British American Tobacco FY19 Adj. Profit From Ops. Rises; Adj. Revenue Up 6.2%

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco plc (BATS.L, BTI) reported profit from operations of 9.0 billion pounds for the year ended 31 December 2019, down 3.2% driven by adjusting items partly due to charges incurred. Earnings per share was 249.0 pence, down 5.4%, impacted by a number of adjusting items. Adjusted profit from operations was 11.1 billion pounds, up 7.6%, or an increase of 6.6% on a constant currency basis. Adjusted earnings per share was 323.8 pence compared to 321.6 pence.

Fiscal year revenue increased by 5.7% to 25.88 billion pounds. Adjusted revenue was 25.83 billion pounds, an increase of 6.2%. On a constant currency basis, adjusted revenue was 25.68 billion pounds, up 5.6%. Revenue from the Strategic Portfolio rose 8.9%, or 7.3% on a constant rate basis.

Fiscal year total cigarette and THP volume declined 4.4% to 677bn sticks, with cigarette volume down 4.7% and THP volume up 31.6%. Strategic Cigarette and THP volume was down 2.5%, for the period.

Jack Bowles, Chief Executive said: "Looking into 2020, we are confident of another year of high single figure adjusted constant currency earnings growth."

The Board has declared an interim dividend of 210.4 pence per ordinary share of 25 pence, for the year ended 31 December 2019, payable in four equal quarterly instalments of 52.60 pence per ordinary share in May 2020, August 2020, November 2020 and February 2021. This represents an increase of 3.6% on 2018.