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ASH Daily News

Thursday 7, October 1999

Headlines

15m cigarettes seized
WHO Slams Tobacco Industry
BAA Extension given go-ahead
More Coverage of the Seita / Tabacalera merger deal.
Carlisle backs Reid to replace Dobson

Full Text

15m Cigarettes Seized

Customs Officers have seized more than 15 million smuggled cigarettes.
The Benson & Hedges cigarettes worth £2 million in duty and tax, were
discovered at Southampton docks hidden behind a layer of audio
cassettes.

Officials uncovered them during an examination of two 40ft containers
which arrived on the vessel, Oriental Bay. It is believed that their
final destination may have been the Republic of Ireland.

Customs officers have seized 135 million cigarettes in Southampton in
the last 11 months, worth £17 million in tax

Source: Evening Standard Late Prices Extra, 6 October 1999.

WHO Slams Tobacco Industry

‘The tobacco industry uses its enormous wealth to manipulate
scientists and public opinion with the aim of increasing global
cigarette sales, the Associated Press reports the World Health
Organisation’s European Director, Jo E. Asvall, as saying.

Roberta Walburn, a lawyer who helped secure the release of 35 million
documents as part of the Minnesota settlement that now form the
evidence, has spent a year working with the WHO in Geneva.

The ‘hazard merchants’ stay close to scientists, Asvall said, “in
order to learn about their intention, to modify their opinions, to
precede their interventions with national government agencies and to
activate defensive industry response.”

Asvall added ‘the extent of the manipulation, deceit and corruption
exceeds our worst fears.’ He continued, “The tobacco industry acts as
a global force, sparing no nation or people”.

Source: Associated Press, October 7 1999.

BAA Extension given go-ahead

BAA yesterday received permission to build a £30m extension to Gatwick
Airport, where it plans to build more shops and restaurants to offset
the alleged loss of European duty-free sales.

Source: Financial Times, 7 October 1999

More Coverage of the Seita / Tabacalera merger deal.

The merger deal is reported to be worth 3.08 billion Euros and will by
2001 save 70 million Euros. It will have a combined market
capitalisation of 6.7 billion Euros and have an annual revenue of 2.4
billion Euros and a 25% share of the global market for cigars.
Earnings
are expected to grow by 15% from 2001.

‘The new company seeks to target the Latin America, but that region is
dominated by BAT, with around 60% of the market and famous local
brands’ reports the Wall Street Journal Europe. “The impact of this
deal outside Europe will be very limited” says Tony Silverman, an
analyst at BT Alex Brown.

Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, 7 October 1999.

Carlisle backs Reid to replace Dobson

John Carlisle, of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, has been
singing the praises of Scottish Secretary Dr John Reid. He thinks he’s
the ideal candidate to replace Frank Dobson as Health Secretary
because “he smokes 60 a day of course”.

Source: The Express, 7 October 1999

Karl Brookes
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