As expected, the initial public offering (IPO) for Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) is back on track. The company, which claims to be the largest manufacturer of premium cigars and owns General Cigar Co. and Cigars International, has said that it will sell as much as 40 percent in an IPO on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. STG was formed in 2009 by merging Skandinavisk Holding A/S and the cigar and pipe business of Swedish Match. This created a company with over 9,000 employees and around $1 billion revenue. Skandinavisk Holding A/S—which is composed of two family foundations: Augustinus Fonden and Det Obelske Familiefond—assumed 51 percent ownership, while Swedish Match retained 49 percent membership and was paid $30 million. A standstill agreement prevented either side from selling their stakes in STG for five years. In August 2014, we reported that STG was looking at an IPO as a way to buy Swedish Match out of its stake. However, shortly after news broke, the company’s ceo, Anders Colding Friis resigned to take a new job at the jewelry company Pandora, delaying the public offering which was expected to take place early last year. Furthermore, private equity firms took interest in the company. Now, the company has a new ...
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