this will never come in , the change in law will never get passed 
its all guff to try and win votes for next year
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There seems to be an air of desperation about the Tory’s recent policy ideas 
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There is to be consensus across the political spectrum including the devolved parliaments so this will go through how effective it will be is another story.
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Not to get off topic but this is how it starts.
First smoking then alcohol , sugar and meat.
May just as well live in North Korea
Then they need to make it all illegal the we will just have black markets which even the majority of public will use.
The because it’s illegal we need more police etc enforcing then because of more arrests we need more jails and then we need more taxs to pay the £100 a day(old amount guessing more now) to keep said person in jail for breaking the mars bar rule.
Butterfly effect
That escalated quickly. Possible raising of the legal age to buy cigarettes = might as well move to North Korea
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These days you get arrested and thrown in jail if you try and buy meat don’t you…
edit…well done to the two people who spotted the slightly hidden clickable link
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Its a:
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profits rise every year…
and we are to believe they will not lobby the govt to back down.
this is like telling an American they cant own a gun
last year the govt received £10billion in tobacco duty alone
I dont think they have thought this through
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People already smuggle cigarettes into the country to avoid tax, That will just become big business if they are banned
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A bit like prohibition in the US in the 20’s. Needless to say that wasn’t successful.
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While there is a consensus across the political parties to end smoking it is still up to the current government to bring it before parliment as a bill, there is a good chance it could be kicked into the long grass as ‘we have more important issues at the moment’.
Comparisons with prohibition in 1920’s America don’t really apply as that was a total ban which the majority of americans supported and it worked until the great depression.
Cigarette smuggling is not really going to increase as the maket is shrinking.
I’m hoping this plan is a false promise from a dying government that will say anything to win votes.
The rolling age increase will probably have little effect on the business short term, if it comes in at all. They sell worldwide and also sell other tabaco/nicotine products. I imagine as the world moves to use more vapes, so too will BAT.
They already do vapes/e-cigs - British American Tobacco - Vapour products
Somehow, it’s able to advertise its e-cig brand Vuse on McLaren’s F1 cars, under the guise of promoting emerging artists’ work, and thus skirting the no-tobacco ad rule!
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McLaren and Tobacco. Name a better friendship. 
I was tempted to buy recently due to the 9% dividend yield, but a closer look has given me concern for pause:
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The company faces strong head winds in terms of regulations, particularly with Rishi’s latest plans. Admittedly most of their income comes from the US, but even there the long term smoking trends are in decline (50% cigarette decline since 2005 Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults in the United States | CDC)
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Revenue and Free cash flow has been good, but not spectacular (single digit growth per year).
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The debt is growing significantly, short-term debt exceeds short-term assets. The same would be true for long term debt if the long term assets weren’t inflated by a ridiculous good will value (84% of long-term assets are good will!). This isn’t Coca Cola, Microsoft or Apple!
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The return on capital employed is 9%, but their Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is 7%. So they’re effectively borrowing at 7% and making a 9% return - little room for error.
5.I can get 5% risk free return with a bank account, this feels like a significant amount of risk for a 4% return - the share price has falled 25% in 1 year and is now at 2011 levels :-(.
- If you stick the Free cash flow into a DCF model with conservative values for growth (1 or 2%), the fair value comes back at around 20% below the current market price.
Happy to hear counter views and thoughts…
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Smoking good, buy stock make man rich… Do it just… Do it
But no good points captain, I hold this stock
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