23rd Feb 2015 12:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - British American Tobacco PLC Monday said it is evaluating a possible public tender offer to acquire up to all of the 24.7% stake in Brazil's Souza Cruz SA that it does not already own, and then delist the company from the São Paulo Stock Exchange.
Souza Cruz is BAT's Brazilian tobacco subsidiary. In a statement, British American Tobacco said that any offer for Souza Cruz's shares would be at a price of BRL26.75 per share in cash, and would be reduced by any dividend paid by Souza Cruz.
"A price of BRL26.75 per share would represent a premium of 30.0% to Souza Cruz's volume weighted average closing share price over the three months to Friday 20 February," the tobacco group said.
At a price of BRL26.75 per share, BAT would pay about BRL10.1 billion for the 24.7% stake, about GBP2.3 billion.
British American Tobacco said that the consummation of the offer is still subject to approval from its board and the finalisation of an appraisal report by an independent evaluator.
"There can be no certainty that any offer will be made, the related terms of any such offer nor that any delisting will occur," it added.
British American Tobacco shares were up 1.3% at 3,704.00 pence Monday early afternoon.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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