Two aspirants for Gauloises maker

Private-equity houses CVC Capital and PAI Partners gave a €12.8bn (£8.6bn) preliminary offer for the Franco-Spanish cigarette maker Altadis.

CVC are offering €50 a share in cash, €3 higher than the
bid approach from Imperial. The Altadis board are to meet within days to
discuss the new offer. Imperial bade €45 per share on 15 of March, and raised
it for €47 on 10 of April.

The share prize of the Franco-Spanish company grow 26% last weeks.