This Week In Cigar History Aug 18 - 22

Former cigar smoker, gossip column staple, and oft' married Ronald O. Perelman and his MAFCO Consolidated Group Inc.'s Consolidated Cigar Holdings scored major bucks ($127.8 million) in its NYSE's debut -- this week on August 21st 1996. Appropriately enough, the six plus million Class A shares, priced at $23/share -- traded under the symbol "CIG."

Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Consolidated Cigar manufactured premium cigars including the H. Upmann and Monte Crisco brands. Perelman's involvement began back in 1984 when MacAndrews & Forbes, a holding company he controlled, purchased Consolidated Cigar from five partners who in turn -- had purchased the tobacco institution 16 months prior-from Gulf & Western.

Fortunately for cigar puffers, Perelman tapped the connoisseur Theo Folz to run a primo quality tobacco company -- and Consolidated thrived. Folz, some partners and Vestar Capital Partners then purchased Consolidated Cigars from MacAndrews & Forbes (1988)...only to be repurchased by Perelman and his personal holding company in 1993.

Merger mania? "Not Fade Away." The French company tobacco giant SEITA -- famous for its trademarked Ninas, Havanitas, Picaduros, and Fleur de Savane brands, scooped up Consolidated and its 24% U.S. markets share in 1999. And now Consolidated Cigar operates under the moniker Altadis, USA.

This Week in Cigar History

8/18/08

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