Imperial Tobacco Plc., the fourth largest global tobacco group by sales in the world, said today that it is back to profit in the first half of the fiscal. Imperial said that it reported good first half results Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Central Europe.

Imperial said that the first half profit was mainly attributable to the increased revenue, helped by the price increases and improving market share. Imperial is also optimistic for the rest of the year.

Imperial said in its half yearly report that net profit for the first six months of the fiscal ended March 31 was reported of £697 million, while Imperial posted a net loss of £142 million in the same period last year. Pretax profit for the first half was reported of £974 million comparing to a pretax loss of £184 million in the previous corresponding period.

Imperial said that the adjusted pretax profit for the period was reported of £1.15 billion, increasing by 4% comparing to the same period last year. Total revenue in the first six months was reported of £13.37 billion, increasing by 8% while it was reported of £12.42 billion in the same period last year.

Imperial reported strong sales of its global cigarette brands like Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes and West in the first six months of the fiscal. The company also expects cigarette volumes to be stable in the second half.

"In the second half we currently expect cigarette volumes to be stable against the second half of 2009, with a slight decline overall for our current financial year," said Gareth Davies, chief executive of Imperial.