Now Bet On The World’s Largest Cigarette Maker: China Tobacco Soon To List On Hong Kong Stock Exchange

China National Tobacco Corp (CNTC), a state-run monopoly that’s also the world’s largest cigarette manufacturer, is planning to list its international business on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, reports Bloomberg.

CNTC sells about 99 per cent of its cigarettes in China, a country with over 300 million smokers. While the country accounts for around twenty per cent of the world’s population, it is responsible for 45 per cent of the world’s cigarette consumption.

Revenues from tobacco products brought in around $160 billion in profit and tax to government treasury in 2016, according to the latest available data. World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies the country as a ‘high-burden tobacco-use country.’

China Tobacco International Inc, CNTC’s international arm, procures overseas tobacco leaf from countries like Brazil and Canada. This raw material is then used to produce about four of every ten cigarettes sticks in the world.

Though the international business represents a small share of its overall balance sheet, CNTC has a higher global market share than the next five cigarette companies combined.

Cigarettes are responsible for around four million deaths in the country every year. Some lawmakers in the National People’s Congress have also asked for increasing taxes on tobacco products. Also, many tobacco companies like Japan Tobacco Inc, Philip Morris International Inc and British American Tobacco Plc have seen their stock prices plummet by more than twenty per cent in recent years.

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