In this article, we are going to discuss the 16 largest tobacco companies in the world by market cap. You can skip our detailed analysis of the global tobacco market, the heavy investments in marketing by tobacco companies, and the rise of smokeless tobacco, and go directly to 5 Largest Tobacco Companies in the World by Market Cap.
Tobacco was first used by the people of pre-Columbian Americas. Archeological studies suggest that the Maya people of Central America started using tobacco leaves as far back as the 1st century BC, mainly for smoking in sacred and religious ceremonies. By the time Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492, the Native Americans were already cultivating and smoking tobacco in pipes, cigars, and snuff. Although Cristopher Columbus brought with him a few tobacco leaves and seeds back to Europe, most Europeans didn't get their first taste of the plant until the mid-16th century, when adventurers and diplomats like France's Jean Nicot – for whom nicotine is named – began to popularize its use. Tobacco was introduced to France in 1556, Portugal in 1558, Spain in 1559, and finally England in 1565. By the early 17th century, smoking was common in all of Europe’s maritime nations, and their colonial empires soon carried tobacco all over the world.
Global Tobacco Market:
According to Research and Markets, the global tobacco market is expected to reach $1.049 trillion by 2030, with a CAGR of 2.1% during the forecast period. The market is fuelled by a growing demand from developing nations, coupled with the rising proliferation of next-generation products (NGPs) across the globe. The high marketing expenditure and discounting of products undertaken by major tobacco companies is also adding to the growth of the industry.
While tobacco consumption is leveling off and even decreasing in some countries, the number of people smoking is still increasing globally, and smokers are smoking more than before. An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide use tobacco products, 80% of whom are in low- and middle-income countries.
Heavy Investments in Marketing:
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has led to widespread restrictions on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship around the world. This, coupled with the evidence of the causal role of marketing in the tobacco epidemic, has inspired more than half the countries worldwide to ban some forms of tobacco marketing.
Yet, tobacco companies have found creative ways to maneuver their way around these barriers, using a variety of marketing strategies to create demand for cigarettes and other tobacco products by urging the youth to experiment, reducing smokers’ motivation to quit, and encouraging former smokers to take it up again. According to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2020 alone, the American tobacco industry spent over $8.4 billion on marketing for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, spending more at the point-of-sale than anywhere else. They spent nearly $66 million on advertisements at the point of sale alone.
However, this hasn’t been without consequences. In September 2023, the e-cigarette company Juul, which at the height of its success dominated the market with its sweet flavors, agreed to pay $438.5 million in a settlement with 33 states and one territory over marketing its product to teens. The case ends major litigation over claims about the marketing of e-cigarettes to adolescents, resolving thousands of lawsuits and amounting to billions of dollars in payouts to states, cities, and people.
Sales of Juul products were sky high a few years ago and the company was even eyeing a market valuation of around $38 billion. However, it was discovered that Juul use among teens and young adults spiked heavily from 2018 to 2019. An estimated 27.5% of high schoolers reported using e-cigarettes during the period, with more than half naming Juul as their brand of choice. To add to the company’s woes, the FDA banned Juul products on U.S. shelves last summer, citing a lack of evidence demonstrating their overall safety. The regulator also noted Juul’s ‘disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.’
The Rise of Smokeless Tobacco:
Traditional oral tobacco products are widely used in the U.S., consumed by an estimated 5.7 million adults in the country. However, contemporary oral tobacco products, like nicotine pouches, are becoming increasingly popular and fall under a brand new category that presents a safer alternative to more conventional oral consumables, such as snuff and snus. As a result, several key industry players are also making inroads into this category.
It was announced last year that Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) has completed its 100% takeover of the Stockholm-based nicotine pouch maker Swedish Match, in a deal that cost the tobacco giant around $16 billion. Swedish Match has made huge strides in its relentless pursuit of tobacco harm reduction through its range of smoke-free products, and its leading nicotine pouch product, ZYN, will bolster the Marlboro-maker’s growing smoke-free portfolio of heated tobacco products, e-vapor devices, and oral nicotine products. By 2025, Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) aims to be a predominantly smoke-free company, with more than half of its total net revenues coming from its growing portfolio of smoke-free alternatives.
Similarly, the Richmond-based Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) also entered the oral nicotine pouch market in 2019 when it acquired an 80% stake in the Swiss tobacco company Burger Söhne Holding AG for $372 million, and agreed to start distributing its On! brand in the U.S. Following the acquisition, the number of stores selling On! had already nearly doubled by the end of the following year, as the product was ‘attracting female tobacco consumers due to its spitless, white, and compact format’. As a result, Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) also acquired the remaining 20% of the On! global business it did not own for approximately $250 million in 2021.
With that said, here are the World’s Largest Tobacco Companies.
16 Largest Tobacco Companies in the World by Market Cap
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Methodology:
To collect information for this article, we have referred to the Yahoo Finance database, looking for Tobacco Companies with the Largest Market Cap. The following public companies have been ranked by their market capitalization, as of the writing of this piece. When two companies had the same market cap, we ranked them by their sales revenue in 2022.
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16. China Tobacco International (HK) Company Limited
Market Cap: $0.86 billion
The Hong Kong-based China Tobacco International (HK) Co. Ltd. is mainly engaged in the sales, import, and export of cigarettes and tobacco leaf products, serving customers primarily from China (the largest tobacco market in the world) and Southeast Asia. The company boasted a revenue of around $1.06 billion in 2022, an increase of 3.2% from the previous year.
15. Eastern Company SAE
Market Cap: $1.51 billion
Eastern Co. SAE is the biggest manufacturer of tobacco products in Egypt and controls around 70% of the country’s tobacco market. It was one of the first companies listed on the government’s privatization program, which aims to increase foreign currency inflows amid Egypt’s economic crisis. The Egyptian tobacco giant made headlines last year after Global Investment Holdings, an Emirati firm founded just last summer, acquired a 30% stake in it for $625 million.
Eastern Company SAE is ranked among the Largest Tobacco Companies by Market Cap.
14. Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S
Market Cap: $1.541 billion
The Copenhagen-based company offers a range of products including handmade cigars, pipe tobacco, machine-made cigars, fine-cut tobacco, CMA cigars, fire products, tubes, and paper. Founded in 1961, the Scandinavian Tobacco Group boasts a portfolio of around 200 leading FMCG brands and a workforce of over 10,000 around the globe.
Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV) is a leading global supplier of leaf tobacco and operates in more than 30 countries spanning five continents. Its primary subsidiary, Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, Incorporated, is responsible for the largest portion of its business – the procurement and processing of a variety of leaf tobaccos and providing supply chain services to manufacturers of consumer tobacco products. Stocks of Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV) were held by 9 hedge funds in the Insider Monkey database at the end of Q3, with Pzena Investment Management holding the largest stake of over 1.1 million shares, valued at around $52.7 million.
Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE:VGR) is a diversified holding company with business interests in tobacco and real estate. The Miami-based company manufactures and markets a range of discount cigarettes through subsidiaries such as Liggett Group LLC and Vector Tobacco LLC. The company boasted a revenue of over $1.44 billion in 2022 and impressively, has grown its EPS by 31% per year, compound, in the last three years.
Listed on the Prague Stock Exchange, Philip Morris ČR is a subsidiary of Philip Morris International and the largest producer and seller of tobacco products in the Czech Republic. Formerly known as Tabák, a.s., the company provides its products under some of the Biggest Cigarette Brands, including Marlboro, L&M, Philip Morris, Petra Klasik, Sparta, and Chesterfield.
10. PT Gudang Garam Tbk
Market Cap: $2.56 billion
Established in 1958, PT Gudang Garam Tbk is one of Indonesia's leading cigarette manufacturers, best known for its kretek clove cigarettes. The company produces over 70 billion cigarettes annually but its share of the domestic market has steadily declined over the last decade to around 20%, as it comes under pressure from rivals such as HM Sampoerna.
Headquartered in China, RLX Technology Inc. (NYSE:RLX) is a leading branded e-vapor company that leverages its in-house technology and product development capabilities and in-depth insights into adult smokers' needs to develop superior e-vapor products. On the 29th of December, the company announced that its board of directors has authorized the extension of its existing share repurchase program established in December 2021 for an additional 24-month period through December 31, 2025. Under the existing share repurchase program, RLX Technology Inc. (NYSE:RLX) may repurchase up to $500 million of its ordinary shares represented by ADSs until December 31, 2023. As of December 28, 2023, the company had repurchased approximately $193.5 million of its ordinary shares represented by ADSs.
RLX ranks among the Top 10 Tobacco Companies in the Worldin 2024.
8. PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk
Market Cap: $6.7 billion
Founded in 1913, Sampoerna is Indonesia's largest tobacco company controlling about 35% share of the country’s tobacco market. The Surabaya-based company owns seven kretek manufacturing facilities in Indonesia and also distributes the famous Marlboro brand in the domestic market. PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk was acquired by Philip Morris in 2005.
KT&G Corporation is a Korea-based company primarily engaged in the production and sale of cigarettes. Founded as Korea Monopoly by the South Korean government in 1987, the company was later privatized and listed on the South Korean stock market in 1999.
In October 2023, KT&G held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new state-of-art manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan. The new facility is expected to serve as the company’s manufacturing innovation hub in Eurasia and accelerate its long-term vision of becoming a ‘Global Top-tier’ company.
With a revenue of $4.45 billion in 2022, KT&G is counted among the Biggest Cigarette Companies in the World.
6. Imperial Brands PLC
Market Cap: $21.08 billion
With annual sales of 500 billion cigarettes in 160 countries, Imperial Brands PLC is one of the leading tobacco companies in the world. The company’s major brands include JPS, Parker & Simpson, West, Davidoff, Winston, blu, Knox, Montecristo, Pulze, Gauloises, iD, and Skruf. BAT also boasts around 24 million adult consumers globally of its new-category products that include heated cigarettes and oral nicotine products. The goal is to achieve 50 million adult consumers by 2030.
