BAT Takes $31.5 Billion Cost on U.S. Cigarette Manufacturers

British American Tobacco is reserving a $31.5 billion cost to slash the worth of its U.S. cigarette enterprise, one of many largest company write-offs in latest historical past.

The accounting cost, largely stemming from its 2017 takeover of the U.S. maker of Newport and Camel cigarettes, approaches the worth erased by the failed merger of AOL and Time Warner. The media firm took a $45.5 billion cost in 2003 just a few years after its deal.