News

27 April 2010

Half Yearly results to 31 March 2010

 6 months ended 31 March 2010Change6 months ended 31 March 2009Year ended 30 Sept 2009
  • * White stick equivalents reflect our combined cigarette and fine cut tobacco volumes and provides a useful comparison where consumers are switching between these categories of tobacco. Cigarette volumes for the six months ended 31 March 2009 have been restated to include third party manufacturing and distribution arrangements in certain countries.
  • ** Management believes that these non-GAAP measures provide a useful comparison of business performance and reflect the way in which the business is controlled. Definitions are included in our accounting policies within the notes to the financial statements. Reconciliations between adjusted and reported measures are also included in the relevant notes.
Volumes*    
Cigarettes 146.9 bn-3.7%152.5 bn322.2 bn
Fine cut tobacco 13,300 t+9.5%12,150 t25,950 t
White stick equivalents166.1 bn-2.1%169.7 bn358.8 bn
     
Financial Highlights – adjusted basis **    
Tobacco net revenue£3,389m+4%£3,252m£6,818m
Logistics distribution fees£480m+3%£467m£964m
Adjusted operating profit£1,452m+6%£1,369m£2,933m
Adjusted profit before tax£1,150m+15%£998m£2,233m
Adjusted earnings per share83.2p+16%71.8p161.8p
     
Financial Highlights – reported basis    
Revenue£13,370m+8%£12,420m£26,517m
Operating profit£1,188m+4%£1,139m£2,337m
Profit/(loss) before tax£974m £(184)m£945m
Basic earnings/(loss) per share68.0p (14.7)p65.5p
Diluted earnings/(loss) per share67.8p (14.7)p65.3p
Dividend per share24.3p+16%21.0p73.0p
  • +16% adjusted earnings per share growth
  • +4% tobacco net revenue growth
  • +6% adjusted operating profit growth
  • Growth in mature and emerging markets
  • Gains from global cigarette brands Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes and West
  • Fine cut tobacco volume growth +9.5%

Gareth Davis, Chief Executive said:

"In the first half of 2010 we again demonstrated the resilience of our business and the success of our enhanced sales strategy, achieving further gains with our strategic brands and delivering 16 per cent growth in adjusted earnings per share - an excellent performance in a challenging environment.

"We made gains with our global cigarette brands Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes and West, with particularly good results in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Central Europe.  This was complemented by a strong performance from our portfolio of regional and local brands.

"We are focused on maintaining this growth momentum and are encouraged by the upward trend of our most recent cigarette shares in a number of mature and emerging markets.

"We also improved our fine cut tobacco volumes by 9.5 per cent, leveraging our portfolio to capitalise on consumer downtrading in the European Union.

"The versatility of our brand and product portfolio and our balanced operating platform will ensure that we maximise growth opportunities and continue to create sustainable value for our shareholders.

"As I approach retirement I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our employees and shareholders for making the last 13 years immensely enjoyable and rewarding. We have built an excellent management team and in Alison Cooper the Board has appointed a first class executive to lead the successful future development of the business."

Notes to Editors

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC is a multi-national tobacco company, with international strength in cigarettes and world leadership in fine cut tobacco, cigars, rolling papers and tubes. The Group has 55 manufacturing sites and around 38,000 employees.

Investor Contacts

Gerry Gallagher, Director of Investor Communications+44 (0)7813 917 339
John Nelson-Smith, Investor Relations Manager+44 (0)7919 391 866
  

Media Contacts

Alex Parsons, Head of Corporate Communications+44 (0)7967 467 241
Simon Evans, Group Press Officer+44 (0)7967 467 684
  


Download the full announcement PDF (546K)

Get news updates

Sign up to receive updates via:


Reports

Corporate Responsibility Review 2009

Annual report 2009


Presentations

Deutsche Bank Global Consumer & Food Retail Conference, Paris
15 June 2010

Half Yearly results
27 April 2010

Consumer Analyst Group of Europe (CAGE) Conference, London
08 March 2010

Annual General Meeting
02 February 2010