China Restricts Smoking And Philip Morris (PMI) Gets Smoked

Two trillion cigarettes are sold in China each year. Sixty-percent of adult men in the People’s Republic are smokers.

The AP reports that China will ban smoking indoors in seven of the nation’s big provincial capitals.

The news will be particularly hard on Philip Morris (NYSE:PMI), the international arm of the company once known as Altria (NYSE:MO). In the last quarter, $3.2 billion of PMI’s total $16.6 billion in revenue came from Asia. China is the single largest country by sales in that region.

Tobacco companies have been nearly taxed and regulated out of existence in the US as fewer and fewer people smoke. All the cigarette companies can do is raise prices to hold revenue higher. The trend of restrictions on smoking has moved to Europe. But, when it makes it to China, the nation which is the future of the smoking business, it is worse news that a wrongful death suit.

Douglas A. McIntyre