British American Tobacco Backs Guidance After In-Line Earnings

By Dominic Chopping

British American Tobacco backed its outlook for the year as it reported first-half performance for the first half largely in line with expectations.

The FTSE 100 tobacco group on Thursday maintained its 2024 guidance of low-single-digit organic revenue growth. It also expects low-single-digit growth in adjusted profit from operation, with a 2% hit from a transactional foreign exchange impact.

Analysts estimate it will make 26.25 billion pounds ($33.88 billion) in total revenue and adjusted operating profit of GBP12.0 billion for the year, according to the latest company-compiled consensus.

The cigarette maker--which houses the Kent, Dunhill and Lucky Strike brands--reported a first-half adjusted profit from operations of GBP5.56 billion as revenue fell 8.2% to GBP12.34 billion.

A company-compiled consensus had seen adjusted profit from operations at GBP5.57 billion on revenue of GBP12.47 billion.

The company said that new product launches and U.S. combustibles investments are gaining traction, which together with an unwind of U.S. wholesaler inventories, will see an acceleration in the second-half performance.

"I am confident that we will progressively improve our performance to deliver 3-5% revenue, and mid-single digit adjusted profit from operations growth on an organic constant currency basis by 2026." Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco said.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 25, 2024 03:07 ET (07:07 GMT)

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