Gallaher Group
Japan Tobacco has 66.4% of the cigarette market in Japan and will seek more takeovers from 2009 on to build on the 1.4 trillion JPY (USD 15 billion) purchase of Gallaher Group, with then-President Hiroshi Kimura commenting that further acquisitions would be appropriate after the full integration of Gallaher by 2009. In 2006/2007 Japan Tobacco planned to start Serbia production, and also planned to invest another $100 million. JT paid "$35 million euros" for 98.5 percent of Senta Tobacco Industry in May 2006, with a further $10 million invested since then. The plant has a production capacity of some five billion cigarettes a year.