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Imperial Brands PLC on Tuesday said trading is in line with expectations as it ramped up plans for returns to shareholders. The Davidoff cigarette and Rizla rolling paper owner said it intends to return around £2.8 billion to shareholders in the financial year to September 30, 2025, compared with £2.4 billion in the financial year just ended. This will comprise a share buyback of £1.25 billion, up 14% on-year from £1.1 billion, and cash dividends of around £1.5 billion. Imperial Brands intends to ‘reprofile’ the ordinary dividend for the new year. ‘This will result in two quarterly dividends of 54.26 pence per share to be paid in December 2024 and March 2025,’ it said. For financial 2026, Imperial Brands will change its payout profile to four equal quarterly dividends. ‘To create the base for future quarterly payments, we intend to pay two interim cash dividends of 40.08 pence per share in June and September 2025. These payments will be higher than would otherwise have been the case and also include a further 4.5% year-on-year increase,’ the company added. For the year just ended, it expects a total dividend of 153.43 pence per share, a 4.5% rise on the prior year. In response, shares in Imperial Brands rose 4.0% to 2,233.00 pence in London on Tuesday morning. The wider FTSE 100 index was down 1.0%. Imperial Brands said it is trading in line with expectations, hailing ‘growth’ for its tobacco and next generation products. ‘At constant currency, we are on track to deliver in line with our full-year guidance with an acceleration in tobacco and NGP net revenue growth versus last year and group adjusted operating profit growth close to the middle of our mid-single digit range,’ Imperial Brands said. It expects next-gen products growth of 20% to 30% at constant currency. ‘Our results this year have benefited from the launch of innovative products with new formats under the blu brand, new iSenzia non-tobacco heat sticks and new flavours in the modern oral segment. Our entry in the US oral nicotine category with the launch of the Zone range of pouches has been well received and supported a stronger NGP performance in our US business,’ Imperials Brands said. It expects to report results for the financial year just ended on November 19. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights reserved.
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