Philip Morris to buy Colombian cigarette maker

Philip Morris International Inc said on Friday it has agreed to buy Colombia's second-largest cigarette maker for $452 million, expanding the world's largest non-state-owned tobacco company's presence in Latin America.

The company it will acquire, Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, Protabaco, sold an estimated 6.1 billion cigarettes in 2008 and had market share of about 31.8 percent in Colombia, Philip Morris said.

The deal is expected to add slightly to Phillip Morris earning and is expected to close within six months, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes said.