Currency headwinds burn BAT's revenue

Currency headwinds have eroded British American Tobacco’s full year revenue for 2015.

The FTSE 100 tobacco giant said on Thursday revenue had dropped from £13.9bn in 2014 to £13.1bn, a 6.2% decline, however it had risen 5.4% to £14.7bn at constant currency rates.

That has led the company to marginally increase its profit from operations 0.2% from £4.54bn to £4.56bn at actual rates, but a 13.6% jump at constant rates.

The company reported group cigarette volume fell by 0.5% to 663bn, which was an organic decline of 0.8% excluding the acquisition of TDR in Croatia, against an estimated industry decline of 2.3%.

However, its cigarette market share in Key Markets which represents around 80% of sales continued to grow strongly, higher by over 40 basis points.

The company has recommended a final dividend of 104.6p per share, taking total dividend to 154p, an increase of 4%.

British American Tobacco chairman Richard Burrows said the group had an excellent year despite a challenging external environment.

“Led by growth across all of our Global Drive Brands, the Group delivered another year of very good revenue and profit growth at constant rates of exchange,” he said.

“Despite significant currency headwinds impacting reported results, the excellent underlying performance of the Group in 2015 and the increase in our total dividend for 2015 to 154.0p are testimony to the strength of the business, our strategy and our confidence in the future.”