Deals
BAT Bids $47 Billion for Full Ownership of Reynolds American
- Deal would create largest publicly traded tobacco company
- Reynolds, the maker of Camel cigarettes, sees shares surge
Why BAT's Reynolds Bid Is a Big Deal for Big Tobacco
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
British American Tobacco Plc offered to pay $47 billion for full control of Reynolds American Inc., proposing a blockbuster trans-Atlantic deal that would create the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company and put brands such as Lucky Strike and Camel under the same roof.
The unsolicited cash-and-stock offer of $56.50 a share, announced Friday, would allow London-based BAT to acquire the 58 percent of Reynolds that it doesn’t already own. But the U.K. company only plans to pursue the transaction with the support of Reynolds. The two sides haven’t yet held negotiations, BAT said, and the Reynolds board is just now reviewing the offer.