TI DIGEST The headquarters of Royal Agio Cigars group in Duizel, The Netherlands.
THE NETHERLANDS Scandinavian Tobacco Group acquires Royal Agio Cigars duizel , the nether l a nds — Scandinavian Tobacco Group has acquired from Highlands Beheer B.V. all the shares of Agio Beheer B.V. the holding company of the Royal Agio Cigars group. Royal Agio is a European cigar company with a strong cigar portfolio including key brands such as Mehari´s, Panter and Balmoral. The company is based in Duizel, The Netherlands, and has approximately 3,200 full-time employees. Royal Agio’s reported annual net sales for 2018 were EUR 133 million with an EBITDA of EUR 18 million. Agio has had a factory in Sri Lanka since 1985. The more than 1,500 people who work here process the tobacco that will be used as binder and wrapper leaves. The bales of raw tobacco are delivered to our factory in Sri Lanka straight from plantations in countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and Ecuador. Agio also operates a hand made cigar factory in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, and its flagship machine-made cigar factory and packaging facility in Westerlo, Belgium.
The company’s Duizel headquarters also houses the company’s warehouse and distribution facility. Royal Agio will provide Scandinavian Tobacco Group access to a strong product portfolio and important market positions in key European machine-made cigar markets. The acquisition secures leading positions in France, Belgium and The Netherlands and significantly improves the position in other key cigar markets such as Spain and Italy. CEO of Scandinav ian Tobacco Group, Niels Frederiksen said the acquisition of Royal Agio significantly strengthens STG’s position in several key machine-made cigar markets in Europe and enables delivery of an even more attractive range of cigars of the highest standards to its consumers. “The acquisition leaves Scandinavian Tobacco Group as a bigger, more competitive and more profitable company better suited to pursue growth and create value for our shareholders.” Royal Agio is a family-owned business founded in 1904. Royal Agio’s products are sold in about 90 countries with the majority of net sales generated in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
10 TOBACCO INTERNATIONAL JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
UNITED STATES Is Altria’s Juul Investment the Worst Deal of All Time? richmond, va—Altria took one bad review after another from critics over the winter as its investment in Juul Labs became increasingly less appealing. In a harsh but really not atypical assessment, the online publication O’Dwyer’s excoriated the transaction as being perhaps the “worst deal of all time” with the likelihood of getting worse. “The number of lawsuits have jumped by 80 percent since October,” wrote O’Dwyer analyst Kevin McCauley, and he noted that there could be further adverse developments in pending or future cases. Altria’s original investment of $12.8 billion for a 35 percent stake in Juul Labs had already been written down by $4.5 billion in October, and another $4.1 billion in mid January. “It said the latest charge is primarily due to the increased number of legal cases pending against Juul and the expectation is that the number of legal cases will continue to increase,” wrote McCauley. “The rapidly shrinking value of Juul is now pegged at $4.2B.”
Donation Platform to Support an Outdoor Protection Agency richmond, va—General Snus, a smokeless tobacco brand from Swedish Match, and Leave No Trace, one of the world’s premier outdoor protection agencies, have partnered to launch the Trailkeepers Project. The Project will assist in protecting the great outdoors by raising funds for environmental initiatives, asking consumers to take a conservation pledge and encouraging people to get out and explore the natural world.
