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Altria denies report of UST purchase  

Altria Group, which owns Richmond-based Philip Morris USA, said today that a report of its impending acquisition of UST was "pure speculation." Analysts said the deal makes perfect sense.

The New York Times reported late Thursday that Altria, which owns the nation's biggest cigarette maker, was in discussions to buy UST for more than $10 billion. . . .

"From a strategic point of view, [the] logic of a deal looks indisputable," Deutsche Bank analyst Marc Greenberg wrote in a note to investors. Greenberg said UST is dominant in the smokeless tobacco business, which is an expanding part of total tobacco profits and growing at 6 percent or 7 percent this year.

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