Morgan Stanley is on the verge of winning valuable advisory fees from UK client Imperial Tobacco, the favourite to win a $5bn (€5.7bn) auction for Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken, the German tobacco producer.
Analysts have tipped Imperial as the front-runner to win the auction for Reemtsma, the Hamburg-based company that has the second largest share of the German cigarette market behind US cigarette maker Philip Morris.