkish firms would become minority shareholers in the manufacturing
company British American Tobacco Sigara ve Tutunculuk Sanayi ve Ticaret
AS, which would establish a factory in Tire, BAT said in a statement.

Its shares, which have underperformed the FTSE All Share's tobacco index
by around one percent since the start of the year, closed at 561 pence on
Thursday, valuing the company at around 11.98 billion pounds.