BAT Says Business Performing Well, Confident Of Good Earnings Growth

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco plc (BATS.L, BTI), which is hosting a Capital Markets Day for investors and analysts in London, said Wednesday that its business continues to perform well and it remains confident of another good year of earnings growth at constant currency.

BAT expects to generate Next Generation Products or NGP revenue of over 500 million pounds this year, and for the figure to double in 2018 to over 1 billion pounds and further rise to more than 5 billion pounds in 2022. The company expects the NGP business to be breaking-even by the end of 2018 and to deliver substantial profit by 2022.

At the Capital Markets Day event, BAT will provide an update on the performance of glo, its Tobacco Heating Product, which has continued its excellent growth in Japan. In addition, the company will update its estimate of the impact of foreign currency movements on its full-year numbers, including Reynolds.

Assuming forex rates to remain unchanged for the balance of the year, the company expects the translational currency tailwind to be 6.5 percent on operating profit and 5.5 percent on earnings per share. The transactional headwind remains around 2 percent on operating profit.

As stated in the half-year report, BAT noted that the pricing environment in a number of its markets has been more difficult, notably in Russia, although recent developments are more encouraging.

Commenting on the Capital Markets Day, Nicandro Durante, Chief Executive of BAT, said, "We are very pleased to be sharing more details on the opportunities for BAT in NGPs and combustibles, and to introduce our new US subsidiary just three months after the completion of the Reynolds acquisition. We are proud to share our exciting future product pipeline across both the Tobacco Heating and Vapour categories and to provide shareholders with an opportunity to experience the products first-hand."