Imperial Brands Fiscal Year 2020 Pretax Profit Rises on Higher Revenue

By Matteo Castia

Imperial Brands PLC on Tuesday reported a rise in pretax profit for fiscal 2020 on higher revenue, and said it expects further progress in fiscal 2021.

The tobacco company--which includes Davidoff, Gauloises and JPS among its brands--made a pretax profit of 2.17 billion pounds ($2.86 billion) for the year ended Sept. 30, compared with GBP1.69 billion in fiscal 2019. This includes GBP90 million of coronavirus-related costs and GBP50 million of regulatory-compliance costs, the company said.

Revenue rose to GBP32.56 billion from GBP31.59 billion a year earlier.

The board declared a final dividend of 48.01 pence a share, for a full-year payout of 137.71 pence, down from 206.57 pence the prior year. This reflects the rebasing of dividend payments announced in May, when the company revised its dividend policy and lowered the payouts by one third in order to prioritize net debt reduction.

The company said it expects business to be stronger in fiscal 2021 and guided for a low- to mid-single-digit growth in organic adjusted operating profit.

Write to Matteo Castia at matteo.castia@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 17, 2020 02:45 ET (07:45 GMT)

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