London, May 2, 2026, 21:07 BST
British American Tobacco p.l.c. issued and allotted 19,950 ordinary shares in April under its Sharesave Scheme, with the new 25 pence shares admitted to the London Stock Exchange’s main market under an existing block admission, a standing approval to list shares from the plan. BAT said the shares rank equally with existing ordinary shares.
The number is small next to BAT’s capital base, but the timing matters. The company is also cancelling stock through a buyback, so each update to the share count feeds into the public voting-rights figure investors use to track ownership, per-share earnings and dividend cover. BAT reported 2,169,936,467 shares with voting rights at April 30 and 132,661,545 shares held in treasury, meaning stock held by the company rather than outside investors.
The notice also lands before BAT’s next cash return. The board has declared a 245.04 pence dividend for 2025, payable in four quarterly instalments of 61.26 pence, with the first London and Johannesburg payment due on May 7.
The May 1 filings did not amount to a trading update. They do, though, keep attention on the mechanics of BAT’s capital returns at a time when the group is asking investors to look past slow cigarette markets and follow its shift into vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches.
BAT said on April 22 it had agreed for Merrill Lynch International to buy ordinary shares between April 23 and June 29 under its share buyback programme. The company said the purpose of the programme was to reduce share capital and that repurchased shares would be cancelled.
In a separate update, BAT said it bought 260,511 shares over April 23 and April 24 at volume-weighted average prices of 4,200.84 pence and 4,329.77 pence, respectively. Those shares were also intended for cancellation.
BAT shares closed at 4,329 pence in London on May 1, up 0.14%, while its U.S.-listed ADS closed at $58.71 in New York on Friday.
At its April annual meeting, BAT said it still expected 2026 performance at the lower end of its mid-term ranges: 3%-5% revenue growth and 4%-6% adjusted profit from operations growth. Adjusted figures strip out certain items or currency effects to help compare operating performance; BAT also flagged a 2%-3% foreign-exchange headwind on adjusted diluted EPS, or earnings per share.
The growth fight is moving away from cigarettes and into newer nicotine products. Reuters reported in February that BAT’s Velo pouch was taking U.S. share from Philip Morris International’s Zyn and Altria’s On!, and Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco said on a company call there was “plenty of opportunity” for Velo to keep growing. Reuters
In April, Jefferies analyst Andrei Andon-Ionita said pressure on Philip Morris’s U.S. Zyn shipments pointed to “continued momentum loss” and that Velo would likely benefit, Reuters reported. That is the competitive bright spot BAT is trying to turn into a broader new-products business. Reuters
But the buyback does not remove the main risk. BAT’s Vuse vape business still faces unregulated rivals in the United States, and Marroco told Reuters any import block on some disposable vapes would probably not have a material impact until early 2027 because of long supply chains and inventories.
The finance bench is also changing. BAT said Dragos Constantinescu, a former BAT executive who has been CEO of Asahi Europe & International, will join as chief financial officer and executive director on Sept. 1; Javed Iqbal will remain interim CFO until then.
The next scheduled checkpoint is July 30, when BAT has flagged its half-year report. For now, the freshest formal update is narrower: a few new plan shares, a fresh voting-rights count and a buyback doing most of the work on the public float.
