Japan Tobacco to Buy Overseas Assets of Reynolds' Natural American Spirit for $5 Billion
September 29 2015 - 7:20AM
Dow Jones News
TOKYO—Japan Tobacco Inc. said Tuesday it would pay ¥ 600 billion
($5 billion) to acquire rights to the Natural American Spirit brand
of cigarettes outside the U.S. from Reynolds American Inc., the
latest step by the Tokyo-based company to expand beyond the
shrinking Japanese market.
Japan Tobacco said it reached the deal over Natural American
Spirit with U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American Inc., which owns
brands such as Camel. Under the deal, Japan Tobacco will acquire
non-U.S. trademarks and all outstanding shares of Reynolds American
subsidiaries outside the U.S. that sell the Natural American Spirit
brand.
Natural American Spirit has advertised itself as an
"additive-free" brand. In August, antitobacco activists sent a
letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration objecting to the
language. Sales of the brand last year totaled $658 million, more
than double the $289 million in sales reported in 2009.
Japan Tobacco said that 2014 sales of the brand outside the U.S.
were ¥ 17.6 billion.
Japan Tobacco has made a series of large overseas acquisitions
to combat falling sales at home, where the overall population is
shrinking and the proportion of those smoking cigarettes is also
falling.
Write to Peter Landers at peter.landers@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 29, 2015 07:05 ET (11:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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