British American Tobacco (BAT) has announced that revenue grew 3.3 per cent on a constant currency basis, above its revised guidance range of 1-3 per cent.

“During 2020, the strength and agility of our business, combined with the professionalism and resilience of our global teams and partners, enabled BAT to continue delivering a strong operational performance,” said Chairman Richard Burrows.
On a constant currency adjusted basis, profit from operations grew by 4.8 per cent, with diluted earnings per share (EPS) up 5.5 per cent. Operating margin grew by 100 basis points to 44.1 per cent including the impact of currencies. With adjusted operating cash conversion of 103 per cent, BAT has continued to demonstrate its “commitment to maximising cash to reduce leverage and invest in the business”.
GBP 1.4 billion (USD 1.94 billion) of revenues came from reduced-risk, New Category products in 2020, representing 15 per cent growth at constant rates compared with 2019. “With this progress, and the momentum we generated in the second half, we are on track to meet our GBP 5 billion New Category revenue ambition by 2025.”
BAT also accelerated the consumer adoption of its non-combustible products, adding 3 million in 2020 to reach 13.5 million consumers – marking accelerated progress toward its ambition of 50 million consumers of its non-combustible products by 2030.
Speaking of the global pandemic, Burrows said that “our own efforts to develop a potential vaccine for COVID-19, as well as one for seasonal flu, are being led by our US bio-tech subsidiary, Kentucky BioProcessing. Both candidate vaccines are in Phase 1, first-time in human trials, following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration of the Investigational New Drug application.”