JSE Listing

RNS Number : 8032G

British American Tobacco PLC

28 October 2008

 



British American Tobacco Obtains JSE Listing 

Further to the announcement made on 21 October 2008, British American Tobacco announces that it has obtained a listing for its ordinary shares on the main board of the JSE Limited ("JSE") in South Africa. British American Tobacco ordinary shares will commence trading on the JSE from 9.00 a.m. SA standard time (7.00 a.m. GMT) today, 28 October 2008.

The restructuring announced by Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A. and Remgro Limited is progressing and the interest of British American Tobacco previously held by Richemont is now held by Reinet Investments SCA, a Luxembourg investment company. 

The next step involves the distribution of British American Tobacco shares to investors in Reinet on or around 3 November 2008. Separately, on or around the same date, Remgro will also distribute British American Tobacco shares to its shareholders. Following the distributions, a holding of approximately 3 per cent of British American Tobacco shares will be retained by Reinet. The distributions will be followed by a rights issue by Reinet, which can be subscribed to by using British American Tobacco shares.  

Jan du Plessis, Chairman of British American Tobacco, said: "Based on information provided by Richemont, Remgro and Reinet in their announcements, we believe that, following the distributions, and the completion of the rights issue in mid December, the residual Reinet shareholding in British American Tobacco is likely to be less than 10 per cent. The dispersal of this major block of shares will result in the Group having a more widely distributed range of institutional and private shareholders, as well as an increase in our FTSE 100 Index weighting from 75 per cent to 100 per cent."  

Enquiries  

British American Tobacco Press Office

David Betteridge / Kate Matrunola / Catherine Armstrong

[phone] (24 hours)

Investor Relations

Ralph Edmondson / Rachael Brierley

[phone] / 1519

 

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