Cigarette maker British American Tobacco (BAT) has bought back 658 975 of its own shares at an average price of 2370.66 pence from Merrill Lynch, as part of its buyback programme announced on March 18, 2024.
The company, listed both in South Africa and the UK, was trading at 2 374 pence, up 0.81%, during morning trade yesterday.
In South Africa, it was trading at R549.47, 0.37% up as of 10.30am.
It will cancel the shares it bought. BAT has recently been waging a war on illicit cigarette makers.
In the past year, BAT posted resilient financial performance and delivery as the group revenue on a reported basis was up 3.1% on an organic basis at constant rates.
New Categories business turned profitable two years ahead of our original target and contributed, at constant rates of exchange, to a £398 million increase to group profit.
Adjusted organic profit from operations was up 3.9% at constant rates of exchange, with another year of 100% operating cash conversion delivery.
BAT is also making good progress on its vision to Build a Smokeless World, with one-sixth of our revenue now coming from smokeless alternatives‡ to cigarettes. In fact, smokeless products already represent over 30% of BAT's revenue in 24 markets around the world.
BUSINESS REPORT