It was in May this year that the tobacco giant Philip Morris, with 71,000 employees and brands such as Marlboro and Chesterfield, announced that it intended to buy up Swedish Match.
The bid was then SEK 105 per share, or a total of SEK 161 billion. A bid that was, however, raised further on October 20, when the Americans increased the bid to SEK 116 per share. Which means a total valuation of SEK 176.4 billion.
That Philip Morris is attracted by the Swedish snuff manufacturer is not surprising. Swedish Match is today one of the world’s heaviest players when it comes to tobacco-free snus – what is often called white snus or nicotine portions. A product that, unlike the traditional Swedish brown snus, has managed to find its way around the world. The commercial potential is thus great, even if the competition around nicotine portions has intensified in recent years.
Both the EU Commission and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority have also given the green light to the deal.
“Too low”
But the bid was not liked by everyone. Despite increases, major shareholders and hedge fund managers have threatened to stop the multibillion-dollar deal because the bid is still considered too low.
Among other things, the hedge fund Elliot Investment has recently increased its ownership in Swedish Match to over 10 percent of the shares, and previously another hedge fund manager has acquired over five percent of the company’s shares, which could mean a problem.
Philip Morris has made the deal conditional on at least 90 percent of Swedish Match’s owners saying yes.
“Will stay in Sweden”
At 17:00 on Friday, November 4, the deadline expired for Swedish Match shareholders, and on Monday, November 7, Phillip Morris announced that it had decided to complete the offer and acquire the shares.
At the same time, Philip Morris extends the acceptance deadline for the offer to November 25 and at the same time adjusts down the consideration for future acceptances due to a planned dividend of SEK 0.93 per share, with a record date of November 14, writes TT.
Jacek Olczak has previously said that he does not intend to move operations from Sweden to another country.
– Swedish Match has a brilliant future, but it requires, among other things, investments. The company will remain in Sweden, we will keep the unique name and the company’s history.