BUZZ-Imperial Brands: GS cuts to 'neutral'

** Imperial Brands (LSE: IMB.L - news) down 1.8 pct and near bottom of FTSE 100 after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) cuts to "neutral" from "buy" and removes stock from Pan-Europe Conviction list

** Company's performance "disappointing"; says since April 2016 stock fell 30 pct vs gains of 23 pct in FTSE World Europe

** Despite successful stabilisation of market share across key geographies, organic rev growth failed to recover as had been expected, reflecting worsening trends across cigarette markets - GS

** In absence of recovery across key combustible markets or positive surprises on new products, difficult to identify a key catalyst for the stock, says GS

** Following recent Nielsen (EUREX: 11400372.EX - news) data across its tracked markets, GS sees risk of a miss to IMB's FY 2018 organic rev growth and EPS growth guidance

** GS cuts target price to 2760P from 3610P