Positive impact for BAT

PETALING JAYA: The increase in the prices of British American Tobacco (M) Bhd’s (BAT) cigarettes is expected to affect its sales volume, but analysts believe it will have a net positive impact on the tobacco company.

“While the sales volume will most likely drop substantially in the immediate term, we believe that it will have a net positive impact on BAT’s financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15) earnings as long as the sales volume does not fall more than 16%-17%, which we think is unlikely,” CIMB Research said.