PRESS RELEASE
08 DECEMBER 2022
Trading update - ahead of closed period commencing 1 January 2023
Jack Bowles, Chief Executive:
鈥淲e continue to accelerate our A Better Tomorrow鈩 transformation, at pace. We are confident in delivering our 2022 guidance, demonstrating once again the strength and resilience of our business. I am proud of our people and their focus on the delivery of our three strategic priorities.
Our New Category business continues to drive strong volume, revenue and market share growth and has become a significant contributor to group performance.
Our exciting new product launches and innovations, supported by further geographic expansion, have enabled the addition of another 3.2mn consumers within our non-combustible franchise1听in the first nine months, reaching 21.5mn.
We are investing in New Categories, driving sustainable growth, while making excellent progress in reducing operating losses. We expect growing contribution across all New Categories, and all Regions in 2022. We are confident in delivering our targets of 拢5bn revenue, and profitability by 2025.
In our combustibles business, we expect our targeted portfolio of brands across price tiers to deliver a robust performance across APME, AMSSA and Europe, driven by resilient volumes.
In the US, industry volumes remain under pressure due to ongoing macro-economic factors and post-Covid normalisation of consumption patterns. In order to offset early signs of accelerated downtrading in the industry in the second half of the year, we have recently activated commercial plans across specific brands, channels and states.
We expect to deliver strong adjusted operating margin improvement despite increasing inflation in our supply chain. This has been made possible through robust pricing, the scale of our brands and increasingly focusing our marketing investments. Our three year Quantum programme is expected to deliver in excess of 拢1.5bn annualised cost savings by the end of 2022.
Our business is highly cash generative, and in 2022 we expect another year of operating cash conversion well ahead of our 90% target. While expecting net finance costs to increase given the recent speed and significance of global interest rate rises and currency volatility, we will benefit from a 90% fixed debt-profile and an average maturity of over 10 years.
In summary, our transformation is accelerating, driven by our New Categories performance, and we are delivering on our full year guidance. Together, this will enable us to further invest in, and accelerate the transformation of, our business.鈥
Vuse extending global leadership position5听in Vapour
glo continues to make category share gains
Velo strong European leadership continues; unlocking Emerging Markets
Resilient combustibles performance
Accelerated ESG ambitions and targets
Media Centre
+44 (0) 20 7845 2888 (24 hours)听 |听
Investor Relations
Victoria Buxton: +44 (0)20 7845 2012
John Harney: +44 (0)20 7845 1263
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Webcast and Conference call - The conference call will begin at 8.30am (GMT).
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You can access the audio webcast via our website. You can also listen via conference call by dialling the numbers below, using the听password: BAT
United Kingdom Toll-Free: 0808 109 0700
United Kingdom Toll: +44 (0) 33 0551 0200
United States Toll-Free: 1 866 966 5335
United States New York: +1 212 999 6659
South Africa Toll-Free: 0 800 980 512
Johannesburg Toll: +27 (0) 11589 8302
A playback facility for the conference call will be available online via www.bat.com.
Market share and volume data YTD September 2022.
Share growth refers to volume share for THP and Modern Oral and value share for Vapour
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As used herein, volume share refers to the estimated retail sales volume of the product sold as a proportion of total estimated retail sales volume in that category and value share refers to the estimated retail sales value of the product sold as a proportion of total estimated retail sales value in that category. Please refer to the 2021 Annual Report on Form 20鈥怓 for a full description of these measures, together with a description of other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), on pages 302 and 303
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New Categories comprises Tobacco Heating Products (THP), Vapour and Modern Oral. Our products as sold in the US, including Vuse, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation and no reduced-risk claims will be made as to these products without FDA clearance.
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This announcement contains several forward-looking non-GAAP measures used by management to monitor the Group鈥檚 performance. For the non-GAAP information contained in this announcement, no comparable GAAP or IFRS information is available on a forward-looking basis and our forward-looking revenue and other components of the Group鈥檚 results, including the revenue generated from combustibles, cannot be estimated with reasonable certainty due to, among other things, the impact of foreign exchange, pricing and volume, which could be significant, being highly variable. As such, no reconciliations for this forward-looking non-GAAP information are available and we are unable to: present revenue before presenting New Category revenue or constant currency revenue; or present earnings per share before presenting constant currency adjusted diluted earnings per share.
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The Group鈥檚 Management Board regularly reviews the measures used to assess and present the financial performance of the Group and, as relevant, its geographic segments, and believes that these measures provide additional useful information to investors. Certain of our measures are presented based on an adjusted basis and on a constant currency basis. Please refer to the 2021 Annual Report on Form 20鈥怓 for a full description of each measure alongside non-financial KPIs, pages 302 and 303.
One non-GAAP measure which the Group uses and that is contained in this announcement is adjusted diluted earnings per share which is before the impact of adjusting items and is derived from diluted earnings per share. This announcement also contains operating cash conversion, a non-GAAP measure defined as net cash generated from operating activities before the impact of adjusting items and dividends from associates and excluding trade loans to third-parties, pension short fall funding, taxes paid and after net capital expenditure, as a proportion of adjusted profit from operations.
This announcement also contains adjusted net debt and adjusted EBITDA. The Group uses adjusted net debt and adjusted EBITDA to assess its financial capacity. The Management Board believes that these additional measures, which are used internally, are useful to the users of the financial statements in helping them to see how business financing has changed over the year.
Adjusting items, as identified in accordance with the Group鈥檚 accounting policies, represent certain items of income and expense which the Group considers distinctive based on their size, nature or incidence. These include significant items in, profit from operations, net finance costs, taxation and the Group鈥檚 share of the post鈥恡ax results of associates and joint ventures which individually or, if of a similar type, in aggregate, are relevant to an understanding of the Group鈥檚 underlying financial performance. Although the Group does not believe that these measures are a substitute for IFRS measures, the Group does believe such results excluding the impact of adjusting items provide additional useful information to investors regarding the underlying performance of the business on a comparable basis.
The Group鈥檚 management reviews a number of our IFRS and non鈥怗AAP measures for the Group and its geographic segments at constant rates of exchange. This allows comparison of the Group鈥檚 results, had they been translated at the previous year鈥檚 average rates of exchange. The Group does not adjust for the normal transactional gains and losses in operations that are generated by exchange movements. Although the Group does not believe that these measures are a substitute for IFRS measures, the Group does believe that such results excluding the impact of currency fluctuations year鈥恛n鈥恲ear provide additional useful information to investors regarding the operating performance on a local currency basis.
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References in this announcement to 鈥楤AT鈥, 鈥楪roup鈥, 鈥榳e鈥, 鈥榰s鈥 and 鈥榦ur鈥 when denoting opinion refer to 糖心探花 p.l.c. (糖心探花PLC) and when denoting business activity refer to 糖心探花Group operating companies, collectively or individually as the case may be.
This announcement does not constitute an invitation to underwrite, subscribe for, or otherwise acquire or dispose of any 糖心探花PLC shares or other securities. This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements, including 鈥渇orward-looking鈥 statements made within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as 鈥渂elieve,鈥 鈥渁nticipate,鈥 鈥渃ould,鈥 鈥渕ay,鈥 鈥渨ould,鈥 鈥渟hould,鈥 鈥渋ntend,鈥 鈥減lan,鈥 鈥減otential,鈥 鈥減redict,鈥 鈥渨ill,鈥 鈥渆xpect,鈥 鈥渆stimate,鈥 鈥減roject,鈥 鈥減ositioned,鈥 鈥渟trategy,鈥 鈥渙utlook鈥, 鈥渢arget鈥 and similar expressions. These include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, amongst other things, our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the economic and business circumstances occurring from time to time in the countries and markets in which the Group operates.
All such forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors. It is believed that the expectations reflected in this announcement are reasonable but they may be affected by a wide range of variables that could cause actual results and performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated.
Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are uncertainties related to the following: the impact of competition from illicit trade; the impact of adverse domestic or international legislation and regulation; the inability to develop, commercialise and deliver the Group's New Categories strategy; adverse litigation and dispute outcomes and the effect of such outcomes on the Group's financial condition; the impact of significant increases or structural changes in tobacco, nicotine and New Categories related taxes; translational and transactional foreign exchange rate exposure; changes or differences in domestic or international economic or political conditions; the ability to maintain credit ratings and to fund the business under the current capital structure; the impact of serious injury, illness or death in the workplace; adverse decisions by domestic or international regulatory bodies; and changes in the market position, businesses, financial condition, results of operations or prospects of the Group.
Past performance is no guide to future performance and persons needing advice should consult an independent financial adviser. The forward-looking statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of preparation of this announcement and 糖心探花undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
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No statement in this announcement is intended to be a profit forecast and no statement in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that earnings per share of 糖心探花PLC for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per share of 糖心探花PLC.
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Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in 糖心探花PLC filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Annual Report on Form 20-F and Current Reports on Form 6-K, which may be obtained free of charge at the SEC鈥檚 website, http://www.sec.gov, and the Company鈥檚 Annual Reports, which may be obtained free of charge from the 糖心探花 website听