HAZE CLEARS; PHILIP MORRIS TO PAY UP.Byline: Barry Barry, Welsh Barri, town (1991 pop. 45,053) and port, Vale of Glamorgan, S Wales, on the Bristol Channel. Once a major coal-exporting port, its more diversified export products include cement, flour, and steel products. Meier The New York New York, state, United StatesNew York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Philip Morris Cos., the giant of the cigarette industry, will provide the majority of an initial $10 billion payment under the $368.5 billion tobacco settlement proposal reached last week, industry officials said Tuesday. Under a formula agreed to by the five tobacco companies taking part in the proposal, the first $10 billion payment will be divided based on their stock market value. Under the plan, which was a heated topic of discussion among companies during the talks, Philip Morris will pay $6.5 billion of the initial payment and maybe more, people inside and outside the company said. The subsequent annual payments under the settlement, which will start at $8.5 billion and grow to $15 billion, will be divided based on each company's share of the cigarette market in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . At the beginning of this year, Philip Morris had about 50 percent, and its closest competitor, RJR Nabisco RJR Nabisco, Inc., was an American conglomerate formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. RJR Nabisco was purchased in 1988 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in the second largest leveraged buyout in history, adjusted for inflation. Holdings Corp., the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., had about 25 percent. RJR RJR R.J. Reynolds RJR Thorny Skate (FAO fish species code) Nabisco's part of the initial $10 billion payment will be about $600 million, the company said Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That payment is significantly less than the initial payment of the third-leading cigarette marketer in the United States, B.A.T. Industries PLC, and reflects RJR Nabisco's weaker financial position, said Martin Feldman, a tobacco industry analyst with Smith Barney Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. . The payment disclosures came Tuesday as tobacco producers filed documents with the SEC that discussed the possible effect of a tobacco settlement on their future earnings. In its filing, Philip Morris said that it expected a settlement ``would materially adversely affect'' the company's financial position in its first year and potentially afterward af·ter·ward also af·ter·wards adv. At a later time; subsequently. Adv. 1. afterward - happening at a time subsequent to a reference time; "he apologized subsequently"; "he's going to the store but he'll be back here . RJR Nabisco said in its filing that a settlement ``could have a significant negative effect'' on its tobacco subsidiary and on the financial health of the parent company. While several analysts said that they expected that RJR Nabisco, which is struggling to maintain a healthy credit rating, might feel some financial effect from the settlement, they said that Philip Morris would absorb the costs of the proposal quickly. |
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