British American Tobacco At Threshold To Delist Brazil's Souza Cruz

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco (BATS.L, BTI) announced Friday that its Brazilian subsidiary, British American Tobacco Prestação de Serviços Ltda. Or BAT Serviços, has successfully concluded the auction related to its public tender offer to acquire up to all of the 24.7 percent of Souza Cruz S.A. shares which are not currently owned by BAT and to delist the company.

As a result of the auction, BAT Serviços will acquire 342.96 million shares at a price of R$27.20 per share, representing 22.4 percent of Souza Cruz. BAT's total ownership of Souza Cruz will therefore increase to 97.7 percent of Souza Cruz. At the offer price, the value of the 24.7 percent free float is circa £1.7 billion.

Given the level of acceptance at the auction, Souza Cruz will now take the necessary steps to cancel its registration as a publicly listed company. In addition, as BAT now owns over 95 percent of Souza Cruz a process will be commenced to compulsorily purchase the remaining minority shares, upon which Souza Cruz will become a wholly owned subsidiary of BAT.