British American Tobacco cut its annual adjusted profit and revenue forecasts, citing the impact of prolonged lockdowns in South Africa and Mexico and a bigger sales hit in countries including Bangladesh and Vietnam.
The Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarette maker now expects constant-currency adjusted revenue growth in the 1% to 3% range for 2020, compared with its prior expectation of revenue in the low end of a 3% to 5% range.
Profit Forecast
The world's second-largest tobacco group also cut its profit forecast, saying it now expects adjusted earnings per share to grow in the mid-single digit percentage range from its earlier forecast of a high-single digit increase.
The company also pushed its target for achieving £5 billion (€5.64 billion) in sales from its new categories – e-cigarettes, tobacco heating products and oral products – to 2025 from 2023-24 earlier.
BAT, however, kept its dividend payout target for the year, in contrast to rival Imperial Brands, which cut its annual dividend by a third last month, in a bid to save cash during the coronavirus pandemic.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
