The chief financial officer (CFO) at British American Tobacco (BAT), Soroya Benchikh, has stepped down from the role with immediate effect.

The firm stated that she will remain available to support the transition until 31 December 2025.

BAT said that a recruitment process to identify a permanent successor is underway.

The firm’s current digital and information director, Javed Iqbal, will take on the role of interim CFO. He served as the firm’s interim finance director from May 2023 to April 2024.

Chief executive at BAT, Tadeu Marroco, said: "Benchikh has made a significant contribution to BAT, having worked in various roles within the group over many years. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Benchikh for her contribution, most recently in her role as CFO since rejoining the group in May 2024. We wish her all the best with her future plans.

"As we set out at our recent results, our performance in the first half of the year was slightly ahead of our expectations, and we are firmly on track to deliver our full year guidance. With the right strategy we intend to continue to deliver on the profitable transformation of BAT, reflected in our stated ambitions for 2026 and beyond. We will update on our continued progress in our pre-close trading update in December."

Benchikh added: "I am proud of my role in the significant progress since I joined BAT, as reflected in our recent results.

"Further embedding financial discipline and putting new categories on a path to accretive margins and sustainable profitability have been key contributions to that progress. This was made possible thanks to the incredibly talented and dedicated teams I have had the privilege to work with across BAT. Now is the right time for me to move on to my next transformation. I wish the BAT team every success in taking the business to the next level."

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