Imperial Tobacco

Imperial Tobacco, a Montreal, Quebec-based cigarette company that manufactures tobacco products for brands such as Marlboro and Pall Mall, filed for protection under the CCAA on March 12. The company leads the tobacco industry with roughly 48% market share of all legal sales in 2018. The two other major Canadian manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products are Rothmans Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald, the latter of which was granted court protection under the CCAA on March 8. The company is currently facing an existential threat from litigation across Canada, including multiple class actions and government claims seeking to recover health care costs (collectively, the "Tobacco Litigation"). Earlier this month, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a 2015 ruling in a lower court that found the tobacco companies concealed the health risks of smoking from the public. The plaintiffs in the Tobacco Litigation are seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in damages, which significantly exceed the company's total assets. FTI Consulting was appointed monitor. Counsel is Osler for the company and Davies for the monitor.