Cigarette giant British American Tobacco saw
profits in the first nine months of the year slump 20 percent as it paid a
heavy cost for restructuring its British and Canadian operations, the firm
said Tuesday.
BAT,
which announced Monday it was selling its American arm to US rival R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, said pre-tax profit to the end of September was
£1.29 billion (R15 billion).
This
compares with a figure of £1.62 billion for the same period of last
year.
The lower profits reflected "the exceptional costs of
restructuring the businesses in the UK and Canada, as well as a cigarettes
loss on disposal of a
subsidiary," BAT said in a statement.
The
results come a day after it was announced that R.J. Reynolds will buy
BAT's US operations in a stock-and-cash deal worth about $3.1 billion.
Under
the agreement, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, manufacturer of Camel cigarettes,
will merge its business with BAT's Brown and Williamson Tobacco, which
makes Lucky Strike cigarettes.
The
new publicly traded holding company is to be called Reynolds
American.
BAT
chairman Martin Broughton hailed the deal on
Tuesday.
"The group as a whole remains very much on cheap
Cigarettes Store track and the exciting agreement
with Reynolds is the best way to achieve our long-term strategic ambitions
in the US, while improving marlboro
cigarettes
both our
earnings per share and our cash flow," he said. – AFP