Japan Tobacco Raises Net Forecast on Currency Gains (Update2)
Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, raised its full- year profit forecast 8 percent on projected currency gains and increasing market share for brands including Camel and Winston.
Net income may be 108 billion yen (.2 billion) for the year ending March, compared with its previous estimate of 100 billion yen, the company said in a statement today. Annual sales may total 6.09 trillion yen, compared with its previous forecast of 6 trillion yen.
“We are changing our forecast mainly because we have changed our exchange-rate assumptions,” Executive Deputy President Munetaka Takeda said in a briefing in Tokyo today.
The maker of Mild Seven cigarettes seeks to boost overseas sales as a declining smoking rate shrinks its home market.
