Imperial Brands hikes shareholder returns as e-products boom
Declares 1.25 bln stg buyback; 1.5 bln stg dividends for FY25
Sees 20%-30% NGP revenue growth for fiscal 2024
Shares up 4.2%, top gainers on FTSE 100 index
Recasts headline and paragraph 1, adds shares, analyst quote in 6, details throughout
By Yamini Kalia
Oct 8 (Reuters) -Imperial Brands IMB.L pledged on Tuesday to boost shareholder returns to 2.8 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) in its new financial year, as it reported strong growth in vapes and other tobacco alternatives, sending its shares higher.
The maker of Winston cigarettes and Backwoods cigars has benefited from hiking tobacco prices to offset a decline in volumes, as well as rising demand for so-called next generation products (NGPs) including vapes, e-cigarettes and oral pouches.
The company said it planned to buy back 1.25 billion pounds of shares in the year to the end of September 2025, and pay out cash dividends of about 1.5 billion pounds. That would be up from 2.4 billion pounds of shareholder payouts in fiscal 2024.
Imperial, whose other brands include the blu vapes, forecast 20-30% growth in NGP net revenues at constant currencies for fiscal 2024, ahead of some analyst expectations, but said overall results would be in line with guidance, with a stronger pound holding back its adjusted operating profit.
Shares of the Bristol-headquartered firm were up 4.2% at 2,239 pence in morning trade, the biggest gain on London's benchmark .FTSE index.
"Imperial Brands is managing to drive growth not only in its fledgling next generation brands, but also in ‘legacy’ tobacco products which still make up the lion’s share of the business," said Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Imperial has stepped up focus on its top five markets and investment in NGPs to try to attract smokers and non-smokers alike to its products.
Countries around the world are rushing to regulate tobacco alternatives to try to curb nicotine usage.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also supported the idea of prohibiting smoking in some outdoor spaces. This follows the Labour government's commitments during the July elections to implement a smoking ban for younger generations.
Cigarette makers like Imperial are also losing business in the United States, the company's largest market, due to illicit sales of e-cigarettes and disposable vapes from China.
($1 = 0.7641 pounds)
Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mark Potter
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
