BAT offers to buy Reynolds in $47 billion deal
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Friday, July 17, 2015 file photo, Camel and Newport cigarettes, both Reynolds American brands, are on display at a Smoker Friendly shop in Pittsburgh. British American Tobacco offered Friday, Oct. 21 2016 to buy Reynolds American Inc. in a $47 billion cash-and-stock deal that would create the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company and bring together brands like Camel, Dunhill, and Newport. The logic of the deal, analysts say, is to make up for a decline in the number of smokers in their home markets of the U.S. and Britain as they look to developing markets and new products, such as electronic cigarettes. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file) (The Associated Press)
British American Tobacco has offered to buy Reynolds American Inc. in a $47 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The London-based company offered Friday to buy the 57.8 percent of Reynolds it doesn't already own for the equivalent of $56.50 per share. Reynolds shareholders would receive $24.13 in cash and 0.5502 of a BAT share for each Reynolds share.
BAT says the deal values the Winston Salem, North Carolina-based company, at $93 billion and that the offer price represents a 20 percent premium over Reynolds' closing price Thursday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAT Chief Executive, Nicandro Durante, says the merger "is the logical progression in our relationship and offers all shareholders a stake in a stronger, truly global tobacco and Next Generation Products company."
The deal brings together brands such as BAT's Lucky Strike and Reynolds' Camel.