Imperial Tobacco marked its tenth year as a public company today by reporting an 8% rise in full-year profits to £1.17bn (€1.7bn).

Long-suffering Marconi shareholders were today set to speak out over the financial crisis which brought the telecoms group to its knees.

Imperial Tobacco has seen its profits rise for the fifth successive year - despite a slight dip in its UK performance.

Beleaguered telecoms group Marconi made a massive £5.1bn loss in the last half year - equating to £28m a day - which was today seen as one of the worst corporate figures in history.