(Alliance News) - Tobacco company Imperial Brands PLC on Tuesday said it was on track to meet its guidance for its financial year after a resilient first half of trading.
The Bristol-headquartered firm posted revenue for the six months to March 31 of GBP15.57 billion, up 6.1% from GBP14.67 billion a year previously. Organic adjusted net revenue was GBP3.57 billion, up 2.4% or 3.5% at constant currencies.
Pretax profit for the period jumped to GBP2.06 billion from just GBP785 million a year before, helped by "strong pricing" for tobacco. Imperial said organic tobacco volumes were down 3.3%, due to weaker duty-free sales, but next-generation product revenue bounced by 16% from a weak prior-year period.
"We have made a good start in implementing our new strategy to transform Imperial and remain on track to meet full year expectations," said Chief Executive Stefan Bomhard.
"In tobacco, we have put in place a clear market prioritisation to increase focus on our best opportunities for sustainable profit delivery. This is an encouraging start and one that I look forward to building on over time as we begin to step up investment in new strategic initiatives."
The pandemic resulted in a strong financial performance in Germany and the UK, with market size benefiting from reduced travel but global duty-free sales dropping due to the same reason.
Looking at the second half of the year, Imperial said it expects tobacco profitability to grow modestly on a year-on-year basis, with low-mid single-digit organic adjusted operating profit growth at constant currency predicted.
As a result of the positive results, Imperial raised its interim dividend by 1.0% to 42.12 pence per share from 41.70p a year prior.
Shares in Imperial Brands were up 1.8% at 1,618.64 pence in London on Tuesday morning.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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Imperial Brands (IMB)