British American Tobacco Rolls Out Soaring Profits

Source from:  Thu Nov 1,news.yahoo.com LONDON (AFP)  11/02/2007

British American Tobacco, the maker of Dunhill, Kent and Lucky Strike cigarettes, posted bumper third-quarter profits on Thursday but warned of slowing growth during the rest of 2007. Net profit leapt 34.5 percent from a year earlier to 600 million pounds (860 million euros, 1.25 billion dollars) in the three months to September, BAT said. Revenue increased 5.9 percent to 2.59 billion pounds. "The group's spread of developed and developing markets has continued to serve shareholders well, with all regions contributing to the strong results," BAT chairman Jan du Plessis said in a results statement. "Although the momentum of the first six months has been maintained in the third quarter, we do still expect growth in profit from operations at comparable rates of exchange to slow in the fourth quarter." Growth would slow due to higher marketing budgets and price increases in Brazil, he added. The results were well received by the market. In mid-afternoon trade, BAT shares showed a gain of 0.16 percent at 1,833 pence on London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies. The FTSE, meanwhile, registered a steep fall of 2.22 percent at 6,572.10 points. Enditem