Altadis rebuffs Imperial again, raises forecasts

Altadis mounted its defences against a 12 billion euro ($16.3 billion) offer from Imperial Tobacco on Monday, raising its forecasts and saying it could sell about 650 million euros of non-core assets. The Franco-Spanish company, which rejected Imperial's 47 euro a share bid earlier this month, said the offer did not fairly reflect Altadis's value.
Altadis shares were flat at 48.70 euros at 0800 GMT against a 0.5 percent fall on Spain's blue chip index. In a presentation, Altadis said it saw higher sales growth for both its cigarette and cigar divisions in 2007-2010 as well as "significant upside" for EBIDTA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation).