Goes Ex. Divi on Wed (30p). yet the price has been going down, any holders have an incite as to why at all.

Regards

Stan .

Any of you dividend players trade PNN? Chart looks good and upcoming divi of 15.60.

Goes ex-divi 20th July '11 (28.1p)

Not getting caught this time harry, might be a long wait to get sp back to break even.,.

Well this lot are taking there time again to come back up.

RNS Number : 5678W

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC

01 February 2012

IMPERIAL TOBACCO GROUP PLC

INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

Ahead of the Annual General Meeting to be held later today Imperial Tobacco Group PLC confirms that the overall financial position and operational performance of the Group for the financial year to 30 September 2012 is in line with the Board's expectations.

Performance Overview

-- Underlying(*) sales momentum with good progress in emerging markets and EU gains
-- Underlying(*) stick equivalent volumes down 1 per cent, with tobacco net revenues up 3 per cent reflecting strengthening price/mix

-- Specific factors impacted reported stick equivalent volumes, down 7 per cent with tobacco net revenues down 1 per cent

Total tobacco supporting sales growth momentum

-- Good performance from key strategic brands; stick equivalent volumes up 3 per cent and net revenues up 10 per cent

-- Luxury Cuban cigar volumes up 14 per cent in emerging markets
-- Snus volumes up 76 per cent
(*) Excluding the impacts of Syria, Spain, USA and Ukraine referred to below

Summarising today's announcement Alison Cooper, Chief Executive, will say:

"Our continued focus on realising opportunities from our total tobacco portfolio supported by Innovation and price optimisation has delivered underlying tobacco net revenue growth of 3 per cent in the first quarter.

"Combined stick equivalent volumes of our key strategic brands Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and JPS were up 3 per cent and net revenues up 10 per cent with our focus on consumer relevant innovation and new formats driving growth in these brands in cigarette in emerging markets and fine cut tobacco in the EU.

"Delivering the planned acceleration in our underlying sales momentum whilst continuing to realise cost and cash opportunities remain our priorities such that we are well placed to create further value for our shareholders this year."

Trading Update

The following relates to the three months to 31 December 2011 unless otherwise stated. Tobacco net revenues exclude the impact of foreign exchange.

Underlying stick equivalent volumes declined one per cent but reported stick equivalent volumes were down seven per cent, against a strong comparator. Three per cent of the decline was due to the ongoing impact of international sanction compliance in Syria and double digit market volume declines in Spain. A further three per cent of the decline relates to trade stock levels around a price increase in the USA and distributor destocking in Ukraine.

Tobacco net revenues declined by 1 per cent before adjusting for these factors having seen a material benefit from strengthening price/mix. Underlying tobacco net revenues increased 3 per cent.

Supporting our sales growth agenda, we have been optimising our revenue investments, reallocating the investment focus across our footprint to maximise our returns.

The cash we generate continues to be applied to capital investments behind our sales growth agenda, our buy back programme (amounting to GBP320m of shares from inception in May 2011 to the end of December 2011) and dividends, which we intend to grow ahead of the growth in adjusted earnings per share.

EU Markets

Consumers in the EU continue to seek value reflected in further gains in our value cigarette shares in a number of markets and strong fine cut tobacco growth in JPS and Route 66.

In the UK and Germany, innovative new products and gains in our value portfolio continue to support our strong positions in cigarette and fine cut tobacco.

In Spain, market stick equivalent double digit volume declines continued through the quarter, but we currently expect the rate of decline to slow in the remainder of the year. Our portfolio initiatives continue to support growth in our fine cut tobacco share and an improving trend in our cigarette share performance.

Across the EU we continue to focus on balancing market share and profitability and, having built significant fine cut tobacco positions particularly in Central Europe, have ceded share in some markets in order to further build our long term category margins through price optimisation.

Non-EU Markets

In non-EU markets, we delivered good growth in key emerging markets, particularly in Asia-Pacific and Africa and Middle East. Davidoff,West and JPS are driving growth in Asia-Pacific and Gauloises Blondes continues to make strong gains in Africa and Middle East.

In Eastern Europe, we delivered strong growth in new cigarette formats. Results were impacted primarily due to distributor destocking in Ukraine although we grew market share for the year to December.

In the USA, the market remains highly competitive with first quarter volumes impacted by trade buying patterns around our October price increase. The integration of our cigarette and mass market cigar businesses is progressing as planned.

We continue to capitalise on the considerable growth potential of our luxury Cuban cigar portfolio with excellent performances in Russia and China driving emerging market volumes up 14 per cent.

Logistics

In Logistics the operating environment remains challenging, particularly in Spain, and we continue to focus oncost management, business integration and development of new services to maximise profitability.

Prepare for lift off?

Doesn't look like it stan, think it'll be a long wait to get div money back.,.

To early in the day BB, Have another look.

Out with a few quid.. over to you BB.

..Japanese smoke signals push up Imperial

By Rachel Cooper | Telegraph – 2 hours 27 minutes ago

Having ticked up after a trading update earlier this week, Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT.L - news) rose another 5p to £23.08 as takeover speculation refused to be stubbed out.

The maker of Gauloises and Davidoff cigarettes has long been mooted as a potential target to be taken out, with a combination of British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco (Dusseldorf: JAT.DU - news) regarded as a possible suitor.

Nomura analysts had urged investors to hold their horses over a possible deal, suggesting in November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) that it might be at least a year before the cigarette maker receives an approach, given uncertainty over when the Japanese government will sell its stake in Japan Tobacco.

But yesterday, analysts suggested that the upcoming resolution of the government stake sale means that Imperial’s prospects of being taken over are set to increasingly be a focus for the market.

Nomura previously thought that any deal could be delayed until the end of this year or into 2013. But with budgetary changes in Japan (EUREX: FMJP.EX - news) compelling the government to sell part of its 50pc stake in Japan Tobacco from April, Nomura thinks this will give the company more freedom over its business decisions. “We now see Japan Tobacco as potentially more confident to enact any plans in terms of major developments of its international presence,” said analysts, who upped their rating on Imperial (Berlin: IOD.BE - news) to “neutral” from “reduce

Smoking might be a mug's game, but investing in Imperial Tobacco certainly hasn't been. Since 2009, the shares have risen from £14 to today's £23, for a 64% gain, and that's been topped up with nice dividends into the bargain -- although the price has been higher, at £26, as recently as July.

Tuesday 30 October is expected to bring us more of the same when the company releases its latest full-year results. We already know from last week's trading statement that things are in line with expectations and that total revenues are going to be up around 4%.

We should see a dividend of around 4.5%, and that's expected to rise to 4.9% next year. At 11.5, the P/E looks undemanding, so the fall from this year's peak share price might well be a buying opportunity.

The one big set of full-time results next week comes from Imperial Tobacco , on Tuesday, and what an investment it has been. The share price has multiplied two and a half times over the past decade to reach 2,330p. But that was interrupted by a slump during the global recession and a recovery that hasn't quite regained pre-crash levels.

To compensate for that volatility, Imperial Tobacco has been paying a steady dividend of around the 4% mark. For the year ended September, the City has forecast a payout of around 4.6%, rising to 5% on 2013 forecasts. What are the chances of that coming good?

They look high, as September's trading update told us that performance is "in line with the Board's expectations", with net revenues expected

Out yesterday, Divi up 11% over the year http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4473669

Imperial Tobacco boosted its full-year dividend by a very nice 11% to 105.6p per share this week, giving shareholders a yield of 4.4% based on the current share price of 2,381p. And it's nicely covered as well, by earnings per share of 201p.

Imperial is one of the few companies that was pretty much unaffected by the banking crisis and the recession, and has steadily grown its earnings and dividend payouts year after year.

Ex-divi wed 16th Jan '13 (73.9p)

One of my biggest holdings, never fails to deliver the goods.

Interim Management Statement

Quality Growth through Total Tobacco

· Tobacco net revenue up over 2 per cent, with price mix improvement of 3.5 per cent
· Stick equivalent volumes down 1 per cent
· Q1 growth across total tobacco portfolio:
· +12 per cent net revenue and +10 per cent volume growth in key strategic brands
· +9 per cent net revenue and +9 per cent volume growth in fine cut tobacco
· +40 per cent net revenue and +33 per cent volume growth in snus
· Stable net revenue and +3 per cent volume growth in premium cigar

"One of my biggest holdings, never fails to deliver the goods." Famous last words eh dandu? -5% -): Still backy shares rarely stay down for to long.

Interim Management Statement

Overview

· Nine month performance confirms our full year expectations
· Significant progress made with next phase of strategic transition to optimise long-term growth potential:
· new sales divisions established, reinforcing the strategic role of each market;
· strategic review of cigarette and fine cut brands portfolio completed, now being built into execution plans;
· cost optimisation programme on track, with savings of at least £30m to be realised this year;
· new Group Marketing Director appointed
· Encouraging core portfolio performance in an environment of weak industry volumes:
· Underlying1 stick equivalent volume and revenue declines of 5 per cent and 1 per cent
· reported stick equivalent volume and revenue declines of 7 per cent and 3 per cent
· key strategic brands outperforming market trends: underlying1 volumes declined 1 per cent, with growth in total market share; reported volumes were down 4 per cent
· excellent fine cut tobacco performance and good growth in premium cigar and snus.
· notable progress in many key markets including Germany, Greece, Scandinavia, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Turkey.

Just seen who their Chief Executive is.. Alice Cooper -):