REG - British Amer.Tobacco - BAT Appoints Chief Financial Officer

British American TobaccoAnnouncement

02/11/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 1091S  British American Tobacco PLC  02 November 2023

British American Tobacco p.l.c. (the "Company")

2 November 2023

BAT Appoints Chief Financial Officer

Soraya Benchikh has been appointed to the role of Chief Financial Officer and
Executive Director and will join the BAT p.l.c. and Management Boards from 1
May 2024. She will succeed Javed Iqbal, who will continue to serve as interim
Finance Director until 30 April 2024.

Soraya has been President, Europe at Diageo plc since January 2023, having
joined Diageo in July 2020 as Managing Director for Northern Europe. Soraya
previously spent 20 years at BAT where she served as President of BAT France,
Area Director for East and Southern Africa, and Regional Finance Director for
Europe. Earlier in her career, Soraya worked in finance roles at General
Electric and Gillette.

 

Luc Jobin, Chair of the Board, commented:

"I am pleased to welcome Soraya as Chief Financial Officer, and to the Board.
She brings a wealth of leadership experience and commercial acumen from across
both finance and commercial roles. Soraya's excellent track record in
different geographies and in depth understanding of the sector make her
ideally suited for the role. On behalf of the whole Board I would like to
welcome Soraya and am confident that her leadership will accelerate our
strategy to build A Better Tomorrow."

 

Tadeu Marroco, Chief Executive, commented:

"I am delighted to welcome Soraya to the Management Board as our new Chief
Financial Officer. Her extensive senior leadership and financial experience
from a range of international fast moving consumer goods companies represents
a great addition to our leadership team. I am grateful to Javed for his
continued contribution as interim Finance Director, in addition to his ongoing
role as Director, Digital and Information.

Following the recent appointment of Dr Cora Koppe-Stahrenberg as Chief People
Officer, Soraya's appointment is also a further important step towards
building a modern organisation. I very much look forward to working with
Soraya as we continue our transformation."

 

Soraya Benchikh commented:

"I am excited to re-join the leadership of BAT as Chief Financial Officer and
Executive Director, and share their passion for the transformation strategy. I
am looking forward to working with my new colleagues, the leadership team,
Tadeu and the Board, and leverage my recent experience within broader FMCG to
provide an external lens and support their efforts to accelerate BAT's
strategy to build A Better Tomorrow."

 

There is no other information that is required to be disclosed under Listing
Rule 9.6.13R of the UK Listing Authority.

ENDS
Enquiries

Media Centre

+44 (0) 20 7845 2888 (24 hours) | @BATplc (https://twitter.com/BATplc)

Investor Relations
Victoria Buxton: +44 (0)20 7845 2012
Yetunde Ibe: +44 (0)20 7845 1095

Amy Chamberlain: +44 (0)20 7845 1124

John Harney: +44 (0)20 7845 1263

Jane Henderson: +44 (0)20 7845 1117

Supplementary information

Remuneration

Soraya Benchikh will be appointed with a base salary of £800,000 per annum.
All other elements of her remuneration will be consistent with the terms of
the Directors' Remuneration Policy approved by shareholders at the AGM in
April 2022.  Further details will be set out in the 2023 Directors'
Remuneration Report.

Replacement awards will be made covering the value of lost short and long-term
incentive awards in order to facilitate recruitment, which are in line with
the Director's Remuneration Policy. Replacement awards will be made subject to
malus and clawback provisions.

About BAT

BAT is a leading, multi-category consumer goods business with a purpose to
build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of its business
through offering a greater choice of enjoyable and less risky products for
adult consumers.

We continue to be clear that combustible cigarettes pose serious health risks,
and the only way to avoid these risks is not to start or to quit. BAT
encourages those who would otherwise continue to smoke to switch completely to
scientifically-substantiated, reduced-risk alternatives*†. In order to
deliver this, BAT is transforming into a truly consumer-centric multi-category
consumer products business.

BAT's ambition is to have 50 million consumers of its non-combustible products
by 2030 and to generate £5billion of New Categories revenue by 2025. BAT has
set stretching ESG targets including achieving carbon neutrality for Scopes 1
& 2 by 2030 and eliminating unnecessary single-use plastic and making all
plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

BAT employs over 47,000 people. The BAT Group generated revenue of £27.65
billion in 2022 and profit from operations of £10.5 billion.

The company's Strategic Portfolio is made up of its global cigarette brands
and a growing range of reduced-risk*† New Category tobacco and nicotine
products and traditional non-combustible tobacco products. These include
vapour, tobacco heating products, modern oral products including tobacco-free
nicotine pouches, as well as traditional oral products such as snus and moist
snuff. In 2022, we had 22.5 million consumers of our non-combustible products,
a rise of 4.2 million on full year 2021.

References in this statement to 'BAT', 'we', 'us' and 'our' refer to the
British American Tobacco Group.

* Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from
cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.

† Our vapour product Vuse (including Alto, Solo, Ciro and Vibe), and
certain products, including Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, which are
sold in the U.S., are subject to FDA regulation and no reduced-risk claims
will be made as to these products without agency clearance.

Forward-looking statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements, including
"forward-looking" statements made within the meaning of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are often, but not
always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "believe,"
"anticipate," "could," "may," "would," "should," "intend," "plan,"
"potential," "predict," "will," "expect," "estimate," "project," "positioned,"
"strategy," "outlook", "target" and similar expressions. These include
statements regarding our customer target ambition, New Categories revenue
targets and our ESG targets.

All such forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions that are
subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors. It is believed that the
expectations reflected in this release are reasonable but they may be affected
by a wide range of variables that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those currently anticipated. A review of the reasons why
actual results and developments may differ materially from the expectations
disclosed or implied within forward-looking statements can be found by
referring to the information contained under the headings "Cautionary
Statement" and "Group Principal Risks" in the 2022 Annual Report and Form 20-F
of British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT PLC).

Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in BAT
PLC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"),
including the Annual Report on Form 20-F and Current Reports on Form 6-K,
which may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website, http://www.sec.gov
and BAT PLC's Annual Reports, which may be obtained free of charge from the
BAT website www.bat.com (http://www.bat.com/) .

Past performance is no guide to future performance and persons needing advice
should consult an independent financial adviser. The forward-looking
statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of
preparation of this release and BAT undertakes no obligation to update or
revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

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