Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's third-largest cigarette maker, will seek more takeovers from 2009 to build on the £7.5 billion purchase of Gallaher Group PLC, President Hiroshi Kimura said in a recent interview.
Further acquisitions "would be realistic from 2009," Kimura said in an interview Wednesday. The integration of the British maker of Benson & Hedges cigarettes, purchased in April, will be completed in two years, he said.
Kimura, 54, is seeking to expand overseas as domestic cigarette consumption, which accounts for 76 percent of sales, falls. Japanese tobacco revenues slumped 13 percent in the first quarter as the nation's population declined and antismoking campaigns increased.