Tobacco’s Stigma Aside, Wall Street Finds a Lot to Like

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There are plenty of reasons cigarettes would seem to be a terrible business.

The number of American smokers usually drops about 1 or 2 percent a year. Government agencies keep adding cigarette taxes and outlawing smoking in restaurants, workplaces and even on public sidewalks. And tobacco companies continue to pay billions of dollars in legal settlements, money that is used in part to produce antismoking ads.

For all the industry’s apparent troubles, however, the future of cigarettes appears to be brighter than ever.

That at least is the message investors are sending as the Altria Group — the company once known as Philip Morris and the maker of the world’s most popular cigarette, Marlboro — prepares to split itself by spinning off its Kraft Foods division to shareholders and become, once again, primarily a tobacco company. Today, Louis C. Camilleri, the chief executive of Altria, is expected to set a timetable for completing the spinoff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/31tobacco.html

Like Republicanism, Addiction brings big profits to corporate America.