British American Tobacco plc at Deutsche Bank dbAccess Global Consumer Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Okay. Thank you very much, Tadeu, for those introductory remarks. I think you've been in your role as Chief Executive for just over a year now. And I was just wondering if you could sort of talk about the purpose around sort of achieving or building a smokeless world. And what do you think the key assumptions are behind getting to 50% of revenues from noncombustibles by 2035?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Yes. And just on that sort of the refined strategy, I think you articulated when you started last year the refined strategy. Can you just sort of outline the sort of key priorities within that refined strategy to drive the multi-category growth?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Well, that leads nicely on to my next question about(inaudible) I think about this time last year, you sort of said you wanted to build a much more collaborative and inclusive organization. Obviously, changing culture takes time, but how far or how well have you progressed in changing the culture? And are you able to provide any sort of tangible evidence of where that cultures come through? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 05, 2024 / 8:15AM, BATS.L - British American Tobacco plc at Deutsche Bank dbAccess Global Consumer Conference

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : And perhaps sort of one of the things that sort of you can see from BAT in the last sort of year has been a step change in the NPD that's been launched. Can you talk, is that sort of linked to the cultural change that you're driving? Or are there other things that you've explicitly put in place to sort of behind sort of glo Hyper maybe or some of the stuff you're doing on Vuse?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Yes. Well, you're doing a really good job of leading me into the next question. But so the next question was around sort of guidance we had the sort of trading statement yesterday. And you're sort of still on track to deliver sort of low single-digit growth for full year '24, but that implies an acceleration in the second half. I'm just wondering, could you sort of talk a bit around what are the drivers of that acceleration that we should expect to see in the second half to give you confidence in hitting?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : And I think there's multi-year guidance delivered mid-single digit. So implying a further acceleration into '25 and '26.

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Are they the similar sort of characteristics that underpin those assumptions?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Thank you. And US has come up quite a bit. It's been one of the challenging markets for you. I think overall volumes down in the period about 9%, but you're seeing an improved performance from Newport, Natural American Spirit, and Lucky Strike. Can you just talk about the improvements that you've made, or the incentives and the changes that you've put in place on those brands and the confidence that you can see coming through?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : And if we -- let's call it a --

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Yeah, very clear. If we switch now to NGP and profitability, you managed to achieve breakeven two years ahead of the plan. Can you talk about the things that underpin that better than expected performance? And then how we should expect the development of NGP profitability going forwards?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Okay, that's very clear. You've touched on it, the illicit trade problem around vapes in the US, can you just remind us of the scale of the problem. And then we've also seen improved or proposed improved enforcement from some of the US states. Is that sufficient to stop the problem? Should we be encouraged? And what else would you like to see happen?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Hopefully that comes pretty quickly.

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : There's been a reinvigoration around your heated tobacco product and glo and the launch. Well, first of all, you resolved the litigation with PMI. The first question on that is how does that -- what does that change in reality in terms of your innovation pipeline? And then secondly, what's the initial feedback from the new product launches?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Okay. That's again another encouraging development. On Velo, the Modern Oral Product, can you talk about your strategy to relaunch in the US and any initial feedback from what you're seeing there? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 05, 2024 / 8:15AM, BATS.L - British American Tobacco plc at Deutsche Bank dbAccess Global Consumer Conference

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Okay. I'm going to ask these two questions together because I'm slightly conscious of time. You recently revised gearing guidance down to 2, 2.5 times. What was the thinking behind that? And also what's the thinking around share buybacks? Obviously you're returning this proceeds of the ITC sell down, but longer term, how does the board think about share buybacks?

Question: Damian McNeela - Deutsche Numis - Analyst : Thank you very much, Tadeu. I think we're out of time, so thank you very much everybody for your attendance and we'll see you later.