"The world today" learned that the Japanese international tobacco company " JtI ” was one of the bidders to acquire a minority stake in the eastern smoke company, but its offer was not accepted, although it was the highest value .
According to sources, the financial offer of the Japanese company was estimated at 600 million dollars, subject to increase, but it was rejected, and in return, the offer of the United tobacco company of Philip Morris company was received,” although it was less priced at a value ranging from 300 to 400 million dollars, which creates many questions about the deal and the mechanisms of choosing the company that makes the acquisition !!
For his part, Ibrahim al-ambabi, head of the cigarettes and smoke division at the Chamber of food industries at the Federation of industries, stressed that the Egyptian government should wait before taking any steps regarding the sale of shares of the eastern smoke company .
He asked in statements to ” the world today” whether the offer was the only one or there are other offers made and what are the mechanisms of differentiation .
He said Where is the competition protection law and its clause, which stipulates that a company does not acquire 95% of the market.
This deal comes at a time when the market of cigarettes and smoke is dominated by a state of extreme confusion in light of the decline and disappearance of many items, especially popularity, with prices jumping crazily and unprecedented .
And these situations resulted in the return of the smuggling phenomenon again after its decline, and groups of large traders were able to achieve insane gains of some millions of pounds daily with price differences ranging from 15 to 30 sides per pack !!.
