Philip Morris buys Colombian cigarette maker Protabaco

The American company has announced that it came to an agreement with Protabaco’s shareholders to buy its Colombian counterpart and second-largest cigarette maker in the country for 452 million dollars. With this move, Philip Morris becomes the most important producer of cigarettes in the country. Philip Morris had bought Coltabaco, a similar company, in 2005 for 314 million dollars.

Protabaco had a market share of 31,8 per cent in Colombia and sold an estimate of 6.1 billion cigarettes in 2008.