PJSC “Tobacco Company ‘V. A.T. – Pryluky” (Chernihiv Oblast), a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), increased its revenue by 3.8% in January–June 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, reaching 2.813 billion UAH.
As reported by the company in the National Securities and Stock Market Commission’s (NSSMC) disclosure system, its net profit rose by 28.2% to 374.5 million UAH.
According to the financial statements, the company’s gross profit for the first half of the year increased by 7.3% to 525.9 million UAH, while operating profit rose by 22.6% to 372.9 million UAH.
As of June 30, 2026, the assets of PJSC “A/T Tobacco Company ‘V.A.T.-Pryluky’” totaled 17.439 billion UAH, compared to 14.986 billion UAH at the beginning of the year.
Compared to the first quarter, the number of employees at the company decreased by 10 and currently stands at 374.
The company’s equity increased to UAH 13.639 billion from UAH 13.579 billion, while current liabilities rose to UAH 3.687 billion from UAH 1.296 billion.
According to the report, “V.A.T. Pryluky” is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of tobacco products in Ukraine. It produces cigarettes under international brands and a national local brand, as well as TVEN.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), 100% of the shares are owned by Precis (1814) Limited (United Kingdom).
As previously reported, in 2025, the company’s net profit fell by 37.3% compared to 2024—to 413.6 million UAH—amid an 11.8% decline in net revenue to 5.04 billion UAH.
PJSC “Tobacco Company V.A.T. – Pryluky” (Chernihiv Oblast), a subsidiary of the international British American Tobacco (BAT), will pay 52 million hryvnias in dividends to a shareholder between July 14 and July 31 of this year.
According to the company’s filing with the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) disclosure system, the shareholder approved the decision on July 14.
The dividends will be paid in U.S. dollars directly to the shareholder via a bank transfer. According to the NSSMC, 100% of the company’s shares are owned by Precis (1814) Limited.
According to information in the disclosure system, the company continues its regular practice of paying dividends. Specifically, in 2026, on June 18, the shareholder decided to pay 54 million UAH in dividends from June 18 to 30; on May 19, to pay 52 million UAH from May 19 to 31; on April 9, to pay the same amount of dividends from April 9 to 30; in March, the same amount from March 17 to 31, and similarly in February and January. At the same time, the total amount of dividends to be paid this year has not been specified.
As previously reported, the National Bank of Ukraine has limited the transfer of dividends abroad to no more than EUR1 million per month.
According to the company’s information, “V.A.T. Pryluky” is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of tobacco products in Ukraine, producing cigarettes under international brands and the national brand “Pryluky,” as well as TVEN.
According to the company’s annual report filed with the NSSMC’s disclosure system, in 2025 it saw its net profit decline by 37.3% compared to 2024—to 413.6 million UAH—amid an 11.8% decrease in net revenue to 5.04 billion UAH. Retained earnings amounted to 4.9 billion UAH.
The company produced more than 8 billion filtered cigarettes worth 2.95 billion UAH, 729 million TVEN units worth 422 million UAH, and nearly 3 billion filters worth 742.5 million UAH.
Average selling prices were 423.71 UAH per 1,000 cigarettes and 652.4 UAH per 1,000 TVEN units. Export volume totaled 0.95 billion UAH, or approximately 1.84 billion cigarettes. The main customer is “BAT Sales and Marketing Ukraine.”
PJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine” and LLC “Philip Morris Sales and Distribution” paid a total of 31.7 billion UAH in taxes for January–June 2026, which is 10% higher than the figures for the same period last year, according to a company press release.
The bulk of the payments consisted of excise tax—24 billion UAH—and value-added tax (VAT)—7.1 billion UAH.
“In the first half of the year, we managed to increase the amount of taxes paid by 10%. This was made possible by an increase in excise tax rates on tobacco products, despite a decline in market volumes and the consequences of the missile attack on our factory and warehouses,” the press service quoted Serhiy Kalnoochenko, CFO of Philip Morris Ukraine, as saying.
According to Kalnoochenko, since the start of the full-scale invasion, the company has paid more than 212 billion hryvnias to the budget, which is one of the highest figures among businesses in Ukraine.
“This is a real contribution by our business to funding defense, social programs, and economic recovery. However, this amount could have been at least 25–28 billion hryvnias higher if the country had been able to overcome the problem of the illegal tobacco trade. Instead, the market for illegal cigarettes continues to grow every quarter,” Kalnoochenko emphasized.
According to estimates by Kantar Ukraine in April 2026, the volume of the illicit tobacco market has grown again and now stands at 19.8%. With such market volumes, annual losses to the state budget due to unpaid taxes are estimated at a record 33.3 billion hryvnias, the statement noted.
Philip Morris Ukraine PJSC has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1994 and is one of the largest taxpayers. In 2024, the company opened a new factory in the Lviv region, investing $30 million and creating 250 jobs. Last year, the company invested $5 million in promoting its “ZYN” nicotine pouch brand in Ukraine; this year, it plans to invest another $10 million in developing the nicotine pouch category and launching a new product line under the brand.
In late January 2026, part of the company’s Kharkiv factory was damaged in a nighttime missile strike; operations at the facility have been suspended since February 24, 2022. The company’s preliminary estimate of the damages is $16 million.
On the night of July 8, the company lost its finished goods warehouse in Kyiv due to Russian shelling.
The company also provides humanitarian aid to communities in the Kharkiv, Lviv, and Kyiv regions, and collaborates with the rehabilitation funds Superhumans, U+System, and UNBROKEN. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, projects totaling 431 million hryvnias have been implemented.
The overall level of illicit tobacco trade in Ukraine rose to 19.8% in April 2026 from 17.6% at the beginning of the year, according to the results of the second wave of the project “Monitoring Illicit Tobacco Trade in Ukraine,” conducted by Kantar Ukraine on behalf of leading manufacturers in the industry.
According to data published on its website, nearly one in five packs of cigarettes on the Ukrainian market is illegal. Analysts estimate that, given this level of the black market, annual losses to the state budget due to unpaid taxes amount to 33.3 billion UAH.
“The main factor driving this growth was an increase in the volume of counterfeit products, particularly cigarettes with forged excise stamps. At the same time, the volume of products labeled ‘Duty Free’ or intended for export but illegally sold in Ukraine has remained stable since the beginning of the year, although it exceeds the figures for 2025,” the study notes.
According to the study’s findings, 38% of the total volume of counterfeit products consists of cigarettes from local manufacturers with counterfeit excise stamps. The main producer of such products, based on the labeling on the packaging, remains Marshall Finest Tobacco (United Tobacco)/VK Tobacco FZE.
In the segment of products labeled “Duty Free” or intended for export but illegally sold in Ukraine, 55% of cigarettes are produced by the Vynnykivska Tobacco Factory, and another 44% by Marshall Finest Tobacco.
Geographically, 68% of the total volume of illegal tobacco products is concentrated in seven regions of Ukraine: Dnipropetrovsk (18%), Odesa (11%), Kharkiv (10%), Kirovohrad (8%), Lviv (8%), Khmelnytskyi (7%) regions, and Kyiv and the Kyiv region (6%).
“The tobacco shadow has grown again(((. For the attention of the updated BEB,” commented Danylo Getmantsev, head of the Committee on Finance, Tax, and Customs Policy, on these results.
According to the study, despite a certain decline in sales of illegal cigarettes through kiosks, it is precisely kiosks and stores that remain the main distribution channels through which about two-thirds of illegal tobacco products are sold.
Kantar Ukraine conducts the “Monitoring of Illegal Trade in Tobacco Products in Ukraine” project on an ongoing basis. The study is based on the collection and analysis of empty cigarette packs, as well as interviews with smokers, to determine the channels of supply and the origin of illegal goods on the domestic market.
The decline in the tobacco market in Ukraine accelerated to 16.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 from 15.0% in the third quarter, according to the annual report of Philip Morris International (PMI). According to the report, the Ukrainian market lost 10.6% in real terms over the year as a whole, while the European market as a whole lost 3.5%.
This decline was caused by a 5% drop in cigarette sales, while sales of heated tobacco products (HTU) continued to grow.
In the European region, a significant drop in sales in the fourth quarter of last year was also recorded in Poland (15.4%) and, to a lesser extent, in France (9.4%), but this was partially offset by sales growth in Bulgaria (8.3%), Germany (1.7%), and Serbia (6.4%).
Overall, Philip Morris managed to increase its global sales by 1.4% last year, thanks to a 12.8% increase in sales of smokeless products, including an 11.0% increase in HTU sales, while cigarette sales fell by 1.5%.
As a result, the company’s net revenue grew by 7.3% to $40.6 billion, including smokeless products, which grew by 15% to $16.9 billion.
The report notes that in 2025, Ukraine accounted for about 2% of total cigarette and HTU shipments, as well as about 1% of total net revenue.
“In Ukraine, it is impossible to predict when and to what extent we will be able to fully normalize our operations, as well as to what extent our personnel, facilities, inventories, and other assets will remain intact,” the document also states.
As of December 31, 2025, PMI’s total assets in Ukraine amounted to approximately $0.7 billion, excluding intercompany balances.
As reported, in 2024, Philip Morris Ukraine opened a new factory in the Lviv region, investing $30 million in its launch. The company’s Kharkiv factory has been suspended since February 24, 2022.
Philip Morris Ukraine (PMU) has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1994. On January 30, 2026, the company reported a Russian missile strike that damaged part of the company’s Kharkiv factory.
According to data from YouControl, in the first nine months of 2025, Philip Morris Ukraine’s revenue decreased by 13.3% to UAH 14.23 billion.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine (SCU) has ruled that hookahs in restaurants are a promotion of tobacco products, and therefore hookahs are absolutely prohibited in restaurants, regardless of their composition.
In this way, the Ukrainian judiciary has defended the right of citizens to health in order to strengthen the fight against the tobacco epidemic.
Since 2012, advertising and promotion of tobacco products, including hookah tobacco, have been banned in Ukraine. Despite this, unscrupulous business entities provided hookah services, which by definition is a form of advertising and promotion of tobacco sales.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine, having considered the cassation appeals of the Main Department of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Kyiv in cases No. 320/29317/23 and No. 320/23655/23, issued decisions confirming the legality of the imposition of financial sanctions by the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection on business entities for stimulating the sale of tobacco products by providing hookah services, which are violations of Article 16 of Law 2899-IV.
The Supreme Court notes: “The provision of hookah services by an establishment should be considered as a promotion of tobacco products and tobacco use, even if there is no direct advertising of the product.”
In addition, it is prohibited to place information about hookah services on the menu: “The placement of information about tobacco products or related services in the menu of a restaurant establishment or on posters falls under the prohibition of advertising and promotion of tobacco products, trademarks for goods and services.”
Thus, restaurant establishments are not allowed to provide hookah services at all. Theposting of information about tobacco products and items related to their use is prohibited (except for one poster no larger than 40×30 cm per point of sale, which provides textual information printed in black on a white background about tobacco products available for sale and their prices).
The above positions of the Supreme Court are fully consistent with international standards, in particular the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the WHO FCTC Guidelines and Directive 2014/40/EU, which prohibit any advertising of tobacco products, including hookah tobacco and hookah accessories.
The Law No. 2899-IV stipulates that violation of Article 16 is punishable by a fine of UAH 30 thousand, and in case of repeated violation within a year – UAH 50 thousand for each fact of advertising on a separate advertising medium or each separate event to promote the sale of tobacco products.
“The decision of the Supreme Court is extremely important as it confirms that the actions of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection in preventing advertising and promotion of tobacco products through hookahs are in line with the law. Thus, we see in action that the health of citizens is a priority for the state and it is able to defend it,” emphasized Dmytro Kupyra, executive director of the NGO ‘Life’.
Hookah smoking is dangerous for the health of both smokers and people around them, as hookah smoke contains a high concentration of toxic substances and carcinogens. The World Health Organization emphasizes: 1 hour of hookah smoking can be equal in terms of smoke exposure to a hundred cigarettes smoked. During a hookah session, a smoker takes about 200 puffs, inhaling 30-40 times more smoke than when smoking cigarettes.
Prolonged inhalation of secondary hookah smoke can cause dizziness, carbon monoxide poisoning, and later asthma, coronary heart disease, stroke, and even lung, esophageal, and stomach cancer.
WHO surveys show that 2.6% of Ukrainians are hookah smokers, with this share concentrated in the youngest age group of 18-29 years old.
