By Michael Carolan
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (IMT.LN) said Tuesday its full-year performance will meet expectations as it continues to shrug off the effect of the global recession.
The world's fourth-largest tobacco group by sales said in a trading update that its performance and financial position for the year to Sept. 30 remain in line with management's expectations.
Analysts expect the company to post pretax profit for the year to Sept. 30 of about GBP2.21 billion, up from GBP1.61 billion last year.
The company said in July it was benefiting from the growth in value cigarette and fine cut tobacco brands in mature markets, whilst driving mainstream and premium cigarette brands in emerging markets.
It said Tuesday that these trading trends have continued.
The company's shares closed Friday at 1752 pence, having dropped around 5% since the turn of the year as the market's favor turned away from defensive stocks toward more cyclical stocks on hopes of recovery.
Imperial added Tuesday that the integration of its Altadis acquisition is progressing well and is on track to deliver the expected synergies.
The company is targeting synergies of EUR180 million in the current year and EUR400 million by the end of 2012 from its integration of Altadis, the Franco-Spanish tobacco group it bought early last year for EUR12.6 billion.
-By Michael Carolan, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9278; michael.carolan@dowjones.com