Altria Group (MO) exercises option to be released from JUUL non-competition obligations

(Updated - September 30, 2022 7:34 AM EDT)

Altria Group (NYSE: MO) disclosed:

As previously disclosed, Altria Group, Inc. (“Altria,” “we” or “our”) agreed to certain non-competition obligations pursuant to our relationship agreement with JUUL Labs, Inc. (“JUUL”), which generally required that we participate in the e-vapor business only through JUUL. Altria also obtained the option to be released from such non-competition obligations in certain circumstances, including if the carrying value of our investment in JUUL is not more than 10% of its initial carrying value of $12.8 billion. At June 30, 2022, the carrying value of Altria’s investment in JUUL was $450 million. We exercised our option to be released from our JUUL non-competition obligations on September 29, 2022, resulting in (i) the permanent termination of our non-competition obligations to JUUL, (ii) the loss of our JUUL board designation rights (other than the right to appoint one independent director so long as our ownership continues to be at least 10%), our preemptive rights, our consent rights and certain other rights with respect to our investment in JUUL and (iii) the conversion of our JUUL shares to single vote common stock, significantly reducing our voting power.

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