Alliance One Reports No Change In Previously Paid Fines Following Court Ruling

MORRISVILLE, N.C., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance One International, Inc. (NYSE: AOI) announced in October 2001 that the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission (the "EC") began an administrative investigation into certain tobacco buying and selling practices alleged to have occurred within the leaf tobacco industry in some countries within the European Union, including Spain and Italy.  In 2004, the EC fined the Company and its Spanish subsidiaries 4.4 million euro ( US$5.6 million) in the aggregate, and in 2005 fined the Company and its Italian subsidiaries 24.0 million euro ( US$28.8 million) in the aggregate.  As previously announced, AOI fully recognized the impact of, and paid in full, each of the above-referenced fines in prior fiscal years.

In today's judgment in joined cases C-628/10 and C-14/11 relating to a 1.8 million euro fine imposed by the EC on one of the Company's Spanish subsidiaries, and as to which the EC further imposed joint and several parent company liability on AOI and such subsidiary's other shareholders (being a corporate predecessor of AOI, and a current subsidiary of AOI), the European Court of Justice (the "ECJ") denied the appeals of both AOI and the EC and affirmed the judgment of the General Court, resulting in no change to the 1.8 million euro fine paid in a prior period.

Appeals relating to a second case involving a different Spanish subsidiary regarding the remainder of the 4.4 million euro of previously paid fines, and the matters involving the Company and its Italian subsidiaries with respect to the 24.0 million euro of previously paid fines, are continuing at different stages before the ECJ.

SOURCE Alliance One International, Inc.

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