Posted by meb at March 29th, 2008

The Competition Board has approved the sale of alcohol and tobacco monopoly TEKEL’s tobacco division to British American Tobacco (BAT), the board announced yesterday on its Web site.

The Competition Board decided that the takeover of TEKEL’s tobacco division by BAT would not cause any competition problems in the market after deliberating on the sale at its meeting on Thursday. BAT had won the tender for TEKEL’s tobacco division on Jan. 22 of this year with a $1.72 billion bid.  TEKEL tobacco has six factories in addition to 56 leaf tobacco and two salt operations and employs roughly 15,000 people. TEKEL’s operating profits reached YTL 199 million in 2006, and the company accounts for approximately 38 percent of the domestic tobacco market.

source: Today’s Zaman