Altria Group To Sell In China
12/21/2005
Altria Group investors received more good
news today. Altria will be allowed to make and sell Marlboro
cigarettes in the world's largest cigarette market: China.
Altria and a unit of the state-owned monopoly
China National Tobacco Corp. (CNT) will form a joint venture
to market tobacco products. Counterfeit Marlboros are already
very popular in China. Expect the counterfeit sales to drop
significantly as it's in CNT's best interest to curb the illegal
sales.
To put into perspective the effect this
agreement could have on Altria's bottom line, consider this:
Altria shipped 761 billion cigarettes in 2004. In China, 2
trillion cigarettes were sold in 2004.
|
