P.M. BRIEFING : 200 Congressmen Petition Baker to Voice Opposition to BAT Takeover
More than 200 members of Congress have signed a letter urging Secretary of State James A. Baker III to express U.S. concerns about the hostile takeover bid for BAT Industries PLC and its American subsidiary to the British government.
London-based BAT, the world’s largest tobacco company, also has significant interests in financial services, paper and retailing--including such U.S. holdings as the Saks Fifth Avenue and Marshall Field department stores and Farmers Insurance Group.
“Thousands of communities across America will be hurt by this hostile bid,” according to the letter to Baker.
The letter, disclosed today by Kentucky’s two senators, Mitch McConnell and Wendell H. Ford, said the congressmen were “deeply concerned” about the bid that they said would eventually “dismantle a company that is important to hundreds of U.S. communities.”
Last month, Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith, British merchant banker Jacob Rothschild and Australian investor Kerry Packer and other investors made an offer for BAT valued at about $21.6 billion.
Among those participating in the cashless offer by Hoylake Investments Ltd, which would be Europe’s largest to date, is former U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon.
Simon reportedly may be interested in buying BAT’s Farmer’s Group Inc. insurance division.
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