British American paid $1.1B into government coffers last year, paid special dividend

British American paid $1.1B into government coffers last year, paid special dividend
Jonathan Underhill
By Jonathan Underhill June 5 (BusinessDesk) - British American Tobacco Holdings (New Zealand), the nation's biggest tobacco company by market share, paid a little-changed $1.1 billion in excise duty last year while also declaring a special dividend of $227 million, using retained proceeds of its sale of brands two years ago. BAT NZ paid excise on sales of $1.46 billion in 2017, up from $1.42 billion the previous year. Cost of sales was $1.4 billion, leaving a gross profit of $61 million. Net profit fell to $15.6 million from $22 million i...