Company news in brief

BAT inks Russian dealBritish American Tobacco said it had reached a deal to sell its Russian and Belarusian businesses within the next month or so.The maker of Camel and Peter Stuyvesant didn't provide a figure for the sale, and had announced its intention to exit the market in March 2022. This follows a wave of disinvestment from Western companies in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.BAT’s operations in Russia include a head office in Moscow, 75 regional offices and a manufacturing facility in St Petersburg, the group said. It also has an office in Belarus. As of the end of June the two countries accounted for about 2.7% of group revenue and 2.5% of adjusted profit from operations. BAT, headquartered in London, is the second-largest tobacco company in the world and held almost a quarter of the Russian market.Post completion, the businesses will be known as the ITMS group, BAT said, adding that once conditions had been satisfied it will no longer have a presence in Russia or Belarus. The buyer is a consortium led by members of BAT Russia’s management team which, upon completion, will wholly own both businesses. – Fin24'We’ve seen the squeeze'The chairperson of Richemont, the Swiss owner of Cartier and watchmakers, including IWC and Vacheron Constantin, said inflation is starting to hit luxury demand in Europe.Persistent higher prices are prompting even well-heeled European consumers to scale back buying, according to Johann Rupert, the leader and controlling shareholder of the luxury conglomerate."We’ve seen the squeeze," the billionaire South African told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Geneva last week.Rupert, who controls Richemont through a trust that owns the majority of voting shares, said European households were spending a higher percentage of income on basic necessities than they had in the past decade.The company had warned in July that demand in the US and China, two of the biggest markets for luxury goods, was starting to sputter. Rupert said the good news for European markets was that Chinese shoppers had begun travelling again. – Fin24/Bloomberg

Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-03

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Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-03

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