煙草巨頭菲利普·莫里斯和奧馳亞可能會合并

煙草巨頭菲利普·莫里斯和奧馳亞可能會合并

Big Tobacco just unveiled a new strategy to stay big: Merge.

大煙草公司剛剛公布了一項保持規(guī)模的新戰(zhàn)略：合并。

Altria and Philip Morris International said they have been in talks to reunite as smokers worldwide increasingly ditch the habit.

奧馳亞和菲利普莫里斯國際公司表示，隨著世界范圍內的煙民越來越多地戒煙，他們一直在就重新團結起來進行談判。

The two Marlboro makers — which split more than a decade ago, with Altria taking the home territory and Philip Morris taking overseas — confirmed on Tuesday that they’re in talks to recombine in an all-stock, $200 billion-plus deal.

這兩家萬寶路的生產商于10多年前分拆，其中奧馳亞(Altria)收購了本土業(yè)務，菲利普•莫里斯(Philip Morris)收購了海外業(yè)務。周二，兩家公司證實，他們正在談判重組一家全股公司，交易金額超過2000億美元。

Wall Street recoiled at the news amid reports that the deal had no premium, with some analysts questioning its rationale. Shares of Philip Morris plunged 7.7 percent while Altria fell 4 percent after climbing as much as 10 percent after the talks were confirmed.

華爾街對這一消息感到不安，因為有報道稱，該交易沒有溢價，一些分析師質疑其合理性。菲利普莫里斯公司股價下跌7.7%，奧馳亞公司股價下跌4%，此前該公司股價在談判確定后一度上漲10%。

Still, some industry watchers said the merger could give Altria and Philip Morris a boost as e-cigarettes increasingly lure nicotine fiends away from combustible smokes.

不過，一些行業(yè)觀察人士表示，隨著電子煙越來越多地吸引尼古丁愛好者遠離可燃煙霧，此次合并可能會提振奧馳亞和菲利普莫里斯。

Altria, which shelled out $12.8 billion last year for a 35-percent stake in Juul, could accelerate distribution of the controversial vaping device abroad with the help of Philip Morris.

去年，奧馳亞斥資128億美元收購了Juul 35%的股份。在菲利普莫里斯的幫助下，奧馳亞可能會加快這種頗具爭議的蒸汽設備在海外的銷售。

Likewise, Philip Morris has poured $6 billion into IQOS, a gadget that heats tobacco to produce nicotine vapor without burning it, and which got approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in April. Currently sold in the UK and Japan, it’s slated to hit the US next month.

同樣，菲利普莫里斯也向iqos投入了60億美元，iqos是一種加熱煙草以產生尼古丁蒸汽而不燃燒煙草的裝置，它在4月份得到了美國食品和藥物管理局的批準。目前在英國和日本銷售，預計下個月將登陸美國。

“We believe a Philip Morris-Altria merger would create the leading global nicotine company,” Bonnie Herzog, analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, said in a note Tuesday.

富國證券(Wells Fargo Securities)分析師邦妮•赫爾佐格(Bonnie Herzog)周二在一份報告中表示：“我們相信，菲利普•莫里斯和奧馳亞(Philip Morris Altria)的合并，將造就全球領先的煙草公司。”

A merger would allow for an “improved and potentially accelerated rollout of IQOS and Juul globally,” Herzog said.

赫爾佐格表示，合并將使IQOS和Juul在全球范圍內得到改善，并有可能加速推廣。

Cigarette sales industrywide slumped 4.5 percent last year on an adjusted basis, according to analysts at Cowen. Meanwhile, the e-cigarette market, worth about $11 billion in 2018, is expected to grow at more than 8 percent annually over the next five years, according to Mordor Intelligence.

考恩的分析師稱，去年全行業(yè)的煙草銷售經調整后下滑了4.5%。同時，據(jù)莫爾多情報公司(Mordor Intelligence)稱，2018年電子煙市場價值約110億美元，預計未來五年將以每年8%以上的速度增長。

Altria and Philip Morris, which split more than a decade ago amid concerns about a US regulatory crackdown confirmed Tuesday that they have been discussing an “all-stock, merger of equals” while warning that there is no guarantee a deal will be agreed upon or even completed.

奧馳亞(Altria)和菲利普莫里斯(Philip Morris)周二證實，他們一直在討論一項“全股票、對等合并”的交易，同時警告稱，不能保證交易能達成協(xié)議，甚至完成交易。十多年前，由于擔心美國監(jiān)管部門的打擊，兩家公司分拆。

“Any transaction would be subject to the approval of the two companies’ boards and shareholders, and regulators, as well as other conditions,” Philip Morris and Altria said in their respective statements Tuesday.

菲利普莫里斯和奧特里亞周二在各自的聲明中表示：“任何交易都必須得到兩家公司董事會、股東、監(jiān)管機構以及其他條件的批準。”