British American Tobacco (BATS) full-year results were helped significantly by the current foreign exchange climate, though even at constant currencies the top line was 7 per cent higher. There were other positives to be seen too: the company's share of its key cigarette markets rose by 50 basis points, with overall cigarette volumes up 0.2 per cent to 665bn. More specifically, what BATS calls its 'global drive brands' - Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Dunhill - grew volumes 7.5 per cent and took another 100 basis points of global market share.
Interestingly, transactional impacts relating to foreign exchange actually hurt operating margins. But excluding this and other knocks from acquisitions, margins would have expanded by around 160 basis points. Other items of note include growth for the group's next-generation vaping business, now the largest of its kind outside of the US, which just launched a new product in Japan.
No further detail was forthcoming on how the acquisition of the remaining stake in Reynolds American is progressing. The group still expects to complete the deal in the third quarter of 2017, and analysts have suspended forecasts for the time being.
| BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (BATS) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 5,005p | MARKET VALUE: | £93.3bn | |
| TOUCH: | 5,004-5,005p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 5,135p | LOW: 3,777p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.4% | PE RATIO: | 20 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 439p* | NET DEBT: | 199% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 15.2 | 5.59 | 196 | 135 |
| 2013 | 15.3 | 5.80 | 205 | 142 |
| 2014 | 14.0 | 4.85 | 167 | 148 |
| 2015 | 13.1 | 5.86 | 231 | 154 |
| 2016 | 14.8 | 6.25 | 250 | 169 |
| % change | +13 | +7 | +8 | +10 |
Ex-div: 16 Mar Payment: 4 May *Includes intangible assets of £12.1bn, or 650p a share | ||||
