BAT Half-Year Profits up 22% - Interviews With CEO and FD

LONDON - International tobacco group British American Tobacco today said it was confident of achieving growth over the rest of the year despite the current economic and trading circumstances.

Interviewed on the group’s half-year results, CEO Paul Adams said he believed revenues would continue to grow.

“I think our market shares are good to solid. I think market sizes will continue to shrink, so volume may be a little soft. But, overall, I think our business is in good shape and I think our earnings growth will be strong.”

Talking on the company’s cost saving programme, Ben Stevens, FD, said:

“We said we’d save GBP800m of costs by 2012, and we made a significant dent in that figure last year, which was the first year of the cost-saving programme. We put GBP245m of cost savings through. And we’re very confident we’ll achieve the GBP800m by the five-year programme coming to a close.”

The interviews and transcripts are available now on w3.cantos.com/british_american_tobacco.

It’s free to view. All you need to do is register at www.cantos.com. Cantos.com, the online financial broadcaster, features in-depth interviews, documentaries and webcasts with senior company executives.

If you would like to contact us, please email enquiries@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1333.

Source: British American Tobacco Plc

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