Author: Staff Writer

Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that the JT Group had completed the acquisition of Al Nakhla Tobacco Company S.A.E. and Al Nakhla Tobacco Company – Free Zone S.A.E. (collectively, Nakhla).

The acquisition was announced in a statement issued on November 16.

Nakhla, with two factories, one in Cairo and one in Shebin El Kom, Egypt, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of water-pipe tobacco (also known as Shisha or molasses) with an important presence in its home market.

The company exports to 85 countries, primarily in the Middle East and North Africa.

And its total sales volume in 2011 was about 24,000 tons.

‘The consideration to acquire Nakhla was at a high single digit multiple of Nakhla’s underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in 2011, as initially announced,’ JT said in a note posted on its website.

‘The acquisition is expected to have a minor effect on the group’s consolidated performance, cash flow and balance sheet.

In the international tobacco business, the group remains committed to strengthening Japan Tobacco International’s (JTI) business foundations with an overall strategy to foster growth.’

The Innovia Group said on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) shareholding in Securency International and was now sole owner of the company.

And as of Friday, Securency International was renamed Innovia Security Pty Ltd (in Australia) and Innovia Security S.A. de C.V. (in Mexico).

‘Innovia Security will continue its operations led by the existing management team,’ Innovia said in a press note.

‘As managing director of Innovia Security, Mr Philippe Etienne will report directly to Mr David Beeby as CEO of Innovia Group.

‘Innovia Films is the existing major business within the Group. It is a €400 million business that supplies market-leading films for a range of uses in more than 100 countries, and is No.1 or No.2 in the world in its chosen markets.

‘In addition, Innovia Films manufactures and exclusively supplies Clarity C® Film to Innovia Security as a key material in the creation of Guardian® banknote substrate.’

Innovia had been a part-owner of Securency International for 15 years and had seen this “innovative and exciting business create tremendous changes in the banknote market”, said Beeby.

“Now as the full owner, we will work closely with the Innovia Security team over the coming months to understand how we as an organisation can best support the business as it pursues the growth of Guardian® in economies throughout the world.”

Cuban cigar sales rose last year despite the continuing economic crisis in some of its most important European markets, including its number one buyer, Spain, according to an Associated Press Newswires story quoting state-run tobacco company officials.

Sales had totaled $416 million in 2012, Habanos SA representatives told reporters at a press conference held to start Cuba’s Cigar Festival in a Havana convention center. That was up from $401 million the previous year.

The Imperial Tobacco Group’s half year results for the six months to March 31 are expected to be released on April 30.

The interim dividend is due to be paid on August 16 to shareholders on the register at July 19.

Japan Tobacco International has appointed its regional sales and marketing vice-president for the Asia region as the new managing director of its UK division, according to a story by Alex Ralph for The Times.

Jorge da Motta, who has been based in Hong Kong, will replace Martin Southgate who retired last month.

Cigarettes have been in short supply in Sri Lanka since the Ceylon Tobacco Co. (CTC) stopped distributing them on Feb. 27, reports Daily Mirror.

A new law requires cigarette manufacturers print pictorial health warnings on its packs before releasing them to the market.

The CTC went to court over the new regulations, which were introduced by the health ministry. The Court of Appeal refused a stay order on the regulations and the matter is now before the Supreme Court.

Sources said the CTC was going ahead with the printing of pictorial health warnings on new packets of cigarettes.

New packets of Gold Leaf cigarettes would reportedly be introduced to the market by March 2 while the new packets of Dunhill cigarettes would be in the market by March 10.

The results of a new survey indicating that a high percentage of teenager tobacco users in Alberta, Canada, consume flavored products are being used by anti-tobacco lobbyists to call for a ban on such products.

According to a story by Keith Gerein for the Edmonton Journal, the 2010-11 Youth Smoking Survey conducted by Health Canada polled the tobacco habits of 50,000 Canadian students in grades 6 to 12, including 4,500 from 35 schools in Alberta.

Of the Alberta students who said they used tobacco, 64 per cent were consuming some kind of flavored product, a figure that was ahead of the national average of 59 per cent of those surveyed.

The survey found the most popular product was the flavored cigarillo, which was the product of choice of slightly more than 35 per cent of Alberta’s young tobacco users and 29 per cent of youngsters across Canada.

About 30 per cent of Alberta’s young tobacco users smoked flavored cigars, way ahead of the national average of 19 per cent.

Alberta students also ranked ahead of the national standard in consumption of menthol cigarettes, spit tobacco and water pipe tobacco.

Alberta’s associate minister of wellness, Dave Rodney, suggested that a bill focusing on flavored tobacco products would be introduced in the fall session.

“Everyone knows we have to keep up the fight against tobacco use, especially against those who target our youngest and most vulnerable Albertans,” he said.

“But it has to be well thought out legislation, it has to be effective and enforceable. So we are taking the time necessary to develop a comprehensive package.”

KT&G is in the process of removing descriptors such as ‘lights’ from its packs even though it is under no legal obligation to do so, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

In September, the Korean government tried to revise the National Health Promotion Law to include a ban on words that might misrepresent cigarette products, but its efforts fell victim to differences that emerged among a number of ministries and the proposal never made it to the National Assembly.

A KT&G official was quoted as saying that though the company was not legally bound to alter product names it was doing so in order to reduce the chances that consumers would misinterpret the descriptors.

Under the process, ‘Timeless TIME lights’ has become ‘Timeless TIME MID’.

And so far three versions of Esse Soon have become Esse Soo. Soon translates to ‘pure’ or ‘mild’, while soo translates to ‘excellent’.

Cigarettes have become more affordable in Sri Lanka during the past 10 years.

A recent story in the Daily Mirror newspaper said that a study conducted on behalf of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) by Verité Research had shown that in 2010, cigarettes were relatively cheaper than they were in 2000.

In fact, the affordability of cigarettes in the country was now at a record high.

The study’s authors derived a benchmark from the historical data and used it to demonstrate how cigarette taxation might be increased to keep prices in line with rising wages.

They said that according to the benchmark, the prices of cigarettes in 2010 should have been 50 per cent higher than they were.