Trending: British American Tobacco Swings to Fiscal Year Pretax Loss, Sees Growth in 2024

14:08 ET -- British American Tobacco is one of the most mentioned companies in the U.S. across all news items in the last 12 hours, according to Factiva data. BAT said it swung to a pretax loss for the year, driven by a writedown of its U.S. cigarette brands, but backed forecasts for growth in 2024. The FTSE 100 cigarette maker, which houses the Kent, Dunhill and Lucky Strike brands, said pretax loss for 2023 was 17.06 billion pounds ($21.54 billion) compared with a profit of GBP9.32 billion the year prior, largely driven by an impairment of GBP27.6 billion. Of the impairment, GBP27.3 billion relates to pressure on some of its traditional cigarette brands in the U.S., as it shifts focus to smokeless products. The company said it will invest in 2024 to strengthen its U.S. business, accelerate innovation and enhance its capabilities, which it said would weight its performance to the second half. BAT said it would build to deliver 3%-5% organic revenue, and mid-single digit adjusted organic profit from operations growth by 2026 on a constant currency basis. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva. (matthew.walker@dowjones.com)

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February 08, 2024 14:23 ET (19:23 GMT)

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