Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

US cigarette giant buys slice of Egyptian rival

By Gavin Gibbon
Cigarette sellers in Aswan, Egypt. US company Philip Morris says it wants to give smokers in Egypt 'better options than cigarettes' Alamy via Reuters
Cigarette sellers in Aswan, Egypt. US company Philip Morris says it wants to give smokers in Egypt 'better options than cigarettes'
  • Philip Morris buys 15% of Eastern Co
  • Wants ‘a smoke-free future in Egypt’
  • Egypt currently home to 18m smokers

The American tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) has acquired a minority stake in Egypt’s largest cigarette manufacturer.

PMI, which owns brands such as Marlboro, L&M, Merit and Parliament and is the world’s top tobacco company by market value, has bought 14.7 percent of Egypt’s Eastern Company, which also includes cigars and pipe tobacco in its portfolio.

The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Person, Electronics, Mobile Phone

Newsletter
Get the Best of AGBI delivered straight to your inbox every week

The acquisition will pave the way “to a path towards a smoke-free future in Egypt”, PMI said.

“We look forward to exploring potential areas of cooperation with Eastern, including opportunities to provide adult smokers in Egypt with better options than cigarettes,” said Fred de Wilde, PMI’s president for areas of the globe including the Middle East and Africa.

Out of a population of 104 million, 18 million Egyptians smoke, the country’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics says, although the number of smokers over the age of 15 dropped from 17.3 percent in 2020 to 16.8 percent in 2022.

Eastern Company produces 70 billion cigarettes a year, with a market share of around 75 percent in Egypt, its CEO, Hany Aman, said in an interview with Arab News last year.

In September Chemical Industries Holding Company completed the sale of 30 percent of its stake in Eastern Company, around 669 million shares, to the UAE-based Global Investment Holding for EGP16.4 billion ($350 million).

Egypt plans to raise $5 billion by selling stakes in 35 state-owned companies through offering shares to strategic investors or sales on the country’s stock exchange, or a combination of the two.

Smoke-free products accounted for approximately 37 percent of PMI’s total full-year 2023 net revenues.

Latest articles

Shoppers in Kuwait's Avenues Mall – the IMF says the country needs to encourage private sector employment

Kuwait needs to push reforms for economic growth, says IMF

Kuwait must accelerate the introduction of fiscal and structural reforms that are needed to increase private sector-led growth and diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday. Kuwait’s economy will contract by 3.2 percent this year because of an Opec+ oil production cut, but will grow by 2.8 percent in 2025 […]

Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates, (UAE) speaks during the Skybridge Capital SALT New York 2021 conference in New York City, U.S., September 15, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign trade, said 'Malaysia offers substantial opportunity for our exporters, industrialists and business leaders' UAE Malaysia Cepa

UAE and Malaysia sign Cepa to increase bilateral trade

The UAE and Malaysia have signed a free trade deal, bringing the number of deals the Gulf state has agreed with foreign governments to 12. The comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) will seek to eliminate or reduce tariffs, lower trade barriers, increase private sector collaboration and create new investment opportunities, the two countries said in a […]

Modern buildings in the city center of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Riyadh leads Saudi Arabia’s hot property market

Strong population and employment growth in Riyadh is driving a surge in real estate transactions as new properties cannot come on the market fast enough. A dramatic rise in the number of deals in the 12 months to the end of June was also visible in Jeddah and Dammam, according to a report this week […]

Adnoc LNG

Adnoc drops plan to upgrade UAE’s only LNG facility

An upgrade of the Das Island liquefied natural gas plant has been cancelled by Adnoc Gas, as it shifts priorities towards greenfield developments. “We have a funnel of exciting opportunities in which we can invest while at the same time exercising capital discipline,” Adnoc Gas said. Das Island’s liquefaction and export terminal, the only LNG […]