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Category: Business & Finance

  • PMFTC Eyes Double-Digit Growth for IQOS in the Philippines

    PMFTC Eyes Double-Digit Growth for IQOS in the Philippines

    PMFTC Inc., the Philippine affiliate of Philip Morris International (PMI), is targeting double-digit growth this year for its smoke-free product, IQOS, as it pushes to expand its market in the country.

    In an interview, PMFTC President Gijs de Best said the Philippines now has around 150,000 IQOS users since the product’s launch in 2020. “People don’t understand what the problem is related to smoking because in the Philippines, 60% of people believe that nicotine is the most harmful ingredient, which it is not,” he said. “It’s the burning that is causing the issue. Simply, when you use a cigarette, once it is lit, harmful chemicals are released. What our technology is all about is heating, not burning.”

    Because it was launched in the market during the COVID-19 pandemic, IQOS gained traction mainly through word of mouth. Now, PMFTC aims to accelerate growth by increasing education around the benefits of heated tobacco. To support its expansion, PMI inaugurated a ₱8.8-billion ($150 million) manufacturing plant in Tanauan, Batangas last year to produce IQOS and other smoke-free products locally. The Philippines is one of 96 global markets for IQOS, with Indonesia currently being the largest in the region.

  • BAT Bangladesh Forced to Relocate Headquarters

    BAT Bangladesh Forced to Relocate Headquarters

    British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh will move its registered office from Mohakhali to Ashulia by mid-July 2025, following a Supreme Court ruling that rejected its appeal to extend the lease on its Mohakhali premises. The company must vacate the site it has leased from the Dhaka Cantonment Board since 1964.

    The relocation also involves shutting down BAT’s Dhaka factory, though operations will continue at its Savar, Manikganj, and Kushtia facilities. A spokesperson acknowledged potential disruption but emphasized preparations were in place to minimize the impact and protect shareholder interests. BAT Bangladesh earned Tk9,597 crore in Q1 2025.

    The company had been leasing the factory on 30-year terms, with a maximum duration of 90 years. BAT applied for the final renewal, but was denied by the board, which initiated the legal proceedings. Environmental groups had long called for the factory’s relocation, citing pollution concerns.

  • Davidoff Reports $663M in Revenue Amid Planned Cutbacks

    Davidoff Reports $663M in Revenue Amid Planned Cutbacks

    Oettinger Davidoff AG reported CHF 541.7 million ($662.8 million) in global revenue for 2024—an increase of 0.9% over the previous year, despite a significant decrease in production volume. In total, the company produced 38.5 million cigars across its Dominican Republic and Nicaraguan facilities, down 21% from 2023’s 48.8 million cigars. The company said the reduction was intentional, due to pre-emptive production ahead of the European Union’s new track and trace requirements that took effect in May 2024.

    “The year 2024 was another strong year in the 150-year history of our family-owned company,” said Beat Hauenstein, CEO of Oettinger Davidoff AG, in a press release. “The solid 2024 results prove that our investments in our brands, retail and shopping experiences have paid off and that we are well set up to successfully continue writing the next chapter of our longstanding history.”

    Despite lower production, Davidoff said it is expanding capacity at its Diadema Cigars de Honduras S.A. factory in Danlí, Honduras, following the completion of an expansion in the Dominican Republic last year. Among individual brand performances, Zino grew 28.1%, while the flagship Davidoff brand rose 15%. The company did not disclose results for AVO, Camacho, or other brands.

  • CEA Industries Acquires Fat Panda to Enter Canadian Vape Market

    CEA Industries Acquires Fat Panda to Enter Canadian Vape Market

    CEA Industries Inc. has completed its CAD $18 million ($12.6 million) acquisition of Fat Panda Ltd., Canada’s largest independent vape retailer and manufacturer. The deal provides CEA with a profitable foothold in the regulated nicotine market, with Fat Panda generating nearly CAD $38.5 million ($28.1 million) in annual revenue and holding more than 50% market share in central Canada.

    “This acquisition marks a significant milestone for CEA as we expand into a dynamic, high-growth regulated vertical benefiting from strong consumer demand,” said Tony McDonald, Chairman and CEO of CEA Industries. “Fat Panda brings an established brand, experienced leadership, and a highly profitable operating model that can be rapidly scaled with our capital and strategic support. Importantly, this acquisition exemplifies our commitment to identifying accretive opportunities that can unlock meaningful long-term value for our shareholders.”

    Fat Panda will retain its leadership and branding during the integration.

  • KT&G Rumored to be Entering Nicotine Pouch Market

    KT&G Rumored to be Entering Nicotine Pouch Market

    KT&G Corp. is in talks to acquire a leading nicotine pouch company in Northern Europe for $200 million, according to The Korea Economic Daily. The belief is that South Korea’s dominant tobacco and ginseng producer is exploring new growth drivers amid tightening regulations and a shrinking traditional cigarette market, investment banking sources said this week.

    If completed, the deal would mark KT&G’s first overseas M&A since it acquired a 60% stake in Indonesian tobacco maker Trisakti Purwosari Makmur in 2011 for about $90 million, the newspaper said.
    According to reports, Flashlight Capital Partners, KT&G’s activist investor, urged the company to emulate global peers such as Philip Morris and accelerate its entry into new segments. PMI got into the nicotine pouch market in 2022 when it purchased Swedish Match, the maker of Zyn, for $16 billion. KT&G declined to comment on the acquisition talks, saying no decision has been finalized.

  • SEC Approves Cabbacis to Sell Stock

    SEC Approves Cabbacis to Sell Stock

    Cabbacis, a U.S.-licensed tobacco-product manufacturer focused on harm-reduction products that produces the iBlend brand, announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) qualified the company’s offering statement on Form 1-A for a Regulation A (Tier 2) offering. The company seeks to raise $7 million through the public sale of its common stock at $2 per share.

    The company said it will use the proceeds for product development and commercialization expenses, including FDA costs related to filing premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) for the U.S. market, tobacco and hemp plantings, general corporate purposes, and potential acquisitions.

    “Cabbacis is committed to commercializing reduced-nicotine cigarettes and vaporizer pods,” the company said in a press release. “Both types of products in development are predominantly tobacco and include hemp. The company also plans to move forward with reduced-nicotine tobacco cigarettes (and little cigars) without hemp.”

    Cabbacis holds 35 issued patents in more than 15 countries, including seven in the United States. Access to the offering is available at www.cabbacis.com, where the offering circular and subscription agreement are publicly accessible.

  • PMI Ukraine Running at Full Capacity

    PMI Ukraine Running at Full Capacity

    Philip Morris Ukraine is considering exporting cigarettes manufactured at its newly built factory in the Lviv region, company CEO Maksym Barabash said during a roundtable discussion on Ukraine’s economic recovery. Ukraine Business News (UBN) said the PMI factory in Kharkiv, which closed at the outbreak of war with Russia, produced 20 billion cigarettes annually, 50% of which were exported, including to Japan.

    By launching a new $30 million factory in the Lviv region, the company sees the potential to resume exports to geographically close countries. The new factory in the Lviv region opened in May 2024 and features five production lines that this year reached their planned capacity of 10 billion cigarettes per year. This factory has become an important part of the company’s supply chain in Ukraine.

    Philip Morris Ukraine has been active in the Ukrainian market since 1994 and has invested over $750 million in the Ukrainian economy during this time, according to UBN.

  • TANN Group Sale Completed

    TANN Group Sale Completed

    Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG (MM), a consumer packaging company, closed the sale of 100% of the shares in TANN Group to Evergreen Hill Enterprise, Pte. Ltd., part of an Indonesian-based privately held group of diversified companies. The $410 million deal was announced in December 2024.

    TANN Group prints on and finishes externally sourced fine paper to produce tipping paper. As the business is unrelated to cartonboard and consumer packaging, MM decided to sell it.

    “The sale offers MM the opportunity to further strengthen and expand the position in its core consumer packaging business,” said Peter Oswald, CEO of MM when the deal was announced in December.  We are delighted that TANN Group gets a new strategic owner with Evergreen Hill Enterprise, Pte. Ltd., which is committed to investing in its future. Above all, we would like to thank the entire staff for their great work over the past years with MM.”

    TANN has 730 employees globally at sites in Austria, China, the Philippines, Turkey, Canada, and Germany, generating $251 million in sales annually.

  • CAA Reports U.S. Cigar Imports Down 8.7%

    CAA Reports U.S. Cigar Imports Down 8.7%

    The Cigar Association of America (CAA) reported the U.S. imported 48.4 million premium cigars in the first two months of 2025, an 8.7% decrease from the previous year. The decline was not due to tariffs, which were announced in April, but are believed to be part of the ever-adjusting post-pandemic market.

    The three major cigar exporters all saw declines, with the Dominican Republic down 4.1%, Nicaragua (which accounts for more than half of the market) down 9.3%, and Honduras down 19.3%. Those three producers account for 99% of handmade, premium cigar shipments to the United States.

    “January’s imports are typically anemic compared to the other 11 months of the year, oftentimes less than half of some of the peak import numbers that occur in the second half of the calendar,” Charlie Minato wrote for Halfwheel. “While imports have cooled off from their peak in 2020-2022, the U.S. imported 430 million premium cigars in 2024, up more than 90 million units compared to pre-pandemic levels.”

    According to the CAA, the market increased from 338 million handmade cigars in 2019 to 465 million in 2022.

  • BAT Issues First-Half Update

    BAT Issues First-Half Update

    BAT published its 2025 First Half Pre-Close Trading Update yesterday (June 3), followed by a short conference call and Q&A session hosted by Tadeu Marroco, Chief Executive, Soraya Benchikh, Chief Financial Officer, and Victoria Buxton, Group Head of Investor Relations.

    “Our revenue performance in H1 is slightly ahead of our previous guidance, and we now expect to deliver FY revenue growth of 1-2%, supporting 1.5 to 2.5% adjusted profit from operations growth,” Marroco said. “2025 is a deployment year and, as previously highlighted, we expect our performance to be H2 weighted, mainly driven by the roll-out of New Category innovations in key markets from the middle of the year.”

    Improved performance in the modern oral category and U.S. combustibles led the company to raise 2025 revenue growth guidance to 1%-2% from just 1% prior, analysts said. BAT’s shares went up 2% after the reporting.

    Click here for the full update and a transcript of Marroco’s comments.