The events offered the company a sales opportunity because supply disruptions led Japan Tobacco Inc.
The company faces stiff competition from rivals like British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco.
Licensed from Japan Tobacco in 2004, JTT-705 is trailing torcetrapib by at least two years.
Japan Tobacco hopes that growing such high-margin brands will boost its profits in Europe.
In China, the world's biggest market by volume, Japan Tobacco cannot get past a state-run monopoly.
Shortly afterwards, Japan Tobacco bought RJR Nabisco's international business, and France's Seita and Spain's Tabacalera unveiled a tie-up.
Japan Tobacco now has the capacity to make only 70 billion cigarettes a year at its plant in St.
To boost tobacco profits, therefore, Japan Tobacco is banking on higher revenue overseas.
Philip Morris International competes with British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco Group plc in its various geographical segments.
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Although they are still looking over the details, Japan Tobacco's executives say they have a strong interest in making a bid.
Japan Tobacco has been especially aggressive, therefore, in Russia, the world's fourth-biggest market, where smokers lit up 300 billion cigarettes in 2002.
Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco witnessed significant market share growth post March at the cost of Japan Tobacco which saw temporary supply disruptions.
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NTT, Japan Tobacco and other companies as collateral for the bonds.
State-controlled Japan Tobacco (No. 18) puffed up sales by 12.8%.
Gallagher also owns tobacco business in Sweden and Austria, which would position Japan Tobacco for an assault from the western flank on the still smoking markets of Eastern Europe.
Though Japan Tobacco has more than two-thirds of the Japanese cigarette market--Japanese are still heavy smokers, and its Mild Seven brand is the Japanese salaryman's emblematic gasper--sales are slowing.
The party fought tooth and nail to keep Virginia tobacco out of Japan, so that off-budget subsidies could be fed to tobacco-growing farmers from Japan Tobacco, the government-owned cigarette monopoly.
Japan Tobacco, which ranks at No. 312 on Forbes list of the world's 2, 000 largest public companies, is already the third-largest tobacco company, behind Philip Morris and British American Tobacco (BAT).
Gallaher bought Russian cigarette maker Liggett-Ducat in 2000, and the acquisition would leapfrog Japan Tobacco over Altria Group 's Philip Morris into the No. 1 spot in the Russian market, with a 34% market share .
The firm, warning of the "considerable cost" involved in an ongoing legal challenge to European Union tobacco controls, said it had, with Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco, drawn up a set of cigarette marketing standards "in recognition of society's concerns".
Japan Tobacco, which ranks at No. 312 on Forbes list of the world's 2, 000 largest public companies, is already the third-largest tobacco company, behind Philip Morris and British American Tobacco (amex: BTI - news - people ) (BAT).
The newly independent Philip Morris International sells tobacco products in the international markets while Altria maintains its operations in the US. Philip Morris International competes with British American Tobacco , Japan Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco Group plc in its various geographical segments.
Gallaher bought Russian cigarette maker Liggett-Ducat in 2000, and the acquisition would leapfrog Japan Tobacco over Altria Group 's (nyse: MO - news - people ) Philip Morris into the No. 1 spot in the Russian market, with a 34% market share .
Mr Noda's ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) had recently proposed slapping another two yen tax on cigarettes and selling down the government's stake in Japan Tobacco, which many people saw as a sensible way for a debt-strapped government to help pay the huge costs of post-tsunami reconstruction.
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