Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
Sin stocks, ranging from gambling to liquor, are usually a safe bet in hard times. While shares in some of those companies have fallen along with stock exchanges this year, lots are still seeing strong revenues and sales.
"It's inelastic demand as far as many of these stocks are concerned," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Keith Bowman . . .
And while people can't smoke at the bar because of spreading smoking bans, tobacco companies are doing just fine.
Philip Morris International said its earnings rose 23 percent in the second quarter and it raised its earnings forecast for this year, saying it had not been affected by inflationary pressures like other consumer products companies.
"Cigarettes in general can withstand such an environment better than many consumer products," Chief Financial Officer Hermann Waldemer said at the time.
British American Tobacco PLC posted a 15 percent rise in its first-half profits with help from higher prices and increased sales of premium brands. Sales of BAT's most expensive brands, such as Dunhill and Lucky Strike, grew 7 percent.
Jump to full article »
"We are pleased to have resolved this issue," said Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada. "Today's events give our business the stability it needs to move forward to address, with clarity and focus, the issues, opportunities and challenges it faces today and will face in the future." The Company believes that this outcome is in the best business interests of Imperial Tobacco Canada as it provides closure to this issue that dates back many years, as well as providing a framework to work with the authorities on current and future illicit trade issues. Imperial Tobacco Canada paid a one-time $200 million fine following the plea. . . .
In addition to the fine set out above ($200 million), and in order, amongst other things, to assist governments in their ongoing future efforts against illicit trade, Imperial Tobacco Canada has agreed to a civil agreement (the Comprehensive Agreement), requiring a payment of $50 million in 2008
We are pleased to have resolved this issue. Today's events give our business the stability it needs to move forward to address, with clarity and focus, the issues, opportunities and challenges it faces today and will face in the future.Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada, on its settlement of smuggling charges.
Imperial Tobacco has redesigned the packaging for two of its brands and introduced a special edition version for Richmond.
Golden Virginia roll-you-own tobacco is being rolled out in a metallic pack design, while its economy brand Windsor Blue has been given a more vibrant colour and silver lettering to make it a more premium product.
Imperial Tobacco PLC (ITY) Thursday said it remains on track for a successful fiscal year after trading in line with expectations in the first nine months.
Imperial, the world's fourth-largest tobacco company by sales, said in a trading update that its performance and its financial position were in line with management expectations for the first nine months of the year ending Sept. 30.
"We delivered a number of good performances in the period, increasing our share and volumes in many markets," said Chief Executive Gareth Davis in a statement.
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc said results in the nine months through June met management's forecasts after the 12.6 billion-euro ($20 billion) purchase of Gauloises cigarette maker Altadis SA.
Imperial's share of the U.K. duty paid cigarette market declined to 45.9 percent from 46.5 percent, the Bristol, England-based company said today. Debt shrank to less than 12 billion pounds ($24 billion) at the end of June.
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc said results in the nine months through June have met management's forecasts after its 12.6 billion-euro ($19.8 billion) purchase of Gauloises cigarette maker Altadis SA.
Imperial Tobacco's share of the U.K. duty paid cigarette market declined to 45.9 percent from 46.5 percent, the Bristol, England-based company said today in a Regulatory News Service statement.
Imperial agreed to buy Madrid-based Altadis in July last year, gaining the world's largest cigar maker. Smoking bans in the U.K., where Imperial is the market leader, have contributed to a 6 percent drop in shipments since taking effect more than a year ago, according to market researcher Nielsen Co.
BIG tobacco interests are threatening to split the Iemma cabinet on a proposal to ban cigarette packets from view in shops, with Philip Morris writing to all tobacco retailers to encourage them to lobby the Premier and senior ministers to scuttle the ban.
The Minister Assisting the Health Minister (Cancer), Verity Firth, will take a plan to cabinet in the next fortnight which would see the ban introduced more than four years after it was announced by the previous minister, Frank Sartor.
But cabinet is understood to be split on the proposal, with support from the Treasurer, Michael Costa, and Small Business Minister, Joe Tripodi, questionable.
Representatives from Philip Morris have met Mr Tripodi in an attempt to get his support in cabinet not to proceed with the ban, and have met members of Ms Firth's office on four occasions. . . .
Philip Morris is understood to have made it clear to the Government that one of its main concerns is a loss of market share; it is attempting to wrest the No.1 spot from British American Tobacco. . . .
Imperial Tobacco is understood to have joined the fight against Ms Firth, launching freedom-of-information requests with NSW Health for correspondence between Ms Firth, the cancer institute and anti-smoking groups
A tobacco manufacturer and five retailers agreed to pay the biggest collective penalty handed down by the UK’s competition watchdog on Friday for price-rigging after admitting their role in efforts to boost the cost of cigarettes.
The six companies agreed to pay £132m to settle the charges with Gallaher, one of two tobacco manufacturers involved in the case, shouldering the lion’s share of the burden after agreeing to pay £93m.
Asda, First Quench, One Stop Stores, Somerfield and TM Retail have also signed so-called “early resolution” agreements with the OFT in exchange for a significant reduction in the fine that would otherwise have been imposed at the conclusion of the probe.
Six retailers and tobacco firms have agreed to pay a maximum of £173.3m in combined fines after admitting unlawful tobacco pricing practices.
The news comes after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in April accused a number of retailers and tobacco companies of anti-competitive retail pricing.
Asda, Somerfield, First Quench, TM Retail, One Stop Stores and tobacco firm Gallaher have agreed to the fines.
The OFT is continuing its investigation into a further six firms.
They are Imperial Tobacco, Tesco, Shell, the Co-operative Group, Morrisons and Somerfield. . . .
The OFT alleged that the retailers and tobacco groups arranged to swap information on future pricing.
A separate allegation is that there was an understanding that the price of some brands would be linked to rival brands.
Philip Morris CR AS has started to reflect a January increase in the Czech excise tax by raising prices of cigarettes, Mlada Fronta Dnes reported.
Imperial Tobacco CR, Philip Morris's competitor, expects to raise its retail prices by the end of September
Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris International Inc. may bid for Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, Europe's second-largest cigarette maker, with a view to breaking up the company, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said.
Altria's Philip Morris USA unit and PMI are a ``potential suitor'' for Bristol, England-based Imperial, David Hayes, an analyst at Lehman in London, wrote today in a research report. He resumed coverage of Imperial with an ``overweight'' rating.
A takeover would be a ``final round of consolidation'' in the tobacco industry, according to Hayes. Imperial, which bought Gauloises cigarettes maker Altadis SA this year, might be split between the two companies, he said. Imperial Chief Financial Officer Bob Dyrbus said in a presentation to investors today that further industry consolidation ``seems unlikely.''
``A solution that could create value for PMI is working with Philip Morris USA to carve up the newly enlarged Imperial- Altadis,'' Hayes wrote in the report.
Imperial Tobacco is closing its last factory in Bristol, bringing an end to a remarkable slice of the city's business history. TIM DAVEY reports.
Bristol was built on tobacco. The wealth of its tobacco barons, the Wills family, permeated the very fabric of the city.
The legacy of their generous endowments can still be clearly seen in landmark structures such as the University of Bristol's Wills Building, the Cabot Tower, the City Museum and Art Gallery, the Homeopathic Hospital and St Monica's home for the elderly.
Imperial Tobacco has announced that is to close its last factory in Bristol as part of a massive cost cutting programme.
The closure of the company's cigar factory in Winterstoke Road, Ashton, will lead to the loss of 75 jobs and will bring to a close decades of tobacco manufacture in the city.
Just over 30 years ago thousands of staff worked in factories in Bedminster and Hartcliffe but now all the jobs have been moved abroad.
Reports say as many as 2,400 jobs in France and Spain, or about 20% of Altadis' workforce in the two countries, could be axed to hit Imperial's cost-saving targets.
Imperial raised billions through an issue of new shares. The money will be used to pay off debt incurred during the takeover of Altadis.
Imperial Tobacco, the world's fourth largest tobacco company, moved into Nottingham when it took over Players.
The Lenton factory is its main UK cigarette manufacturing operation and the largest of its 32 plants worldwide.
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, Europe's second-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, plans to cut 2,440 European jobs after buying Altadis SA for 12.6 billion euros ($20 billion) earlier this year.
Six of 58 factories will shut as staff numbers fall by about 6 percent, Imperial said today. The plants slated for closure are located in its hometown of Bristol, England, as well as Spain, France, Germany and Slovakia. The maker of Davidoff cigarettes fell 3.3 percent in London trading as the plan failed to persuade some analysts to lift their savings estimates.