Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S raises its full year guidance The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s business have been less profound than anticipated earlier in the year as tobacco consumption across markets and categories has displayed significant resilience.
The current change in consumer behaviour in the US as more people work from home has resulted in an likely overall increased consumption of handmade cigars and a strong growth in the online business. Combined with a stronger than anticipated resilience in sales volumes of machine-made cigars and smoking tobacco - and a continued strong internal cost focus - Scandinavian Tobacco Group can for the first six months of 2020 present 4.9% organic growth in net sales, 21% organic growth in EBITDA and a free cash flow before acquisitions of DKK 547 million. The financial performance remain positively impacted by phasing in certain markets. This will affect the results in the second half of the year. While visibility around the financial outlook remains lower than normal it is expected that the change in consumer behavior in the US will continue for the rest of the year. Based on the year-to-date numbers including a strong performance in the month of July, a successful initial integration of Agio Cigars and assuming no material disruptions to our supply-chain, the Group’s full-year guidance is revised as follows: • EBITDA: Organic growth >9% (previously: >2%) • Free cash flow before acquisitions: >DKK 1000 million (previously: ~DKK 850 million) Scandinavian Tobacco Groups results for the second quarter will be announced on 28 August 2020. For further information, please contact: Investors: Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations, phone: +45 5084 7222 or torben.sand@st-group.com Media: Simon Mehl Augustesen, Director of Group Communications, phone: +1 484-379-8725 or simon.augustesen@st-group.com Company Announcement
17/2020
Copenhagen 14 August 2020
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