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In a deal valued at about $5.2 billion, the unit of Altria Group agreed to purchase 40 percent of PT HM Sampoerna at $1.13 a share, and has made a public offer to buy the rest for the same price, which would represent a 20 percent premium to the company's March 10 closing price on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

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"Our investment in Sampoerna is a great opportunity to significantly expand our business in the world's fifth-largest and growing cigarette market," the company said in the tender announcement Sunday.

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"We believe that Indonesia represents a very attractive market for [Altria], with a large and growing population, rising per-capita consumption and very high smoking participation rates among adults."

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With domestic cigarette volumes inexorably in flat to declining mode as fewer Americans smoke, international sales -- particularly in developing nations -- are one of Altria's brightest potential growth spots.

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"This is money well spent," wrote Smith Barney's Bonnie Herzog on Monday. "Indonesia is one of the few areas of the world where cigarette consumption is still growing. This transaction improves Philip Morris International's position in Asia, an important region to tobacco manufacturers due to the growth opportunities."

The island nation of 240 million is the fifth-largest cigarette market in the world. Smoking rates are far higher compared with the United States, where 22 percent of adult Americans smoke, down from 26 percent in 1997 and 42 percent in 1965.

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
Up next... Convergence: Altria buys controlling interest in Service Corporation International?

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United States, where 22 percent of adult Americans smoke, down from 26 percent in 1997 and 42 percent in 1965.

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This is the ad that appeared on my screen a minute ago with this thread loaded: