British American Tobacco has announced that it was working on divesting some of its nearly 30 per cent stake in India’s largest tobacco company ITC, reports the Financial Times.

Tadeu Marroco, BAT’s chief executive, said: “We continue to pursue all opportunities to enhance balance sheet flexibility and, as part of this, we regularly review our stake in ITC”, which is valued at an estimated GBP 15bn, according to Barclays. Marroco added that the 29.2 per cent stake in the Indian conglomerate, which sells everything from technology solutions to hotel rooms, “offers us the opportunity to release and reallocate some capital”.

BAT has held an interest in ITC since the early 1900s. Alluding to the possible resumption of the share buyback programme, Marroco said that once BAT reduced its leverage to about 2.5 times earnings “we will evaluate all opportunities to return excess cash to our shareholders”.