British American Tobacco has agreed to a $49.4 billion takeover of U.S. rival Reynolds American, creating the world’s biggest listed tobacco company after it increased an earlier offer by more than $2 billion.
BAT (BTI, +0.26%), which already owned 42% of Reynolds (RAI, +0.41%), will pay $29.44 in cash and 0.5260 BAT shares for each Reynolds share, it said, a 26% premium over the price of the stock on Oct. 20, the day before BAT’s first offer was made public.
