British American Tobacco first-half sales beat estimates on higher e-cig customer adds

British American Tobacco on Wednesday reported better-than-expected revenue for the first half of the year as the Lucky Strike cigarette maker added a record number of new customers for its vaping products. Total adjusted revenue came in at 12.18 billion pounds ($16.90 billion) for the six months ended June 30, ahead of the 12.02 billion pounds analysts had expected, according to a company-supplied estimate.

The company also kept its full-year forecast for over 5% sales growth in constant currency. ($1 = 0.7209 pounds)