Consorcio Cita Caribe won the tender held to capitalize state tobacco companies. The Spanish consortium, assisted in the DR by Valcorp, bid US$25 million for 50% of the shares of the Compañía Anónima Tabacalera, Tabacalera Santiaguense and La Habanera. The bid was 22% more than the minimum price set by the Commission for the Reform of the Public Enterprise (CREP). The CREP is the government organization in charge of the privatization process in the DR. The new company will be known as La Tabacalera. Cita Caribe’s contender, Rothmans International BAT (British American Tobacco) bid US$17,800,010. Cita Caribe is a consortium made up by Cita Tobacco Canarias and Cita Caribe Holdings. Alvaro Quezada, representative in the DR of the winning firm is also president of the Association of Exporters of Tobacco of the DR. He feels they have the experience to turn the new company into a prosperous firm. Quezada’s firm has been buying Dominican tobacco for 40 years now, selling it as Coronas, Palace and Condal brands in Spain. Cita’s principal shareholder, Tabacalera de España has for the past five years maintained a production and marketing relation with the Compañía Anónima Tabacalera, the largest of the three privatized state tobacco firms.
