Egypt’s Largest Cigarette Maker Reports Record Profit

  • Egypt’s monopoly tobacco maker unfazed by recent price hikes
  • Eastern slated to see additional stake on offer in October

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

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Egypt’s largest cigarette maker, Eastern Tobacco, posted a 42.5 percent surge in profits for the year, beating estimates despite raising prices to accommodate the country’s new so-called sin tax.

Eastern’s net income for fiscal 2017-18 rose to a record 4.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($234.5 million) compared to almost 3 billion the previous year. The mean profit estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was 3.99 billion pounds. Revenues rose about 28 percent from last year to 13.4 billion pounds.