PRESS RELEASE
09 DECEMBER 2025
Tadeu Marroco, Chief Executive
“Full-year delivery remains on track.
“I am particularly pleased with our momentum in the U.S., the world’s largest nicotine value pool. Strengthened combustibles performance and enhanced commercial execution reinforce our future confidence. Velo Plus continues to deliver excellent results, reaching number 2 in volume and value share, with profitability3 on-track for full year.
“Recent Vuse volume and revenue improvement in the U.S. is encouraging, although the Vapour category continues to be impacted by illicit proliferation. Over time, we believe Vuse is well positioned to benefit from stronger Federal and State level enforcement.
“Group New Category revenue is accelerating to double-digit growth in H2.
“Velo continues to grow strongly in all three regions, in the fastest growing New Category with the lowest risk*† profile, relative to cigarettes.
“We remain focused on establishing glo Hilo as a premium offering in the largest Heated Products profit pools, across three priority markets in H2. Further roll-outs are planned in 2026.
“Vuse Ultra, our premium vaping platform, is driving encouraging early results in priority launch markets of Canada, Germany and France. Premium ‘Vapour Done Right’ is a significant, untapped segment for further value creation.
“While there is more to do, we continue to prioritise investment in our most profitable markets and categories, driving accelerating New Category contribution3, in line with our Quality Growth approach. We remain confident in delivering our mid-term algorithm next year.
“Our strong operating cash conversion is driving increasing financial flexibility as we reduce leverage4 towards our 2.0-2.5x target range. I remain committed to delivering sustainable shareholder value supported by robust cash returns, progressive dividends and sustainable share buy-backs, and I am pleased to announce today that we are increasing our buy-back programme to £1.3bn for 2026.”
1. Combustibles: Resilient financial performance driven by the U.S. and AME
2. H2 New Category revenue growth acceleration, driven by Velo Plus and recent U.S. Vapour improvement
2.1 Velo: Clear category leadership in AME; excellent Velo Plus performance in the U.S.
2.2 glo: Broadly flat FY revenue growth, impacted by competitive activity and resource reallocation ahead of glo Hilo launches
2.3 Vuse: Improved H2 revenue performance driven by recent U.S. improvement
3. Continued strong cash delivery, and balanced capital allocation
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Webcast and Conference call - The conference call will begin at 8.30am (GMT)
You can access the audio webcast here. You can also listen via conference call by dialling the numbers below. Quote the password 'BAT - trading update' when prompted by the operator.
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A playback facility for the conference call will be available online via www.bat.com.
Financial guidance and trading update expectations based on constant rates: Measures are calculated based on the prior year's exchange rate, removing the potentially distorting effect of translational foreign exchange on the Group's results. The Group does not adjust for normal transactional gains or losses in profit from operations which are generated by exchange rate movements.
Share data YTD September 2025 average share growth vs. FY24 average.
This announcement also contains New Category contribution, adjusted profit from operations, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net debt, adjusted net finance costs and adjusted diluted earnings per share, all of which are before the impact of adjusting items and which are reconciled from profit from operations, profit/(loss) for the year, borrowings, net finance costs, and diluted earnings per share. See "Note on Non-GAAP Measures".
Share growth refers to volume share for HP and Modern Oral and value share for Vapour. As used herein, volume share refers to the estimated retail sales volume of the product sold as a proportion of total estimated retail sales volume in that category and value share refers to the estimated retail sales value of the product sold as a proportion of total estimated retail sales value (rechargeable closed systems consumables and disposables) in that category. Please refer to the 2024 Annual Report on Form 20‐F for a full description of these measures, together with a description of other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), on pages 391 and 392. Industry and global revenue refer to the total industry revenue in the markets in which we are present.
New Categories comprises Heated Products (HP), Vapour and Modern Oral.
This announcement contains several forward-looking non-GAAP measures used by management to monitor the Group’s performance. For the non-GAAP information contained in this announcement, no comparable GAAP or IFRS information is available on a forward-looking basis and our forward-looking revenue and other components of the Group’s results, including adjusting items, cannot be estimated with reasonable certainty due to, among other things, the impact of foreign exchange and adjusting items, which could be significant, being highly variable. As such, no reconciliations for this forward-looking non-GAAP information are available and we are unable to: present revenue before presenting constant currency revenue; or present profit from operations before presenting adjusted profit from operations at constant rates, as adjusted for Canada; or present diluted EPS before presenting adjusted EPS at constant rates as adjusted for Canada; or present profit/(loss) for the year before presenting adjusted EBITDA at constant rates as adjusted for Canada.
This announcement also contains New Category contribution, adjusted profit from operations, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted diluted earnings per share, adjusted net debt and adjusted net finance costs, all of which are before the impact of adjusting items and which are reconciled from profit from operations, profit/(loss) for the year, diluted earnings per share, borrowings and net finance costs.
Adjusting items, as identified in accordance with the Group’s accounting policies, represent certain items of income and expense which the Group considers distinctive based on their size, nature or incidence. These include significant items in, profit from operations, profit/(loss) for the year, diluted earnings per share, net finance costs, which individually or, if of a similar type, in aggregate, are relevant to an understanding of the Group’s underlying financial performance. Although the Group does not believe that these measures are a substitute for IFRS measures, the Group does believe such results excluding the impact of adjusting items provide additional useful information to investors regarding the underlying performance of the business on a comparable basis.
The Group’s Management Board reviews a number of our IFRS and non‐GAAP measures for the Group and its geographic segments at constant rates of exchange. This allows comparison of the Group’s results, had they been translated at the previous year’s average rates of exchange. The Group does not adjust for the normal transactional gains and losses in operations that are generated by exchange movements. Although the Group does not believe that these measures are a substitute for IFRS measures, the Group does believe that such results excluding the impact of currency fluctuations year‐on‐year provide additional useful information to investors regarding the operating performance on a local currency basis.
Another non-GAAP measure which the Group uses and that is contained in this announcement is operating cash conversion. Management reviews operating cash conversion as an indicator of the Group's ability to turn profits into cash.
Certain adjusted measures, including adjusted profit from operations, category contribution, net finance costs, adjusted diluted earnings per share, leverage, adjusted net debt and adjusted EBITDA, are also presented on an “adjusted for Canada” basis, reflecting the removal of 100% of adjusted profit from operations of our Canadian business, excluding New Categories, from both 2024 and 2025 results, to remove the distorting effect of the Canadian results, as from 29 August 2025, the date all of the Group’s outstanding tobacco litigation in Canada was settled, annual payments based on a percentage (initially 85%, reducing over time) of the Group’s net income after taxes, based on amounts generated in Canada from all sources, excluding New Categories, will be paid out by the Group until the aggregate settlement amount is paid. Due to the initial uncertainty of the timing of the implementation of the settlement, we have removed 100% of the results of the Canadian business, excluding New Categories, for the periods under review here.
The Group’s Management Board regularly reviews the measures used to assess and present the financial performance of the Group and, as relevant, its geographic segments, and believes that these measures provide additional useful information to investors. Please refer to the 2024 Annual Report on Form 20‐F, pages 391 to 410, for a full description of each measure alongside non-financial measures.
References in this announcement to ‘BAT’, ‘Group’, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ when denoting opinion refer to British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT PLC) and when denoting business activity refer to BAT Group operating companies, collectively or individually as the case may be.
This announcement does not constitute an invitation to underwrite, subscribe for, or otherwise acquire or dispose of any BAT PLC shares or other securities. This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements, including “forward-looking” statements made within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “could,” “may,” “would,” “should,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “will,” “confident in”, “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “positioned,” “strategy,” “outlook”, “target” and similar expressions. In particular, these forward-looking statements include statements regarding (i) the Group's expectations with respect to growth of revenue and adjusted profit from operations in the second half and full year of 2025 at the Group, segment and category levels, (ii) the Group's expectations with respect to New Category revenue and profitability on a category contribution level in the second half and full year of 2025, (iii) the Group's expectations with respect to the mid-term algorithm in 2026, (iv) the Group's expectations with respect to glo Hilo launches in the second half of 2025, (v) the Group's expectations with respect to Vuse revenue in the full year of 2025, (vi) statements under the heading “Continued strong cash delivery, and balanced capital allocation”, (vii) statements regarding robust cash returns, (viii) statements regarding the progressive dividend and sustainable share buy-back, including £1.1bn in 2025 and £1.3bn in 2026 and (ix) statements under the heading "Technical guidance for FY25". These include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, amongst other things, our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the economic and business circumstances occurring from time to time in the countries and markets in which the Group operates.
All such forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors. It is believed that the expectations reflected in this announcement are reasonable, but they may be affected by a wide range of variables that could cause actual results and performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated.
Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are uncertainties related to the following: the impact of competition from illicit trade; the impact of adverse domestic or international legislation and regulation; the inability to develop, commercialise and deliver the Group's New Categories strategy; the impact of supply chain disruptions; adverse litigation, external investigations and dispute outcomes and the effect of such outcomes on the Group's financial condition; the impact of significant increases or structural changes in tobacco, nicotine and New Categories related taxes; translational and transactional foreign exchange rate exposure; changes or differences in domestic or international economic or political conditions; the ability to maintain credit ratings and to fund the business under the current capital structure; the impact of serious injury, illness or death in the workplace; adverse decisions by domestic or international regulatory bodies; direct and indirect adverse impacts associated with Climate Change; direct and indirect adverse impacts associated with Circularity; and Cyber Security risks caused by the heightened cyber-threat landscape, the increased digital interactions with consumers and changes to regulation.
Past performance is no guide to future performance and persons needing advice should consult an independent financial adviser. The forward-looking statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of preparation of this announcement and BAT undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
No statement in this announcement is intended to be a profit forecast and no statement in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that earnings per share of BAT PLC for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per share of BAT PLC.
Additional information concerning these, and other factors can be found in BAT PLC filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Annual Report on Form 20-F, filed on 14 February 2025, and Current Reports on Form 6-K, which may be obtained free of charge at the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov and BAT’s website, www.bat.com.