While the markets cheered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s de facto nationalisation on Monday morning, Altria nonchalantly announced the $11.7bn takeover of the smokeless tobacco maker UST. It is hard to see outstanding benefits for Altria’s shareholders.

The move is the last opportunity for consolidation of any real size left for US-focused Altria. So it is expensive, but not eye-bleedingly so. Finding annual cost savings of $250m should be a simple matter of cutting out UST’s standalone administrative, sales and lobbying functions. Adjusted for the taxed and capitalised value of those savings, Altria is paying just more than 10 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. For a stable, and highly profitable business, that would be a reasonable reinvestment of cash.