Key events
British American Tobacco writes off £25bn related in switch from cigarette to vapes
British American Tobacco has written off £25bn because of weak sales of cigarettes in the US and spending on its vape products.
The London-listed company, a member of the FTSE 100, said the change was an “accounting adjustment” mainly relating to US cigarette brands, which will be less valuable than previously thought over the next 30 years as smoking declines.
The company, which makes Kent, Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarette brands, among others, is seeking to switch from burning tobacco to “non-combustibles”, which deliver nicotine via vapour or heating tobacco. The company and its rivals hope the switch to vaping will save it from regulatory pressure from countries such as the UK which are seeking to ban smoking.
BAT wants to make 50% of its revenue from non-combustibles by 2035. It thinks the growth opportunity is there, considering only 10% of the world’s billion smokers use newer products, which are thought to be less harmful to health – even if still addictive.
Tadeu Marroco, BAT’s chief executive, said:
Building on our broad-based performance in 2023, I am clear that now is the right time to further invest to accelerate our transformation. We are making active investment choices to strengthen our US business, accelerate innovation momentum in heated products globally, and enhance capabilities that support our strategic delivery.
I am confident that the choices we are making today will drive our long-term success and deliver sustainable value for all of our stakeholders.
In London the FTSE 100 benchmark index has gained 0.3% in the first few minutes of trading, in line with other indices across Europe.
Here are the opening snaps from Reuters:
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EUROPE’S STOXX 600 UP 0.2%
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FRANCE’S CAC 40 UP 0.2%, SPAIN’S IBEX UP 0.3%
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EURO STOXX INDEX UP 0.2%; EURO ZONE BLUE CHIPS UP 0.2%
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GERMANY’S DAX UP 0.2%
xAI files to raise $1bn; Tui considering leaving London
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, wants to raise $1bn from investors as it tries to match other companies in the booming sector, according to a filing with regulators.
The company has raised $135m in equity financing from four investors already, according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
AI companies are racing to raise capital to spend on training their large language models, which ingest enormous amounts of data in a way that allows them to create content such as words, pictures and video approximating human intelligence.
Musk was previously involved in the foundation of OpenAI, a company that started as a not-for-profit to advance the field, but which now has a commercial focus. The unusual governance model was thought to be at the heart of the recent turmoil at the startup, after the not-for-profit board sacked chief executive Sam Altman, only for him to be reinstated after major investor Microsoft objected.
Musk has criticised models used by Microsoft and Google for what he describes as censorship, and has said xAI’s model will be “maximally curious”. The company launched a chatbot called Grok last month.
Tui considers delisting from London Stock Exchange
Travel company Tui is considering ditching its London listing after pressure from shareholders, making it the latest large company to consider leaving the FTSE behind.
Tui has a joint listing in the UK and Germany’s Frankfurt, reflecting its German heritage and the fact that British tourists are its top customers. However, it said its investors had raised the possibility of it leaving the London listing, in a stock market announcement on Wednesday morning.
It said that a single Frankfurt listing would be simpler, would make it easier to meet rules on European Union ownership of airlines that have affected it since Brexit, and would give it a bigger profile with investors (in part because there are fewer big companies.
The company said:
While no decision has been taken, the executive board is therefore currently considering including the UK-delisting resolution on the agenda for the AGM on 13 February 2024. Under the UK listing rules, the UK-delisting will require shareholder approval of a delisting resolution with at least a 75% majority of the votes cast.
The agenda
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9:30am GMT: UK S&P Global/CIPS construction purchasing managers’ index (PMI) (November; previous: 45.6 points; consensus: 46.3)
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10am GMT: Eurozone retail sales (October; prev.: -0.3% month-on-month; cons.: 0.2%)
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10:30am GMT: Bank of England to publish financial stability report
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11am GMT: Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speech
