Big Tobacco is reportedly positioning itself as a socially conscious investment.
The CEO of Philip Morris International told the Financial Times he believes investors who have dropped the tobacco company’s stock in recent years will eventually come back in light of its pivot toward vapor-based nicotine products, which have been marketed as less harmful than cigarettes — but regulators have been cracking down on e-cigarettes and other alternatives, particularly as evidence mounts that they can be harmful to teens.
About a third of PMI’s revenue comes from sales of its smoke-free products currently, and it aims to become a majority-smoke-free business over the next two years. The majority of those sales come from PMI’s “heated tobacco” products, which use electricity to warm, rather than burn, tobacco.
When asked by the newspaper whether he believed that Philip Morris could eventually be classified as an ESG stock — a loosely defined category of companies rated on environmental, social and governance factors — Jacek Olczak responded: “I think so.”
The CEO of Philip Morris International told the Financial Times he believes investors who have dropped the tobacco company’s stock in recent years will eventually come back in light of its pivot toward vapor-based nicotine products, which have been marketed as less harmful than cigarettes — but regulators have been cracking down on e-cigarettes and other alternatives, particularly as evidence mounts that they can be harmful to teens.
About a third of PMI’s revenue comes from sales of its smoke-free products currently, and it aims to become a majority-smoke-free business over the next two years. The majority of those sales come from PMI’s “heated tobacco” products, which use electricity to warm, rather than burn, tobacco.
When asked by the newspaper whether he believed that Philip Morris could eventually be classified as an ESG stock — a loosely defined category of companies rated on environmental, social and governance factors — Jacek Olczak responded: “I think so.”