China National Tobacco profits may outpace HSBC, Wal-Mart

China National Tobacco, the country’s cigarette monopoly, may have taken in more profit in 2011 than commercial giants such as HSBC (HBC.NYSE, HSBA.LON, 0005.HKG) and Wal-Mart (WMT.NYSE), Bloomberg reported. Industrial Bank (601166.SS) gave the world a rare glimpse into the state-owned tobacco company’s performance because China National Tobacco is buying a stake of US$82.62 billion in the Shanghai-listed bank. The filing said the tobacco company recorded net profits of US$18.7 billion in 2010 on sales of US$122.4 billion. Its 2011 figures weren’t disclosed, but analysts say they could be larger than the 2011 net profits of HSBC and Wal-Mart, which reached US$16.8 billion and US$15.7 billion, respectively. The Chinese government earned over US$95 billion in tax revenue from the state-owned cigarette industry last year, creating a conflict of interest with efforts to prevent smoking, critics said.