Britain's Imperial Tobacco, the maker of Lambert & Butler and Gauloises cigarettes, have posted an 11% decline in first-half net profits on the back of rising taxes.
Imperial said in a results statement that earnings after tax fell to £826 million (€1.0 billion, $1.3 billion) in the six months to March, compared with the year-earlier 926 million.
Revenues rose 1.9% to almost £14 billion.
Imperial said that adjusted operating profit before exceptional items increased 3% to £1.52 billion. That was in line with market expectations, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
"Our focus on realising the potential of our total tobacco portfolio through our sales growth drivers has delivered a good first half performance," chief executive Alison Cooper said in the earnings release.
"We have got some great momentum going into the second half. You can see it in the second quarter."
The Imperial boss added that key tobacco market Spain remained "challenging," following official confirmation on Monday that the euro zone member nation was back in recession.
In recent years, London-listed Imperial has switched its strategy away from developed regions and towards the world's major growth markets in Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and the Middle East.
