Tobacco News

Japan Tobacco Inc. 2914.TO +0.88% said Thursday that its net profit for the fiscal year ended March grew 32%, due to strength in its overseas tobacco and pharmaceutical business.

The world’s third-largest tobacco company by sales volume after Philip Morris International Inc. PM +1.71% and British American Tobacco BTI +0.17% PLC, posted a net profit of ¥320.88 billion in the just-ended business year against a ¥243.32 billion profit a year earlier. Ream more »

Japan Tobacco Inc. (2914), Asia’s largest listed cigarette maker by market value, forecast this year’s annual profit below analysts’ estimates.
Net income will probably be 318 billion yen for the year ending in March 2013, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement today. That was lower than the 341 billion yen average of eight analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales are expected to reach 2.12 trillion yen, said the company. Ream more »

Japan Tobacco Inc, the world’s third-largest tobacco company by sales volume, will for the first time install top management that aren’t former bureaucrats, the WSJ reports. The company, half-owned by the Japanese government, is hoping to become a more efficient company in order to compete with competitors including British American Tobacco PLC and Philip Morris International Inc. Ream more »

Tobacco and cigarette companies are often touted as recession-resistant businesses. Cigarettes and other tobacco product sales often increase when consumers are forced to cut food budgets. Despite the known realities as to the negative health consequences associated with tobacco, nicotine is also known to calm the nerves during stressful situations, curb one’s hunger and act as a stimulant. Read more

Bonnie Herzog, a Wells Fargo tobacco analyst, said her top pick is Philip Morris, which hit a fresh all-time high on Monday.

“We think profits for PM in Indonesia can quadruple by the year 2020, so to us, this stock has a lot more room on the upside in the next three to five years,” she said. “It should be a core holding in your portfolio.”
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“Trust money shouldn’t help boost bill’s chances” (Our Views, March 7), taking the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) to task for advertising in favor of House Bill 2267, was off the mark. TSET doesn’t get, manage or spend taxpayer funds. All of its income comes from the annual payments from the tobacco industry to the state of Oklahoma, 75 percent of which goes directly to the trust, with the 25 percent balance going to the general fund. Those payments generate interest and earnings. This was accomplished by a constitutional amendment adopted by a landslide majority vote in 2000. Ream more »

A federal judge Wednesday blocked a U.S. government plan requiring large, graphic warning labels on cigarette packs.

Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with tobacco companies that argued the government was violating their constitutional rights to free speech by requiring them to display the labels—including images of a body on an autopsy table and diseased lungs.

The summary judgment follows a preliminary ruling in November. At that time, Judge Leon issued a temporary injunction, adding that tobacco companies had demonstrated “a substantial likelihood” of winning the case on constitutional grounds. Ream more »

The convenience store formerly known as Mo’s Express is now Phillips 66 Food and Tobacco.

Susie Coleman, who was at the store Monday morning, said new management wasn’t concerned about the previous news coming from the Hudson Crossing shopping center at S.E. 17th and Adams, where the store is located, in recent months.

“We’re trying to stay away from the negativity,” Coleman said.
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Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says the state legislature’s inaction on a tobacco payment loophole has placed the state in “terrible and unnecessary peril.”

For a third time, Koster is asking the legislature to repeal a flaw in the state’s tobacco escrow statute, writing to each member of the Legislature on Jan. 25. Koster says a state law related to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement allows companies that pay concentrate their sales in Missouri to recover almost the entire amount they put into an escrow fund designed to help with medical costs caused by smoking. Ream more »

LEGISLATION to curb smoking by imposing a ban on tobacco displays in shops came a step closer yesterday after an appeal against the proposals by one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies was rejected by judges.

Imperial Tobacco went to court to challenge the provisions of the Tobacco and Primary Medical (Scotland) Act 2010 on the grounds that the matter was reserved to Westminster and outwith the legislative scope of Holyrood. Ream more »