BAT falls to lowest level since 2013

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): British American Tobacco (M) Bhd (BAT) topped the losers list on Bursa Malaysia this morning, and as at the noon market close today, it traded 6.13% or 84 sen lower at RM12.86, its lowest level since 2013.

This gives BAT a market capitalisation of RM3.67 billion. At 12.30pm, the counter's trading volume was 1.46 million shares.

It is worth noting that the last time the tobacco product manufacturer's share price fell RM13 was in 2013.

Since hitting its all-time high of RM56.80 on Jan 12, 2014, which resulted in a market capitalisation of RM20.84 billion, BAT has seen RM17.17 billion in market capitalisation vanish.

For context, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd's market capitalisation currenty is RM2.88 billion, while Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd's is RM9.2 billion.

BAT has been seeing tough times as the Malaysian market is flooded by counterfeit tobacco products — which have an illegal incidence of 65%.

Its net profit for the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2019 fell 29.8% year-on-year to RM249.95 million, while revenue was down 10% to RM1.85 billion.

The group blamed the lower profit on the rise in illegal vaping products and the prevalence of illegal cigarettes in the Malaysian market.