Category: Mergers and Acquisitions

Arcus Buys VapeClick

Photo: Khanchai
Regulatory compliance consultancy Arcus Compliance has acquired vape industry data platform VapeClick.
VapeClick is a comprehensive online directory of U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency submitted and notified vape and e-cigarette product data.
The platform enables vape industry stakeholders to search and identify appropriately published and notified products. VapeClick supports a wide variety of use cases, offering bespoke reporting and notifications from its vape intelligence application.
“We are delighted to have agreed the deal to acquire the vape-click.com portal,” said Arcus Compliance CEO Lee Bryan. “The solution has become the go-to portal for U.K.-registered vape products and will become an important piece of the jigsaw for the cutting-edge Arcus software portfolio. We have exciting plans for integration, including development for other industries as well as providing valuable oversight for enforcement bodies throughout Europe.”
“This is an important milestone in the growth and development of the innovative vape-click.com platform,” said VapeClick’s Chief Technical Officer Raphael Klimaszewski. “We have spent many years building the database that has revolutionized how vape products can be quickly and readily checked and monitored for their compliance status.
“The acquisition of the portal by Arcus Compliance is a testament to the impact that the platform has made and its inherent value amongst its many users. We look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength under Arcus’ leadership.”
June 18, 2024
PMI Acquires Minority Stake in Eastern Co.

Photo: artmim
Philip Morris International has acquired 14.7 percent of Eastern Co., reports Egypt Today.
PMI and Eastern reportedly seek to explore potential strategic areas for collaboration in technology, manufacturing and innovation.
“We look forward to exploring potential areas of cooperation with Eastern, including opportunities to provide adult smokers in Egypt with better options than cigarettes,” said Fred de Wilde, PMI president for South and Southeast Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Middle East and Africa, in a statement.
In November, Global Investment Holdings, an investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates, paid EGP16.4 billion ($531.6 million) for 669 million shares in Eastern Co.
Eastern Co.’s primary shareholders include the state-owned Holding Company for Chemical Industries (20.9 percent), the Allan Gray Equity Fund (7.2 percent) and the shareholders union of the Eastern Co. (6 percent), with the remaining 36 percent of shares trading freely on the stock exchange.
Egypt has been selling stakes in 35 state-owned companies through offering shares to strategic investors.
Eastern Co. is Egypt’s largest cigarette manufacturer, with a portfolio that also includes cigars and pipe tobacco, among other products.
May 22, 2024
Real Brands Acquires Vapor Shark Assets
Real Brands has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to acquire Vapor Shark’s assets.
Since 2010, Vapor Shark has been a pioneer in the online B2B and B2C business, developing sales channels and e-commerce back-end pick and ship capabilities able to manage regulated product distribution. It also maintains recognizable service brand reputation in the vapor markets.
“The Vapor Shark transaction brings an established brand in the vapor consumer and retail markets to Real Brands,” said Real Brands President and CEO Thom Kidrin in a statement.
“This deal will bring new distribution channels to Real Brands that would enlarge Real Brands’ existing distribution channels. This outstanding opportunity should enable Real Brands to capture market share of the tobacco and hemp vapor industry, which is expected to grow to $29.3 billion by 2029.”
Real Brands is the result of a 2020 merger with Canadian American Standard Hemp that brought together industrial scale hemp CBD oil/isolate extraction and processing, wholesaling of CBD oils and isolate, and production and sales of numerous hemp-derived CBD consumer brands of smokable, edible and topical products.

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
May 3, 2024
Smoker Friendly Acquires Low Bob’s Locations
Credit: Smoker Friendly
The Smoker Friendly chain of retail stores announced it is acquiring 54 Low Bob’s Discount Tobacco locations in Indiana.
The Cigarette Store, LLC, parent company of Smoker Friendly, announced its acquisition of Richmond Master Distributors, Inc., the owner of Low Bob’s Discount Tobacco. The stores will be rebranded as Smoker Friendly locations.
There are 344 Smoker Friendly locations across 13 states, as well as independently owned stores within the Smoker Friendly network. The company has its own private-label brands and operates the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, according to Charlie Minato of Halfwheel.
“We are very pleased to welcome the Low Bob’s team to the Smoker Friendly family,” said Terry Gallagher Jr., CEO of Smoker Friendly, in a press release. Pat and Scott Carrico and the Richmond Master team have been longtime friends and leaders in the tobacco outlet channel. We are fortunate to make this acquisition and strengthen our Smoker Friendly footprint in Indiana, bringing our store count to 80 in the state.”
March 6, 2024
Alpha Partners Bulgaria Can Acquire KT Intl.

Image: Wasan
Alpha Partners Bulgaria has been cleared to acquire KT International, a Bulgarian tobacco grower and cigarette producer, reports SeeNews.
The acquisition will not cause notable horizontal or vertical overlaps that could curb competition or lead to a dominant position in relevant markets, according to the Commission on Protection of Competition.
The value of the acquisition was not disclosed. KT International’s registered capital amounts to $2.8 million.
KT International is the only tobacco products manufacturer that sells on the Bulgarian market. Competitors export all of their products. Between May 2021 and May 2023, KT International held a 5 percent to 10 percent share in the Bulgarian cigarette distribution market.
January 12, 2024
Monoceros Buys Quarter of Bulgartabac
Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Monoceros has acquired nearly a quarter of Bulgartabac Holding from Liechtenstein-based Woodford Establishment for an undisclosed amount, reports Seenews.
Headquartered in the Cayman Islands, Monoceros is an early-stage investor and proprietary trading firm, with a portfolio chiefly made up of cryptocurrency and AI technology companies.
As of the end of 2022, Woodford Establishment was Bulgartabac holding’s second largest investor. Other prominent shareholders include UAE-registered Gifted Master, with 24.10 percent stake; UAE-registered Wardia (15.23 percent) and Lichtenstein-registered Stiga Ansalt (14.75 percent).
In 2022, Bulgartabac Holding reported a consolidated net profit of BGN36.1 million ($20.2 million) compared to a consolidated net loss of BGN70.6 million in the previous year, according to the company’s annual report.
Total operating revenue increased to BGN 271.5 million from BGN187.1 million as revenue from sales jumped 40 percent to BGN252.7 million.
In 2017, Bulgartabac Holding sold its biggest cigarette brands to British American Tobacco for more than €100 million ($109.7 million).
The company has since diversified its investments.
January 12, 2024
RLX Buys ‘Market Leaders’

Photo: RLX Technology
RLX Technology entered into two share purchase agreements with two target companies and their respective shareholders with a total consideration of approximately $25 million. The entry of the share purchase agreements for business acquisitions and the transactions contemplated thereunder have been approved by the company’s board of directors and audit committee.
Each of the two target companies is a market leader in the vapor industry in their home countries, located in Southeast Asia and North Asia, respectively, RLX wrote on its website. The transactions contemplated under the share purchase agreements for business acquisitions are expected to facilitate the company’s international expansion in Southeast Asia and North Asia. The company also plans to continue its overseas expansion in the future.
December 5, 2023
Emirati Group Acquires a Third of Eastern Co.

Photo: xtock
Global Investment Holding Co. of the United Arab Emirates has acquired a 30 percent state in Eastern Co. of Egypt for EGP19.3 billion ($625 million), reports Ahram Online.
After the sale, the state-owned shareholder, Chemical Industries Holding Co. (CIHC), will retain a 20.9 percent stake in Eastern.
The deal is part of Egypt’s program to sell stakes in 35 state-owned companies to strategic investors by the end of June 2024.
Egypt’s minister of public enterprises, Mahmoud Esmat, said the deal underscores the government’s commitment to the success of its program to expand ownership and encourage direct private investment across various sectors.
In the first nine months of fiscal year 2022-2023 (which concluded in March), Eastern Co. had a domestic market share of more than 70 percent and reported a net profit of EGP5.29 billion, up 24 percent over the comparable period in the previous year.
The privatization program is part of Egypt’s commitments under a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
The government announced wants to attract $5 billion from the offering of power plants and state-owned companies from October 2023 until the end of June 2024.
In related news, Eastern recently boosted its production by 40 percent to help alleviate a cigarette shortage in Egypt, according to The Egypt Independent.
The short supply had caused prices of popular brands such as Cleopatra to surge to unprecedented levels.
Following Eastern’s decision to increase output and step up vigilance against illicit sales, cigarette prices fell by EGP20, bringing the price of a pack to EGP40.
Eastern Company CEO Hani Aman announced that the company is working with various state agencies to ensure the proper supplies are being provided to the public.

September 4, 2023
JT Merges Dutch Subsidiaries

Photo: Japan Tobacco
Japan Tobacco merged its JT International Holdings (JTIH) and JT International Group Holdings (JTIGH) on Aug. 23, the company announced on its website.
JTIGH, which was a pure holding company, will be dissolved, leaving JTIH as the surviving company.
A wholly owned subsidiary of JT International Group Holding, JTIH is based in the Netherlands. Its chairman and managing director is Biljana Ivosevic.
Japan Tobacco expects the impact of the merger between its consolidated subsidiaries to be minor.
August 23, 2023
Foreign Investors Bid for Stake in Eastern Co.

Photo: Jose
Foreign investors have submitted bids for a 30 percent stake in Egypt’s largest tobacco producer, Eastern Co., reports Ahram Online, citing an Aug. 22 statement from the Egyptian stock exchange.
According to news reports, Japan Tobacco International is one of the investors considering the deal.
Eastern’s majority shareholder, the state-owned Chemical Industries Holding Co. (CIHC), is reportedly studying the offers and conducting due diligence.
In addition to CIHC, which has a 50.95 percent stake, Eastern’s current shareholders include the tobacco company’s employees’ union and South Africa’s Allan Grey Equity Fund, which each own 5.2 percent of the company. The remaining 9 percent is traded on the Egyptian exchange.
In the first nine months of fiscal 2022–2023, Eastern reported a net profit of EGP5.29 billion ($171.22 million), up 24 percent over that recorded in the previous financial year.
The potential sale is part of Egypt’s plans to offer stakes in 32 state-owned companies to strategic investors under the country’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund, which has offered a $3 billion loan.
The nation is struggling with a $17 billion financial imbalance through 2026 and a local shortage of U.S. dollars.
To date, the state assets sale program has generated around $2 billion.
August 22, 2023