The British tobacco manufacturer Imperial Brands has lowered its profit forecast for this year. The company does that because the sales of vaping items are increasing less rapidly than expected. A number of deaths associated with vape would reduce the demand for such e-cigarettes.

Vapes is an alternative to smoking in which a nicotine-containing liquid is evaporated. The maker of Winston cigarettes now expects the profit to remain broadly the same if exchange rate effects are not taken into account. The company also announced that sales will increase by 2 percent. In May, the company assumed more than 4 percent revenue growth.

Moreover, Imperial Brands still believes that the demand for alternatives to cigarettes will increase by 50 percent this year. The demand for regular cigarettes is decreasing, among other things because the legislation on tobacco has been tightened in some countries such as Australia.

Imperial also said he had several interested parties for its cigarette branch. The company has been displaying it for a while. Imperial Brands hopes that more than 2.25 billion euros will be raised from the sale of divisions.

The Imperial Brands share price on LSE fell 8 percent.