Imperial Tobacco net profit falls, but sales grow

Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, the world's No. 4 tobacco company by sales, said Tuesday its annual profit fell 53 percent because of costs related to its takeover of Franco-Spanish rival Altadis SA in January.

The maker of Davidoff and Gauloises cigarettes, however, said its overall performance was good as revenue rose 67 percent on strong growth in developing markets.

Net profit for the 12 months through Sept. 30 dropped to 428 million pounds ($648 million) from 905 million pounds a year earlier, after the company had to pay higher interest on the money it borrowed to fund its euro12.6 billion ($16 billion) purchase of rival Altadis.

But revenue rose over the same period by 67 percent to 20.5 billion pounds ($31 billion) on growing sales in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

"In a year of significant achievement, we have completed the acquisition of Altadis and grown our cigarette volumes," CEO Gareth Davis said.

Imperial shares closed down 6.79 percent at 1,470.00 pence ($22.71).

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