British American Tobacco 9M Revenues Down; Says Performance To Moderate In Q4

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco plc (BATS.L, BTI) reported Wednesday that its nine-month revenue declined 6.5 percent from the previous year on current exchange rates, while it grew 4.2 percent at constant rates of exchange.

This was driven by continued strong pricing, partially offset by negative geographic mix, growth in the low price segment in some Key Markets and a difficult pricing environment in Australia.

Year-to-date cigarette volume from subsidiaries decreased 1.8 percent to 487 billion. In its third quarter, volume was up 0.4 percent.

The five Global Drive Brands grew volume by 7.2 percent in the nine months, with the third quarter higher by 9.5 percent.

Looking ahead, Nicandro Durante, Chief Executive, said, "Performance will moderate in the final quarter partly due to a strong comparator and the impact of the deterioration in exchange rates. There will be increased marketing investment and geographic expansion of next generation products in Q4, however I remain confident that we are on track to deliver another year of good earnings growth at constant rates of exchange."

The company noted that if exchange rates stay the same for the remainder of the year, it would have adverse transactional and translational foreign exchange rate impacts to operating profit of approximately 6 percent and 12 percent respectively.