Imperial Tobacco Annual Profits Drop 52%

Source from:  AFP 11/26/2008

Britain's Imperial Tobacco said on Tuesday that its annual net profits tumbled 52 percent on costs related to its takeover of French-Spanish rival Altadis. Net profit plunged to 428 million pounds (503 million euros, 646 million dollars) in the year to September 30, the maker of Davidoff and Embassy cigarettes said in an earnings statement. Group revnue however soared 66 percent to 20.528 billion pounds thanks to Imperial's purchase of Altadis for 12.8 billion euros (18.8 billion dollars). The takeover created Europe's second-biggest tobacco company, behind Altria Group's Philip Morris, making about 312 billion cigarettes a year. Imperial announced in June following its takeover that the new group was cutting 2,440 jobs. Enditem