Eastern Company has inked an agreement to jointly manufacture Davidoff Evolve cigarettes with Mansour International Distribution Co at Eastern’s facilities, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). The international cigarette brand is produced in only three other factories worldwide, the state-owned company notes, and will be sold within the mid-price segment, at EGP 32 a pack. Davidoff is an Imperial Tobacco brand represented in Egypt by Mansour.

Tender for a second smoke-maker is still ongoing: The joint production contract comes after the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) relaunched a tender for a license that would allow a second company to enter the tobacco market as a manufacturer and seller of tobacco products — an industry on which Eastern currently has a monopoly. Eastern said in its statement that the manufacturing agreement with Mansour reflects “the confidence of international companies in the capabilities of Eastern Company, and the strength of the relationship between Eastern Company and its local and international partners,” the tobacco giant said in its statement.

As they stand today, the terms of the new license do not give the new entrant carte blanche to enter the protected, mass-market “low-tax” cigarette segment, which is currently dominated by Eastern’s Cleopatra line. Instead, the new player would be allowed to approach Eastern to ask that the two companies jointly produce a product in that segment at Eastern’s facilities. In that case, the new mass-market product could be made in Eastern’s plant on a toll-manufacturing or joint-venture basis, a senior company executive told Enterprise — provided the two sides reach a commercial agreement in the first place. The current terms of the tender would give Eastern a 24% stake in the new license holder.

Fast fact: Only three other Imperial Tobacco-owned plants globally produce the Evolve line.