Imperial Tobacco Financial Analysis

Imperial Tobacco

Index

S.No. Particulars Page No.

1 IMPERIAL TOBACCO Company Profile 2

2 Key management personal and shareholding distributions 3

Share Holding Distributions

3 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 5

Comparative Profit and Loss Growth Analysis

Comparative Balance Sheet Analysis

Financial Ratios Analysis

4 SHARE MARKET INFORMATION

8

Dividends

Imperial Tobacco Direct Competitor Comparison

Valuation Ratio Comparison with Industry And Sector

Statistical/ Technical Analysis

5 Risk Analysis 10

6 Final comment 11

1.Company Profile

Address: PO Box 244 Upton Road

Bristol BS99 7UJ United Kingdom

Web Site: www.imperial-tobacco.com

Index: FTSE 100 | STOXX 600

Market Place(s) : Frankfurt | Amsterdam | Virt-x | London | Virt-x | New York

Number Of Shares : 677,483,000

Sector: Agro-food

Industry: Tobacco

Sub-Industry: Tobaccos, Cigars and Cigarettes

Imperial Tobacco Group is the world number four in the cigarette manufacture and distribution sector. Its brands are divided into several ranges so as to reach a wide a market as possible. They include Embassy and Regal, Davidoff (so-called "luxury" cigarettes), SuperKings and John Player Specials (mid-priced), and Lambert & Butler (more cheaply priced).However the group's business does not focus solely on cigarettes. Imperial Tobacco also produces cigars, pipe tobacco brands, and is also the world leader in hand-rolling tobacco with the Drum brand. Not to mention RIZLA, making the firm a giant in the cigarette paper market too.Thus dominating the tobacco market, Imperial Tobacco pursues an aggressive expansion strategy. Other than its large European market, the group has taken over the Horizon, John Brandon and Peter Stuyvesant brands, which has taken it into the Australian and New Zealand markets, and bought out Tobaccor, the second biggest cigarette producer in Sub-Saharan Africa, giving it a firm foothold on the African continent and in Madagascar.Finally, Imperial Tobacco acquired the licence to distribute Marlboro (Philip Morris group) in the United Kingdom and in 2002 it took over the German cigarette firm (the world's fourth biggest manufacturer) Reemtsma, thus strengthening its position in Central and Eastern Europe.

IDENTITY CARD

ISIN: GB0004544929

Reuters Code: IMT.L

Local Code : IMT

Auditor: PricewaterhouseCoopers

Number of employees: 14,486 ( 30/09/2006 )

14,910 ( 30/09/2005 )

The following graphs show the Group’s current debt maturity profile:

The following table shows the Group’s current short- and long-term solicited credit ratings.

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC

Rating agency Short term Long term (outlook)

Fitch Ratings F2 BBB

(rating watch negative)

Moody’s вЂ" Baa3

(under review for possible downgrade)

Standard and Poor’s A-2 BBB

(credit watch negative)

2. KEY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL and SHARE HOLDING DISTRIBUTIONS

The Board of Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, which meets at least five times a year, currently comprises a Non-Executive Chairman, six Non-Executive Directors and four Executive Directors, with a clear separation of the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive to ensure an appropriate balance of power and authority.

1 • Iain Napier • Chairman

2 • Gareth Davis • Chief Executive

3 • Robert Dyrbus • Finance Director

4 • Graham Blashill • Group Sales and Marketing Director

5 • Alison Cooper • Corporate Development Director

6 • Pierre Jungels • Senior Independent Director

IT Group started their share rolling buyback program on 23 February 2005. On 8 February 2007 they announced that the share buyback program has been temporarily suspended following the agreement to buy Commonwealth Brands for US$1.9 billion (Ð'Ј974 million).There is a summary of share buyback information below.

Summary Number of shares Value excluding transaction costs

Ð'Ј

Shares in issue prior to commencement of buyback programme 729,200,921

Shares bought back

Year ending 30 September 2005 (13,515,000) 199,346,856

Year ending 30 September 2006 (32,489,000) 553,085,010

Year