By Chino S.Leyco SINGAPORE – Tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) said yesterday that its marriage with Fortune Tobacco Corp. (FTC) remains strong despite the multinational company’s changing gear from combustible cigarettes to “smoke free” nicotine products. Stacey Kennedy, PMI South and Southeast Asian region president, said that their partnership with the LT Group, Inc. is intact, noting that PMFTC, Inc.’s shift to reduced risk products is being supported by the group of tobacco magnate Lucio Tan. “We have been in a partnership for a number of years now and our partnership will remain unchanged,” Kennedy said in an interview. “We really value our partnership and we expect it to continue on including the reduced risks product.” The Tan-led FTC, owner of local cigarette brands Fortune, Champion, Hope and Boss, entered into a partnership in 2010 with the Marlboro-maker PMI, creating the joint venture entity PMFTC that now holds more than 90 percent of the Philippine cigarette market. Kennedy said PMI and FTC already discussed PMFTC’s plan of embracing the so-called “smoke-free” future by eventually abandoning Tan’s combustible cigarettes and instead shift to reduced risk products like Philip Morris’ IQos. “We have already engaged in this discussion,” Kennedy assured, adding that PMI’s reduced-risk products will be marketed in the Philippines soon in partnership with the LT Group. “We’re really very pleased that our business partner has been so supported of that fact that this is a really good working partnership and should continue enforce,” she said. Kennedy, meanwhile, said that the shift of PMFTC, which contributed P5.9 billion in profit to the LT Group in the first six months of this year, will be made “very gradually” and focused on the entire value chain, including farmers, manufacturing facilities and the government. “In countries like the Philippines where we are a major foreign direct investor, we have long-standing partnership with LT Group, and we have big footprint. This is not we abandon one footprint and move to a new footprint,” Kennedy said. “There’s a very detailed plan of conversion as consumers convert,” Kennedy said. “We will have plans in place to also convert our investment and our manufacturing. We try to manage this from a global standpoint, as cigarette consumption reduces, we try to consolidate our manufacturing footprint.”