Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, the manufacturer of Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and other popular cigarette brands reported last week the full-year results and overall business performance are on track to meet the expectations, as sales in emerging markets are growing. The company considers rising the dividend pay-out ratio to 50% of adjusted revenues in 2011.

After the advantageous settlement of several of outstanding issues with different tax agencies across the EU, the established duty rate for 2011 and following years is suggested to be nearly 24.5%. Moreover, according to the report, Imperial Tobacco is set to do a tax provision release of almost £200 million.

Imperial tobacco reported the net earnings were up by 5 percent in the quarter to January. Overall, mature tobacco markets continue to give favorable earnings growth, while earnings from emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe performed especially solid. Total sales volumes added 1.2 percent as cigarette volumes grew by 0.5 percentage points and fine cut tobacco increasing by nearly 6 percent.

Imperial’s sales growth resulted from solid performances in emerging markets, such as African and Asian countries. Davidoff sales added more than 10%, with very strong growth in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. West sales increased approximately 3% mainly due to growth in Russia and a several Eastern European markets.

Gauloises Blondes sale volumes increased as well by more than 10% with solid performance in the Middle East and Asia. Imperial’s major regional brands, such as Classic, Gitanes and JPS all grew in the quarter too. As regards the fine cut tobacco products, sales have been growing in major European markets, such as Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece.

The United Kingdom remained key market for Imperial Tobacco. The company’s market share in the UK cigarette market was unchanged at 45.3%, with sales reaching 56.3 billion cigarettes.

German market, the second largest market for the company, was also stable with sale volumes totaling 119.5 billion cigarettes and market share reaching 27% of the local cigarette market.

Spain cigarette market remained unstable for the company, as volumes were down by 10% in the quarter and sales totaling 78.1 billion cigarettes. Spanish tobacco market has been impacted by the continuous recession, considerable tax increases and the recently-implemented ban on smoking in public places is likely to affect the market even more.

In the USA, cigarette market volumes declined 4%, in line with the long term trend and ther group’s share was 3.9%.

In the Rest of the World market, sale volumes grew by 4% in the quarter, mainly thanks to the growth in the Middle East and Asia.

Imperial Tobacco’s CEO Alison Cooper stated that the company has made a good start in 2011, as the key global brands added 7% with Gauloises Blondes, Davidoff and West performing greatly, especially in emerging markets. The fine cut tobacco showing a strong performance in the EU region and cigar volumes as well going up in several emerging markets, and mainly in the Middle East.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.