The Wall Street Journal-20080128-U-K--s Imperial Tobacco Gains Majority Stake in Rival Altadis

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U.K.'s Imperial Tobacco Gains Majority Stake in Rival Altadis

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MADRID -- Imperial Tobacco Group PLC said it secured 95.8% of French-Spanish rival Altadis SA, paving the way for one of the largest takeovers in the tobacco industry.

The 12.6 billion euros ($18.49 billion) takeover of Altadis allows Imperial Tobacco, known for its Davidoff and West brand cigarettes, to narrow the gap on rivals such as Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris business, Japan Tobacco Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC.

The minimum acceptance level set for the takeover offer was 80% of shareholders.

Altadis makes Fortuna, Gitanes and Ducados cigarettes.

Imperial, of the United Kingdom, also unveiled a 900 million euros offer for about 40% of Altadis unit Logista SA, which distributes cigarettes, retail goods, newspapers and magazines across European tobacco markets such as Spain, France and Italy and has annual sales of more than 800 million euros. Altadis controls around 59.6% of Logista.

Imperial's offer for Logista, which came in lower than analysts expected, could result in a third-party bid for the distribution company. Imperial said it reserves the right to withdraw its 52.50 euros-a-share ($77.55) offer for Logista if a third party emerges with a firm, higher offer. Spanish takeover laws required Imperial to either reduce its stake in Logista to below 30% or bid for the remainder of shares it didn't control.

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Rod Stone in London and Santiago Perez in Madrid contributed to this article.