Swedish Match Board of Directors Calls for Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting

• 17.4 Million Shares Repurchased by Company are Proposed to Be Cancelled
• Requesting Authorization to Repurchase an Additional Maximum of 10 per cent of the shares of the Company

At an extra meeting with the Board of Directors today, the Board of Swedish Match has decided to call an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on October 27^th 2000. At the shareholders’ meeting it is proposed that a decision will be made to reduce the share capital by canceling 17,350,210 repurchased shares, equivalent to 4.3 per cent of the number of shares of Swedish Match.

It is further proposed that the authorization, which was granted the Board at the ordinary shareholders’ meeting, to repurchase shares to the extent that the company holds at any one time not more than 5 percent of the shares of the Company, be increased to a maximum of 10 percent of the shares of the Company.

To date, over 20 million shares have been repurchased at an average price of 29.47 SEK. The number of shares outstanding amounts to 383,829,891 as of September 25, 2000.

Swedish Match is an international group with its head office in Stockholm. The company manufactures a broad range of products within the OTP (Other Tobacco Products) category, with smokeless tobacco as its core business along with cigars and pipe tobacco, as well as matches and lighters. The products are sold in approximately 140 countries. Sales for the twelve months period ending June 30, 2000 amounted to approximately 10,200 SEK. Swedish Match is listed on OM Stockholm Stock Exchange (SWMA) and on NASDAQ (SWMAY).

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