The world's fourth-largest tobacco company by sales, Imperial Tobacco Group has said that it expects higher revenues from the sale of tobacco products as the company brands target emerging markets.

The maker of Davidoff, Gauloises and JPS brands said that its sales have risen 4 per cent in the year due to higher prices of the products and demand from emerging markets. The company has been looking at increasing prices to maintain revenues as volumes fall across markets.

"Tobacco net revenues are expected to be up by around four per cent with particularly good performances in our Eastern Europe, Africa & Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions," the company said.

Imperial is increasing its focus on Asia and Africa in order to offset stagnation in markets in European markets. The UK and Germany along with Spain are important markets form the company in Europe but is looking at emerging markets to avoid a slowdown.

It said that it has seeing good growth for its major brands including Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and JPS. However, the total stick volumes that include cigarettes and fine-cut tobacco fell 3 per cent, according to estimates mainly due to a slowdown in Ukraine and Poland as well as a trade ban on Syria.