LONDON (Standard&Poor's) June 17, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today its ratings and outlook on U.K.-based British American Tobacco PLC (BAT; BBB+/Stable/A-2) are unaffected by today's announcement that the group will acquire an 85% stake in Indonesia's fourth-largest cigarette maker, PT Bentoel Internasional Investama Tbk, for US$494 million. We anticipate that, following the transaction, BAT should maintain a ratio of funds from operations to debt comfortably higher than the 25% that we consider compatible with the current rating level. This is based on the group's ability to generate in excess of £1 billion per year of discretionary cash flows from operations. BAT has also suspended its share buyback program for 2009. The acquisition of Bentoel represents a
