Tobacco.org

• Swedish Match Q4 beats forecasts, CEO to go 

Swedish Match reported quarterly pretax profits slightly above market expectations on Wednesday, sending its shares up, and said its chief executive would step down this year.

The tobacco products maker forecast higher sales and operating profits in 2008 after fourth-quarter pretax profit rose 14 percent to 976 million Swedish crowns ($154 million), beating a mean forecast of 956 million in a Reuters poll.

But margins for its biggest and most lucrative product, snuff -- a wet tobacco sold mainly in the United States and Scandinavia but banned elsewhere in the European Union -- fell short of expectations. Operating margins at the division shrank to 45 percent from 48 versus an expected 46.7 percent.

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