BAT acquisition of Bentoel provides valuation benchmark in tobacco - June 19, 2009

This is the first significant tobacco deal, since Philip Morris International bought the 60% of Rothmans in Canada, that it didn't already own, in the middle of 2008. It provides a valuation benchmark, albeit in the atypical Indonesian tobacco market; it also confirms that, unlike in other FMCG sectors, a no.4 player in a market can still have value, in the cigarette business. More deals could follow, if JTI and imperial get their act together in the huge Indonesian market.