Author: Staff Writer

  • Philip Morris Q1 profit declines on costs, cuts full-year EPS view

    Tobacco giant Philip Morris International Inc. Thursday reported a decline in first-quarter profit, reflecting higher costs. Meanwhile, earnings per share improved from last year. The company also lowered its full-year 2013 earnings outlook for prevailing exchange rates only, according to a story on RTTNews.com.

    However, the firm reiterated its annual constant-currency adjusted diluted earnings per share growth rate target of 10 to 12 percent, reflecting its pricing actions and market share momentum.

    Louis Camilleri, chairman and CEO of the company said, “Our first quarter was relatively difficult, with our headline results marred by a number of known factors, including inventory movements, the 2012 leap year effect, currency and a slowly improving – but nevertheless substantial erosion in our – volume in the Philippines.”

    Philip Morris, the owner of Marlboro, Parliament and Virginia Slims cigarette brands, said its Cigarette shipment volume declined 6.5 percent from last year. Excluding Philippines, shipment volume was down 2.1 percent. Philippines had unfavorable impact of the disruptive January 2013 excise tax increase.

    In the first quarter, net earnings attributable to the company declined to $2.13 billion from $2.16 billion in the previous year. However, on a per share basis, earnings rose to $1.28 from $1.25 in the prior-year quarter, reflecting lower share count. Reported earnings, excluding currency was $1.35 per share in the first quarter of 2013.

    Adjusted earnings for the recent quarter were $1.29 per share and adjusted earnings, excluding unfavorable currency of $0.07, totaled $1.36 per share.

    On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.34 per share for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

    Net revenues for the quarter grew 2.8 percent to $18.53 billion. Net revenues, excluding excise taxes, rose 1.8 percent to $7.58 billion. Nine analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $7.52 billion for the quarter. Excluding currency, the revenue increase was 3.2 percent.

    In European Union, revenues declined 4 percent, while Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa posted a revenue growth of 11.3 percent. Asia showed a marginal improvement of 0.5 percent, while revenues from Latin America & Canada decreased 0.3 percent.

    Marketing, administration and research costs advanced to $1.62 billion from $1.51 billion in the preceding year.

    For full-year 2013, for prevailing exchange rates only, the company now expects reported earnings per share to be in a range of $5.55 to $5.65, down from the prior outlook of $5.68 to $5.78 per share.

    Excluding an unfavorable currency impact, at prevailing exchange rates, of about $0.19, reported earnings per share are still projected to increase by about 10 to 12 percent, compared to adjusted earnings per share of $5.22 in 2012.

  • Mac Baren to acquire Altadis USA pipe tobacco division

    Mac Baren Tobacco Co., a 125-year-old pipe tobacco company based in Denmark, has reached an agreement with Altadis USA to purchase the company’s pipe tobacco division located in Richmond, Va, according to a story on CSPnet.com.

    The acquired pipe business will operate under its original name, Sutliff Tobacco Co., which was founded in San Francisco 1849, making it one of the oldest pipe tobacco companies in the United States. The acquisition is expected to be completed later this spring.

    For Altadis USA and its service company, Commonwealth-Altadis Inc., a unit of international Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, the move allows the company to focus on its strategic core cigarette and cigar businesses.

    “This acquisition continues to build on Mac Baren Tobacco Co.’s considerable reputation as a world leader in the pipe tobacco industry,” said Paul Creasy, current general manager, who will continue to lead the business as president.

    “I am also pleased to announce that Sutliff Tobacco Co. will continue to manufacture pipe tobacco at its Perdue Avenue factory in Richmond.” Sutliff has been manufacturing in Richmond since 1953. It began manufacturing its flagship brand, Mixture 79, in 1933.

    “This is a perfect strategic fit for both Mac Baren and Sutlilff,” Creasy said.

  • Higher 1Q profit, revenue expected from PMI

    Philip Morris International Inc., which sells Marlboro and other brands abroad, is expected to report higher profit and revenue when it releases its first-quarter results before the market opens on Thursday. Whether cutting costs and raising prices continued to help PMI compensate for consumers buying fewer, or cheaper, cigarettes has investors anticipating the announcement.

    Cigarette shipments rose about 3 percent to 233.1 billion in the fourth quarter that ended in December, and it market share rose in a number of key markets, according to a story in The Washington Post.

    Shipments grew 7 percent in the company’s region that encompasses Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but fell about 6 percent in the EU as the region continues to be under pressure due to high unemployment and the continent’s government debt crisis. Shipments also fell about 1 percent in Latin America and Canada.

    In Asia, one of its largest growth areas, shipments grew nearly 6 percent. The company benefited from increases in Japan following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

    The events offered the company a sales opportunity because supply disruptions led Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s No. 3 tobacco maker, to stop shipping cigarettes within Japan.

    Philip Morris International also bought the Philippines company Fortune Tobacco Co. in February 2010, bolstering its Asian business.

  • Pakistan has $175.8 million reasons to tackle tobacco smuggling

    Pakistan is losing 17 billion Pakistani rupees ($175.8 million) per annum due to the illicit cigarette trade, which represents about 26.7 percent of total cigarettes consumed in terms of volume.

    According to a research paper compiled by the Euromonitor International, and cited in a story published by the Asia News Network, Pakistan ranked third-highest in illicit trade in Asia-Pacific countries, behind Malaysia and Hong Kong last year.

    When compared to its Asia-Pacific counterparts, over a five year period (2006-11), Pakistan’s illicit cigarette trade registered the second-highest growth of 62.77 percent after Vietnam (70.7 percent).

    During the same period China, the largest cigarette consuming economy in Asia Pacific, registered an impressive contraction in illicit trade by 18 percent.

    Total government revenue loss over the past five years due to illicit trade amounted to a staggering 80 billion rupees. This is approximately equivalent to 11 percent of the funds approved by the Public Sector Development Programme.

    The document further revealed that Pakistan’s illicit cigarette trade comprises three main types, namely, local duty-not-paid (DNP), smuggled and counterfeit. Of these, local DNP cigarettes have the dominant share unlike the global norm where smuggled cigarettes are usually the real cause of concern.

    The local DNP cigarettes made up to 84.5 percent of total illicit market, while 12 percent and 3.5 percent were smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes, respectively. This high share of local DNP suggests that situation is more of an internal problem, thus highlighting the need for improving local law enforcement.

    Euromonitor estimates that an alarming 26.7 percent of all cigarettes consumed in Pakistan last year were illicit comprising local DNP, smuggled or counterfeit. This translates to a massive volume of 23.5 billion sticks. It further stated that during 2002-2011, global illicit cigarette trade contracted by 7.3 percent, whereas in the same period, the situation in Pakistan worsened with a growth in illicit trade of 113.6 percent. In fact, volume of illicit cigarettes more than doubled from 11 billion sticks in 2002 to 23.5 billion sticks in 2011.

  • Careless smokers playing with fire

    It could be hard to believe but careless smokers ended up causing more than 2,410 fire accidents and several crores-worth of property loss in the last seven years in the Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

    A study by A.P. Fire Services Department revealed careless smoking as one of the main causes for the increasing incidence of fire accidents — the other contributing factors being electrical short-circuit, gas leakage, fire crackers and chemical reaction, among others, according to a story published in The Hindu.

    According to officials, cigarette butts that were not properly put off before being chucked, sparked fire in several incidents, one such case being the fire mishap that occurred at the multi-storeyed Babu Khan Estate in Basheerbagh a few days ago.

    Careless smoking led to 461 fire accidents in the year 2012, 392 in 2011 and 298 in 2010. Perturbed over the increasing mishaps due to casual smokers, the fire department has suggested that owners of the commercial buildings develop separate smoking zones on their premises to reduce such mishaps, Assistant District Fire Officer K. Vijay Kumar said.

    Occupants should not dump cartons, waste papers and other flammable substances either in balconies or cellars, he advised. The department usually establishes the exact reasons for the mishap only after examining the premises and assessing the intensity of the blaze, Kumar added.

  • Less drinking, smoking causes Aussies more problems

    A major research project has found that Australians have cut down on smoking and drinking, but they’ve gained weight and become more anxious.

    A survey by Roy Morgan Research of 50,000 Australians every year, over five years, has found 1.1 million fewer glasses of alcoholic drinks are being consumed a week and 134,000 fewer people smoke compared with 2007, according to a story posted on the Sky News website.

    But CEO Michele Levine says the bad news is that 736,000 more adults are obese and the number of people with anxiety has increased by 1.3 million.

    Roy Morgan Research collaborated with Alere healthcare company to establish the Alere Wellness Index.

    The results are based on 1,800 questions put to 50,000 people a year, every year, for the past five years.

  • Few complaints lead to secondhand smoke warnings for non-gamblers

    About two, meaning usually one, complaints a month are lodged with the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department regarding tobacco smoke leaking from video gambling rooms inside restaurants, so obviously something needed to be done in this West Virginia, USA, town.

    ”When we get these types of complaints, we still make a site visit to make sure they are in compliance with the regulation and to see if we can advise them on making some corrections to limit the smoke coming into the general area,” Administrator Howard Gamble was quoted as saying in a story published in the The Intelligencer: Wheeling News-Register

    There was no mention as to whether or not it was the same person complaining every month.

    Eateries and bars with video gambling rooms are now required by the health department to post signs warning customers that smoking is permitted inside and that patrons may be exposed to secondhand smoke.

    ”This posting shall be conspicuously placed. This advisory shall include, but is not limited to, the following: ‘Health warning: Smoking is permitted within this facility, you will be exposed to secondhand smoke. Such exposure can cause or contribute to cancer, heart disease, respiratory illness, and other serious health problems,”’ said Gamble.

    The health department’s smoking ban allows restaurants to have these gambling rooms, but there is no regulation forcing the owner to install a separate air handler to filter out the smoke.

  • Malaysia to stamp out smuggled-cigarette smokers

    The city hall in the Malaysian city of Kota Kinabalu, proposed that buyers of  contraband cigarettes be penalized along with the sellers of the smuggled smokes, according to a story in the the Borneo Post.

    Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir, who made the proposal in his speech during the  launch of Ops Pacak 2013, said buyers of contraband  cigarettes have never been implicated by the relevant authorities in the effort  to stamp out the smuggling and sale of contraband items, including cigarettes,  in Sabah.

    “All this while, we have only compounded or sentenced to imprisonment the  smugglers and contraband peddlers. We never penalized the customers. Hence, it  is time for us to think of imposing strict penalties on the buyers,” he  said.

    Abidin said that for a start, buyers caught with these contraband items  should be given warnings or reminders that their action of buying such illegal  items will not be without incrimination.

    “The aim of this is to remind them not to become contributors to the flooding  presence of illegal cigarettes in the local market,” he said.

    Abidin also spoke on the city’s role as a tourist location and how the  presence of illegal cigarette peddlers was an eyesore.

    “On the part of DBKK (City Hall), we have often received complaints from the  public about the sales of contrabands within the city. We only have a limited  number of enforcers and are ill-equipped to handle the threat posed by certain  peddlers and cigarette smugglers,” he said.

  • Vaping is working in Southwest Florida

    A few businesses in Southwest Florida, U.S., are allowing vaping in the workplace, according to a story in the Naples Daily News.

    For instance, Safety Harbour Insurance, which serves Lee and Collier counties, is said to allow its employees to ‘e-puff’ away at work.

    “We absolutely love it,” said manager Candace Nichols, who has been using e-cigarettes for nearly a year after smoking tobacco cigarettes for 13 years. “It cuts back on the extra break time, so we are able to be more productive within the business.”

    Nichols, among others, said e-cigarettes helped them quit regular tobacco smoking.

    And for that reason, other companies, including Lee Memorial Health System, are considering changing their policies to allow vaping.

    At present, Lee Memorial’s policy against using tobacco products in any of its buildings includes e-cigarettes, but that ban could change.

    “The policy was written several years ago when e-cigarettes were much less common,” Lee Memorial spokeswoman Mary Briggs, wrote in an email.

    “We recognize that many people are using them to help them stop smoking, so we are going to review the policy this summer to see if it needs any changes.”

  • Smoking causes more than “just death”

    Australia was due yesterday to start a new anti-tobacco propaganda campaign aimed at preventing the suffering caused by smoking.

    According to an Australian Associated Press story, the campaign, called “Stop before the suffering starts”, will use television and radio, and the print, online and social media.

    The campaign is said to highlight the toll taken by smoking-related illnesses and the impact on smokers and their families.

    “Many medical conditions caused by smoking can result in not just death, but in living for years of suffering with disabling health problems,” said Health Minister Tanya Plibersek.

    The story claimed the “goal was to reduce smoking rates from around 25 percent of the population to 10 percent by 2018.”