The way through which the Bulgarian tobacco monopoly will be privatized - through the Bulgarian Stock Exchange or by seeking a strategic investor - is said to become clear. At the end of 2008, the Bulgarian Parliament voted to cross Bulgartabac out of the list of state-owned companies that cannot be privatized. In the summer of 2008, Bulgartabac already sold two of its plants - in Plovdiv and in Stara Zagora - through the Stock Exchange.

In other Bulgartabac news, the prices of some of the company’s most popular cigarette brands went up this month.

The prices of the brands Eva and Sredets will increase by BGN0.20 to 0.30, but the Victory brand will maintain its price of BGN3.40 until the end of 2009. The prices of all Bulgarian cigarette brands went up April 1 due to the excise increase. The manufacturers then established the so-called "intermediate" prices to deal with market competition.

With the acquisition, Scandinavian Tobacco Group will gain an approximate 30% share of the large Norwegian market for rolling tobacco which will now include Tiedemanns Rød, Tiedemanns Gul, and Tiedemanns Lys, as well as Teddy, Mento, and Mentolett.

The acquisition is a consequence of the EU Commission's approval of the sale to BAT of STG's cigarette and certain RYO activities in summer 2008. As a condition of approval, the Commission required that BAT dispose of the predominant part of the RYO activities in Norway, in order to prevent BAT from gaining too strong a position on the Norwegian market. The deal is thus effectively a repurchase of part of the activities STG sold to BAT in summer 2008.

Likewise as a consequence of the Commission's requirements, BAT sold the Petterøe’s brand in November 2008 to PMI, and with the sale of Tiedemanns to STG, BAT has now complied with the Commission's requirements regarding the sell-off in Norway.

The smokers' biological reactions will be analyzed through a battery of scientific tests. The study in Hamburg is believed to be the first modern clinical trial of tobacco treated to be safer when smoked. BAT's long-term business plan is to produce cigarettes that can be marketed as less likely to cause disease, with solid evidence to support the claim.

BAT has made three "prototype combustible products" for the German trial. They incorporate tobacco that has been processed in several ways to generate fewer toxicants as it burns, including treatment with enzymes similar to those in biological washing powders. The prototypes also have new filters, with activated charcoal and resins to absorb harmful chemicals.

Momentum Pharma Services, a contract research organization that normally works for drug companies, is carrying out the £6m analysis. It has been registered on an independent clinical trials database - a first for BAT - and results will be published in a scientific journal next year.

Although the tobacco industry has been investigating cigarette safety for decades, science has only now reached a stage at which researchers can discover how to make smoking genuinely safer, said David O'Reilly, BAT head of public health and scientific affairs.

Cigarette volumes in Russia climbed 1.5% from January to March, Executive Vice President Masakazu Shimizu said at a press conference in London. "People are starting to trade up from the value segment," as prices rise, he said. "When people who used to belong to higher pricing products are trading down, we have the expansive presence in the mid-pricing zone to catch them."

The makers of Newport cigarettes saw its profit grow to $184 mn, or $1.09 per share, in the three months ended March 31, up from $174 mn, or $1 a share, a year ago, according to the report.

Sales fell less than 1% to $917 mn on lower volumes, which were partially offset by higher prices. Sales were down from $921 mn a year ago.

"We are pleased with our results for the quarter despite the extraordinary inventory adjustments that occurred related to the Federal Excise Tax increase and the impact of the current macroeconomic pressures," Chief Executive Martin Orlowsky said in a statement.