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(Sharecast News) - Tobacco giant Imperial Brands said on Thursday that it remained on track to meet fullyear guidance across all key metrics and lifted shareholder returns with a fresh £1.5bn buyback for FY27, following the completion of its £1.45bn repurchase for the current year.
Imperial Brands flagged a sixth straight year of tobacco netrevenue growth, supported by robust pricing and share gains in its priority markets, including the US and Germany. It said tobacco net revenue was expected to rise at a low singledigit rate, with volume declines remaining modest at the group level.
Adjusted operating profit was set to land within the 3% to 5% growth range, while adjusted earnings per share was said to be on course for high singledigit growth. Free cash flow was expected to exceed £2.2bn, underpinned by strong cash conversion.
Imperial also reported continued momentum in nextgeneration products, with doubledigit netrevenue growth and share gains across heated tobacco, vape and modern oral. The rollout of Pulze 3.0 and new iD sticks drove heatedtobacco progress, while blu kits continued to perform well in vape. In modern oral, brands such as Zone and Skruf were supported by recent acquisitions in the US and Sweden.
The FTSE 100-listed company reiterated its confidence in achieving at least £320m of savings by 2030 as part of its wider transformation programme, which aims to make the business more consumercentric, dataled and efficient. It added that leverage would finish FY26 at the lower end of its 2.0x to 2.5x netdebttoEBITDA range.
Imperial also highlighted that the first £750m tranche of its new buyback programme will be executed through HSBC and run until no later than 4 May 2027.
As of 0845 BST, Imperial shares were up 3.42% at 2,573p.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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