British American finance boss sells shares

British American Tobacco finance boss Ben Stevens has pocketed nearly £200,000 after offloading some of his stake in the Lucky Strike maker.

He sold 5,000 shares at 1,981p a share and 5,000 at 1,969p. He now has just more than 95,000.

Stevens has been with British American since 1990. He joined the board in 2008, having worked for the firm in roles in Switzerland, Pakistan and Russia.

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News of his purchase comes on the same day British American's big rival Imperial Tobacco, best known in the UK for its Lambert & Butler cigarettes, said performance in the year to end-September remains in line with management's expectations. The integration of Gauloises and Gitanes maker Altadis is going well, the company said, and is on track to deliver the expected synergies.

British American has also been on the acquisition trail and in July, it hiked its dividend by a quarter as the acquisitions continued to drive the firm's profits higher.

Pre-tax profits in the six months to June 30 climbed to £2.1bn from £1.8bn over the same period the previous year as revenues rose to £19.1bn from £15bn. The Lucky Strike firm upped its interim dividend to 27.9p from 22.1p a year ago.

British American acquired Denmark's Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni and Tekel in Turkey last year.

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