Philip Morris International Inc (PM) — Q2 2024 Transcript

Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Earlier today, we issued a press release containing detailed information on our 2024 second quarter results. The press release is available on our website at pmi.com. A glossary of terms, including the definition for smoke-free products, as well as adjustments, other calculations, and reconciliations to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measures for non-GAAP financial measures cited in this presentation, are available in Exhibit 99.2 to the company's Form 8-K dated July 23, 2024, and on our Investor Relations website. Today's remarks contain forward-looking statements and projections of future results. I direct your attention to the forward-looking and cautionary statements disclosure in today's presentation and press release for a review of the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projections or forward-looking statements. It is now my pleasure to introduce Emmanuel Babeau, our Chief Financial Officer. Over to you, Emmanuel.

Thank you, James, and welcome everyone. Our business delivered another outstanding performance in the second quarter of 2024. Our categories were strong across the board, delivering a record H1 on organic top-line growth and on organic OI growth, excluding the pandemic recovery year of 2021. The strong underlying momentum of IQOS continued in Q2, with shipment and adjusted IMS volume growth above or in line with our expectations. This reflects another quarter of strong progress in Japan and robust fundamentals in Europe, despite the volatility associated with the flavor ban. With pricing, manufacturing efficiencies, and scale benefits, the expanding profit contribution of IQOS is driving excellent growth for PMI. ZYN continued its impressive growth trajectory, with Q2 U.S. volumes growing by over 50% despite recent supply tensions and increased pricing. In addition to IQOS and U.S. ZYN, I am pleased to report building multi-category momentum. While still in early days, VEEV has already become the closed pod leader in five European markets and is firmly on the path to profitability, while international nicotine pouch volumes grew over 60% in H1, matching U.S. growth rates. This progress in smoke-free products is reflected in a rapidly growing consumer base, with around 36.5 million estimated adult users as of June 30, and our products now available across 90 markets worldwide. Our combustible business also overdelivered, with a return to gross margin expansion ahead of plan in Q2 after two years of significant inflationary headwinds. This was driven by stable H1 volumes and category share despite robust pricing, in addition to cost efficiencies. This broad-based delivery translated into double-digit organic OI growth, with significant margin expansion. As we have outlined previously, delivering robust growth in dollar terms is a key priority and we are taking proactive steps on pricing and cost efficiencies to mitigate currency headwinds. This is clearly evident in our H1 adjusted diluted EPS delivery of mid-single digit growth despite a currency headwind of over 12%, as essentially all of the expected full-year impact fell in the first half. Following this exceptional first half performance, we are increasing our 2024 full-year forecasts on all organic dimensions, and for adjusted diluted EPS on both a currency neutral and U.S. dollar basis. This reflects our strong H2 outlook with accelerating adjusted IMS growth for IQOS, sequentially higher ZYN volumes and a stepped-up rate of USD EPS growth at prevailing exchange rates. Looking at our headline financials, strong total shipment volume growth of 2.8% drove Q2 organic net revenue growth of 9.6%, or 5.6% in dollar terms. Robust top-line growth, positive smoke-free margin mix, and ongoing cost efficiencies enabled us to deliver adjusted diluted EPS of $1.59, representing a 10.6% growth excluding a larger-than-expected unfavorable currency variance of $0.18, which includes a small transactional impact from exchange rate volatility at quarter-end. This better-than-expected ex-currency performance reflects the improving profitability of IQOS, ZYN, and combustibles, which I will come back to. Looking at the first half overall, our volumes grew by 3.2%, and organic net revenues by 10.2%, our highest growth since the 2008 spin. Strong performance from both smoke-free and combustibles drove operating income growth of 17% with margin expansion of 230 basis points organically, and 7.1% growth in dollar terms. We expect continued robust OI growth on both a reported and an organic basis in the second half. H1 adjusted diluted EPS grew by an impressive 16.8% in constant currency and by 4.0% in dollar terms. The 0.38 unfavorable H1 currency variance includes $0.08 of non-recurring transactional impacts from Egypt and Russia. Focusing now on volume, total shipment growth in both the quarter and H1 overall reflects smoke-free share gains in a resilient international industry, which grew by more than 1% in both periods, even excluding oral and e-vapor. Q2 HTU shipments of 35.5 billion units exceeded our prior outlook, driven by continued strong performance in Japan, robust underlying growth in Europe, and promising growth in newer markets, such as Indonesia. In addition to underlying momentum, Q2 saw an incremental phasing impact of around 0.5 billion units, primarily related to Red Sea disruption. Q2 HTU adjusted IMS volume grew by 10.2%, in line with our expectations. This includes the impact of the characterizing flavor ban in Europe, notably in Italy this quarter. Total smoke-free adjusted in-market sales volume grew 11.2% in Q2 and 13.1% in H1. This includes our oral smoke-free portfolio powered by ZYN, with Q2 pouch unit volumes up by 20%. U.S. ZYN shipment grew by 50% to 135.1 million cans. This does not include the promising result of our e-vapor business where volume grew strongly to the equivalent of 0.7 billion units on a year-to-date basis. Cigarette shipments grew by 0.4% with notable positive contribution from Turkey and North Africa. This reflects a stable category share, excluding market mix, despite step-up pricing. With such a positive H1 volume performance, we are raising our full-year forecast for total cigarette HTU and oral unit volumes to 1% to 2%, which would mark our fourth consecutive year of volume growth. The power of our multicategory smoke-free transformation and recovery in combustible are clearly illustrated on this slide, as both areas contributed strongly to double-digit organic OI growth of 12.5% for the Group in Q2. Smoke-free continued its excellent momentum with 18% organic growth in net revenue and 22% in gross profit, driving 220 basis points organic gross margin expansion. This reflects the strong performance of ZYN and the growth and scale effect of IQOS, including manufacturing productivities and an increasing, albeit smaller, contribution from VEEV. Expanding smoke-free gross margin continued to widen the gap versus combustible gross margin, enhancing the very positive mix effect of our transformation. However, combustible gross margin expansion is also a key objective. After seven quarters of contraction, we are pleased to report a 50 basis point expansion and gross profit growth of 5.5% on an organic basis, providing a meaningful contribution to total PMI profitability. This reflects resilient volume despite very strong pricing, as well as ongoing efficiencies and reduced headwinds on our COGS, notwithstanding continued tobacco leaf inflation. We also expect convertible gross margin expansion in H2. Combined with a strong first quarter, the year-to-date picture is even more compelling, with double-digit organic net revenue, gross profit, and OI growth. This is driven by the same dynamics as Q2 with an impressive 390 basis point gross margin expansion and 29% gross profit growth for our smoke-free business. Our H1 revenue performance again demonstrates the powerful drivers of our financial model with an unparalleled combination of positive volumes, robust pricing, and the very favorable category mix of our smoke-free products. As mentioned, volume grew by 3.2%. Pricing contributed 6 points of growth, including 8.3% pricing on combustible and around 2% on smoke-free. Smoke-free category mix added 2.5 points to the top line, reflecting the higher net revenue per unit of IQOS and ZYN. While it’s still small, VEEV also contributed positively to the overall mix. I also note that oral smoke-free products added 2 points to organic net revenue progression, underlying the continued accretion from the Swedish Match acquisition. As in recent quarters, geographic mix was negative. This is primarily due to combustible where volumes increasingly skew to lower margin markets, where smoke-free alternatives are small or not available, with higher margin markets over-indexed to cannibalization. We expect this dynamic to be less impactful in 2024 than last year. Now let's focus on the mechanics behind our H1 margin delivery. Gross margin increased organically by 140 basis points and by 80 basis points in dollar terms. This was driven by our higher margin smoke-free business, pricing, and ongoing productivity savings across the value chain. As expected, SG&A cost growth stepped up in Q2, increasing 9.8% organically after a very modest increment in Q1 due to planned phasing of commercial spend. The resulting 5.8% organic increase in H1 was below the rate of top-line growth, driving a 1 percentage point margin expansion, with our successful back-office cost program able to mitigate some of the investment step up. With a range of important commercial activities in Q3, we expect SG&A to remain elevated but continue to target an organic increase below the rate of net revenue growth for the year. I’m pleased to report we delivered over $300 million in H1 growth cost efficiencies across both COGS and SG&A, as we proactively drive bottom-line growth. We expect an acceleration in H2 savings, notably from manufacturing, as we progress towards our $2 billion target for the '24-'26 period. The combination of these factors drove a 230 basis point expansion in our organic operating income margin. Despite a significant H1-skewed currency headwind, adjusted OI margins were stable on a dollar basis. Moving to our smoke-free business, we estimate there were 36.5 million adult users of PMI smoke-free products as of June 30th, reflecting an addition of 3.2 million during H1. This includes an estimated 30.8 million IQOS users, 5.2 million oral users, and 0.8 million VEEV users. The increase in both total and IQOS users was broad-based, with notable progress in Japan, Europe, and newer growth markets, such as Indonesia, in addition to ZYN’s strong traction with legal-age nicotine users in the U.S. Our smoke-free products are now present in 90 markets following the recent launches of IQOS, ZYN, and VEEV. Focusing now on IQOS in Europe, where fundamental dynamics are developing very well, including the user growth I just mentioned. First, we see robust recoveries in markets where the characterizing flavor ban has passed the initial adjustment phase. Second, there is continued excellent growth in markets where IQOS is already well-established, such as Portugal, Hungary, and Greece. Last, new growth leader markets are emerging with accelerating momentum in Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, and Romania, in addition to recovery in Poland following the launch of DELIA. Our Q2 HTU share increased by 0.8 points year-on-year despite the impact of the flavor ban, due to usual seasonal factors and the resilient combustible market. Q2 share was sequentially below Q1. HTU adjusted IMS volume demonstrated robust growth, growing by 0.8 billion units sequentially to reach 12.9 billion on a four-quarter moving average. As expected, adjusted in-market sales growth of 6.8% was lower than in Q1 due to higher comparison and the initial impact of the characterizing flavor ban, notably in Italy. Growth excluding Italy was close to 10%. The impact of the ban is progressing in line with our prior estimate in the majority of markets, though the implementation in Italy during Q2 was slightly more pronounced than anticipated. This was primarily driven by earlier sell-through of affected SKUs and concurrent pricing. It is important to note this is a transitory dynamic and I’m pleased to report a recovery in markets such as Greece, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania where the ban was implemented previously following an initial period of consumer adjustment. Indeed, despite an uncertain outlook in Ukraine, we anticipate an acceleration in Europe adjusted IMS growth in the second half. This is supported by the planned step-up in commercial activity behind IQOS, including the introduction of DELIA and LEVIA HTUs to an increasing number of markets. Another illustration of our continued progress in Europe is in our key city offtake share. Strong gains in cities with already high IQOS adoption such as Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava, Lisbon, and Sofia; and historically slower growth markets such as Madrid, London, and Amsterdam highlight the enduring growth potential in the region. Japan demonstrated impressive IQOS growth in the quarter, with adjusted HTU IMS growth of 12.5%, representing the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit progression. Adjusted IMS volumes continued to grow sequentially, reaching 10.5 billion units on a four-quarter moving average. Total tobacco share for our HTU brand increased by 3.1 points year-on-year to 29.4%, with national offtake share exceeding the impressive milestone of 30% in June. We also maintained offtake share of over 35% in Tokyo despite seasonal factors, where the overall category continued to track at over 50% of total offtake and grow sequentially, demonstrating the continued potential in this important market. Our continuous innovation is a key driver of this growth, with Q2 seeing a strong step-up in user acquisition following the launch of ILUMA i, and further innovative TEREA variants such as capsule consumables. Taking a more global view, we continue to see very promising IQOS growth across a broad range of geographies, including low and middle-income markets as highlighted by key city offtake shares. Accelerating growth in Indonesia, the world's largest cigarette market by volume excluding China, leads the way with increasing geographic reach and Clove HTU innovation. Markets across North Africa and the Middle East are also a growing weight and source of growth. We show Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia here in addition to Egypt where performance in Cairo remains robust despite recent pricing and a recovery in the combustible market. I am also pleased to report very good progress in the UAE and Jordan. Following the recent launch of ILUMA, growth in Mexico City is very promising and the East Asian market of South Korea and Malaysia continue to perform well. Also worth highlighting is the successful contribution of Duty Free, where we are increasingly leveraging our multi-category portfolio to expand share in a growing market as travel recovers in Asia. Our fundamental HTU growth outlook for the year has not changed. H1 adjusted IMS growth of 11.4% reflects the strong dynamics I described across Japan, Europe, and global markets, partly offset by the transitory impact of the EU flavor ban. Indeed, growth excluding Europe accelerated compared to last year and we expect this to continue. However, we see an incremental headwind of around 2 billion units to our full-year adjusted IMS forecasts, the majority of which is driven by the ongoing delay in approval for commercialization in Taiwan, which was previously expected around the midpoint of the year. We also factor in an impact of a few hundred million units for a slower recovery from the characterizing flavor ban in Europe, principally in Italy. I would note that our revised full-year forecast for adjusted IMS growth of around 13% represents the same absolute volume increase as 2023 despite the EU headwind. We accordingly forecast full-year HTU shipment volume of around 140 billion units, with shipments, as usual, expected to be a few billion units higher than adjusted IMS given continued offtake and user growth. Importantly, we expect a very strong H2 delivery in adjusted IMS on both sequential and year-on-year basis to between 14% and 15% growth. This is supported by a notable step-up in commercial activity, continued momentum in Japan and increasingly dynamic global markets. These include the markets I just mentioned and the ongoing acceleration in Duty Free. For Europe, the broadening of growth acceleration in Germany, Spain, the UK, and Romania adds to the ongoing momentum in geographies such as Portugal and Greece. H2 should also see several markets start to rebound from initial flavor ban impact, including a gradual recovery in Italy. Turning now to ZYN, where very good U.S. progress continued in Q2 with close to 70% growth in 12-month rolling shipments. As we shared earlier in the year, strong demand dynamics have created short-term supply chain constraints, which has impacted volume growth. As shown on this slide, this has resulted in a temporary slowdown of the category. ZYN's premium positioning and superior brand equity remained strong, with ZYN maintaining very robust category volume and value share, despite these availability challenges and the recent price increase. We also remain highly focused on marketing ZYN responsibly to prevent unintended use. We are making good progress on expanding production and continue to expect a gradual improvement through Q3, with sequentially higher volume and for production volumes to meet expected consumer demand during the course of Q4. We expect the ongoing expansion of the existing facility in Kentucky to provide around 900 million cans of capacity for 2025. We also recently announced a planned investment in a new plant in Colorado, which is due to begin preliminary operation by the end of next year. Together, these plans support our U.S. growth ambitions for the coming years. For 2024, we are now forecasting a U.S. shipment range of 560 million to 580 million cans, to reflect strongly increasing demand from adult nicotine users and the progress made on increasing our production capacity. I will now take a moment to update you on the international expansion of our smoke-free business. Our multi-category approach is gaining momentum, as we unlock new horizons of growth with increasing commercialization of IQOS, ZYN, and VEEV across markets. Our focused strategy for VEEV is showing very good early results. In Europe, closed pods are accelerating within the dynamic e-vapor category. We are seeing strong traction of our VEEV ONE product, achieving a number one closed pod position in five markets within the first year of launch including Italy, the Czech Republic, and Romania. We continue to observe good repeat purchase and conversion rates, which is often a challenge for this category. We expect continued volume momentum in H2, supported by ongoing geographic expansion and to reach profitability in Q3. For ZYN, there is a large opportunity outside of the U.S., which we are working to capture. Our international nicotine pouch volume, including the Nordics, grew by over 60% in H1, matching U.S. ZYN growth. We see promising results in a number of markets, including Mexico, South Africa, Pakistan, and the important UK market where we have seen strong traction with only limited distribution so far. Our expansion of the IQOS portfolio remains active as we innovate to broaden and enhance our offer for both existing users and switchers from other smokers. Further market launches are planned in H2 including DELIA and LEVIA HTUs and the new ILUMA i device range which is currently only available in Japan. We continue with our preparation for IQOS ILUMA in the U.S., and we are underway with consumer engagement for our first city pilot in Austin, Texas with the IQOS 3 system, which we expect to start in Q4. As mentioned previously, the commercialization will be initially limited in scope and focused on direct activation of select legal-age smokers in a few cities, allowing us to experiment with different elements of the commercial model. The main purpose is to fine-tune our approach and readiness in anticipation of the at-scale launch of ILUMA. We continue to assume an authorization from the FDA in the second half of 2025. Focusing now on combustibles, our portfolio delivered robust organic net revenue growth and a very positive profit contribution as I covered earlier. This reflects resilient volume despite very strong Q2 pricing of 8.7%, including our proactive action to maximize growth. It is worth noting the large majority of our pricing is derived from regular pricing action unrelated to significant currency devaluation. Factoring the strong H1 and favorable outlook, we now forecast an increased fully combustible price variance of 7% to 8%. Our cigarette category share was stable in H1 and down 0.2 in Q2, or stable excluding market mix impact. Lower share in Egypt and Indonesia was offset by positive contributions from Turkey, India, and the Europe region, again despite strong pricing. Our global brand grew category share in the quarter with Marlboro gaining 0.3 points to 10.1%. On a global basis, our leadership in combustibles is a critical enabler to maximize switching to smoke-free products, and we target a stable category share over time. As mentioned previously, we evaluate our strategy on a market-by-market basis and have the flexibility to adapt our approach where smoke-free products have already reached critical mass. Taking a more holistic view on the business, our transformation and smoke-free journey are backed by a strategy that seeks to embed sustainability in all that we do. We are making strong progress towards our product transformation targets. Our smoke-free products are now available in 90 markets, placing us on track for our aspiration of 100 by 2025. We are also moving nicely towards our objective for low and middle-income countries to comprise over 50% of the smoke-free product market. The rapid growth of our estimated SFP user base, which now stands at around 36.5 million adult users, as previously described, is further testament to this progress. With regard to our operation, decarbonization is an important focus area and we are pleased to have been awarded the top spot on Forbes’ 2024 Net Zero Leaders list, which highlights the 100 U.S. public companies best positioned to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It also follows the announcement earlier this year of CDP awarding us a triple-A rating for our disclosure and efforts on climate change, forests, and water security. This recognition reflects our continued focus on our sustainability performance and robust reporting as we continue to work towards a smoke-free future. This brings me to our outlook for 2024. Following an excellent H1 performance and strong business momentum, as we start the second half, we are raising our full year currency neutral and U.S. dollar growth forecast. This is supported by accelerated total volume growth and pricing and reflects the very strong outlook for ZYN, despite short-term supply constraints and the increasing profitability of IQOS due to operating leverage, manufacturing efficiencies, and pricing. We continue to target close to $15 billion in smoke-free net revenue for the year. Taking these factors into account and robust combustible performance, we are increasing our organic net revenue growth forecast to a range of 7.5% to 9%. In addition to strong top-line growth, the positive smoke-free mix effect, combustible recovery, and further cost efficiency enable healthy margin expansion. We are accordingly raising our organic operating income growth forecast to 11% to 13% for the year. We continue to target adjusted gross margin expansion for both smoke-free products and combustibles, and adjusted OI margin expansion for total PMI, all in both organic and dollar terms. Consequently, and also factoring a lower forecast net financing cost, we are raising our forecast for currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth to 11% to 13%. This translates into a range of $6.33 to $6.45, including an unfavorable currency impact of $0.34 for the year at prevailing rates. The increased currency headwind versus prior guidance is primarily due to the Q2 impact already described. As shown by the increase in our forecast U.S. EPS growth to 5% to 7%, the underlying strength of our business and proactive mitigating actions have allowed us to compensate for this, and we expect to deliver on our objective of strong growth in dollar terms. Focusing on the second half in more detail; we expect another strong performance driven by excellent IQOS adjusted IMS growth, the progressive improvement in ZYN volume, and continued positive impact from our actions to drive bottom-line growth. For Q3, we forecast a record high quarterly adjusted diluted EPS of $1.77 to $1.82, despite a significant step-up in commercial spending and an unfavorable currency impact of $0.02 at prevailing rates. This is in contrast to a forecast currency tailwind of $0.04 for H2 overall, which enables us to target accelerated U.S. dollar adjusted diluted EPS growth. We include a table of estimated currency impacts by quarter in the appendix. This Q3 forecast notably reflects another quarter of dynamic growth with HTU shipments of 34 billion to 35 billion units and an acceleration in HTU adjusted IMS growth. Given expectations for a strong full year profit delivery, we are forecasting operating cash flow of around $11 billion, which is at the upper end of our previous forecast range at prevailing exchange rates and subject to year-end working capital requirements. We expect this improvement to more than offset an increase in capital expenditure to around $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion as we further accelerate ZYN capacity expansion. Last, we continue to target 0.3x to 0.5x improvement in our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio in 2024, driven by profit growth and strong cash flow generation. As of June 30, we have already improved our ratio to 3x on a 12-month trailing basis as compared to 3.2x at the end of 2023. This represents good progress towards our target of around 2x by the end of 2026. We intend to reconsider share repurchase subject to board approval once we are within sight of this goal. I will now conclude today's presentation with some closing remarks. The powerful combination of strong underlying business momentum and our own proactive steps enable us to generate best-in-class growth across key metrics. Our strategy is delivering on volumes, pricing, cash flow, and dollar earnings despite ongoing currency headwinds. The success of our smoke-free transformation is reflected in our remarkable first half performance with excellent underlying IQOS and ZYN growth, very robust pricing, positive category mix, and stepped-up cost efficiencies. This puts us firmly on track for an exceptional 2024 with accelerated top-line growth and margin expansion. Our momentum is broadening across the business with exciting multi-category growth opportunities to further support the delivery of our 2024-2026 growth targets. We remain highly focused on delivering performance in dollar terms. And as shown in H1, we are taking measures to mitigate currency headwinds. Finally, we are steadfastly committed to returning cash to our shareholders. Our growth outlook and strong cash flow generation underpin our capital allocation priorities to reinvest behind our rapidly transforming business alongside our progressive dividend policy. Thank you, and we are now very happy to answer your questions.

So I have two questions. One is just on the cigarette pricing algorithm that you have. So if I look at your market share gains, clearly quite impressive, even excluding modern oral. And if I add that, then you are gaining almost 80 basis points share right now per annum. So isn't that level of market share gain excessive and suggest that you are not monetizing your cigarette business as much as we should be? And that would mean that increased the pricing growth in cigarettes from 7% to 8% to, let's say, to 10%? And then I have a follow-up.

Thank you, Gaurav, for the question. Look, let's be clear. We can always challenge ourselves on whether we could do even better in terms of price increase. The fact is that we are doing better than what we thought initially. We have this very strong performance, 8.7% price increase for combustibles for H1. I think we all know that the inflationary environment is no longer what it was last year. So obviously, this is a very strong performance. Please bear in mind, I said it in my preliminary remarks, but around three-quarters of that is not coming from inflation, sorry, from a price increase in a country with very high inflation. And this 8.7% in Q2 is largely driven by the markets where we are really driving price on a kind of opportunistic basis, building on the strength of our portfolio and making sure that we are ever optimizing the potential for price increase. So you can be sure that this is a very granular work, market by market each time as we signal, we take into account what is our position on smoke-free products in this market, and what is the impact of increasing price. And I think we can demonstrate that we have a very successful approach to this price increase. So I would tend to believe that we are optimizing this price increase potential in the current environment.

You mentioned that ZYN capacity will increase to 900 million cans next year. So does it mean that by Q4 of this year, it will be 225 million cans per quarter?

Look, I'm confirming that we have the objective to be around 900 million cans of production capacity for next year, that's for the full year 2025. We are gradually improving our capacity, and there are a number of steps that we are taking. I'm not going to elaborate on them, but there are several levers that we are pulling to increase this capacity. I would say every quarter versus the previous one, we are improving the capacity. I'm not going to give a prediction on where we're going to be at the end of the year. We believe, given what we see from the potential consumer demand today, that in terms of what we produce at a certain point in Q4 versus what the consumer offtake could be without restriction, we're going to be good. And then we'll see exactly how we finish in terms of capacity at the end of the year. But I think what is more relevant and, frankly, more important is that you have the picture of the 560 million to 580 million cans. That is our goal for 2024. You know that we have this capacity for 900 million cans for next year. Let's be clear, it's not guidance on the volume for next year. We're just here giving the capacity on which we are working. And I think with that, you have what is important.

I had a question on your guidance. You raised your top and bottom-line growth expectations but lowered your HTU shipment volume outlook slightly. You attributed this to slightly greater-than-expected impact from the EU flavor ban. Maybe hoping for a little more color on that and any other impact on HTU volume that you're expecting in the back half? Are you expecting IQOS growth to remain robust in Japan in the second half, for instance? And then finally, you mentioned your HTU guide assumes no volumes in Taiwan, so maybe an update there in terms of timing?

Sure, Bonnie. Thank you for maybe giving me the opportunity to further clarify the dynamic and the good dynamics that we are seeing behind IQOS. So we are indeed revising our objective of adjusted in-market sales by around 2 billion. I've been clarifying that the majority of that is coming from Taiwan, okay? So in fact, it's really the fact that we were expecting Taiwan to start more than 6 months this year. And at the end of the day, today, we are making the assumption that it's going to be zero volume in Taiwan. We thought it was a reasonable assumption. Remember the law allowing for heated tobacco products was passed now 15 months ago. So we thought that during this period of time, there was the capacity to get the approval from the regulator. There is an administrative process, asking questions, you have Q&A. It's just taking much more time than what we thought. But first and foremost, the reason for this 2 billion revision on adjusted IMS is Taiwan. Then in addition to that, we have a few hundred million that is coming from Europe. So that's really all you should understand regarding the revision on the guidance. But let me take two minutes to explain the dynamics because I want to make sure that things are very clear. What we've been seeing in H1 is, in fact, an acceleration of the IQOS business outside Europe. So if you look at the adjusted in-market sales outside Europe, which we talk about 60% of the business, the adjusted IMS were growing around 14% versus around 13% last year. So we've been growing faster in percentage. So you can imagine, in terms of volume, of course, that means a significant acceleration. And indeed, what is beyond this very nice dynamism is Japan. You have other developed markets such as South Korea, but we've been seeing a number of new contributors to this growth. We mentioned Indonesia, and we mentioned a number of markets in the Middle East. Mexico is also accelerating, and we enjoy a nice performance in duty-free. So that's really what we are seeing outside Europe. Then Europe, absolutely as expected. I mean, we are going through what is a significant transition. We are moving away from flavor. It's still growing. Outside Italy, we have adjusted in-market sales growing close to double-digits. So there is a very strong dynamism despite the fact that many countries are going through this transition. And as we flagged, it is true that it's great to see, at the same time, our champion market, like we mentioned in Portugal and Hungary, that continue to do very well. We have new markets that are really confirming their status as growth drivers for the future. We mentioned Germany, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria. So it's important to have these new growth providers, if you want. And then a number of markets exiting, I would say, as expected, the turmoil or the disruption that comes with the implementation of the flavor ban. And here, we can mention Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. So a number of markets where things are happening absolutely as expected.

That was definitely very helpful. I appreciate you going through all of that. And then if I may, I just wanted to ask a question on ILUMA i in Japan. I guess I was hoping to get a little more color on this device, which I believe is only available in Japan right now. And curious to hear how big of a lift it's been or essentially how incremental and really what you're seeing or hearing from consumers in terms of acceptance of the new device, impact on your growth, margins, etc.? And then finally, your plans for further rollout of this device.

Sure, Bonnie. So you're right. ILUMA i, the latest generation of IQOS ILUMA, does not change the fundamental technology, but the device is offering a number of additional functionalities, and is, for the time being, only present in Japan. There was the launch in a few other countries that is planned for H2. And it's always difficult to say what this new product is triggering, but we've been seeing clearly a new acquisition of IQOS users. We've also seen consumer sentiment going up with very good reactions to this product. So I would say we continue to have more ammunition to convert smokers to IQOS, to improve the experience, and to improve customer satisfaction that is triggering, of course, more loyalty, which can have some impact on the average daily consumption, so a number of positive effects. That's what we have seen in Japan. It's difficult for me to tell you exactly by how much this has been further accelerating the growth in Japan, but that was a positive for the market.

Could you provide a little more detail on the growth in oral pouches in international markets? You highlighted some early success in several markets. Are you continuing to expand distribution there? Are there any capacity constraints for those international markets outside of the U.S.?

Sure. So coincidentally, I suppose that it is true that in H1, the growth in nicotine pouches outside the U.S. was very similar to the one in the U.S., with 10% of the volume included. It's not totally nothing because that includes the Nordics. And what we are clearly seeing is that there is interest and attraction in many countries from nicotine users. And I tend to really put three buckets of possible growth for this market. You have, of course, first, the Nordic countries that have the knowledge, the understanding, and the culture of this product, where the nicotine pouch category is dynamic. We want to take our fair share of the growth. Then you have Europe, where the category is not relevant in all markets, but we can already flag several countries such as Austria, the U.K., and Switzerland where we believe that there is potential, and we see the growth. And then you have, I would say, global markets, international markets. We can name Pakistan, South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines, where we see potential for these nicotine pouches. You may have some culture already of overall product, and we see the development of the product. I could add Mexico to the list, by the way, where we are starting nicely the development of ZYN. So we see that this product, maybe because of the U.S. influence, I think in the case of some countries like the U.K., is clear. That's a category that could grow in awareness, and we want absolutely to make sure that we're going to capture our fair share of this opportunity.

And just a quick follow-up. Is there any capacity limitation on that international business? Or is that capacity not constrained like what you're seeing in the U.S.?

No, there is no capacity issue that I have to report at that stage.

Hi Emmanuel, thanks for the question. I've got two as well. One, the vapor category and one on ZYN. I know you're looking to expand with your VEEV product, but how do you see the development of the vapor category, particularly outside of the U.S.? What profile of users is the category attracting? For example, in Europe, I'm just trying to understand whether consumers that use vapor see it as an alternative to heated tobacco, or are the two categories attracting a different profile of consumers, particularly post the flavor ban in Europe?

Sure. And you want to ask a question on ZYN now? Or would you like to come back on ZYN after?

Why don't I come back after?

Okay. So on the vaping category, I think what we are seeing is that with what we've always been saying, the vaping category is a legitimate category to be an alternative to people who would otherwise smoke. Therefore, that is a category that is growing, not necessarily faster than burnt, nor faster than nicotine pouches for sure. But of course, the basis for nicotine pouches is smaller. We know that the vaping category is more appealing for people of legal age and above who want to start consuming nicotine, and it's much more difficult to convert smokers. And that's clearly what IQOS and the heat-not-burn category is doing much better. So yes, the vaping can be appealing for some legal-age and above nicotine users. It has been more difficult to convert smokers, very clearly. We haven't seen any meaningful report of people moving to vaping, and a change of kind of dynamic in the category following the implementation of the flavor ban in Europe. Of course, we are monitoring that. But as I said, there is nothing that we can obviously report on that trend, which probably could confirm that we talk about people that are probably with different profiles, but that's something that we will have to keep monitoring, of course. So we've always been saying that the concern with the vaping category is that if the products are not properly developed and marketed, if there is an unreasonable appeal to flavor, what that can trigger unintended usage, and that is a problem for the category. We are very happy with our growth because we do that in a very responsible manner, both in terms of product development and marketing activity. We are developing this responsible approach very much based on our commercial strength and a great product. I think VEEV ONE is a great product, and strong partnership with the trade that is giving this very good start as we mentioned, the number one position in five countries for closed pods. That's really what I can share with you at that stage.

Yes, that's helpful. And then secondly, on ZYN in the U.S. Now according to the scanner data, some of which we received today as well, since momentum from a volume perspective is sequentially falling, albeit very, very low single-digits, would you have an estimate of if you did not have the capacity constraint, what volumes could potentially look like? And in the back half, when you are expecting an acceleration in volumes, is that implying that you begin to gain market share, or is that largely driven by further acceleration in the overall category?

Look, on ZYN, I think we mentioned the fact that we are clearly with some restrictions. So I’m not sure that what you read in the Nielsen, which corresponds to the availability is going to give a view on the trend and the consumer demand; we are gradually improving and we expect to see that in the coming months. The availability is key to meeting that demand today. We clarify that we are working with a target of around 900 million cans capacity for next year. So we are making nice headroom for growth over the coming quarters. And we think it's really important. I'm not going to be able to tell you because, frankly, it's impossible to say what would have been the growth rate without the limitations. Please bear in mind that there were some competitors' moves in terms of pricing last year that triggered an acceleration in our market share, and that effect is now behind us. So it is also having some impact on the year-on-year comparison. So that's what we can say on ZYN.

If I could quickly squeeze in one more. Is there any update on the review of the ZYN sales post the recent subpoena in the District of Columbia that has forced you to close your zyn.com sales and when that might recover?

Yes, I know, there is nothing new. We keep working and fully cooperating, of course, with the Attorney General. At this stage, it's impossible to say how long the work will take or what will be the conclusion. And there is nothing new today.

I hope you are well. I just had a couple of questions on the U.S. pouch dynamics. So first, and I would assume this is due to certain retailers trying to fill the supply gap. I have been seeing some Scandinavian ZYN available in certain stores. So I was wondering how you can get on top of this to make sure that's not happening. And then second, I'm also now seeing over more than oral brands appearing, I assume do not have a PMTA submitted. So how do you see the risk we could see a similar scenario developing in pouches in the U.S. and to what we're seeing in vape with the legal products?

So you're alluding to products that would come from non-U.S. markets, correct? That's what...

In retail, the distributors are buying them online from Scandinavia to try and fill the supply gap. Just wondering how you can get on top of that to make sure that's not happening?

I don't have any information about that, so I cannot make any comments or reports. We are doing everything we can to ensure that the flows are appropriate and not going where they shouldn't. We are working very hard with this objective. I don't have any data, and I cannot respond to that, but our position is very clear. We are very strict about doing everything possible to prevent these parallel flows. Regarding your question, if I understand correctly, can we expect to see a similar issue with nicotine pouches, where illicit parallel flows are entering the U.S. market, like we see with vaping?

Yes. I'm starting to see brands that I'm assuming do not have the PMTA submitted. Just wondering how you see the risk around that?

Today, based on our market observations, we don't have the sense that anything significant is happening at this time. However, we are monitoring the situation closely. If it were to become serious, it appears that the authorities are taking the issue seriously and are beginning to take more action and be more vigilant. I would anticipate that they would respond similarly regarding nicotine pouches. In summary, I don’t believe we are witnessing anything substantial at the moment that requires urgent attention. If that changes, we would expect the authorities to adopt a proactive stance similar to the one they seem to be developing concerning vaping.

I have a follow-up question that is quite similar to the previous one. I want to delve a bit deeper because we also see substantial evidence that European moist versions of ZYN, which I believe do not have premarket approval and were not available as of August 2016, are being sold widely in New York City. Additionally, online sales indicate that this issue seems to be prevalent across the entire U.S. I have two questions: Can you confirm that those products were not on the market as of August 2016 and that their sale violates FDA regulations? Secondly, building on Owen's inquiry, assuming you are not directly selling illicit products to U.S. retailers, what actions can you take? What measures are you implementing to prevent European e-commerce retailers from selling this product? This situation appears to pose a significant risk to your U.S. ZYN business if these illicit products continue to enter the U.S. market in this manner.

Thank you, Callum. Look, again, I don't have any data on what you're saying. So it's very difficult for me to report. I think we know whether the products benefit from the situation and the positioning in 2016 in the market and that, therefore, are legally being commercialized. As you can imagine, I'm going to repeat only what I said. We are doing everything we can to control the flows. I don't have information today saying that you have these flows of products. If we knew, we would certainly tackle that, and we would try to understand where it's coming from. And what I can certainly repeat is that our objective is to do our utmost, everything we can to be compliant with the regulation. And there is nothing else I can say, really.

Okay. And maybe just a follow-up. I guess, as you think about bringing supply back online in the U.S., also bringing new supply online to meet demand, what gives you this confidence that we're going to see the sort of upward lift in ZYN guidance today? It implies a significant back-half inflection in terms of positive growth rate, which, to Faham's earlier question, we see sequential declines in growth now quarter-to-date. So what gives you the confidence that the consumers are switching to on consumers that are switching to rogue, some of the consumer reviews of some of these competitive products are sometimes better than this. So what gives you the confidence that now that consumer awareness for these other brands has grown as a result of your supply chain issues that you're going to immediately win those consumers back when the supply comes online again?

Look, Callum, this comes from a mix of consumer demand perception that we have. We believe that if we can produce them, there is a space to get to 580 million can shipments. That's the first element. And that's what our senses are telling us about what consumers would be happy to buy if it was available. At the same time, of course, we have measures to increase production capacity, where, as I said, I'm not going to elaborate on the various levers, but we're pulling a number of levers to progressively increase the capacity for ZYN production in the U.S. So that's really the combination of the two.

Emmanuel, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on the IQOS ILUMA tests that you're planning for the U.S. It sounds like just a few cities. Will those be sort of diverse geographically across the U.S.? And what are some of the learnings that you're hoping to unlock? And how could this be different than what we saw initially several years ago with some of the stand-alone stores that were put in place? And then I have a follow-up.

Sure, Priya. That's a broad yet important question. To summarize, we will only proceed with a large-scale launch of ILUMA once we receive the PMTA approval, which we are currently aiming for in the second half of 2025. At that point, we will be ready to expand our presence in the U.S. We've been gathering insights and strategies during this time that we will implement once we have ILUMA available. In terms of what will be different this time, we feel that IQOS has not been launched in a truly impactful way in the U.S. Thus, we believe the elements that have contributed to IQOS's popularity globally will appeal to many of the approximately 30 million smokers in the U.S. Our strategy will involve engaging with smokers about the benefits of IQOS and the experience it offers as a preferable alternative to traditional smoking. It’s crucial to develop the brand and create a narrative that emphasizes this transition to a better product. We plan to establish a robust retail presence, including developing our own sales points and collaborating with various independent and third-party retailers. Our approach will leverage all available strategies that have proven successful in other markets, but we will adapt these to suit the U.S. market, unlike the previously limited launches we've seen in just a few cities. This time, we aim for a comprehensive rollout that utilizes what has worked well globally.

That's really helpful. And I guess just a follow-on to that is you talked a lot about the development of IQOS VEEV outside the U.S. Maybe broad strokes, how do you think that product could play out in the U.S.? And at what point would you think about filing PMTAs and then broadening the availability of that in the U.S.?

Look, for the time being, we don't have the plan to file a PMTA on these. We are very much focusing on IQOS. I think that this success is just at the beginning today. It's great to have already five markets where we are number one on the closed pods system, but it's just the beginning. We're going to keep learning, developing how we can develop a successful, profitable business on vaping. And then we will see whether in due course, it may make sense to have some thoughts for VEEV in the U.S., but we are not at that stage today.

Just one final, I think, housekeeping item. You talked about your interest expense being at the low end of your prior range, $1.3 billion. Does that reflect, I guess, the issuance you've done to date? And should we anticipate that there wouldn't be any incremental interest expense headwinds, i.e., potential scope for any other refinancing or pre-financing that you might consider?

No. I think the improvement in the estimated financial cost for the year indicates a better situation regarding the level of debt and cash flow generation. Additionally, it reflects how we are financing the group. As you mentioned, we are currently at the low end of the initial bracket. I don't anticipate any major changes in our financing approach; there is nothing on the agenda.

That concludes our call today. Thank you for joining us. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact the PMI Investor Relations team. Thank you again, and have a great day.

Thank you.