Investors in Imperial Tobacco (IMT) will look for early signs of growth in next week's half-year results, following the company's launch of e-cigarette product Puritane in early 2014.
Imperial will want to allay investors’ concerns - highlighted in our recent analysis of the tobacco market - that it lags behind its competitors in digital-product innovation. The company may point to new guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on e-cigarettes, which was surprisingly lenient given existing regulation for traditional tobacco. But shareholders need to view the e-cigarettes story in perspective. Last week the FDA estimated that the e-cigarette market is worth $2bn (£1.2bn) a year in sales - compared with $100bn for traditional tobacco.
