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March 2nd, 2017:

Branded tobacco packaging rule riles BAT

The company warns a proposed ban on branded tobacco packaging poses a threat to British American Tobacco’s only cigarette plant in SA

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/2017-03-02-branded-tobacco-packaging-rule-riles-bat/

British American Tobacco (BAT) says it may close SA’s only cigarette plant if plans to ban branded tobacco packaging are implemented.

BAT operates its eighth-largest factory in the world at Heidelberg, south of Johannesburg. The proposed new rules would threaten the financial viability of the operation, Joe Heshu, BAT’s head of external affairs in Southern Africa, said on Monday.

Plain packaging threatened the closure of the factory and “poses a threat to the viability of the legal tobacco industry in SA”, Heshu said. The move would make it harder to distinguish the cigarettes from black-market cigarettes and “the illegal market will benefit from having a cheaper product”, he said.

SA is cracking down on industries and products viewed as harmful to consumers, including through a planned tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in February would be implemented later in 2017.

SA had drafted a bill mandating plain cigarette packaging, which was expected to be made available for public comment soon, Elize Joubert, CEO of the Cancer Association of SA, said on Friday.

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“You don’t want to build jobs based on people who are sick,” said Joe Maila, a spokesman for the Department of Health. He declined to provide a time frame for the new rules.

Plain packaging of tobacco products, which has been championed globally by the World Health Organisation, requires standardised designs on cigarette packs.

BAT had cut 750 jobs in SA in two years as it grappled with an increase in illegal cigarettes, it said. The Heidelberg plant employs 1,100 people.

According to the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa, the supply, distribution and sale of smuggled or counterfeit tobacco products have cost the government more than R21bn since 2010 in lost tax revenue.

Bloomberg

British American Tobacco chief confident of ecigarette push

Nicandro Durante shrugs off suggestions it is playing catch-up in fast-growing market Read next BAT aims to double size of vaping business Nicandro Durante describes the market share BAT has achieved since the launch of Glo in Japan as ‘fantastic’

https://www.ft.com/content/23b177f8-f8f7-11e6-bd4e-68d53499ed71

Nicandro Durante has big plans for what is set to become the world’s largest listed tobacco company.

During his six years as chief executive, the market value of British American Tobacco has more than doubled and last month it agreed a $50bn deal to buy Reynolds American, marking the company’s return to the US after a decade’s absence.

But the Brazilian is not done yet. Last week he revealed bold plans to expand BAT’s next-generation products division, with the aim of quadrupling the number of markets in which it sells ecigarettes by 2019.

“The rate of growth is exponential,” says Mr Durante. “We’re in 12 markets now, and I want to double this in 2017, and double it again in 2018.”

Nik Oliver, consumer goods analyst at UBS, says BAT’s growth target is “relatively aggressive, but it’s feasible”, adding that the group’s “record has been very good in ecigarettes”.

While BAT is leading the market in vapour, according to Berenberg, some analysts have questioned the efficacy of its heat-not-burn tobacco product Glo.

“If BAT is going to gain any real ground [on rival Philip Morris International] the product needs to be better than IQOS [PMI’s device] in our view,” says Owen Bennett, consumer goods analyst at Jefferies.

“From trying it, we would not say this is the case.”

In addition, analysts point out that BAT’s Glo has launched only in Japan so far, while IQOS is on track to hit 35 markets, including the UK, by the end of this year.

James Bushnell, analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, says that while BAT is focused on the “more competitive” vaping market, its products “aren’t significantly better than what’s out there”.

Meanwhile, he says, it is lagging behind PMI in the tobacco-heating category.

Mr Durante rejects such criticism. He says that while the Reynolds deal will give BAT access to the US group’s reduced-risk portfolio, his group’s products are strong enough to stand alone.

“Philip Morris had a one-and-a-half year head start on us. The market shares we have been experiencing in Japan are fantastic — 5.2 per cent in nine weeks. So I don’t think that we are behind any competing products.”

Indeed, Mr Oliver at UBS describes BAT’s share in Japan as “initially very impressive”.

Mr Durante expects the Japan rollout of Glo to be completed this year and says the company is already developing new versions of the product.

The rapid expansion of IQOS has led PMI chief executive André Calantzopoulos to talk of a “smokeless future”.

But while Mr Durante expects rapid growth, he says such exuberance is premature.

“Those categories now are probably 1 or 2 per cent of the whole industry,” he says. “At the end of the day it’s all about consumer choice. Do I think that you will have a smoke-free world in my generation . . . in the next 20 years? I don’t think so.”

Mr Durante expects to continue to boost sales of traditional cigarettes in several key markets, and points to north Africa and Asia as the fastest-growing areas. “Places like Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia — there are many opportunities out there,” he says.

BAT derives more than 50 per cent of its total revenues from emerging markets, according to UBS.

Mr Durante has indicated he sees further growth in north Africa and Asia, but Mr Oliver at UBS notes that while BAT has “definitely got the strongest EM portfolio of their peers”, the Reynolds deal “would definitely tilt them more towards developed markets given the huge size of the US market”.

In the US, the Reynolds deal will give BAT access to the world’s biggest vapour market.

Analysts have pointed to a further potential upside to the deal, with President Donald Trump vowing to slash corporation tax.

They warn, however, that such a move could lead Reynolds to withdraw its support for the deal on the basis that the bid substantially undervalues it, but Mr Durante is unfazed. “People just see the headline that corporation tax is going to go down,” he says. “But then you have the border tax. [It] can have a huge influence on our business in terms of the downsides,” he adds, noting that Reynolds “imports a lot of raw material”.

Assuming the Reynolds deal completes as planned by the third quarter, it will mark a milestone return to the US for a company that fled the market amid costly litigation battles over safety claims by cigarette manufacturers.

But while the industry is keen to trumpet its shift to reduced-risk products, some problems remain.

BAT has hired lawyers to examine allegations that it bribed African officials and paid a private security company to spy on and disrupt competitors on the continent.

Mr Durante pledges firm action if wrongdoing is found to have taken place. “BAT has very strong policies in this area. If there is any [wrongdoing], we are going to act and we are going to act in a very strong way.

He concedes, however: “We are in 200 countries, so I cannot give a 100 per cent guarantee that everything’s going to go by the book.”

While he refuses to be drawn on whether the lawyer’s report will be made public, insisting it is not up to BAT to decide, he stresses that BAT assures “total anonymity” to whistleblowers.

Although unsure when the report will be concluded, he is keen to see the investigation draw to a close. “As a CEO of the company I would like this to finish as soon as possible because it’s costing me a lot of money.”

MPs investing in cigarette companies, oil giants and ‘tax avoiders’ through their pension scheme

Exclusive: The Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund also invests in several US tech giants accused by MPs themselves of avoiding tax

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-pension-scheme-investment-tobacco-cigarette-bat-fossil-fuels-tax-avoidance-a7607901.html

Pensions paid to British MPs are funded by the profits of cigarette companies, international oil giants and companies who MPs themselves have accused of avoiding tax, The Independent can reveal.

The Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF), whose investments have never been made public before, ploughed more money into British American Tobacco (BAT) and oil giant BP and than any other two companies over the past year. Millions of pounds were also put into oil company Shell and controversial mining firm Rio Tinto, the list of investments shows.

The figures show BAT and BP received roughly £5.59m in investment each from MPs in 2016.

Pension funds, which channel billions of pounds to all corners of the economy, have come under pressure from campaigners to stop profiting from industries that contribute towards environmental disaster, ill health and conflict.

The £621m MP pension fund’s top 20 holdings also includes three US tech companies – Amazon, Google and Apple – that have been accused by MPs themselves of avoiding tax. Another top 20 investment is WPP, the advertising giant at the centre of a 2012 shareholder revolt on the £12.93m pay packet for its CEO Martin Sorrell.

Green MP and party co-leader Caroline Lucas, who has been pressuring the fund to reveal what it invests in for years, said the investment strategy was “deeply questionable” and that that in the case of tobacco investments there was “no excuse” for profiting from “one of the greatest public health crises of our time”.

“After years of resistance, the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund has finally come clean and made public their top 20 holdings. This is a good first step but, as expected, the fund has a deeply questionable investment strategy investing in dirty energy and tobacco,” she told The Independent.

“The long-term financial risks associated with oil, coal and gas assets are well known, yet the trustees of the PCPF are refusing to even meet with fund members to discuss this issue.

“If we are to prevent the worst of climate change, then we must rapidly transition away from an economy run on fossil fuels by investing in the renewable energy that we have in abundance. It’s right that the MPs should lead the way on this transition.

“It is well within the scope of the fiduciary duty of pension fund trustees to account for non-financial factors – there is therefore no excuse for profiting from tobacco, an industry that is responsible for one of the greatest public health crises of our time.”

In 2014, former MP Brian Donohoe, chair of the fund’s trustee board, said tobacco investments would be “amoral” but that he did not think the fund should withdraw from investments in fossil fuels.

Health charity Ash told The Independent the revelations about tobacco investments were disturbing because they were fuelling “so much preventable illness and misery”.

“A large majority of MPs and peers understand the terrible damage that smoking does and support strong action to cut smoking rates,” said Deborah Arnott, the charity’s chief executive.

“I think they will be disturbed to see that the parliamentary pension fund is investing in an industry whose products still kill more than 100,000 people across the UK every year.

“I understand that fund trustees have a duty to get a good return from their investments, but this can be achieved without supporting an industry that causes so much preventable illness and misery.”

A number of local councils, which manage more than £230bn in pension fund investments, have led the way in divesting from fossil fuels and in imposing ethical investment policies. Authorities including Oxford City Council, Waltham Forest, and South Yorkshire have been among the first to move to divest from fossil fuels. The PCPF’s trustees, however, say it would not be lawful for them to make sweeping judgments about whether certain investments were ethical or not.

The Church of England has previously come under fire for investing in Google and said it would limit investments in fossil fuel producers.

The MP fund’s top investments as of March 2016 were £55m in UK government bonds; £5.9m in British American Tobacco; £5.9m in BP; and £4.9m apiece in Diageo, Vodafone, HSBC, Royal Dutch Shell and Reckitt Benckiser.

It also invests £3.7m in pharmaceutical company GSK; £3.1m apiece in US Treasury bonds, Lloyds Bank, and Nestle; and £2.5m in BT, JP Morgan Chase, and Google. Rio Tinto, Apple, Amazon, Hartford Financial Services and WPP net around £1.9m each from the fund. The remaining 80 per cent of the fund is invested in other smaller holdings.

ShareAction, which campaigns for responsible investments, told The Independent that the new information showed MPs like Ms Lucas were “fully justified” in their campaign to challenge the fund.

“It’s positive to see greater disclosure from the PCPF following a year of vigorous efforts by MPs to demand a more transparent approach from their scheme,” said Catherine Howarth, the group’s chief executive.

“Many MPs will be dispirited to learn that the scheme’s largest holdings are tobacco giant, BAT, and troubled oil giant, BP. In the week NEST revealed plans for a low-carbon global equities strategy, having outperformed the PCPF’s investment returns in the year gone, it would seem MPs are fully justified in challenging their trustees for answers on carbon and climate risk.”

It is understood that a group of MPs opposed to such investments are considering legal action against the pension fund if policies are not changed.

When approached for comment, the pension fund’s secretariat referred The Independent to the House of Commons media office. The media office provided a copy of the fund’s policy statement on ethical investing, which has been signed off by the board of trustees.

It says that “trustees [of the fund] are legally unable to exclude certain investments on ethical grounds” because “the rage of views” among its members means it would be “almost impossible for the trustees to conclude that scheme members would share a moral viewpoint on any one ethical issue”.

“This means that the trustees could not lawfully take a decision to exclude a certain type of investment from the PCPF’s investment portfolio on ethical grounds,” the policy statement continues.

“However, it is important to mention that the trustees do believe that environmental, social and corporate governance issues can have a material impact on the long-term performance of its investments.

“As such the fund is a signatory to the Financial Reporting Council’s Stewardship Code and as such expects its investment managers to take account of ESG considerations as part of their investment analysis and decision making process. Furthermore, the Trustees, and all of the Fund’s managers are also signatories to the FRC Stewardship Code.”

Tobacco Act violations: Health department eyes world record for fines

JAIPUR: The state may soon have the distinction of being the first in the world for booking the maximum number of people for violating the Cigarette And Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) in a single day.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/tobacco-act-violations-health-dept-eyes-world-record-for-fines/articleshow/57418249.cms

On February 28, health department officials penalized 176,693 people for violating the Act, which may have paved the way for state’s entry into world records.

The last day of February is being observed as the No Tobacco Day.

Anyone who was found smoking in public places or selling tobacco products within a radius of 100 yards of any educational institution were penalised by health officials.

In Churu alone, 32,002 people were found violating COTPA, whereas in Jhalawar, 29,762 persons were challaned for flouting the norms. In Jaipur too, 22,009 persons were penalised for violating COTPA, health minister Kalicharan Saraf said.

The department took help from the police, rural development and Panchayati Raj department, education department along with transport and district administrations of respective districts to penalize those violating COTPA.

“The drive was organised to create awareness. We have never aimed at increasing revenue. According to COTPA, we can collect up to Rs 200 for violations. But, we collected even Re 1 as a token fine from many COTPA violators. Our aim was to create awareness of various provisions of COTPA,” Narendra Singh, state consultant, National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP), said.

Officials are now collecting and compiling evidences of the mass drive to send the same to the Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of Records.

Officials said that in 2016 they had fined over 5,600 people in Jhunjhunu, which was the world record for penalizing COTPA violators in a single day.

The health department conducted a campaign from February 13 against tobacco consumption which continued till February 28. During this period, they organised rallies and street plays to create awareness against tobacco use.