Rebranded Victory Electronic Cigarette Gets Equity Investment

SPING LAKE, Mich. -- Victory Electronic Cigarettes Corp. officially changed its name to Electronic Cigarettes International Group Ltd. (ECIG) to reflect the changing company.

The rebranding comes as ECIG has experienced significant growth and evolution since going public 12 months ago. The company has made multiple acquisitions and partnerships in the first half of this year, including Fields Texas, VAPESTICK, FIN and VIP. It has built upon this progress with the launches of several new brands and products, and by securing new accounts across all business units, the company said.

"We are proud of our roots as Victory Electronic Cigarettes, just as proud as we are of our colleagues and partners and their great brands and businesses they built. We have all come together and aligned to a common vision to build the largest independent [electronic cigarette] company in the world," said Brent Willis, chairman and CEO of ECIG.

He added the new corporate name "is inclusionary for all our current and prospective partners, assertive in our industry leadership role, and reflective of our global geographic footprint and global approach to building our business."

In addition to the name change, the company also launched its new corporate website under the new corporate domain name ECIG.co. Included in the new website are consumer friendly links to the group's brand-specific and subsidiary company websites. Its stock symbol is now ECIG.

The company also signed a major investment agreement with Man FinCo Ltd., the investment arm of the Mansour Group, to provide up to $60 million of equity capital to ECIG. As part of the agreement, Man Capital initially invested $20 million with an option to invest an additional $40 million at a later date.

The Mansour Group is one of the largest companies in the Middle East and Africa with businesses ranging from automotive and heavy equipment to consumer goods, services and retail. 

Spring Lake-based About Electronic Cigarettes International Group Ltd. owns the trademarks VAPESTICK, FIN, Victory, GreenStix and VIP. The company owns multiple subsidiary companies and has operations in North America, Latin America, Western Europe and Asia.

"We are very excited to have made this strategic investment into ECIG. We have a long history in the tobacco business building up leading international brands over the past 20 years. We are convinced that electronic cigarettes will be a very significant business, and believe that ECIG will emerge as one of the global leaders," said Mohamed Mansour, chairman of the Mansour Group. "We know Mr. Willis' track record in helping to create InBev and are confident that together with our support, he will lead a similar effort in this category."