By Joe Hoppe

British American Tobacco PLC said Wednesday that first-half pretax profit fell on the back of reduced revenue and a strong comparative period.

The tobacco company posted a pretax profit of 4.38 billion pounds ($6.08 billion) in the first half of 2021, compared with GBP4.59 billion the prior-year period.

Revenue fell to GBP12.18 billion from GBP12.27 billion. New Categories revenue rose 50% to GBP942 million, and the company expects full-year losses from the segment to reduce.

BAT backed its earlier guidance of a rise in fiscal 2021 revenue to be above 5% at constant currency, and said it was on track to making GBP5 billion in revenue in its New Categories segment in 2025.

The company said that it expects the second half of the year will reflect the negative effect of its geographic and portfolio mix, and a strong prior year comparator which offsets the progress from New Categories.

BAT said it plans extra investment into its New Categories segment in the second half, and said it was on track to achieve operating cash flow conversion in excess of 90%.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

This story was corrected at 0710 GMT becuase the day in the first paragraph was misstated at Friday.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-28-21 0242ET