British American Tobacco buys its competitor

The British American Tobacco (BAT) has agreed a 49.4 billion USD takeover of U.S. rival Reynolds American Inc, creating the world’s biggest listed tobacco company after it nudged up an earlier offer by more than 2 USD billion.

BAT, which already owned 42 percent of Reynolds, will pay 29.44 USD in cash and 0.5260 BAT shares for each Reynolds share, it said, a 26 percent premium over the price of the stock on Oct. 20, the day before its first offer was made public. (tozsdeforum.hu, MTI)