Philip Morris has started merger talks with Altria, the manufacturer of the Marlboro in the United States, also owner of 35% of Juul, the electronic cigarette brand. This was announced by the tobacco giant itself, underlining however that there are still no guarantees that an agreement will be reached.
The operation that the companies are studying is all in shares: the two companies have together a market capitalization of $210 billion and theirs would in fact be a reunification after ten years, given that in 2008 they had split, with Altria concentrated mainly on the American market and Philip Morris oriented towards foreign countries.
Analysts have long speculated that the two companies would eventually reunite in the face of a changing tobacco industry amid declining cigarette sales and companies looking for new sources of growth. In 2018, Philip Morris had net revenues of $29,62 billion, while Altria for 25,36. On the stock exchange, the first is worth over 113 billion dollars on the stock exchange and the second another 95,5 billion.
