At the end of April, the British tobacco group Imperial Brands plc. announced that it had agreed to sell its worldwide premium cigar business for EUR 1,225 billion euros (USD 1.33 billion).
The sale will be completed in two distinct trans- actions: Gemstone Investment Holding Ltd. will acquire Imperial’s premium cigar business in the US for EUR 185 million (USD 200 million). This includes …
• Altadis U.S.A., which owns non-Cuban brands like Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, etc.
• the online retail platforms JR Cigar, cigars.com and Serious Cigars, as well as
• Casa de Montecristo, a chain of 28 brick-and- mortar retail stores.
Allied Cigar Corp. S.L. will acquire the rest of the group’s worldwide premium cigar business for a total of EUR 1.04 billion (USD 1.128 billion). This includes …
• a 50 percent stake in Habanos S.A., which controls the sales and marketing of Cuban cigars worldwide,
• stakes in local Habanos distributors around the world through a 50 percent share of Altabana SL, • a 50 percent stake in Internacional Cubana de Tabacos S.A., which makes Cuban machine-made cigars and cigarillos,
• a 50 percent stake in Promotora de Cigarros, S.L., which distributes Cuban machine-made cigars and cigarillos globally,
• cigar manufacturing facilities in Honduras (Flor de Copan) and the Dominican Republic (Tabacale- ra de García … the world’s largest cigar factory),
• the premium cigar brands VegaFina and Flor de Copan.
The transactions are expected to close in the third quarter of the 2020 calendar year. The investors remain anonymous for the time being.