Cigarette manufacturer JT International Romania will contract a 21.5 million-dollar (17.8 million-euro) loan from ING Bank this year, according to information published in the Official Gazette.
The company''s representatives chose not to comment on the information.
"For confidentiality reasons, we cannot give any details on this issue," said Gilda Lazar, corporate affairs manager of JTI Romania.
The board of directors of JT International Netherlands, JTI Romania''s parent company, last month approved the signing of an additional document to the lending contract sealed with ING in 2000, with a view to lifting the total value of the loan from 42 million dollars (34.7 million euros) to 63.5 million dollars (52.4 million euros).
The company, which produces and sells Camel, Winston, Monte Carlo, Winchester and More brands in Romania, last year posted turnover worth 794 million RON (220 million euros), up 17% from 2004. In RON, the turnover growth rate stood at 5%.
Put at more than one billion euros, the domestic tobacco market is dominated by three international companies: Philip Morris (PM), British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI). They account for almost 90% of the overall cigarette market.
Besides the three companies competing over largest part of the market share, Galaxy Tobacco (the former Societatea Nationala Tutunul Romanesc), owns a market share of less than 5%, while Gallaher holds almost 4% of the market. In terms of volume, the tobacco market totalled sales of approximately 35-36 billion cigarettes in 2005.
The Japan Tobacco group is the world''s third largest cigarette manufacturer, with turnover standing at almost 40 billion dollars and a sales volume of 430 billion cigarettes in 2004 (April 2004-March 2005).
The tobacco industry earlier this year witnessed a series of intense debates related to the introduction of the vice tax, a project initiated by the health ministry, of which domestic producers disapprove.
Having come into effect at the beginning of this month, the tax took cigarette prices up by 0.5-0.6 RON per pack.
The government decided for tobacco excises to be raised in two stages, the first in the wake of the application of the vice tax, and the second on July 1st, when excises for the othe excised products will be lifted. dana.ciriperu@zf.ro
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