Adjustments to Hit Imperial Tobacco Profits

Source from:  uk.biz.yahoo.com LONDON (ShareCast) 03/20/2008

Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT.L - news) said adjusted profit for the year will be reduced by one-off accounting adjustments (Advertisement) required under IFRS but added it will have no effect on the underlying business performance. It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) currently estimates the impact on adjusted profit will be a reduction of around £110m in the first half and around £30m in the second half, bringing the total to £140m for the year to September 2008. "The most significant of these relate to the uplift to fair value of stocks and the elimination of inter-company sales. Other adjustments relate to depreciation, assets held for sale, derivatives and intangible assets," it said. The group added that trading performance for the financial year remains in line with management's expectations Imperial added that it continues to remain confident of achieving operational efficiencies of around €;300m by 2010 for Altadis (Madrid: ALT.MC - news) . As announced before, the rights issue is thought to be no more than £5bn and will be completed by 18 July 2008. "The actual size of the rights issue will be dependent upon a number of factors and will not be materially impacted by the offer for the Logista (Madrid: LOG.MC - news) minorities or the disposal of the Aldeasa stakes," it said. Enditem