CVC Puts Altadis On Hold

CVC Capital Partners has put its bid for Franco-Spanish tobacco group Altadis on hold until October according to a report in La Gaceta de los Negocios, citing unnamed company sources.

The delay is to allow the risk capital firm's management to assess the potential financing as the report outlines that financing arrangements for the original offer are now obsolete and have to be renegotiated on stricter terms.

According the newspaper's sources, CVC is “very close” to abandoning the offer, which it originally made with PAI. The latter withdrew from the consortium after suggested disagreements on the division of control if the deal went ahead.

If CVC now withdraw, it would leave the way clear for the UK's Imperial Tobacco Group, which has offered