Author: Staff Writer

Lorillard’s board of directors has approved a new share repurchase program involving up to $500 million of the company’s outstanding common stock.

The program is expected to be completed this year.

“Today’s announcement that the board has authorized a new share repurchase program reinforces the company’s intent to efficiently manage our financial resources and our continued priority of returning cash to Lorillard shareholders,” said David H. Taylor, executive vice president, finance and planning, and CFO.

Purchases by the company under the new program may be made from time to time at prevailing market prices in open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, block purchase techniques or otherwise, as determined by the company’s management,’ Lorillard said in a note posed on its website.

‘This program does not obligate the company to acquire any particular amount of its common stock. The timing, frequency and amount of repurchase activity will depend on a variety of factors such as levels of cash generation from operations, cash requirements for investment in the company’s business, current stock price, market conditions and other factors. The share repurchase program may be suspended, modified or discontinued at any time and has no set expiration date.’

Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that the Minister of Finance had decided the terms of the secondary share offerings that it would be making in respect of the company’s common stock.

In all, 253,261,800 shares will be offered, made up of an international offering of 107,636,300 shares and a Japanese offering of 145,625,500 shares.

The offer price will be ¥2,949 per share; so the total value of the offering will be ¥746,869,048,200.

The subscription period for the Japanese offering is from March 12 to March 13, and the delivery date is March 15.

The European Ombudsman on Wednesday launched an investigation into the resignation in October of John Dalli as European commissioner for health and consumer affairs, according to a story by Dave Keating for the European Voice.

Dalli, who had had overall responsibility for the drafting of proposed revisions to the Tobacco Products Division that were eventually made public in December by his successor, resigned in October in circumstances that were examined by OLAF, the European Anti-fraud Office. Dalli strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

The Ombudsman has asked the European Commission to hand over all files relating to Dalli’s departure.

The investigation follows a complaint made earlier this year (see February 4 story: Ombudsman asked to rule on release of ‘Dalligate’ documents) by the transparency campaign group, Corporate Europe Observatory, which accused the Commission of selectively releasing documents relating to the case and failing to fulfil its obligations under EU transparency laws.

Members of the European Parliament, too, have complained that their requests for more information about the resignation have either gone unanswered or have not been answered to their satisfaction.

The Commission has three months to respond to the Ombudsman’s request.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said yesterday that the government had not decided whether to introduce standardized packaging for tobacco products, according to a Forest press note.

A story in The Guardian on Wednesday under the byline of the political editor, Patrick Wintour, said that, ‘Ministers are to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes with legislation this year …’.

And British American Tobacco was moved to issue a press story on the strength of the rumor.

Speaking at a meeting in West Yorkshire, the prime minister responded to a question from a tobacco packaging manufacturer by telling his audience that it had to be accepted that the links between smoking and ill health had been proved beyond all doubt. “I think we also have to accept that, while some of us might have taken a different view at the time, restrictions on, for instance, smoking in public places have had a pretty dramatic health effect, and so I think we have to deal with the evidence,” he said.

“But I think we have to treat people and businesses fairly as we do so, and we should properly consider all of the statistics and all of the evidence before making that decision.”

Welcoming the prime minister’s remarks, Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said there was no credible evidence that plain packaging would have any impact on youth smoking rates or encourage existing smokers to quit.

“Legislation must be evidence-based and we hope David Cameron’s comments represent a more pragmatic, less dictatorial approach to policy making.”

The US Food and Drug Administration has so far issued no rulings on the approximately 3,500 tobacco-product substantial equivalence reports it has received, despite having 115 employees reviewing them, according to a story by Jacob Grier for The Atlantic Monthly quoting a report by Michael Felberbaum for Associated Press.

Under the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 new cigarettes cannot be introduced on the US market without an order from the FDA, and there are two routes to obtaining such an order. One route, for completely new tobacco products, requires a highly detailed review, while a second route provides for products that are ‘substantially equivalent’ to those already on the market.

A product is considered substantially equivalent to an existing product if it has the same characteristics: characteristics legally defined as ‘materials, ingredients, design, composition, heating source, or other features’. The law allows also for a finding of substantial equivalence when a product differs in characteristics but raises no new questions of public health.

Products introduced before March 2011 have been allowed to enter the market provisionally, on the understanding that the FDA may order their removal at any time.

But the approximately 500 products submitted for review since then are said to be hostage to an approval process that progresses glacially, presents vague standards, and makes no promise of reaching a conclusion.

Grier says that the Tobacco Control Act requires that the FDA rule on new product applications ‘as promptly as possible, and in no event later than 180 days after an application is received’. But that is for completely new products; whether this deadline applies to products applying via the substantial equivalence pathway is a matter of dispute.

The law suggests that companies submit these reports ninety days prior to launch, implying that this type of review is less time-consuming. However the FDA contends that the statutory deadline does not apply at all to substantial equivalence reports. Under its interpretation, these applications can be held in perpetual limbo.

Grier’s story, which includes a fascinating example of one company’s attempts to lead its cigarette down the substantial equivalence pathway, is at http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/how-the-fda-is-keeping-new-cigarettes-off-the-market/273679/.

British American Tobacco has come out against a suggestion that legislation on standardized tobacco packaging will form part of the Queen’s speech in May.

“It is important to remember that these are just rumours at the moment but we would be surprised and disappointed if the UK government implemented plain packaging when there is still no credible evidence to suggest it will support any stated public health objectives,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.

‘Since introducing plain packaging in December last year, the Australian government is now facing multiple challenges at the World Trade Organization on the basis that this measure breaches the country’s obligations regarding intellectual property and international trade. It would seem more sensible for the UK government to await the outcome of these challenges before making any final decision regarding plain packaging as the New Zealand government has done.

‘Ill thought through regulation, like plain packaging, brings with it the very real threat of serious unintended consequences, such as a rise in the number of smokers willing to turn to the black market which, in turn, can have a negative impact on UK jobs and the economy.

‘Twenty-six per cent of tobacco products in the UK are already bought from the black market which means taxpayers and the government lose out on valuable tax revenue at a time when every penny counts. Plain packs play right into the hands of the counterfeiters who are ready and waiting to supply people, regardless of their age, with cheap tobacco products.’

Writing for City A.M. today, James Titcomb said that shares in BAT and Imperial Tobacco had fallen in price on fears that standardized packaging would be introduced.

A law has been introduced into the Utah legislature that would tax electronic cigarette refills, according to a story by Rachel Lowry for the Deseret News.

Originally, the bill called for ‘e-cigarettes, candy-like dissolvable tobacco and other nicotine products to be defined and taxed as tobacco’.

Under the proposed law, such products would be required to be sold in locked cabinets and behind the counter. And people under the age of 19 years would be prohibited from entering tobacco shops.

The story did not rule out the inclusion of pharmaceutical products in the ‘other nicotine products’ category.

The House Health and Human Services Committee, to which the bill was presented, ultimately supported a watered-down version of the bill that would make only e-cigarette refills liable to tax.

“This tax rate is quite high,” said Aaron Frasier, the founder of Utah Vapors, a group selling e-cigarettes to help people gradually decrease their nicotine use. “This would tax all of our 15 retail shops out entirely, leading to a loss of revenue for the state, unemployment … and send people back to smoking [traditional] cigarettes.”

“Vaping has helped me quit smoking when nothing else would,” said Suzanne Anderson, an employee of one of the vendors. “Why put an 85 per cent tax increase on this?”

Republican Brian Greene, while agreeing with the underlying intent of the bill, called the proposed tax increase too harsh.

“I don’t think we need to pull this into the tax realm in order to enforce the prohibition against selling to minors,” he said. “We’ve beat up on these people enough.”

Greene proposed a substitute to the bill that took out all of the language that called for a tax on e-cigarettes and other products. The substitute did not pass.

Greene was one of two members of the committee to vote against the revised bill, which was forwarded to the full House with a favorable recommendation, 7-2.

However, there were only six days left in the legislative session in which to get the bill through the House and Senate.

The price of a pack of cigarettes in Taiwan could be increased to at least NT$100 if the tobacco surcharge is raised to NT$40, as has been suggested, according to a story by Joy Lee for The China Post quoting the chairman of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp, Hsu An-hsuan.

The director general of the Bureau of Health Promotion, Shu-Ti Chiou, said on Tuesday that the bureau would come up with a proposal to increase the surcharge from NT$20 to NT$40 a pack.

“The tobacco prices in Taiwan are too low compared to the prices in nearby countries,” Shu said; “so the bureau hopes to cut adult smoking rates in half through increasing tobacco prices.”

In condemning the proposal, Hsu said that Taiwan’s trade in illicit cigarettes was already increasing and that raising prices would increase the government’s cost of fighting this trade.

The Taiwan Tobacco &. Liquor Corporation Federation Union (TLCF), meanwhile, said that it was not necessary to increase the tobacco surcharge. It said that the tobacco surcharge currently earned the government NT$55 billion while statistics from the John Tung Foundation showed that the total National Health Insurance cost for smoking-related diseases was about NT$30 billion.

Lin Ching-li, chief of the TLCF’s tobacco control division, made the point that it was tobacco tax rather than the tobacco surcharge that should be increased. “A tobacco surcharge can only be put toward health and medical plans,” Lin said, “but a tobacco tax can be utilized by all citizens.”

The Tobacco Institute of the Republic of China issued a statement saying that the government should confer widely in respect of tobacco matters. According to past experience, the institute said, a sudden increase in the surcharge would provide more opportunities for the illicit trade in cigarettes.

Iggesund Paperboard, manufacturer of Invercote, is inviting designers from around the world to participate in a unique learning experience.

“We tried this for the first time in 2012 and the appreciation and enthusiasm we got from the participating designers was overwhelming,” said Staffan Sjöberg, public relations manager at Iggesund Paperboard. “So we’ll do it again.”

From those who apply, 20 will be chosen to join the Iggesund Design Experience in Sweden in late August 2013.

‘Participants will visit the Swedish forests to discover more about how they function and are managed,’ the company said in a press note. ‘They will see how paperboard is made and understand why there is a difference between paperboard and Paperboard. And they will find out how they can use paperboard to raise their creativity to new heights while also making the right choices from a sustainability standpoint.

‘The Iggesund Design Experience will discuss sustainable design and material selection and will question experts in such fields as forest management, water pollution/purification, and food safety in packaging. Participants will return home with new insights into how to make their designs stand out from the crowd not only graphically but also from a sustainability point of view.’

Sjöberg said that his company usually received significantly more applications for its events than it could accommodate; so, in order to ensure a wide range of participants, it was therefore necessary to create a shortlist based on such factors as design speciality and geographic location.

‘Iggesund Paperboard will be the host for four days filled with experiences of nature, insights into product knowledge and lively discussions about sustainability together with fellow designers from around the world,’ the press note said. ‘The event itself will be completely free of charge but participants will need to pay their own travel expenses to and from Stockholm, Sweden.’

“The designers will invest their time – and in return we will give them some unforgettable days in the heart of Sweden,” added Sjöberg.

More information and a registration form for the Iggesund Design Experience are available at www.iggesund.com.