British American Tobacco H1 Profit Rises, Revenues Down; On Track To Meet FY24 View

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco Plc (BATS.L, BTI) reported Thursday that its first-half profit before tax grew 5.6 percent to 5.60 billion pounds from last year's 5.30 billion pounds.

Earnings per share went up 13.8 percent to 200.3 pence from prior year's 176.0 pence, largely due to one-off credits related to ITC monetisation and net finance costs.

Revenue, meanwhile, declined 8.2 percent to 12.34 billion pounds from 13.44 billion pounds a year ago, mainly driven by the sale of businesses in Russia and Belarus in September 2023. Revenue went down 3.7 percent at constant currency rates.

Organic revenue was down 0.8 percent at constant rates, mainly due to investment in U.S. commercial actions and negative impact of wholesaler inventory movements.

The company noted that U.S. Combustibles industry volumes remain under pressure, largely driven by macro headwinds and the continued lack of effective enforcement against illicit single-use vapour products.

Looking ahead for fiscal 2024, British American Tobacco said it is on track to deliver guidance. The company continues to expect low-single figure organic constant currency revenue growth, and low-single figure organic adjusted profit from operations growth, including a c.2 percent transactional FX headwind.

Global tobacco industry volume is expected to be down around 2 percent with continued weakness in U.S., France and Sudan, offset by an improving outlook in Türkiye and Mexico.

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