Do we like them?

Do we like British American Tobacco?

Makes cigarettes (Lucky Strike, Camel, Newport), vapes and nicotine pouches (Vuse, Velo). Based in London, UK.

Our score: 2 out of 10. No. Its main product harms health, and it paid a record US sanctions penalty over North Korea. Its smoke-free products are a small step but not enough for us to put our money in.

BAT is one of the world's biggest tobacco firms, based in London. The CEO is Tadeu Marroco, who has led it since May 2023. The Chair is Luc Jobin. In February 2026 the board extended his term to 2028, which goes past the nine-year limit in the UK governance code.

The biggest scandal is North Korea. In 2023 the US Treasury announced a $508m settlement, which it said was the largest ever against a non-financial company. It said BAT ran a seven-year scheme to move profits from a North Korean venture through US banks. BAT had said it left that market in 2007.

That isn't over. A report says more than 100 shareholders have sued in London's High Court, claiming BAT misled the market about North Korea. BAT's own filings mention claimants over the same matter. We haven't seen BAT's response, and the allegations haven't been proved.

Smoking claims keep coming. In Canada, BAT's unit Imperial Tobacco Canada is one of three firms in a C$32.5bn settlement. An Ontario court approved it in March 2025. The UK Serious Fraud Office dropped a bribery probe over East Africa in 2021, saying the evidence fell short. The allegations had come from a BBC investigation.

So would we back them? No. BAT talks up a smoke-free future, but cigarettes are still the core business. The sanctions penalty and the lawsuits come on top of that. That's why we give it a low score.