Category: News This Week

Philip Morris International is providing investors with a review of its Asian business during its Asia Region Investor Field Trip.

The event was due to begin today in Singapore with presentations from Matteo Pellegrini, PMI’s president, Asia Region, and Laurent Boissart, PMI’s president Japan.

It is due to end tomorrow in Indonesia following a presentation from Paul Janelle, PMI’s president director of PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk, a factory tour and market visit.

A copy of the respective remarks and slides is being made available at www.pmi.com/presentations on the day of each presentation.

Altria is due to host a webcast at www.altria.com of its Investor Day in New York presentation from about 09.00 hours to about 12.00 hours Eastern Time on June 11.

The webcast, which will be in listen-only mode, will feature presentations by Altria’s chairman and CEO, Marty Barrington, and other members of Altria’s senior management team.

Pre-event registration is necessary at www.altria.com, where an archived copy will be made available.

A recent report claims that while Chinese tobacco companies have reduced their advertising in traditional media, they are stepping up their presence on the Internet, according to a China Daily story.

The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) compiled the report after monitoring 32 television channels, 91 newspapers and magazines, and various Internet media, including commercial websites and micro blogs.

Researchers found that tobacco advertisements were broadcast 117 times on two television channels from May 13 to May 19, figures they compared with those from a 2009 survey that found that advertisements were broadcast 678 times on 19 channels from May 18 to May 24. The television channels that were monitored comprised 15 China Central Television stations, 11 Beijing stations and six provincial stations.

Liu Xiurong, director of the CDCP’s health department, said the television advertisements were indirect promotions because tobacco-product advertisements were prohibited.

A law formulated in 1994 banned tobacco advertisements through five types of traditional media: radio, television, movies, newspapers and magazines.

But the law, Liu said, did not make it clear that indirect advertisements for tobacco brands were also banned; so tobacco manufacturers were taking advantage of this situation.

The report said the print media had been more successful than had television in restricting tobacco advertisements, though the CDCP had found two direct tobacco advertisements.

While tobacco advertising had declined in traditional media, the focus had shifted to the Internet and product placements in movies and television series.

Tobacco companies promoted their products on their websites and micro blogs, and some used micro blogs to form online groups of smokers consuming their products.

Currently there are no regulations on advertising through Internet-based media.

The San Rafael Clean Coalition, California, was due yesterday to install a ‘cigarette eater meter’ at the San RafaelCityPlaza, according to a story in the Marin Independent Journal.

The idea is that people will use the device as a repository for cigarette butts and, in doing so, trigger a charitable donation.

For every butt deposited, 1 cent will go to the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

And once the meter hits 100,000 butts, local businesses will contribute $1,000.

The project is funded by the Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program and Bellam Self Storage and Boxes, with additional funds from local businesses.

The clean coalition is a volunteer group.

The European Union’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, is to take issue with British American Tobacco for making what Olaf alleges were false claims about the nature of their relationship when lobbying British health officials, according to a story in The Times.

BAT is said to have told civil servants at the Department of Health during a private meeting convened to discuss the impact of standardized tobacco packaging that Britain’s illicit tobacco market had grown to more than a quarter of the legal market in the fourth quarter of 2012.

This figure, it was apparently said, was gleaned from a study whose methodology was backed by Olaf.

“The BAT empty pack survey, which BAT said was endorsed by Olaf, shows a tax gap of 26 per cent in quarter four 2012,” according to the note of the meeting in January, agreed by BAT and the Department of Health, and obtained by The Times.

But a spokeswoman for Olaf said Olaf had not endorsed an empty pack survey undertaken by BAT or any other cigarette manufacturer.

“We were not aware that BAT had stated Olaf had endorsed their empty pack survey,” the spokeswoman said.

“We will take up this issue with BAT.”

Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has revealed that he met recently with Sheldon Adelson, the American casino magnate, but stressed that “no decision has yet been made” on whether to relax Spain’s smoking ban in the gaming rooms of ‘Eurovegas’, according to an El Pais story.

The huge Eurovegas complex is set to be built in the Alcorcón area of Madrid.

Both Adelson and Madrid’s regional premier, Ignacio González, said on Tuesday that they took it as read that smoking would be permitted at Eurovegas.

But Rajoy, while confirming only that he had met with Adelson and saying that it was his job as prime minister to listen and speak to people, added that Eurovegas was a good project that would create many jobs.

Altria is due to host a webcast at www.altria.com of its Investor Day in New York presentation from about 09.00 hours to about 12.00 hours Eastern Time on June 11.

The webcast, which will be in listen-only mode, will feature presentations by Altria’s chairman and CEO, Marty Barrington, and other members of Altria’s senior management team.

Pre-event registration is necessary at www.altria.com, where an archived copy will be made available.

Ireland’s Health Minister, Dr. James Reilly, has received approval from his coalition colleagues to introduce standardized packs for tobacco products, according to a number of local and Australian media stories.

So far, Australia is the only country to have imposed such packs, which are hugely dominated by graphic health warnings, from which trademarks and graphics are banned, and on which brand names have to be included in a small, specified font.

Reilly said he was confident the move would save lives and help the “enormous burden of illness and mortality” smoking placed on society.

Opponents of the move said there was no evidence that the introduction of standardized packs would reduce smoking significantly, and they warned that it was likely to boost the illicit trade in tobacco products.

However, the announcement has received a lot of support and, in part, the story demonstrates that a week is a long time in politics. Last week, the Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, and two of his senior ministers (Reilly was not one of them) were under fire for holding a meeting with representatives of the tobacco industry and for not making public immediately the fact that the meeting had taken place.

On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, British American Tobacco has posed the question: ‘What would a world with no legal tobacco industry really look like?’

And it has provided an answer. ‘The reality is that people will continue to smoke,’ said group head of corporate and regulatory affairs, Kingsley Wheaton, in a statement posted on the company’s website. ‘But instead of buying legal taxed cigarettes, made by legitimate tobacco companies and sold by reputable retailers, they’ll turn to black market sources to get what they want.

‘The tobacco industry is highly regulated, sells a legal product and we have a legitimate business. We conduct our business in a professional and responsible way, abiding by the laws in all the countries we operate in, often going above and beyond our legal obligations.

‘Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the sophisticated network of criminals ready and waiting to step-in and take over if the legitimate tobacco industry didn’t exist.’

The note then went on to say that the ‘global black market for tobacco accounted for 660 billion (Framework Convention Alliance) cigarette sales in 2012, making it roughly equivalent in volume to the world’s third largest multinational tobacco company. It is not a victimless crime. Illegal tobacco is sold by well-organised criminal gangs, some of whom have recognised links to terrorism.’

The full text is available at: http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO986MNA

And BAT’s vision of what the world would look like without a legal tobacco industry has been ‘brought to life’ in a series of pictures that can be found at: www.bat.com on Flickr and on YouTube.

Banning ‘nicotine propaganda’ from cinema screens and television would be a powerful tool in helping to end the ‘destructive business of tobacco’, according to a story in the Tehran Times.

Well-documented reports, the story said, showed that global tobacco companies earned hundreds of millions of dollars annually because consumers were impressed by the sight of superstars smoking, and because cartoon characters provided smoking models for youngsters.

Meanwhile, reports showed also that 52 per cent of young adults and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 would not take up smoking if the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting company instituted a widespread ban of scenes displaying tobacco smoking.

Psychologists and social workers believed that children could not resist tobacco-company messages put out through the mass media. Therefore, by banning tobacco propaganda it would be possible to help young people avoid trying such products and becoming the next generation of smokers, the story added.