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British American Tobacco (BATS)

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idpickering
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British American Tobacco (BATS)

#204469

Postby idpickering » February 28th, 2019, 7:20 am


monabri
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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205117

Postby monabri » March 2nd, 2019, 9:51 pm

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/ ... Hr6fOzLedl

Subsidiaries of Japan Tobacco Inc., British American Tobacco PLC and Philip Morris International Inc. were ordered to pay damages of more than 17 billion Canadian dollars ($12.8 billion) after losing an appeal of class-action lawsuits filed by smokers in Quebec.

Moderator Message:
This is more apt on Company News than HYP practical, where corporate actions, results and dividends are to be posted. Raptor.

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205141

Postby idpickering » March 3rd, 2019, 5:19 am

monabri wrote:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/03/02/national/japan-tobacco-british-american-philip-morris-lose-appeal-13-billion-quebec-lawsuits/#.XHr6fOzLedl

Subsidiaries of Japan Tobacco Inc., British American Tobacco PLC and Philip Morris International Inc. were ordered to pay damages of more than 17 billion Canadian dollars ($12.8 billion) after losing an appeal of class-action lawsuits filed by smokers in Quebec.


I wasn’t aware of this monabri, so thanks for sharing this information. I’ve held BATS for years, and I consider it a mainstay in my HYP. This news won’t change my opinion to be honest.

Ian.

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205145

Postby Dod101 » March 3rd, 2019, 7:44 am

This was dealt with in some detail in the results announcement on 28 February but for the life of me I could not make much of what they said. I took from it though that did not seem to regard even this decision as the last word. They promised a further statement once the result was known so hopefully we can hear something this week.

Dod

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205158

Postby monabri » March 3rd, 2019, 10:01 am

BATs' share of the fine is 2/3rds. From their February update.

https://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__9d9 ... penelement

"The decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal, with regards to the 2015 award of CAD$15.6 billion (approximately £9
billion) against a Group subsidiary (Imperial Tobacco Canada – ITCAN) and others, of which ITCAN’s share was
CAD$10.4 billion (approximately £6 billion) in relation to the Quebec Class Action is due to be released on 1 March
2019. See pages 19 and 42 for additional details." ( page 41 ?)


From Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... n-lawsuits

"The original damages were set at about C$15.5 billion, though that has risen to about C$17 billion with interest charges, according to estimates from the Canadian Cancer Society."

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205178

Postby monabri » March 3rd, 2019, 11:28 am

In context, it's about the equivalent of 2 years of dividends (taking into account last years dividends of £4347m inflated by 4%).

More concerning, Page 41 of the annual report, which begins

https://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__9d9 ... penelement

"In Canada, following the implementation of legislation enabling provincial governments to recover healthcare
costs directly from tobacco manufacturers, ten actions for recovery of healthcare costs arising from the
treatment of smoking and health-related diseases have been brought and are proceeding in ten provinces.
Damages sought have not yet been quantified by all ten provinces; however, in respect of five provinces, the
damages quantified in each of the provinces range between CAD$10 billion (approximately £5.7 billion) and
CAD$118 billion (approximately £68 billion). Legislation in two of the three territories has received the Royal
Assent but is not yet in force. On 15 June 2018, the province of Ontario delivered an expert report
quantifying its damages in the range of CAD$280 billion (approximately £161 billion) and CAD$630 billion
(approximately £362 billion) in 2016/2017 dollars for the period 1954 – 2060. The province has amended its
Statement of Claim to claim damages of CAD$330 billion (approximately £190 billion) from CAD$50 billion
(approximately £28.8 billion). On 31 January 2019, the Province delivered a further expert report claiming an
additional CAD $9.4-10.9 billion in damages (approximately £5.4 billion - £6.3 billion) in respect of
environmental tobacco smoke. No trial date has been set."

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205187

Postby monabri » March 3rd, 2019, 12:24 pm

Another snippet, this time relating to IT Temple Bar,

"Temple Bar (TMPL), the £850 million UK equity income trust managed by Alastair Mundy, is considering a ban on ‘inherently unethical’ investments such as tobacco stocks."

"While there are no tobacco stocks in the portfolio after Mundy sold positions in British American Tobacco (BATS) and Imperial Brands (IMB) in 2017, their 49% and 27% declines since their peaks in the past two-to-three years suggests they may have been coming back on to his radar. "


https://citywire.co.uk/investment-trust ... er+Weekend




"According to Numis Securities data, only three UK equity income trusts hold tobacco stocks in their top five positions currently"

According to Hargreaves website

City of London IT (CTY) hold BAT as their 4th largest holding.
Merchants (MRCH) hold IMB as their 4th largest holding
PLI hold BAT and IMB as their 2nd and 6th largest holdings
EDIN hold BAT, Altria and IMB at positions 2,5 and 9.
BMO (ticker BHI) hold bats at position 2
Henderson High Income HHI hold BATS at position 2
BlackRock Income and Growth ( BRIG) hold BATS at position 2
Schroder Income Growt (SCF) hold BATS at position 5

Of course, HL might be out of date and positions probably change as share prices vary. However the difference in percentage holding between position 1 and 10 might be determined by the last 2 decimal places.

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205295

Postby idpickering » March 4th, 2019, 7:06 am

BATS comment re Quebec tobacco class action Court of Appeal judgment issued;

A British American Tobacco spokesperson said:

"We are extremely disappointed that the Quebec Court of Appeal did not overturn the trial court's judgment against our Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. We are still of the view that this decision is wrong - ignoring the reality that both adult consumers and government have known about the risk associated with smoking for decades. As a result, we believe it should be overturned.

"Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. needs to review the court's decision in more detail and will decide on next steps over the coming days and weeks. Given the significance of the judgment, they have said that they fully intend to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada."

Following the release of the judgment from the Quebec Court of Appeal, the plaintiffs requested immediate release of the funds on deposit, which was refused. They then filed a formal motion to release the funds. Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. filed a motion to prevent the release of the funds in question.


https://www.investegate.co.uk/british-a ... 00076749R/

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205570

Postby Dod101 » March 5th, 2019, 6:51 am

Hi Ian.

A day late but thanks for the response from BAT. All that this shows is that these things can drag on for years. Having lost the Appeal, they say they are now going to Appeal it! Considering that this latest Appeal took 2 1/2 years to conclude, this whole business looks as if it is some way from a final conclusion. I wonder how many levels of appeal courts there are?

Dod

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#205574

Postby idpickering » March 5th, 2019, 7:13 am

Accounting Consequences of Quebec Judgment

On 1 March 2019, the judgment in the two Quebec Class Action lawsuits against our subsidiary, Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. (ITCAN), and two other Canadian tobacco companies was publicly issued by the Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal. The Court of Appeal has upheld the trial court's decision of May 2015, including the previously stated requirements for the defendants to deposit approximately CAD1.1 billion into a court escrow account.

As part of the 2015 decision, ITCAN was required to place CAD758 million (approximately £436 million) in escrow - the final payment of which was made in 2017. This deposit was held as an asset on the Group's balance sheet at the year-end (31 December 2018).

Following the 1 March 2019 judgment, the Board of Directors of ITCAN have reassessed the recoverability of the deposit and have determined that the asset's recoverability is, under IFRS, less than virtually certain. Consequently, a provision of approximately £436 million will be charged to the Group's consolidated income statement in 2019. This will be treated as an adjusting expense.

There will be no impact from this charge to the ratio of adjusted net debt to adjusted EBITDA, with this decision having no impact to cash flow in 2019.

The Board of Directors of ITCAN and the Group are monitoring developments. As previously stated, ITCAN intends to seek leave to appeal this judgment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

British American Tobacco p.l.c. was not a party to the proceeding and is not a party to the judgment.


https://www.investegate.co.uk/british-a ... 00168113R/

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#207002

Postby idpickering » March 11th, 2019, 3:50 pm

This from TMF;

Will this 7% FTSE 100 dividend stock help you retire early or leave you with huge losses?

quick look at British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS) would suggest a stock that’s being criminally undervalued by the market.

It may not be fashionable to say so but the addictive nature of its products has made this FTSE 100 stalwart a long favourite for those seeking great profits growth. And broker forecasts would suggest nothing has changed in this regard, with bottom-line advances of 5% and 7% forecast for 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Yet despite the appearance that it’s ‘business as usual’, British American Tobacco changes hands on a bargain-basement forward P/E ratio of just 9.7 times, giving value-chasing investors reason to celebrate for a figure that’s also long, long below the firm’s historical multiples.

7% dividend yields looking safe

There’s plenty for income investors to cheer as well. Underlining expectations that profits will continue their traditional ascent, number crunchers are predicting 2018’s 203p per share dividend will creep to 209p this year before sprinting to 222.8p in 2019. Subsequent yields sit at a handsome 6.8% and 7.3%, respectively.


https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2019/0 ... ge-losses/

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#207450

Postby monabri » March 13th, 2019, 3:48 pm

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exc ... 99822.html

"An opportunity to settle all outstanding Canadian tobacco litigation"

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#211275

Postby idpickering » March 29th, 2019, 1:27 pm

This from TMF, written by GA Chester;

Why I’d buy this 6.6%-yield FTSE 100 stock for my ISA today

I believe there are good reasons for thinking British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS) offers excellent value for investors right now. So why do I think the FTSE 100 giant has the potential to deliver strong capital gains and a reliable flow of dividends?

Anti-tobacco firebrand

Investor sentiment turned sharply against tobacco stocks through 2018. The threat of regulation is never far from investors’ minds with this industry, but the year saw a run of particularly concerning news coming out of the US. Scott Gottlieb, head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — and its most aggressive anti-tobacco firebrand in decades — ramped up the pressure on the industry:
In March, he announced he wanted to set a maximum limit on the amount of nicotine cigarettes can contain, which would force tobacco companies to re-engineer their products to make them less addictive.
In September, he identified what he called a vaping ‘epidemic’ among American teens, and said the FDA would crackdown on e-cigarettes.
In November, he said he would be moving to ban menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigars from the market, and severely restrict sales of flavoured e-cigarettes in stores and online.

All tobacco stocks suffered under this onslaught, but none more so than British American Tobacco, whose shares slumped more than 50% (from 5,018p to 2,500p) over the course of the year. BAT was particularly badly hit because analysts reckon menthol cigarettes account for about 60% of its US cigarette profits and 25% of the group’s total profits.


https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2019/0 ... isa-today/

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#215329

Postby monabri » April 16th, 2019, 8:18 am


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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#217293

Postby monabri » April 25th, 2019, 4:50 pm

The good

https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/ ... 30708.html
"British American Tobacco Plc expects another year of good earnings growth in 2019, despite concerns of tighter regulations in the U.S., Chairman Richard Burrows said at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday."

The not so good

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/arti ... es-a-month

"Lawyers are considering legal action against British American Tobacco (BAT) on behalf of former employees given free cigarettes as part of their job."

(Smilie of an ambulance).

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#228830

Postby idpickering » June 12th, 2019, 7:07 am

First Half Pre-Close Trading Update 2019 https://www.investegate.co.uk/british-a ... 00028821B/

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#228852

Postby Dod101 » June 12th, 2019, 9:10 am

Thanks Ian. Looks all to be on target, and holders I imagine will just hang in there and hopefully see some continuing recovery of the share price.

Dod

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#228889

Postby Itsallaguess » June 12th, 2019, 10:53 am

monabri wrote:
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/arti ... es-a-month

"Lawyers are considering legal action against British American Tobacco (BAT) on behalf of former employees given free cigarettes as part of their job."


I own both BATS and IMB, and surely for a long time now, the elephant in the room regarding both companies is likely to be some risk of large-scale litigation, either from employees or customers, either current or historical?

Imagine a BP-style 'just fill the claim-form in if you've been traumatised by the effects..' approach to any potential US litigation...

Both BATS and IMB form a relatively small part of my overall income portfolio, but I see the potential litigation risks as really quite high, and stories such as the above seem to confirm this...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#228895

Postby monabri » June 12th, 2019, 11:10 am

Dod101 wrote:Thanks Ian. Looks all to be on target, and holders I imagine will just hang in there and hopefully see some continuing recovery of the share price.

Dod


I guess you meant 'longterm'.......

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Re: British American Tobacco (BATS)

#228913

Postby Dod101 » June 12th, 2019, 12:18 pm

monabri wrote:
Dod101 wrote:Thanks Ian. Looks all to be on target, and holders I imagine will just hang in there and hopefully see some continuing recovery of the share price.

Dod


I guess you meant 'longterm'.......


Why?

Dod


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