Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: British American Tobacco (M) Bhd (BAT) posted a 9.9% increase in its net profit for the third financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2014 (3QFY14) to RM241.1 million or 84.4 sen a share, while revenue rose marginally to RM1.2 billion from RM1.17 billion a year ago.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, its net profit increased 12.6% to RM714.6 million while revenue rose 5.9% to RM3.6 billion.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, BAT said its domestic and duty-free sales volumes had declined by 7.3% for 3QFY14 and 6.2% during the first nine months of the year.

“The rates of decline were bigger than the ones registered up to the month of August and as such, impacted the financial performance of the group year to date,” it said.

However, despite the overall volume decline, BAT said its revenue had increased, due to the cumulative effect of the price increases in June and September last year.

Looking ahead, the group said it was “cautiously optimistic” of its FY14 performance, but added that this would also depend on the effectiveness of the government’s enforcement on the illegal cigarette trade.

BAT declared a dividend of 78 sen per share for 3QFY14, making total dividends declared to date at RM2.31 per share, compared with RM2.04 per share in the same period last year.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 17, 2014.

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