Company Announcement No. 15/2018  

                                                                              Copenhagen, 30 August 2018

Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S delivers organic net sales growth of 1.6% and organic EBITDA growth of 3.1% in Q2 2018

Highlights for Q2 2018

  • Reported net sales of DKK 1,780 million (DKK 1,673 million) - organic growth 1.6%
  • Reported EBITDA of DKK 335 million (DKK 315 million) - organic growth 3.1%
  • Net profit of DKK 205 million (DKK 166 million)
  • Free cash flow of DKK -176 million (DKK 251 million) including impact from the acquisition of Thompson and Co. of Tampa (Thompson Cigars)
  • Closing of the acquisition of Thompson Cigars

Highlights for H1 2018

  • Reported net sales of DKK 3,065 million (DKK 3,052 million) - organic growth 2.4%
  • Reported EBITDA of DKK 531 million (DKK 515 million) - organic growth 2.4%
  • Net profit of DKK 293 million (DKK 241 million)
  • Free cash flow of DKK -252 million (DKK 299 million)

For the second quarter of 2018, Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S delivered net sales of DKK 1,780 million and an adjusted EBITDA of DKK 346 million. Adjusted for currency impact, non-recurring items and acquisition effects, the quarter delivered a 1.6% organic growth in net sales and 3.1% organic growth in EBITDA. Net profit for the quarter increased by 23.3% to DKK 205 million while the free cash flow was negative at DKK -176 million impacted by the acquisition of Thompson Cigars. The performance in the quarter supports our 2018 full year guidance.

For Q2 2018, the handmade cigar category maintained its strong momentum and delivered an organic growth of 6.9% in net sales with the machine-made cigars category delivering a negative organic growth of 2.4%. The pipe tobacco category delivered negative organic growth of 9.4% while fine-cut tobacco reported negative organic growth of 0.9%. The "other" category continued to show growth and delivered a positive organic growth of 5.3%.

CEO Niels Frederiksen says: "We delivered a satisfactory result in the second quarter of 2018. In our biggest category, the handmade cigars, we continue to deliver healthy growth rates - and I'm particularly pleased to see the integration of Thompson Cigars running as planned and to report solid sales growth in Thompson Cigars in the first full quarter after the acquisition. Also, the strong momentum in our "other" category continued while we in the machine-made cigars category still see declining volumes driven by the new excise structures in France".

Conference Call and Webcast

A conference call and webcast will be held on 30 August 2018 at 10:00 AM CET.

Presentation materials will be available online approximately one hour before the webcast on investor.st-group.com.

Dial-in details:

Denmark:       +45 35 15 81 21

The UK:         +44 (0) 330 336 9411

The US:         +1 929 477 0402

Passcode:      3108235 https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/2g5ke25c

For further information, please contact: For investor enquiries : Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations, phone: +45 7220 7126 or torben.sand@st-group.com

For media enquiries : Simon Mehl Augustesen, Director of Group Communications, phone: +45 7220 7152 or simon.augustesen@st-group.com

Attachment