Philip Morris International (PMI) entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of privately owned Colombian cigarette manufacturer Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, Protabaco Ltda. (Protabaco), for $452 million. Protabaco is the second largest tobacco company in Colombia, with an estimated volume of 6.1 billion cigarettes and an approximate market share of 31.8% in 2008, with leading brands such as Mustang, Premier and President. The acquisition is believed to be a strategic business fit, in order to build on the company’s business in Columbia. The deal is expected to be marginally accretive to PM’s earnings and is expected to close in the second half of 2009. However, final approvals are still pending. In 2005, the company had acquired another Columbian company, Compañía Colombiana de Tabaco S.A. (Coltabaco). In addition, with increasing regulation over tobacco, there has been a shift towards smoke free tobacco products ...

Ford Motor Co. (F), the only member of the Detroit Three that evaded bankruptcy, recently announced that it would enhance its production level by 16% y-o-y to 485,000 vehicles for the third quarter of this year.

The raise comes on top of a planned 10% increase to 460,000 units announced last month. Ford will manufacture an additional 15,000 cars and 10,000 trucks compared to its previous production schedule. It will focus on cars such as Mustang and Focus as well as on pickup trucks.

Ford's move is mainly driven by strong sales results expected in June. According to the Ford U.S. sales analyst George Pipas, North American vehicle sales during the month could decline by 25%-30%. This will then be the least sales decline that the industry has witnessed since September 2008.

According to Pipas, Ford's sales could even decline by 10%-20% during the month and

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