Japan Tobacco Inc. · Tokyo Japan

Japan Tobacco has plenty to puff about. The company controls more than 70% of the cigarette market in a country where about half of the male population smokes. Japan Tobacco is the world's #3 tobacco firm, trailing Altria and British American Tobacco. The company's JT International unit makes and markets Camel, Salem, and Winston brands outside the US. Japan Tobacco also operates in the food, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, engineering, and real estate industries. A state-owned monopoly until 1985, the Japanese Finance Ministry now owns about half the firm. Japan Tobacco bought Britain's Gallaher Group for some $15 billion in April 2007. In 2009 it agreed to acquire the UK's Tribac Leaf and two Brazilian firms. To read the full description, subscribe now.

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