Resounding Support for Purchase of Imasco Shares

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO PLC
15 October 1999


RESOUNDING SUPPORT FOR ACQUISITION OF IMASCO SHARES

At an Extraordinary General Meeting held this morning, shareholders of
British American Tobacco p.l.c. voted resoundingly in favour of the
resolution to approve the acquisition of the outstanding 58% of the
shares in Imasco Limited that are not already owned by the British
American Tobacco Group and the interconditional disposal of shares in
CT Financial Services to Toronto Dominion Bank.

Approval is required from Imasco's shareholders and a special meeting
for this purpose is expected to be held in January 2000.  Conditional
upon this and other regulatory approvals, completion of the deal will
be in the first quarter 2000.

Martin Broughton said 'In supporting our proposals, I am pleased that
our shareholders have once again endorsed our strategy to become the
world's leading international tobacco company. I believe that the
transaction is the most efficient way to ensure that the full
realisable value of Imasco's businesses is passed through to its
shareholders'.



For further information, please contact:

British American Tobacco Michael Prideaux   0171 845 1000
                         Ralph Edmondson
                         Denise Hart