Imperial Brands to start £1bn share buyback

Tobacco company Imperial Brands on Thursday unveiled a £1bn share buyback as it said current year trading was in line with expectations.

“In line with previous guidance, we expect full-year net revenue and group adjusted operating profit to both grow by around 1% at constant currency,” the maker of Gauloises cigarettes and Golden Virginia tobacco said in a trading update.

“Targeted investment in our five largest combustible markets which account for around 70% of operating profit has driven an improvement in aggregate market share.”

Imperial said tobacco net revenue growth improved in the second half compared with the first, driven by a stronger price mix.

“As expected, the recovery of international travel has, over the course of the year, led to a return to pre-Covid purchasing patterns. This has led to increased volume declines, particularly in Northern Europe, partly offset by volume growth in Southern Europe and duty free,” it said.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “News of a fresh £1bn buyback at Imperial Brands will be welcomed by investors and is the culmination of work done over the last two years to get a tight grip on capital allocation and increase focus into core business areas.

“Markets were unsurprisingly happy to hear the news, given shareholder returns for tobacco companies are really the only material case for investing for now.”

“Having scrapped most of its projects over the last few years, new endeavours now look to be showing signs of promise, though its early days and Imperial still has some catching up to do on peers like British American Tobacco.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com