UK
According to c.e.o. Nicandro Durante British American Tobacco (BAT) does not believe there is scientific evidence to support a ban on menthol cigarettes in the US and believes such restrictions would have no impact on smoking rates.
"We don't see any scientific research so far that proves (banning mentholated cigarettes) reduces youth consumption or reduces uptake of cigarettes to youngsters," Durante said. "So we are going to challenge."
Durante added that Canada's 2017 menthol ban had no impact on smoking rates and that in any event, any such regulation is likely five to nine years away.
However, BAT does support the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) efforts to reduce underage vaping. “BAT doesn’t target underage consumers and I think everything the FDA could do in order to avoid this to happen, you have the full support of BAT,” said Durante.
In other news, BAT reported higher full-year sales in 2018, helped by growth in vaping devices.
The company’s 2018 sales came in at GBP24.49 billion pounds (US$32.57 billion), a rise of 25% from GBP19.56 billion in 2017 and slightly higher than Deutsche Bank forecast of GBP24.22 billion.
BAT also declared a dividend of 203.0 pence per share, a 4% increase from 2017’s 195.2 pence. Analysts had forecast a dividend of 200.25 pence.
Annual profit, however, shrank considerably as a result of BAT’s acquisition of Reynolds American Inc the year before. The company posted a pretax profit of GBP8.35 billion, less than a third of its GBP29.59 billion profit in 2017.
In 2017 BAT recognized a gain of GBP23.29 billion arising from the Reynolds American acquisition since it was deemed to have disposed of the firm as an associate, and did not recognize such a gain in 2018.
Durante said, " Looking into 2019 we are confident of another year of high single figure adjusted constant currency earnings growth and this confidence is reflected in our board's proposal to increase the dividend by 4%."