Imperial Brands Releases Annual Featuring a -14.7% Operating Profit

Ellesmere Zhu

On November 15, 2022, Imperial Brands Plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group), the 4th largest tobacco company released its 2022 annual report that ends Sept. 30.

Following data are highlighted by the company:

o Five-year strategy on track and delivering improved operational performance

o Aggregate market share for top-five combustible markets up 35bps – first annual share gain in > five years

o Next-generation products (NGP) net revenue up 11% driven by market launches in all categories

o Strong adjusted operating cash conversion of 102% enables balance sheet to reach target leverage of 2.0x

o Increased shareholder returns with 1.5% growth in dividend enhanced by an ongoing £1 billion share buyback

o Embedding of culture changes continues, with all 26,000 Imperial colleagues set to complete training in our new purpose, vision and behaviors by calendar year-end.

More details are revealed in the report:

o Net revenue reported dropping by 0.7%

o Operating profit dropping by 14.7%

o Tobacco volumes declined -4.7% (-1.2% excluding Russia)

o H2 volumes -8.4%, reflecting Russia exit and COVID unwind

2FIRSTS will dig into the report and release an analysis later. Please stay tuned.