TOP NEWS: BAT interim profit up 73% as New Categories make progress

(Alliance News) - British American Tobacco PLC on Wednesday reported strong interim profit, ...

Alliance News 26 July, 2023 | 7:15AM
Email Form Facebook Twitter LinkedIn RSS

(Alliance News) - British American Tobacco PLC on Wednesday reported strong interim profit, thanks to New Categories, robust performance in combustibles and cost reduction.

The London-based maker of cigarettes and vaping products saw its pretax profit rise sharply by 73% to GBP5.30 billion for the six months that ended June 30 from GBP3.06 billion a year before.

Revenue though was up just 3.7% to GBP13.34 billion from GBP12.87 billion, driven by New Categories, which made "good progress" towards the GBP5 billion target by 2025.

Revenue from New Categories rose by 29% to GBP1,656 million. New Categories contributed GBP201 million increase to profit as losses reduced.

New Categories includes new innovative products like vapour, other tobacco products, and Modern Oral, which involves Lyft, Velo and other modern white snus.

Top-line growth also benefitted from robust delivery in combustibles in the Americas & Europe, and Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, offsetting the US foreign exchange tailwind gave revenue a boost as well, due to the relative weakness of sterling, particularly against the dollar.

Revenue in Combustibles rose by 1.8% to GBP10.96 billion, while revenue from Non-Combustibles increased by 18% to GBP2.22 billion.

BAT said "other operating expenses" dropped by 29% to GBP3.62 billion from GBP5.09 billion.

On February 9, BAT declared an interim dividend of 230.9 pence for 2022, payable in four equal quarterly instalments of 57.72p in May, August, November 2023, and February 2024.

Over six months, earnings per share more than doubled to 176.6p from 81.2p.

"Having been in my new role for 10 weeks, I'm pleased with the resilient performance of BAT in the first half of 2023 and the renewed sense of energy across the organisation," said BAT Chief Executive Tadeu Marrocos, who stepped into the CEO role in may.

"It is a challenging external environment. High inflation and slower global growth are impacting consumers and business. Yet our revenue, profit from operations and earnings are all up," Marrocos said.

Looking ahead, BAT kept its full-year guidance unchanged.

Global tobacco industry volume are expected to be down 3.0% partly due to the US, Pakistan and uncertainty over Russia-Ukraine.

Shares in BAT were up 2.3% to 2,695.50 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Email Form Facebook Twitter LinkedIn RSS

Securities Mentioned in Article

Security Name Price Change (%) Morningstar
Rating
British American Tobacco PLC 2,475.00 GBX -0.44

About Author

Alliance News

Alliance News provides Morningstar with continuously updating coverage of news affecting listed companies.

© Copyright 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

Terms of Use        Privacy Policy        Modern Slavery Statement        Cookie Settings        Disclosures