Nicandro Durante
Management
So good morning, everyone, and welcome to those of you who are listening on the conference call or watching via the webcast. I'm Nicandro Durante, Chief Executive of British American Tobacco, and as usual, I'm joined by the finest Director, Ben Stevens. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for those of you in the audience to ask questions. And as you'll see in a moment, we have changed and hopefully improved the format of the results presentation this year. I hope you find it clear, more useful presentation of the numbers. Once again, I'm extremely pleased to say that despite a challenging year for the industry, British American Tobacco has performed very strongly in 2013. On a constant currency basis, we met or exceeded all of our financial strategic metrics. Pressure on disposable incomes in Western Europe, together with large excise-driven price increases in Brazil and Russia, resulted in lower industry volume. However, continued corporate share growth and the strength of the GDBs ensure that BAT outperformed the industry. Our cigarette volume was down 2.7% in our industry. We estimate to be down between 3% and 3.5%. Industry pricing remains strong. Revenue grew over 4% on a constant basis, driven by the very good price mix of almost 7%. The impact of adverse exchange rates meant that reported revenue was slightly up. Operating margin grew 100 basis points to a record 38.1%. Adjusted operating profit on a constant -- on a current basis was up 3% or 7% in constant terms. And I am very pleased to -- that we have again delivered on our commitment to high-single-figure earnings growth, with a 10% increase in EPS at constant rates of exchange, or 6% at current rates of exchange. These are the strong results at the top end of our strategic metrics, only tempered by the strength of sterling, our reporting currency, which wasn't -- has little impact, underlying the strength of our business. Having said that, even the current rates, BAT has grown and prospered over the last 5 years. At a constant rates, we have delivered a consistently strong performance, generating average annual earnings per share growth of over 10%. Our results in 2013 are not a one-off. And this good performance comes despite a very tough economic environment. The proposed dividend per share is 6% higher at 142.4p for the year. We have always said that we see the 65% payout ratio as a floor, not a ceiling. This year, a strict application of the ratio would have resulted in a 4% increase in dividends due to the IAS 19 restatement of 2012 EPS. However, we are increasing the dividend in line with our growth in earnings, resulting in a small increase in payout ratio. I'm also pleased to announce that we'll continue the share buyback with another GBP 1.5 billion in 2014. I will now hand over to Ben, who will take you through the numbers in a little bit more detail.