[Intl-tobacco] Philip Morris unit offers to buy Colombia cigarette co

[robert weissman]

Philip Morris unit offers to buy Colombia cigarette co
Tue Aug 31, 2004 08:53 PM ET

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug 31 (Reuters) - A Dutch unit of U.S. tobacco giant
Philip
Morris is offering to buy Colombia's largest cigarette maker, Compania
Colombiana
de Tabaco (Coltabaco) CCT.CN , the Colombian company said on Tuesday.

The terms of the deal call for a payment of $4.88 a share for up to 100
percent of
the 63.5 million shares outstanding, giving a potential value of $310
million.

The owners of 51.8 percent of Coltabaco shares have agreed to sell them
in a public
offer to Netherlands-based Philip Morris International Inc unit GWP CV,
Coltabaco
said in a letter printed on the Colombian Securities Superintendency website
(www.supervalores.gov.co).

The offer will be valid for 100 percent of the company's shares, it said. It
provided no date for the deal but said Coltabaco's board would meet on
Wednesday to
"take the relevant decisions."

The offer compared to a closing price on the Colombian Stock Exchange on
Tuesday of
9,540 pesos per Coltabaco share, or about $3.74, up 5.76 percent, before
news of
the offer was made public.

GWP CV is also offering to pay shareholders who sell their stock any
dividends
pending from 2003.

Coltabaco, part of Colombian conglomerate Grupo Empresarial Antioqueno
(GEA),
reported operating income of about $40 million in the first half of
2004, and net
earnings of $4 million.

Coltabaco is best known for Pielroja unfiltered cigarettes. News of its
sale came
one day after GEA units announced they were selling their La Jagua coal
mine to
Swiss-based commodity trader Glencore International AG.

Philip Morris, which is controlled by Altria Group Inc. MO.N , already
has a big
presence in Colombia with its Marlboro brand. Altria also controls top
U.S. food
maker Kraft Foods Inc. KFT.N

(US$1 = 2,552 pesos)