Cigarette company agreement seeks to halt Internet sales

Paris - Tobacco group Altadis raised net profits in the first quarter by 4.0 percent to €114 million (R908.5 million), the group reported on Monday.

Cigars provided much of the boost.

Net profit in the same period of last year had been €109.5 million.

In the first quarter of 2005, sales rose by 9.7 percent to €885.1 million.

The group said that these figures were below the likely average for the whole year, owing to seasonal factors.

The results had been helped by the effects of recent acquisitions in Russia and Italy and by a strong performance by the cigar division.

Reporting against a background of increasing pressure in some countries to discourage the consumption of tobacco for health reasons, Altadis said that its cigarette business had marked time, temporarily, it commented, owing to a slowing of business on some highly profitable markets.

But acquisitions had made a net contribution of €71 million.

The company said that overall it expected that the results for 2005 would compare "very positively" with those for 2004. - AFP