Imperial Brands reported net revenue of £15.41 billion ($19.32 billion) for the first half of 2023, down 0.3 percent from the same period in 2022. Operating profit rose 27.7 percent to £1.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, net revenue declined 1 percent to £3.66 billion, while operating profit grew 0.8 percent to £1.72 billion.
“We are now in the third year of our five-year strategy, and this means we are moving from the initial foundation building phase to a period of improving financial delivery. We remain strongly committed to an ongoing program of shareholder returns and will complete our initial £1 billion buyback during the second half,” said Imperial Brands CEO Stefan Bomhard in a statement.
“Business performance for the first half of fiscal year 2023 was resilient, despite temporarily increased volume declines against a strong comparator. As expected, this reflects a return to pre-Covid buying patterns as well as our decision to exit Russia last year. In tobacco, we have delivered further share gains in aggregate across our portfolio of top five markets, while also achieving strong pricing to help mitigate the volume declines. We have now recorded stable or growing aggregate market share in these markets in each of the last four six-month periods after many years of sharp declines. In NGP, we have delivered a step-up in innovation with new product and market launches in all three categories: vapor, heated tobacco and modern oral.
I am confident the actions we have taken are creating a stronger, more resilient business capable of driving shareholder returns.
“This performance is underpinned by targeted investments in capabilities and people. Earlier this month we opened a new innovation facility in Liverpool, which brings together consumers, product developers and third-party partners in a single collaborative space. We are making good progress in our programs to modernize legacy systems, and we continue to invest in upskilling our leaders to drive forward our performance culture.
“We remain on track to deliver the acceleration in adjusted operating profit growth in the second half in line with our guidance and expectations. I am confident the actions we have taken are creating a stronger, more resilient business capable of driving shareholder returns through a growing dividend and an ongoing share buyback.”