BAT 1st half profit up 5 pct

LONDON (AP) - British American Tobacco PLC, the maker of Dunhill, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike cigarettes, said Wednesday that profits rose 5 percent in the first half of the year, helped by the acquisition of Bentoel in Indonesia.

The company reported a net profit of 1.53 billion pounds ($2.4 billion), up from 1.45 billion pounds in the first half of 2009.

Revenue rose 8 percent to 7.3 billion pounds although the volume of cigarette sales was flat at 348 billion. Excluding the acquisition of PT Bentoel Internasional Investama Tbk, completed in June of last year, volume declined by 3 percent.

The board declared an interim dividend of 33.2 pence, 19 percent higher than a year ago.

Among BAT's four "global drive" brands, Dunhill volume rose 21 percent, Pall Mall gained 7 percent, Lucky Strike rose 1 percent and Kent volume fell by 4 percent.

Volumes were down in all markets except Asia-Pacific, where the Bentoel acquisition drove volumes up to 95 billion cigarettes, up from 88 billion in the first half of last year.

BAT shares were down 0.2 percent at 2,254.5 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange.

(This version CORRECTS Adds details, share prices; Corrects that net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 1.53 bln pounds and that it rose 5 pct.)