British American Tobacco Pre-tax Profit Dips; On Track For Earnings Growth In FY

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco plc (BATS.L, BTI) reported Thursday that its first-half profit before taxation declined slightly to 3.426 billion pounds from 3.497 billion pounds last year.

Profit attributable to owners of the parent, however, increased to 2.671 billion pounds from prior year's 2.645 billion pounds. Earnings per share improved to 143.4 pence from 142.1 pence last year.

Adjusted earnings per share were 111.1 pence, compared to 100.2 pence in the prior year.

Revenues for the first half were 6.669 billion pounds, 4.2 percent higher than prior year's 6.398 billion pounds. On a constant currency basis, revenues grew 7.8 percent. Group revenue was up 6% on an organic basis, driven by a strong volume performance and good pricing.

Group cigarette volume was 332 billion, an increase of 3.4% from last year, or 2.1% on an organic basis.

Further, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 51.3p, being one third of the 2015 dividend, a 4% increase on last year. This will be paid on September 28.

Looking ahead, the company said it is confident that it remains on track for another year of good earnings growth at constant rates of exchange despite the continuing difficult trading environment in a number of key markets.

Separately, the company announced that Marion Helmes will join the Board as a Non-Executive Director with effect from August 1.