Chief executive of British American Tobacco steps down after eight years

Nicandro Durante has been at the helm of BAT for eight years

The chief executive of British American Tobacco is to stand down, as the world’s biggest cigarette manufacturer grapples growing investor concern.

After eight years at the helm of the maker of Camel and Dunhill, Nicandro Durante will retire on April 1 next year.

Almost 30pc of the FTSE 100 company’s market value has been wiped out this year. The sector is facing a period of unprecedented change as demand for vaping grows at pace and threatens the position of tobacco titans.

“Through a period of great change,” BAT chairman Richard Burrows said Mr Durante had been “the architect of the current strategy to transform the business”.

Mr Burrows praised Mr Durante’s “successful establishment of BAT’s potentially reduced risk products business” and overseeing BAT’s $49bn merger with Reynolds.

BAT said it had whittled down a list of replacements “over the past few months” and had “identified a lead candidate to succeed” Mr Durante, who has been with BAT for 37 years. The name of his successor will be revealed in “in due course”, the company said.

Jefferies analyst Owen Bennett said it seemed “a strange time to go” and feared “the news will be used to justify the view that the business is in trouble”.

“We think the market is likely to conclude that this was a board-driven decision in response to recent share price performance and investor frustration at a lack of communication/tangible guidance over the past 12 months.”

He continued: “BAT sentiment is currently worse than we have ever known it and the tobacco space is in the midst of unprecedented change. Against this backdrop, why would BAT create further uncertainty if thought not necessary?”

Mr Durante said: “It has been a privilege to have led such a great company for the last eight years. We now have a growing potentially reduced risk product business fully embedded in our organisation and the integration of Reynolds has been successfully completed. I shall stay in place for the next six months to ensure an orderly handover to my successor.”