Imperial Brands (AO) | Buy | Reassuring CC; focus shifts to H2 delivery.

Research evidence excerpt

Imperial Brands (AO) | Buy | Reassuring CC; focus shifts to H2 delivery.

News comment

Release date: 12 May 2026

Emanuele Sartori

Equity Research Analyst

Buy + 44 207 621 5267Imperial Brands esartori@keplercheuvreux.com

United Kingdom | Tobacco Beta Profile: MCap: GBP21.2bn

Target Price: 3350p Bloomberg: IMB LN Reuters: IMB.L

Current Price: 2728.00p Free float 95%

Up/downside: 22.8% Avg. daily volume (GBPm) 8,277.6

YTD abs performance -12.5% Market data: 11 May 2026

52-week high/low (GBP) 3341.00/2667.00

Reassuring CC; focus shifts to H2 delivery.

Call tone was reassuring: management clearly backed FY26 guidance and framed H1 as affected by temporary drags rather than

underlying deterioration, with H2 expected to benefit from lower one-offs, pricing flow-through and improving operational leverage.

US NGP remains the key debate: management pushed hard on the message that Zone is still performing well underneath promotional

phasing, while the exit from myblu reflects discipline and should help reduce losses in H2. The company will continue to look at the US

vape market and assess what it can do to come back, but for now, capital is being directed into better returns' areas.

Strategically, the message was unchanged but more concrete: Imperial is prioritising value over share in combustibles and disciplined

scale in NGP, while transformation is starting to show measurable savings and should increasingly support both margins and medium-

term delivery.

Management sounded more confident on the H2 bridge than in the prepared results. They quantified over GBP50m of H1 one-offs and

were clear that these should be much lower in H2, alongside the usual pricing carry-through and operational gearing . The call gave

more details on how Imperial now thinks about market share.