British American Tobacco Q1 Revenue Declines

(RTTNews) - Cigarette maker British American Tobacco Plc. (BATS.L, BTI) Wednesday said during the first three months of the year, revenue dropped 5.8 percent on reported basis, but grew 1.7 percent at constant rates of exchange.

In a trading statement for the three months ended March 31, the firm said, revenues were hurt by the adverse impact of key trading currency exchange rate movements. The company also cited continued pressure on consumers' disposable income worldwide.

Further, total cigarette volume from subsidiaries slid 3.6 percent to 152 billion, primarily due to industry volume decline in particular in Brazil, Russia and Vietnam.

However, the Group's market share improved 40 basis points driven by Global Drive Brands which continue to deliver strong share and volume growth, particularly in South Korea, Mexico, Bangladesh, Japan, France and Poland.

The world's second largest quoted tobacco group by global market share, said it is on track to deliver another year of good earnings growth at constant rates of exchange.

The five Global Drive Brands' cigarette volume grew 5.7 percent, and their combined market share continued to grow strongly in key markets. These include the Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall and Rothmans brands.

The company noted that Vype continued to deliver excellent organic growth in the UK e-cigarette market, providing a strong platform for planned launches in other countries in 2015.

British American Tobacco said it remains on track to launch Voke, a nicotine inhalation product licensed as a medicine, in the UK later this year. It also continues to make good progress in tobacco heating products, with plans to test market a product in 2015.

Looking ahead, the group said it is well placed for another good year of earnings growth at constant rates of exchange. However, it continues to expect profit growth to be significantly weighted to the second-half of 2015, principally due to a strong first-half volume comparator and the timing of price increases.

In Wednesday's trading session on the LSE, BATS.L is trading at 3,593.00 pence, down 76.50 pence or 2.08% on a volume of 0.76 million shares.