British American Tobacco shares fell 2.5% on Friday, swept lower in a broad sell-off across global equities that Reuters linked to investor anxiety over artificial intelligence. The FTSE 100 heavyweight closed the session at €54.84, and the London tobacco sector was counted among the weakest industries in the FTSE 350 as the wider UK market finished in the red.

The fall came in a week when the investment case for BAT, as the company is known, actually strengthened on paper. Goldman Sachs lifted its rating on the tobacco group from Neutral to Buy on Monday, raising its 12-month price target to £56 from £52. The bank pointed to a clearer route towards sustained organic revenue growth, and said it expected sales growth to move towards the middle of BAT's guided range of 3% to 5%.

Senior executives at the company were buying shares at the same time. Seven of them, including chief executive Tadeu Marroco and chief operating officer Johan Vandermeulen, each acquired three ordinary shares through the company's Partnership Share Scheme on Wednesday, according to a regulatory disclosure published on Thursday. The purchase price was £45.325 per share, with all seven reporting the same transaction size and the same dealing day.

BAT also put fresh money behind its cannabis interests during the week. The company disclosed a C$187.5 million investment in Organigram, structured as a private placement, to help fund Organigram's acquisition of Aurora Cannabis. Organigram tabled an offer of C$7.80 per Aurora share on 3 November, valuing the deal at roughly C$561 million and ending a hostile takeover pursuit by Curaleaf Holdings that had run since August.

BAT already owns about 30% of Organigram. Under the agreement it will subscribe for 141 million new Organigram shares at C$1.33 each. If the deal completes, BAT would hold about 42% of the combined company, although its voting rights would remain capped at 30%. The combined business would become the largest publicly traded Canadian cannabis company by revenue, with last-twelve-months revenue of C$623 million and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of C$80 million. The companies expect to save more than C$50 million a year from the combination.

Regulatory news offered a second pillar for the week. On 30 October the US Food and Drug Administration authorised the marketing of 24 Velo nicotine pouch products, each containing 4 mg of nicotine. The products are made by Modoral Brands, an operating company of Reynolds American within the BAT group.

On the shareholder register, The Capital Group Companies reported a reduced voting stake, slipping below the 18% disclosure threshold. Its holding now stands at 17.975584%, down from 18.023677% previously. BAT also reported the repurchase of 596,824 of its own ordinary shares under its buyback programme, executed between 26 and 30 October.

On governance, BAT announced on 28 October that Bruce Sewell will join the board as an independent non-executive director on 1 January 2027, serving on the audit and nomination committees. Separate changes to the composition of the company's committees take effect on 30 November 2026. The next scheduled checkpoint for investors is BAT's fourth-quarter 2026 results on 11 February 2027.