BAT's CFO Tadeu Marroco on Growth and Transformation

The Chief Financial Officer of BAT, Tadeu Marroco, has stated that the company is attempting to revise its 2022 repurchase plan through a continuously increasing dividend policy, in order to successfully overcome the extremely challenging macroeconomic environment and provide generous returns to shareholders.

By delving a little deeper into these three different frameworks, it is clear from the results that a multi-category strategy is proving effective in helping the team to transform faster. Supported by very strong innovation channels and the establishment of strong global brands in each category, BAT will be able to successfully provide smokers with a different alternative – one that is much lower-risk than cigarettes. In terms of business transformation, we achieved a milestone of 20 million consumers in the first half of this year. This led to very strong growth, reaching 45% from revenue generated from these new categories. This lays the foundation for us to achieve 51% growth in 2021. Therefore, we are obviously continuing last year's momentum into 2022.

In just the first half of the year, we have invested 1.1 billion pounds in these new products, while managing to reduce losses by 50% in the same period.

Therefore, we are currently ranked number one in the global e-cigarette market thanks to our Vuse product. Our modern oral product Velo is a leading competitor in international markets outside the US. We are also one of the fastest growing brands in THP. We have performed exceptionally well in each of these three categories. At the same time, we are delivering strong financial results. Our revenue is up nearly 4% on a fixed exchange rate basis and our earnings per share are up nearly 6% on a currency exchange basis. Adjusted earnings per share on a fixed exchange rate basis are also up 6%. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that BAT's figures do include foreign exchange transactions. Therefore, we have taken a hit of 1.5% in equivalent terms in the first six months of this year. This is part of our figures.

We are delivering in terms of cash. Over the past six months, we have converted 77% of our profits into cash. We are successfully navigating the macroeconomic environment. It's certain that our business is not immune to the effects of inflation, declining consumer purchasing power, and the fact that we are seeing more and more interest rate increases. However, the reality is that we have some levers to pull here.

One reason for this is related to our very high profit margin business, as well as our strong cost reduction plan that was launched as early as 2020. Our goal is to achieve savings of £1 billion by the end of 2022, within a three-year period. We have already saved £1.5 billion so far, and we hope to exceed this figure for the entire year.

We have a highly adaptable product that has demonstrated significant pricing power during previous downturns in the tobacco industry. We have successfully implemented our pricing strategy for the year, achieving 90% of our goals thus far.

So, we have made very good progress in the first six months. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done in the transition itself. We now have bold plans to introduce new innovations in the market in the second half of this year.

We have our product, glo hyper, in THP. We are now launching a new improved device called X2 with new features. It is lighter and smaller. Additionally, we are introducing new consumables to further satisfy consumers.

We have recently launched our first disposable in the vaping industry called Vuse Go, which is currently available in France, Ireland, Spain, and Germany. Our plan is to expand beyond Europe by the end of this year. Therefore, consumers can expect to see a lot of innovation from us in the second half of this year. At the same time, we will continue to expand our reach.

After achieving all of this, we anticipate a revenue increase of 2% to 4%. Therefore, we stand by our earlier statement of a median earnings per share growth. Additionally, with sustained strong cash generation, this means exceeding our usual target of converting profits into cash at 9%.

We have noticed that the environment there is becoming increasingly challenging. However, as I mentioned earlier, after taking several measures in our business structure at Quantum, we now have a more agile organization. Additionally, with the flexibility we have in our own products.

Therefore, we are committed to providing long-term sustainable shareholder value and are fully capable of doing so.

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