Philip Morris International plans to take Swedish Match off of the stock market now that it owns a large enough share of the company to initiate a compulsory redemption of remaining shares, according to Reuters.
“We are delighted to have obtained over 90 percent ownership of Swedish Match, allowing us to initiate a minority redemption process to acquire the remaining shares outstanding and request the delisting of the company from the stock market,” said PMI CEO Jacek Olczak in a statement.
“This transaction marks a major milestone in accelerating our shared objective of a smoke-free future. We look forward to welcoming Swedish Match’s employees and leading oral nicotine portfolio into the PMI family to create a global smoke-free champion, notably bringing IQOS and Zyn together in both the U.S. and international markets.
“We are very excited about the growth, value creation and progress in tobacco harm reduction that we believe can be achieved together over the coming years. Despite the increased cost of financing over recent months, we expect the combination to be low single-digit accretive to PMI’s adjusted diluted EPS in 2023, before potential revenue synergies and excluding transaction-related and one-off costs and the amortization of acquired intangibles.”
In May, PMI submitted a $16 billion takeover bid for Swedish Match. The bid initially received pushback from Elliott Management, Framtiden and other stakeholders as they felt that it undervalued the company. PMI later raised its bid from SKK106 ($10.21) per share to SKK116 per share. Elliott Management, Framtiden and the other shareholders agreed to tender their shares after the bid was raised, and PMI secured over 83 percent approval by the end of the initial offer period.