NYSE:PM Philip Morris International Q2 2026 Earnings Report $186.70 -0.71 (-0.38%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$187.22 +0.53 (+0.28%) As of 07:58 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Philip Morris International EPS ResultsActual EPS$2.20Consensus EPS $2.05Beat/MissBeat by +$0.15One Year Ago EPS$1.89Philip Morris International Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$11.19 billionExpected Revenue$10.60 billionBeat/MissBeat by +$590.26 millionYoY Revenue Growth+10.40%Philip Morris International Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2026Date7/22/2026TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateWednesday, July 22, 2026Conference Call Time9:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsPhilip Morris International's Q3 2026 earnings is estimated for Wednesday, October 21, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled at 7:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Philip Morris International Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJuly 22, 2026ShareShareShare This PageLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Philip Morris posted a strong Q2, with organic net revenue up 8%, operating income up 11%, and adjusted EPS up 15% to $2.20, driven by smoke-free growth and better-than-expected combustible performance. Positive Sentiment: International smoke-free products remained the main growth engine, with IQOS, VEEV, and ZYN all contributing to high-single-digit volume growth and continued gross margin expansion. Neutral Sentiment: Management kept full-year guidance unchanged despite the strong first half, saying it plans to step up U.S. investment in the second half behind ZYN, brand marketing, distribution, and preparation for future IQOS ILUMA launch. Positive Sentiment: In the U.S., ZYN shipments returned to growth and the company launched new variants like ZYN Ultra, with more formats coming later in the year; PMI also highlighted favorable regulatory momentum from MRTP authorization. Neutral Sentiment: Japan remained volatile due to the April excise increase and an expected October change, but IQOS share held up and management said the business has largely navigated the most difficult phase of pricing pass-through. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallPhilip Morris International Q2 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Philip Morris International 2026 second quarter results. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, we will open up for questions with a limit of two questions per person before rejoining the queue. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to hand it over to our first speaker, James Bushnell, Vice President of Investor Relations and Financial Communication. Please go ahead. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International00:00:46Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Earlier today, we issued a press release containing detailed information on our 2026 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 today, and on our Investor Relations website. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International00:01:42I am joined today by Emmanuel Babeau, Group Chief Financial Officer, and Massimo Andolina, currently Regional President for Europe, who will succeed Emmanuel as Group CFO in August. Emmanuel, over to you. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:01:57Thank you, James, and welcome everyone. I am pleased to report a very strong Q2 as we generated +8% organic growth in net revenue and +11% in operating income, driving +14% currency-neutral progression in adjusted diluted earnings per share to $2.20 or +15% in $ terms. This better-than-expected delivery contributed to very robust H1 growth, despite the tough comparison of the first quarter. Our Q2 results were once again powered by excellent performance, as expected, from our international Smoke-Free Products business, with high single-digit volume growth, double-digit top-line growth, and impressive gross margin expansion. IQOS adjusted in-market sales volume increased by +5%, including expected transitory headwinds from the April excise increase in Japan and the characterizing flavor ban in Poland. Excluding these two markets, double-digit growth continued, reflecting the broad-based strengths of our Smoke-Free Products business across markets. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:03:16Our multi-category commercial approach continues to gain momentum, supported by ZYN and VEEV. Our combustible performance was above our expectation in an especially strong quarter, with growing volumes, very good pricing, stable category share, and gross profit growth. While we do not expect this delivery to be repeated to the same magnitude for the full year, such results demonstrate the robustness of our portfolio as we leverage our leadership in cigarettes to support the switching of legal-age smokers to better alternatives. In the U.S., we posted a significant sequential improvement in net revenues, gross profit, and operating company income compared to a challenging Q1. While the U.S. nicotine pouch category continued to grow, ZYN offtake volumes were broadly stable to slightly growing versus the prior year, reflecting the uneven competitive landscape described in recent quarters. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:04:23ZYN shipments increased by +2% to 2.9 billion pouches, despite an inventory tailwind in the prior year, broadly reflecting offtake trends and the initial shipments of new variants, including ZYN Ultra. We are excited about this first phase of portfolio expansion with additional initiatives planned in the coming months to enhance and enrich our offering to legal-age American nicotine consumers. Supported by a rich product pipeline and improving regulatory clarity, we believe it is the right moment to accelerate U.S. investment in the second half of the year to support ZYN's brand equity and portfolio expansion and to prepare for the future launch of IQOS ILUMA. Overall, our strong first half performance reinforces our confidence in our ability to consistently invest behind smoke-free growth opportunities while delivering another year of best-in-class top and bottom-line growth. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:05:35Looking now at our Q2 financials, we delivered very good shipment volume growth of +2.5%, underpinned by continued momentum in IQOS and favorable combustible dynamics. Organic net revenues grew +7.6%, or more than 10% in dollar terms, to reach over $11 billion in quarterly net revenues for the first time. This strong top-line performance translated into robust profitability. Adjusted gross profit grew by +8.7% organically or +11.5% in dollar terms, driven by pricing, volume leverage, and favorable smoke-free mix. Adjusted operating income grew close to +11% organically and +12% in dollar terms to reach $4.8 billion, reflecting the same underlying business drivers and continued growth investment. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew by an impressive +15% to reach $2.20. This includes a $0.03 favorable currency impact, which was notably better than our previous forecast, despite ongoing dollar strength. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:07:00This was primarily due to a positive impact from unrealized transactional effect from deferred tax liability associated with a weaker Russian ruble. This currency impact represents around one-third of the EPS outperformance compared to our prior forecast. The remaining two-thirds reflect a combination of SG&A phasing, as certain commercial investment previously anticipated in Q2 are now expected to occur in Q3, and the strong performance of our combustible business, which I'll come back to. Combining our Q2 and first quarter performance, we delivered a very robust first half despite the comparison headwinds of Q1. Total shipment volumes increased +0.4% as smoke-free growth outweighed combustible declines. Organic net revenues grew by +5.3%, while adjusted operating income increased by +6.1% organically or +11% in dollar terms to reach $8.9 billion. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:08:11Adjusted diluted EPS grew by +9.4%, excluding currency, and by +15.6% in dollar term, reaching a first half record of $4.16. The strength of our international business, which made up 93% of H1 group net revenues, was naturally at the core of this remarkable performance. International smoke-free was again outstanding with H1 organic growth of +13.7% in net revenue and +16.9% in gross profit, driving gross margin expansion of +190 basis points to reach 70%. This primarily reflect continued IQOS growth with further announcement from our other smoke-free category, especially VEEV. Combustible also performed very well, exceeding our midterm trajectory of low single-digit organic top line growth and low to mid single-digit gross profit growth. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:09:22An excellent Q2 with organic growth of +6.4% in net revenue and +8% in gross profit, driven by resilient volume and strong pricing, enable us to realize H1 organic net revenue growth of +3.8%, despite negative geographic mix. H1 gross profit increased by +6.1%, with margin expansion of +150 basis points to 67.7%, including the benefit of effective cost management. As a result, total H1 international net revenue grew by +7.4% and gross profit by +10.1%, with gross margin expansion of +160 basis points to 68.6%. In turn, adjusted OCI increased +11.7%, all on an organic basis. Turning now to volumes, where total shipment growth returned to a positive trajectory in the second quarter, with an increase of +2.5%, resulting in +0.4% growth for the first half. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:10:41Smoke-free shipments grew by +7.5% in Q2 and +8.3% in H1, mainly fueled by IQOS HTUs, with notable contribution from Taiwan, global travel retail, and Italy. E-vapor shipments increased by a remarkable +55% in Q2 and +72% in H1, with Romania, Greece, and Germany among the main drivers. Oral smoke-free volumes declined by 1.2% in the quarter, primarily reflecting industry decline and inventory impact for Snus in the Nordics, despite a stable category share performance. This was partly offset by continued rapid nicotine pouch growth in international markets, excluding the Nordics, and the return to shipment volume growth for ZYN in the U.S. Q2 cigarette shipments increased by +1.1% ahead of expectation. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:11:46This reflects a combination of good category share performance, certain timing or comparison factors, and more favorable industry dynamic in certain large market, predominantly where smoke-free products are banned or very small. Notable call-outs include Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, and relative resilience in India and Mexico. However, with industry volumes declining low to mid single-digit in more developed smoke-free market, where the average unit economic of cigarette are more favorable, this generated an unfavorable mix impact on net revenue. For H1 overall, cigarette volumes declined by 1.9%. Given our Q2 performance and the latest industry dynamics, we now expect a more moderate full year decline in our cigarette volumes of around 2%-3%, versus 3% previously, which remain consistent with the structural evolution of the category. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:12:53Taken together, we now expect total shipment volume to be around stable to slightly positive for the full year, with high single-digit growth in smoke-free product broadly offsetting the decline in cigarettes. Turning to our H1 top line growth drivers. Pricing was the largest contributor, adding +5.9 points of growth, reflecting strong combustible pricing of +9.2%, with low single-digit smoke-free pricing including around +3% from IQOS. The positive mix impact from international smoke-free growth contributed a further +2 points, as the increasing weight of SFPs continues to enhance our revenue profile. These drivers were partly offset by the U.S., which had a negative impact of one point, mainly due to Q1 comparison, as well as international combustible geographic mix and other factors, which reduced growth by two points. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:14:01As a result, H1 organic net revenue growth reached +5.3%, while currency provided a tailwind of +4.5 points, bringing reported net revenue growth to +9.8%. The composition of our growth, once again, highlights the consistency and sustainability of our model with stable to growing volumes, durable pricing power, and superior smoke-free economics continuing to be the primary drivers of our performance. Moving down to H1 adjusted operating income margin, which expanded by +40 basis points organically or +60 basis points in dollar term to reach close to 42%. Gross margin expansion remained a key driver, contributing +70 basis points, supported by strong pricing, favorable smoke remix, scale benefit, and manufacturing productivity. While SG&A costs were lower than expected in Q2 due to phasing, increased year-on-year investment in commercial initiative, innovation, and scale nonetheless reduced H1 margin by 30 basis points. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:15:20We now expect higher SG&A costs in the second half than previously anticipated, as we made the strategic decision to step up our U.S. growth investment. As we invest in our top line, we also delivered over $300 million of gross cost saving across COGS and SG&A in H1, keeping us firmly on track to achieve our $2 billion target for the 2024-2026 period, with a cumulative total above $1.8 billion to date. This margin performance underscores the strength of our model as we continue to invest behind our smoke-free transformation while expanding profitability. As implied in our full year forecast, we expect to deliver organic operating income margin expansion for the full year. Focusing now on IQOS, the driving force of our smoke-free and overall PMI growth trajectory. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:16:26We continue to generate strong underlying growth despite transitory headwind in Japan and the final EU flavor ban market implementation. Adjusted in-market sales volume grew by +8% in the first half, despite these dynamics reflecting a broad-based global momentum. The moderation in Q2 growth to +5.1% primarily reflects expected volatility in Japan as Q1 pantry loading reversed and consumers adjusted to the excise-driven price increase on April the 1st. Excluding Japan and Poland, Q2 growth was strong at +10.2% or over +11% for H1, consistent with recent history. Strong Q2 performance in more established IQOS markets such as Italy, Greece, and Romania, was complemented by continued momentum in newer markets including Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Mexico, and in Taiwan, which maintain its impressive trajectory with offtake volume growth growing double-digit on a sequential basis as we progressively expand distribution. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:17:44Global travel retail also delivered double-digit adjusted IMS growth. In tandem, we are driving strong commercial execution and ongoing innovation across our device and consumable portfolio with the Remix Special Edition shown on this slide as one example. We also continue to expand our alternative heating technology, BONDS by IQOS, which was launched in Poland, Czech Republic, and Morocco this quarter with encouraging early results. The fundamental of IQOS remains strong. We continue to benefit from formidable brand equity, deep consumer connection, and an unparalleled commercial presence across a broad and diversified geographic footprint, and we maintain our global share of the fast-growing heat-not-burn category at approximately 76% in H1. This was further illustrated by the recognition of IQOS for the first time among the top 100 most valuable global brands, according to Kantar. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:18:55Looking at the IQOS offtake share performance, we continue to drive impressive progress across key cities globally, an important lead indicator of broader national adoption. In Q2, we recorded further strong share gains across established IQOS markets, including Greece, Italy, Romania, and the U.K., alongside global travel retail. We are also seeing very good momentum in emerging IQOS markets, notably Mexico, Indonesia, and Taiwan, with Taipei share of around 8% in a seasonally higher total market for cigarettes. These results reflect our strong commercial execution, as well as the increasing presence and scale of IQOS in more established markets, combined with excellent early adoption in newer markets, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term growth trajectory. In e-vapor, VEEV continue to deliver excellent results with H1 shipment growth of +72% and very good progression on financial metrics, including profitability. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:20:05This reflects robust growth across key open market, reinforcing VEEV's leadership position. VEEV is now the clear number one brand in Europe, both within closed pod and for pods and disposable combined, and the estimated number one closed pod brand in global travel retail where VEEV is present, all ahead of long-established players. This is supported by the structural evolution of the category, with closed pods now representing the predominant format internationally, excluding illicit and open system. High levels of consumer retention and brand loyalty underpin our performance, supported by responsible innovation and continued portfolio enhancement. This include the progressive rollout of our latest technology, VEEV One Plus, which offers an elevated consumer experience through a compact premium design, a swap and store functionality enabling two pods in one device, and a longer-lasting replaceable battery. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:21:14For ZYN, international shipment volume grew +6% in the first half or +32% excluding the Nordics. ZYN continued to gain share in this small but fast-growing category, reaching more than 17% of the international segment, excluding the Nordics in Q2. We are seeing encouraging progress across a broad set of geographies, supported by portfolio expansion and consumer adoption as awareness and availability improve. This includes markets such as the U.K., Pakistan, Poland, Greece, and the Philippines, with further footprint and portfolio expansion plan in the second half. Zooming in on Europe, where we are now present in every market with smoke-free products following the Q2 launch of IQOS in Malta, which recently established a new regulatory framework for smoke-free product. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:22:19Our multi-category portfolio drove strong growth with combined IMS up +8% in H1 as ZYN and VEEV strengths and complement IQOS, supporting growth, consumer acquisition, and long-term value creation. IQOS remains the core engine of our performance with adjusted IMS volume up by +5.1% in Q2 and +5.4% for the first half. We achieved this despite ongoing disruption in Ukraine and the impact of recent flavor ban in markets such as Poland and Hungary. Excluding markets where the ban took effect in the prior 12 months, underlying IQOS adjusted IMS growth remained robust at around +8% for both Q2 and H1, reflecting momentum across the region. This includes excellent growth across a broad set of markets, including Italy, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Spain. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:23:19Supported by our innovation and commercial initiatives such as the broader rollout of DELIA, new variants of both TEREA and LEVIA, special edition devices and consumable, and collaboration with partner that share our commitment to innovation, reinvention, and transformation. While VEEV is a global success, its biggest impact is in Europe, where the e-vapor category is highly penetrated. H1 shipments grew +81%, including impressive results in Romania, Greece, and Germany. Similar to its total international progression, ZYN displayed dynamic ex-Nordics growth of around +33% as the category continued to gain traction. In Japan, IQOS fundamentals remain strong despite expected volatility from pricing and timing effect. First half performance was in line with expectation with adjusted IMS growth of +3.4%. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:24:29Following an exceptionally strong first quarter, Q2 adjusted IMS declined by 3.4%, reflecting the reversal of consumer pantry loading ahead of the April 1st excise-driven price increase. Excluding this impact, underlying growth was around +1%. While this represented a moderation from recent quarters, the initial impact of consumer adjustment to the price increase was in line with our expectation. The April excise change required the largest HTU price increase to date in Japan to pass on the tax while there was no excise change for cigarettes. Despite implementing the largest increase in the market, IQOS adjusted category share held in the high 60s and adjusted IMS recovered nicely through the quarter to essentially match Q1 monthly volume, excluding pantry loading, a further testament to IQOS resilience. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:25:35Despite these factors, IQOS-adjusted HTU share was stable at 31.8% in Q2 or up +0.9 percentage point excluding pantry loading, supported by our tier portfolio, with SENTIA playing an important role in capturing more price-sensitive TEREA consumers. Importantly, underlying demand remained robust. The heat-not-burn category continued to represent more than half of total nicotine offtake, and we expect this to continue growing over time. While the biggest step is behind us, we expect further category volatility in H2, notably around the excise change in October, and we'll expect similar consumer behavior patterns, including pantry loading and subsequent normalization. We continue to target growth in IQOS adjusted IMS volume for the year overall. Moving to the U.S., where we delivered a sequential improvement of +38% in net revenue and +46% in adjusted gross profit compared to a challenging Q1. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:26:50This largely reflects the +25% sequential growth in ZYN shipment and reduced sales promotion as we prepared for new product launches. On a year-on-year basis, segment net revenue declined by close to 1%, reflecting a decline in cigars and unfavorable phasing dynamic in the wellness business, while ZYN net revenue were broadly flat. Gross profit was impacted by higher manufacturing costs, mainly related to the ramp-up of new ZYN capacity in Colorado, where full-scale commercial production began this month, reflecting our continued investment to support future growth. ZYN shipments returned to growth with an increase of +2% year-on-year to 2.9 billion pouches, despite an inventory restocking tailwind of around 150 million pouches in the prior year. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:27:51This growth is broadly in line with stable to slightly growing offtake volume and includes some initial shipments of new variants in June, including the ZYN Ultra range, which contains 20 pouches per can. Looking to the second half, we expect the dynamism of ZYN to be enhanced by our expanding portfolio and increased commercial activity, which I'll come back to shortly. However, it is important to note that volume comparison in Q3 will be impacted by the one-off promotional activity in September of last year, which accounted for around 250 million pouches. Importantly, ZYN remains the clear premium leader of the nicotine pouch category, with a retail value share of around 57%. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:28:43As discussed in prior disclosures, recent category share performance has been impacted by both competitive gaps in the growing higher strength segment, including moist product and in certain flavor segment, as well as an elevated price premium. With improving regulatory clarity and operational readiness, we have now taken the first step to address this with additional variants. This started with the launch of ZYN Ultra in nine and 11 milligram moist variants at a lower per pouch price than the ZYN flagship range of dry pouches, reducing the price premium to the closest competitor while maintaining a clear premium position alongside targeted addition to our flagship flavor range. These new variants are rapidly building distribution, and while early days, we are pleased by promising initial offtake trends and positive consumer feedback. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:29:44As a related aside, I will note that while scanner data typically provide a good directional indication of volume trend, it does not always fully capture the effective consumer price. We plan further extension in the coming months, including the introduction of 1.5 milligram and eight milligram dry formats in Q3. Together, these launches will broaden our offering with an expanded range of strengths and taste profile, enabling us to better address the spectrum of legal age consumer preferences and further strengthen our competitive positioning across segments. With such an exciting lineup of new product to complement the existing portfolio, we plan to accelerate our U.S. investment in the second half. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:30:31This includes a comprehensive commercial program across marketing, distribution, and in-store execution with a rollout of our major new brand campaign, When it Clicks, starting this month to support brand engagement and consumer relevance. We are also implementing commercial initiatives to optimize ZYN's premium positioning and enhance consumer value perception. In addition, our U.S. investment include preparation for the future launch of IQOS ILUMA, subject to FDA action. We also believe ZYN is well-positioned from a regulatory standpoint, notably following the modified risk tobacco product authorization of 20 SKUs, making it the only nicotine pouch product with the designation and allowing us to market the claim, "Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis." Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:31:38This further reinforces its differentiated and sustainable positioning, supporting consumer trust and long-term growth potential. Overall, we remain confident in the long-term trajectory of ZYN and the U.S. nicotine pouch category, supported by strong legal age consumer demand and the investment we are making in responsibly commercializing a significantly enhanced product range for long-term leadership. Finally, moving to combustible, where our business delivered a particularly strong Q2 performance. In addition to the favorable volume trajectory I described earlier, this was driven by a pricing variance of +9.2% in the first half, or almost +10% in Q2, with notable contribution from markets including Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Mexico. While we expect some moderation in H2 due to timing factors and annualization, we now forecast a pricing variance of more than 7% for the full year. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:32:46Although we expect this additional benefit will be largely offset by a more adverse geographic mix as volumes queue more to markets with lower per-unit revenues. Despite such strong pricing, our portfolio maintained its international category share at 25.3% in Q2, with Marlboro again demonstrating the strength of its premium brand equity, matching its record high of 11%. This combination of pricing power, brand leadership, and discipline execution translated into robust profitability, with international combustible gross profit growing by +6.1% in organic terms and by an impressive +8% in Q2. Our combustible business continues to demonstrate the strength of its model, delivering solid top and bottom-line growth while supporting the ongoing expansion and increasing profitability of our smoke-free portfolio. This brings me to our outlook for the full year. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:33:56With our international smoke-free business growing very strongly as expected, and the combustible business outperforming our prior expectations, we have additional capacity to invest while maintaining a best-in-class growth performance. The success of PMI is built on investing in the short term for long-term growth, just as we have with IQOS, and in decades past, Marlboro. The defining characteristic of our company over the last 15 years is that as we invest, we also deliver strong growth and cash generation. For 2026, we continue to target organic net revenue growth of +5% to +7%, organic operating income growth of +7% to +9%, and currency neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth of +7.5% to +9.5%. In dollar terms, we now forecast a currency tailwind of around $0.15 at prevailing rates. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:35:00Translating into an adjusted diluted EPS range of $8.26 to $8.41, an increase of 9.5% to +11.5%. With an expectation of broadly stable to slightly growing volumes, we are also aiming for our sixth consecutive year of total volume growth. For the second half, this implies a continued strong top line and an acceleration in organic operating income growth. Further robust international progression should be complemented by U.S. momentum, notwithstanding a fairly even phasing of international HTU shipments through the four quarters, with shipment broadly in line with adjusted IMS for the full year. We also expect robust progress at the EPS level while noting challenging H2 comparison on net finance cost and the effective tax rate. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:36:02For Q3, specifically, we expect HTU shipment volume of around 41 billion units against a strong Q3 2025, when HTU shipment grew by 15.5%. We, thus, expect mid-single-digit international smoke-free organic net revenue and gross profit growth. For PMI overall, we forecast mid-single digit Q3 organic top line growth with modest organic margin expansion. We target adjusted diluted EPS of $2.20 to $2.25, including an unfavorable currency impact of $0.08 at prevailing exchange rate. This also reflects the challenging tax rate comparison from Q3 last year. We continue to expect operating cash flow generation of around $13.5 billion, providing further flexibility to support both investment and continued attractive shareholder return. I will now conclude today's presentation with a few key takeaways. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:37:13We delivered an excellent first half, underscoring the quality of our business model and placing us firmly on track for another year of strong performance. Our results reflect the powerful combination of smoke-free growth and strong combustible execution, with the profitability of our smoke-free portfolio continuing to improve as IQOS, ZYN, and VEEV gain scale and drive synergies across markets. This performance, together with effective cost management, provide us with the flexibility to reinvest behind our smoke-free future while sustaining best-in-class growth. We also remain a highly cash generative business with an unwavering commitment to our progressive dividend policy and to returning value to shareholders. Looking ahead, we approach the remainder of 2026 with confidence, well-positioned to deliver superior and sustainable growth. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:38:15On a more personal note, this is my last earnings call as Group CFO of PMI, and I would like to thank our shareholders and analysts for your support, engagement, and constructive challenge over the past six years, a period of strong performance and shareholder returns. As I look at the business today, I am confident PMI will continue to represent a standout performer within CPG over the coming years, and I leave you in the very talented hands of my successor, Massimo Andolina, who will transition from his current role as Regional President for Europe in August. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International00:38:56Thank you, Emmanuel. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. Emmanuel, I would first like to pay tribute to your significant contribution to the performance of our company over the last few years and to the great collaboration that you and I have personally enjoyed, both in my previous roles and in the process of this transition. Emmanuel, I am fully aware that you leave behind big shoes to fill, and I will continue to count on your support in the coming months to do so effectively. Thank you. I am very much looking forward to serving as the Group CFO of Philip Morris International and continuing our relentless focus on delivering superior shareholder returns over the long term. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International00:39:46We have a very robust business model built on investing for sustainable smoke-free growth and a strong and talented organization with an excellent track record of delivering for shareholders. I look forward to engaging with our investors, our analysts, and all other stakeholders over the coming months and beyond. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International00:40:14Thank you, Massimo. Thank you, Emmanuel. The team are now happy to answer your questions. Operator00:40:23Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please limit yourself to two questions per person and rejoin the queue again for further questions. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question coming from the line of Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Bonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman Sachs00:40:58All right. Thank you. Emmanuel, it's been great working with you, and I do wish you all the best in the future. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:41:06Thank you, Bonnie. Bonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman Sachs00:41:08Yes, you're welcome. My first question is on your guidance. Despite two quarters of better-than-expected performance and strength, you did maintain your full-year underlying growth guidance. I did just want to verify this is primarily due to your strategic decision to step up investments in the U.S. in the second half, or is there something else we should be mindful of? Your guidance still does imply slightly faster income growth in 2H versus 1H. I wanted to understand how much flexibility you have with this greater spending, could you maybe just give us a little more color on these planned investments? For instance, should we anticipate a big step-up in promotional spend behind ZYN? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:41:53Thank you, Bonnie. H1, you've seen it, is great. The fact that after a great H1, indeed, with some very good news in Q2 globally and notably with the confirmation of a strong smoke-free business, CC, that is doing better than expected. The reason why today we're not revising the guidance is indeed the fact that we also are facing a very exciting moment in the U.S. We have an alignment of planet that is, of course, great. We have, as we've been explaining now, a much broader portfolio of variants. We're coming with more flavor on our dry offering, and you've seen that. We talk about peach Dragonberry and black cherry. We are coming with now ZYN Ultra. With nine and 11, we are announcing that we are coming with 1.5 and eight milligrams. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:42:57We are really putting together now a portfolio that is really, I would say, nicely matching consumer demand and the evolution of the market. On top of that, we have our new marketing campaign, When it Clicks. I think we are very enthused by the potential of this campaign to build further the emotion around the ZYN brand and develop the brand franchise. I would say the MRTP is almost coming as an icing on the cake. We were confident this would come. We were confident about the quality of the product, but it's great that we're able now to have this authorization to market the product with this reduced risk mention, and I've been elaborating on that. That's really a great moment in the U.S. to accelerate. I would say, we're going to go 360. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:43:52It's going to be every lever we can pull to accelerate the growth of ZYN and leveraging this new situation. It's going to come, of course, with a lot of marketing, commercial activity at the point of sales. That's going to be really important. I think you were questioning, okay, what does it mean in term of promotional activity? You've seen that Q2 has been more reduced in term of promotional activity. That's why we are close to flat year-over-year in term of revenue, with volume slightly up. I think we'll see. I'm not going, of course, to comment in advance, that would be anti-competitive, any kind of price action. There is one starting point which is absolutely intangible. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:44:38ZYN is a leading premium brand of the market and is going to stay as the leading premium brand of the market. Everything we will be doing in that respect will be to optimize volume growth and the bottom line growth. Once I've said that, I've said everything I can say in that respect. It's illustrating how we are looking at things. That's certainly in the U.S., after several quarters of frustration, it's a great moment, and it's great that obviously we have the capacity to deliver a very strong growth while accelerating our investment in the U.S. Bonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman Sachs00:45:17Okay. That was super helpful. Just maybe a quick follow-up on ZYN. Just hoping for a little more color on the rollout of ZYN Ultra, early feedback you've been hearing from retailers and consumers, space gains, how incremental do you expect it to be? You mentioned this morning that you have plans to roll out the lower nicotine ZYN. Just love to hear how you expect to position that within broader ZYN portfolio and how incremental that can be. Thanks. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:45:51Yeah. On ZYN Ultra, I don't think we want to be overplaying the first two weeks. You have seen these first two weeks of ZYN as we did. It's very nice. We have sequential growth. We are growing our share. We are capturing, I think, a large part of the evolution of the category over this two weeks period. We have a number of positive consumer feedback. I think here we want to stay cautious because we talk about two weeks, a lot to come, but I would say the first data and first feedback are certainly encouraging. Let's have a bit more week, and I'm sure after the summer, we'll be able to have a much better understanding of what ZYN Ultra is bringing. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:46:39On your question on the low nicotine, I think we've always said, and it's not specific to the U.S., generally on the nicotine pouch category, that we see the 1.5 milligram as particularly relevant to convince smokers to switch to this better alternative. We know that too high in nicotine content can actually create a bad experience and discourage some of them to be moving to this product. We hope that this 1.5 milligram is going to be helping really millions of Americans who really test the category, I would say, in the most favorable possible condition and with the best possible experience. Of course, I will stay silent on our plan in term of rollout, and what we're going to do because that's sensitive information. That's really the philosophy that we have behind this 1.5 milligram. Operator00:47:32Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Matt Smith with Stifel. Your line is now open. Matt SmithManaging Director at Stifel00:47:42Hi, thank you for taking the question, Emmanuel. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:47:45Morning, Matt. Matt SmithManaging Director at Stifel00:47:46Morning. I wanted to dig in a little bit further on the Japan dynamics during the quarter, and more importantly, the progression, both from a category growth standpoint in IMS as well as IQOS's growth during the quarter. The overall IQOS HTU share was resilient, but any more detail on the share trends within IQOS, the mix between the IQOS consumable portfolio and expectations in the second half, given another excise tax increase in October, whether you think that has another impact on the third quarter versus fourth quarter phasing. Thank you. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:48:33Yeah, Matt. Sure. Happy to do that. Again, maybe let me start by repeating that what we've been experiencing in Japan is in line with our expectations. We knew it would be a bit chaotic to read between Q1 pantry loading, Q2 with, of course, negative impact at the beginning and then a recovery. If you take a macro approach on what has been happening in Japan, yes, the category has been slowing in term of growth. What else would you expect? It's a significant increase for the consumer in a country where the consumer is not, I would say, used to have a very significant price increase. There is a kind of cultural shock here that is happening. That is, of course, something that is a disruption, but that's what we're expected to the category. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:49:23That has meant that the category has been slowing down, but it's still growing and as we see the data through Q2, we see things that are regularly improving. If now I focus on IQOS, we have been certainly more impacted on TEREA, which is the most expensive consumable brand. And there was a very nice SENTIA safety net, I would say, for the consumer. Without giving the precise number, what we've seen is that SENTIA is probably above where it was when TEREA has not fully recovered yet, because of this move from TEREA to SENTIA. Overall, we finish at 68%, we're at 69% in the quarter before. Frankly, I don't even know whether this is really significant. We have been the one, I've been saying it again in my remarks, with the biggest increase with our JPY 40. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:50:20We've gone through the worst for us, because this first increase was the worst. The pass-on, I'm not going to say what we're gonna do in H2, but the pass-on is lower. It's closer to JPY 20 in the second half. We've been going through the worst and we know that the competition, if they want to absorb their excise duty increase, they have to increase more than us, or they will have to have significant adverse consequences. That's really what we can say on Japan. We're not totally with this adjustment behind us. As we flag, there will be more disruption in H2. I would say we're quite confident that we've been going through the most difficult moment. It reacted as expected, I think it's a tribute to the IQOS strength in the country. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:51:13Now we go for H2, as I said, with a lower impact in term of pass-on. Now, just let me say about what's going to happen next, because it's important to have in mind, this one I think is gonna play positively. You know that in 2026, there is no increase on combustible. In 2027, there is already plan, I think it's 2027 till 2029, three years of excise duty increase at a much more limited level, of course, but both equally for CC and for heat-not-burn. As we've been moving to fixed rate, that is going to open the window probably for a favorable environment where as a leading brand in term of price, we are less impacted proportionally than others. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:51:58That is creating window to increase price, which was not always obvious in the past. The pass-on, I think, is around JPY 12 for the coming years. Probably after what was a difficult moment to absorb in 2026, I think that is going to translate into a much more favorable landscape 2027 and beyond. Matt SmithManaging Director at Stifel00:52:21That's very helpful. Thank you, Emmanuel. I'll pass it on. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:52:25Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Operator00:52:29Thank you. Our next question in queue, coming from the line of Eric Serotta with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Eric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan Stanley00:52:38Hi. Good morning. First of all, thank you, Emmanuel. It's been a pleasure working with you. Looking forward to working with you ahead, Massimo. Best of luck, Emmanuel. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:52:54Thank you. Thank you very much, Eric. Thank you. Eric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan Stanley00:52:59You're welcome. Turning back to Japan, could you comment a bit about the competitive environment there? We definitely saw a pickup in promotional activity over the past year from some of your competitors. Starting to cycle the beginning of that, how are you seeing that, or how have you seen that evolve in recent months? I know it's certainly noisy given the excise pass-through. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:53:37Yeah, Eric. In Japan, as you can imagine, I would say it's probably all hands on deck for every player, given this very strong pass-on in two steps. People are probably no longer playing with, I'm going to trying to make a promotion here. I'm going to try to play a kind of strange game here and there. I think everybody is saying, "How do I absorb to the best possible of my capacity what is a big increase?" When you don't have the best image in the market, it's more difficult for you to convince the consumer that your product deserves a significant price increase. I believe everybody is a little bit in the middle of that. I think we've been flagging the fact that before this excise duty alignment or equalization happened, Japan Tobacco had been gaining share. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:54:27I'm not going to comment on the trend on H1, and I'm not even sure that it's, at that moment, easy to read what's going on. The fact that we are maintaining our share broadly, I mean, 68 versus 69, is just showing that, yeah, you can have between competitor number two, competitor number three, you can have some move, but at the end of the day, we stay largely ahead of the competition. I think we will need to have the dust settling a little bit towards the end of the year to see what's gonna be the And with the further price or excise duty increase I mentioned, what is the new game of the competitor. I think today everybody is trying to really work on absorbing this significant excise duty. Eric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan Stanley00:55:12Great, very helpful. Just a quick follow-up on that. Have seen that Japan Tobacco applied to the Ministry of Finance for the October price increase. It looks like it was very slightly below the full pass-through of the excise. Is that consistent with your read on it based on pricing in the marketplace? Have you guys applied to the Ministry in terms of October pricing yet? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:55:46Look, I'm not going to comment on what a competitor has been doing. I think it's public what they've been granted by the Ministry of Finance. I'm not going to comment either on their strategy. I think we've been saying that globally, here I'm not being specific to the competition, the excise duty equalization meant a significantly higher price increase than for us. Remember that for us, altogether, it's around 10%. For the competitor, it could go up to 20%. It's a much bigger price increase if they want to fully pass on, but I don't know what they're going to do. For us, for our application, because this is your question, this is not public yet, I'm not going to comment on what we've been doing or not doing. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:56:32If you can be bearing with us a little bit, I'm sure you'll learn soon. Operator00:56:40Thank you. Again, as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your touchtone telephone. Our next question coming from the line of Faham Baig with UBS. Your line is now open. Faham BaigExecutive Director at UBS00:56:55Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, if that's okay. The first one is a clarification, Emmanuel. When you suggest optimizing ZYN's price premium positioning, I know you've introduced ZYN Ultra, which sort of helps with that, but are you also referring to ZYN Flagship? I know you're sort of conscious about market share, rightly so, but if that is the case, could this also help re-accelerate category growth, which is currently running around 20%? That's my first question. My second question, I appreciate pricing is a highly sensitive topic, and I'm not here looking for forward-looking guidance. Is it reasonable to assume that pricing is likely to be a greater part of the IQOS growth algorithm going forward? Is that a lever that could further drive gross margin expansion at IQOS? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:58:04Sure. Thank you for your question. On optimizing, I think I'm gonna go back to what I've been saying, which is for us, optimizing means to put ZYN globally, and you will allow me, of course, not to elaborate between ZYN Dry, ZYN Ultra or whatever ZYN in the future, is to position our ZYN variants at the price point where we are maximizing volume growth and bottom line growth. I'm gonna repeat it. ZYN is and will remain the premium leader of the market, and of course, it's a very exciting market that is the fastest-growing category in the U.S. We want to take our fair share of the growth of the category and to do it in a profitable manner. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:58:47That's what we mean by optimizing the price, and I'm not going to elaborate more on that. Now, on IQOS. You've seen that it's 3%, okay, in this first part of the year, the price increase on IQOS. To be clear, the name of the game today is more to optimize volume, and I don't need to repeat here that IQOS consumable are coming with two times more $ per stick revenue, even more in terms of gross profit because the gross margin is higher. Really optimizing volume is the name of the game, which doesn't prevent us from, of course, tactically, when we can and without damaging the volume, increasing price. For the timing, that's really the priority. On the long term, of course, there will be a moment where IQOS is becoming bigger. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:59:44The market will mature at some point in time in the future, and at that time, we are building a brand that is second to none. I'm not sure that people know that the fact that we are now in the Kantar list of the top 100 brands, that's quite an event. That's quite remarkable. The brand is 10 years old. I think we're building something very strong in terms of brand, and we all know that a strong brand in the future will mean our capacity to increase price because the consumer will see value in the brand. We are preparing the ground for indeed the capacity to accelerate price in the future. Today, the priority, as I said, is on optimizing volumes. Faham BaigExecutive Director at UBS01:00:23Thanks, Emmanuel. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:00:25Thank you. Operator01:00:28Thank you. Our next question in queue coming from the line of Pallav Mittal with Barclays. Your line is now open. Pallav MittalVP of Equity Research at Barclays01:00:39Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got two. Firstly, a question on IQOS in Europe. Clearly, the second quarter saw an impact from flavor ban in the remaining markets. You highlighted Poland, Hungary, et cetera. What gives you the confidence that IQOS IMS can accelerate again in Europe? And what, in your view, is a sustainable level underlying, say, growth rate in the near term in Europe IQOS? That's the first one. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:01:14I'm going to hand over to Massimo on that one, on Europe. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:01:20Thank you. Thank you for the question. Look, if you eliminate the impact that we have had during this year from Poland and Hungary in particular, that there are two markets that have been hit by a characterizing flavor ban and two markets where we had a high percentage of flavor propositions in the market, you will see that the underlying growth trend in Europe has not substantially changed. I think the confidence comes for me from a couple of things. Number one, we have already gone through this in a variety of other markets. We have seen that after the first couple of quarters, in which we take the hit, obviously, in terms of volume from the flavor ban. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:02:05Then we reestablish the growth trajectory that we had before that occurred, which is a testament to the commercial engine that we have in place and the strength of the portfolio. The second thing is that we have been expanding the portfolio in order to be able to prepare for this. Therefore, at this point, the portfolio is both tiered vertically with the introduction of DELIA. That is playing more and more a significant role for us, both in terms of acquisition, but also in certain markets where there have been significant tax increases, also in allowing consumer a more affordable proposition. More importantly, I would say, a lot of consumers have found in DELIA an opportunity, and especially CC smokers, an opportunity that they understand better and that they find that the taste profile adapts better to their needs. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:03:00Together with that, you have seen that we have launched LEVIA in a variety of markets. That is our non-tobacco flavor proposition. It's obviously still early days for that proposition. It's a different type of product, but we have seen that in many markets, and Hungary is certainly one of those, we have rapidly achieved double-digit percentage of our portfolio. Last but not least, I would bring the fact that our playground is, at this point, not only IQOS. You have seen that in the course of the past 24 months, we have made a significant pivot to a multi-category commercial engine in which we also play significantly with VEEV in the e-vape category. As Emmanuel said before, in the space of a couple of years, we have reached the number one position in Europe in closed pods and disposables. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:04:00Also more recently and from a small base, also with oral, where the early signals in market like Poland, for instance, or the U.K. or Austria, are extremely encouraging. We have been outperforming the category in growth in the markets and therefore gaining share pretty much everywhere where we have launched. I think these are all the reasons why we remain confident despite the fact the characterizing flavor ban is obviously a very disruptive action. Pallav MittalVP of Equity Research at Barclays01:04:33Sure. That's very helpful. Just one question on your full-year group revenue guidance. I understand higher investments, and which is why you're not increasing your EBIT guidance after a strong H1. You are talking of a better cigarette volume numbers, also better cigarette pricing with some adverse mix. There's no change in the group revenue guidance. Can you just talk about what is offsetting that in terms of smoke-free volumes and pricing? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:05:06Yeah. Of course, we have a nice growth in H1 and we are 5.3% in terms of organic growth, so it's dynamic despite Japan. For the full year, we're targeting actually to be 5% to 7%. It's giving us ample headroom to be within the guidance while having a very dynamic H2. I think it is based on that we are comfortable keeping the guidance. Indeed, as we said, we expect better volume on CC. There is more price, but as we said, there is a negative mix. This one is probably largely offset as we've been explaining. That explains why we are comfortable keeping the guidance, again, based on H1, and on the overall trajectory. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:06:01For Smoke-Free, I should also emphasize the fact that in H1, you have a shipment that is a bit above IMS, when for the full year, we expect shipment and IMS to be broadly aligned. That means that we expect the reverse. We expect IMS to be a bit above shipment in the second part of the year, and that also will have an impact on the growth of our revenue. As I said, if you look at the guidance and what we have been seeing in H1, we are pointing to another six months, I mean H2, of very dynamic growth for revenue, and we are targeting an acceleration on the growth of the operating income. It's not as if we are expecting a slowdown in H2. Actually, quite the contrary. Operator01:06:57Thank you. Our next question in queue coming from the line of Gerald Pascarelli with Needham & Company. Your line is now open. Gerald PascarelliManaging Director at Needham & Company01:07:06Great. Thank you very much. I'd like to just go back to combustibles. Given the outperformance that you delivered in volumes this quarter, are you able to provide any color on whether that momentum has maybe sustained over the first part of July. Just looking at the comparisons, the volume comparisons look very favorable in 3Q, and really in the back half of the year, more broadly. Just curious, if there may be some conservatism in your full year volume outlook, or if there are any, I don't know, specific regional headwinds or timing considerations for us to be mindful of as we model this out. Thank you. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:07:52No, nothing to flag. You will allow me not to start commenting the Q3 numbers and July. Indeed, what is behind the strength of combustible in Q2 are countries with no smoke-free product presence or limited smoke-free product presence. We talk about Turkey, India, Egypt. Indonesia has been doing well as well. These are countries we know where you have big demographics. The legal age cohort are growing every year. There is a trend on smoking. India, for me, is a perfect example. You know how powerful the demographics are over there. Smoke-free product are banned, and therefore, combustible products are fully benefiting from that. That's the trend in Q2. Okay, it doesn't mean that the rest of the year is going to be at the same level. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:08:52Nevertheless, this is why we have been revising a bit the volume outlook from around minus 3% to 2%-3% decline. That's what we can say for the time being. Once again, we see a big, big difference between countries where people have largely access to smoke-free product and other countries. Operator01:09:20Thank you. I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International01:09:31Thank you. That concludes our call today. Thank you for joining us. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact the Investor Relations team. Thank you again, and have a nice day. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:09:40Thank you all. Bye-bye. Bye. Operator01:09:46This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesJames BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial CommunicationsEmmanuel BabeauGroup CFOMassimo AndolinaPresident of Europe RegionAnalystsBonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman SachsMatt SmithManaging Director at StifelEric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan StanleyFaham BaigExecutive Director at UBSPallav MittalVP of Equity Research at BarclaysGerald PascarelliManaging Director at Needham & CompanyPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Philip Morris International Earnings HeadlinesWhat Are Wall Street Analysts' Target Price for Philip Morris International Stock?August 4 at 2:51 PM | barchart.comPhilip Morris International Inc. stock underperforms Monday when compared to competitorsAugust 3 at 11:40 PM | marketwatch.comThey didn't warn anyone in 1971. This time someone is warning you.On August 15, 1971, Nixon interrupted prime-time television and ended the gold standard in 15 minutes - no debate, no vote, one executive order. Gold tripled within three years and climbed 20x over the following decade. Trump holds that same executive authority today, and his advisors are openly saying a reversal is on the table. There are two ways this plays out - both move gold in the same direction. A free briefing breaks down exactly what Nixon did, why Trump is positioned to act, and how to move your 401k into gold before any announcement - tax free.August 4 at 1:00 AM | Reagan Gold Group (Ad)Can Altria's Pricing Power Offset Cigarette Volume Declines?August 3 at 1:30 PM | finance.yahoo.comCitigroup Issues Positive Forecast for Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) Stock PriceJuly 31, 2026 | americanbankingnews.com5 High-Yielding Dividend Stocks for Retirees to Buy and Hold ForeverJuly 29, 2026 | 247wallst.comSee More Philip Morris International Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Philip Morris International? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Philip Morris International and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Philip Morris InternationalPhilip Morris International (NYSE:PM) (NYSE: PM) is a global tobacco company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, other nicotine-containing products and a growing portfolio of smoke-free alternatives for adult smokers. The firm traces its corporate roots to the 19th century Philip Morris enterprise and was established as an independent, publicly traded company following a 2008 separation from what is now Altria. Since the spin-off, the company has focused on serving international markets outside the United States. PMI’s product mix includes traditional combustible cigarettes as well as smoke-free offerings such as heated tobacco systems and other reduced-risk products. The company holds the international rights to some of the industry’s best-known cigarette brands and has invested heavily in the development and commercialization of its IQOS heated tobacco platform and other next-generation nicotine delivery technologies intended to provide alternatives for adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke combustible cigarettes. Operationally, Philip Morris International sells products in more than 180 markets worldwide and manages a network of manufacturing, marketing and distribution activities to serve diverse regional regulatory and consumer environments. The company engages with regulators, public health stakeholders and commercial partners as it advances its stated strategic priority of transitioning adult smokers to potentially less harmful alternatives while navigating complex legal and policy landscapes in different countries. Leadership has emphasized the company’s innovation and product-transition strategy; Jacek Olczak was appointed chief executive officer in 2021. PMI continues to prioritize research and development, regulatory science and commercialization efforts as it seeks to expand adoption of non-combustible products and reshape its long-term business profile around smoke-free technologies.View Philip Morris International ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Latest Articles Grab Holdings Stock Forms Bottom After Strong Beat-and-Raise QuarterThe AI Chip Stock Making a Quiet Move Toward DominanceApple’s AI Strategy Looks Different—Will It Pay Off?Reddit’s U.S. User Decline Raises a Bigger Question After Its Earnings BeatWhy Walmart and Amazon Could Be the Market’s Most Complementary Mega-CapsMarriott’s Earnings Drop May Be Missing the Bigger Fee Growth StoryDodging Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile's Strategic Win Upcoming Earnings DoorDash (8/5/2026)Walt Disney (8/5/2026)MercadoLibre (8/5/2026)Occidental Petroleum (8/5/2026)Phillips 66 (8/5/2026)Allstate (8/5/2026)Brookfield Asset Management (8/5/2026)MetLife (8/5/2026)Manulife Financial (8/5/2026)Cencora (8/5/2026) Unlock superior investment research and tools. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Philip Morris International 2026 second quarter results. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, we will open up for questions with a limit of two questions per person before rejoining the queue. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to hand it over to our first speaker, James Bushnell, Vice President of Investor Relations and Financial Communication. Please go ahead. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International00:00:46Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Earlier today, we issued a press release containing detailed information on our 2026 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 today, and on our Investor Relations website. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International00:01:42I am joined today by Emmanuel Babeau, Group Chief Financial Officer, and Massimo Andolina, currently Regional President for Europe, who will succeed Emmanuel as Group CFO in August. Emmanuel, over to you. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:01:57Thank you, James, and welcome everyone. I am pleased to report a very strong Q2 as we generated +8% organic growth in net revenue and +11% in operating income, driving +14% currency-neutral progression in adjusted diluted earnings per share to $2.20 or +15% in $ terms. This better-than-expected delivery contributed to very robust H1 growth, despite the tough comparison of the first quarter. Our Q2 results were once again powered by excellent performance, as expected, from our international Smoke-Free Products business, with high single-digit volume growth, double-digit top-line growth, and impressive gross margin expansion. IQOS adjusted in-market sales volume increased by +5%, including expected transitory headwinds from the April excise increase in Japan and the characterizing flavor ban in Poland. Excluding these two markets, double-digit growth continued, reflecting the broad-based strengths of our Smoke-Free Products business across markets. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:03:16Our multi-category commercial approach continues to gain momentum, supported by ZYN and VEEV. Our combustible performance was above our expectation in an especially strong quarter, with growing volumes, very good pricing, stable category share, and gross profit growth. While we do not expect this delivery to be repeated to the same magnitude for the full year, such results demonstrate the robustness of our portfolio as we leverage our leadership in cigarettes to support the switching of legal-age smokers to better alternatives. In the U.S., we posted a significant sequential improvement in net revenues, gross profit, and operating company income compared to a challenging Q1. While the U.S. nicotine pouch category continued to grow, ZYN offtake volumes were broadly stable to slightly growing versus the prior year, reflecting the uneven competitive landscape described in recent quarters. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:04:23ZYN shipments increased by +2% to 2.9 billion pouches, despite an inventory tailwind in the prior year, broadly reflecting offtake trends and the initial shipments of new variants, including ZYN Ultra. We are excited about this first phase of portfolio expansion with additional initiatives planned in the coming months to enhance and enrich our offering to legal-age American nicotine consumers. Supported by a rich product pipeline and improving regulatory clarity, we believe it is the right moment to accelerate U.S. investment in the second half of the year to support ZYN's brand equity and portfolio expansion and to prepare for the future launch of IQOS ILUMA. Overall, our strong first half performance reinforces our confidence in our ability to consistently invest behind smoke-free growth opportunities while delivering another year of best-in-class top and bottom-line growth. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:05:35Looking now at our Q2 financials, we delivered very good shipment volume growth of +2.5%, underpinned by continued momentum in IQOS and favorable combustible dynamics. Organic net revenues grew +7.6%, or more than 10% in dollar terms, to reach over $11 billion in quarterly net revenues for the first time. This strong top-line performance translated into robust profitability. Adjusted gross profit grew by +8.7% organically or +11.5% in dollar terms, driven by pricing, volume leverage, and favorable smoke-free mix. Adjusted operating income grew close to +11% organically and +12% in dollar terms to reach $4.8 billion, reflecting the same underlying business drivers and continued growth investment. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew by an impressive +15% to reach $2.20. This includes a $0.03 favorable currency impact, which was notably better than our previous forecast, despite ongoing dollar strength. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:07:00This was primarily due to a positive impact from unrealized transactional effect from deferred tax liability associated with a weaker Russian ruble. This currency impact represents around one-third of the EPS outperformance compared to our prior forecast. The remaining two-thirds reflect a combination of SG&A phasing, as certain commercial investment previously anticipated in Q2 are now expected to occur in Q3, and the strong performance of our combustible business, which I'll come back to. Combining our Q2 and first quarter performance, we delivered a very robust first half despite the comparison headwinds of Q1. Total shipment volumes increased +0.4% as smoke-free growth outweighed combustible declines. Organic net revenues grew by +5.3%, while adjusted operating income increased by +6.1% organically or +11% in dollar terms to reach $8.9 billion. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:08:11Adjusted diluted EPS grew by +9.4%, excluding currency, and by +15.6% in dollar term, reaching a first half record of $4.16. The strength of our international business, which made up 93% of H1 group net revenues, was naturally at the core of this remarkable performance. International smoke-free was again outstanding with H1 organic growth of +13.7% in net revenue and +16.9% in gross profit, driving gross margin expansion of +190 basis points to reach 70%. This primarily reflect continued IQOS growth with further announcement from our other smoke-free category, especially VEEV. Combustible also performed very well, exceeding our midterm trajectory of low single-digit organic top line growth and low to mid single-digit gross profit growth. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:09:22An excellent Q2 with organic growth of +6.4% in net revenue and +8% in gross profit, driven by resilient volume and strong pricing, enable us to realize H1 organic net revenue growth of +3.8%, despite negative geographic mix. H1 gross profit increased by +6.1%, with margin expansion of +150 basis points to 67.7%, including the benefit of effective cost management. As a result, total H1 international net revenue grew by +7.4% and gross profit by +10.1%, with gross margin expansion of +160 basis points to 68.6%. In turn, adjusted OCI increased +11.7%, all on an organic basis. Turning now to volumes, where total shipment growth returned to a positive trajectory in the second quarter, with an increase of +2.5%, resulting in +0.4% growth for the first half. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:10:41Smoke-free shipments grew by +7.5% in Q2 and +8.3% in H1, mainly fueled by IQOS HTUs, with notable contribution from Taiwan, global travel retail, and Italy. E-vapor shipments increased by a remarkable +55% in Q2 and +72% in H1, with Romania, Greece, and Germany among the main drivers. Oral smoke-free volumes declined by 1.2% in the quarter, primarily reflecting industry decline and inventory impact for Snus in the Nordics, despite a stable category share performance. This was partly offset by continued rapid nicotine pouch growth in international markets, excluding the Nordics, and the return to shipment volume growth for ZYN in the U.S. Q2 cigarette shipments increased by +1.1% ahead of expectation. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:11:46This reflects a combination of good category share performance, certain timing or comparison factors, and more favorable industry dynamic in certain large market, predominantly where smoke-free products are banned or very small. Notable call-outs include Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, and relative resilience in India and Mexico. However, with industry volumes declining low to mid single-digit in more developed smoke-free market, where the average unit economic of cigarette are more favorable, this generated an unfavorable mix impact on net revenue. For H1 overall, cigarette volumes declined by 1.9%. Given our Q2 performance and the latest industry dynamics, we now expect a more moderate full year decline in our cigarette volumes of around 2%-3%, versus 3% previously, which remain consistent with the structural evolution of the category. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:12:53Taken together, we now expect total shipment volume to be around stable to slightly positive for the full year, with high single-digit growth in smoke-free product broadly offsetting the decline in cigarettes. Turning to our H1 top line growth drivers. Pricing was the largest contributor, adding +5.9 points of growth, reflecting strong combustible pricing of +9.2%, with low single-digit smoke-free pricing including around +3% from IQOS. The positive mix impact from international smoke-free growth contributed a further +2 points, as the increasing weight of SFPs continues to enhance our revenue profile. These drivers were partly offset by the U.S., which had a negative impact of one point, mainly due to Q1 comparison, as well as international combustible geographic mix and other factors, which reduced growth by two points. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:14:01As a result, H1 organic net revenue growth reached +5.3%, while currency provided a tailwind of +4.5 points, bringing reported net revenue growth to +9.8%. The composition of our growth, once again, highlights the consistency and sustainability of our model with stable to growing volumes, durable pricing power, and superior smoke-free economics continuing to be the primary drivers of our performance. Moving down to H1 adjusted operating income margin, which expanded by +40 basis points organically or +60 basis points in dollar term to reach close to 42%. Gross margin expansion remained a key driver, contributing +70 basis points, supported by strong pricing, favorable smoke remix, scale benefit, and manufacturing productivity. While SG&A costs were lower than expected in Q2 due to phasing, increased year-on-year investment in commercial initiative, innovation, and scale nonetheless reduced H1 margin by 30 basis points. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:15:20We now expect higher SG&A costs in the second half than previously anticipated, as we made the strategic decision to step up our U.S. growth investment. As we invest in our top line, we also delivered over $300 million of gross cost saving across COGS and SG&A in H1, keeping us firmly on track to achieve our $2 billion target for the 2024-2026 period, with a cumulative total above $1.8 billion to date. This margin performance underscores the strength of our model as we continue to invest behind our smoke-free transformation while expanding profitability. As implied in our full year forecast, we expect to deliver organic operating income margin expansion for the full year. Focusing now on IQOS, the driving force of our smoke-free and overall PMI growth trajectory. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:16:26We continue to generate strong underlying growth despite transitory headwind in Japan and the final EU flavor ban market implementation. Adjusted in-market sales volume grew by +8% in the first half, despite these dynamics reflecting a broad-based global momentum. The moderation in Q2 growth to +5.1% primarily reflects expected volatility in Japan as Q1 pantry loading reversed and consumers adjusted to the excise-driven price increase on April the 1st. Excluding Japan and Poland, Q2 growth was strong at +10.2% or over +11% for H1, consistent with recent history. Strong Q2 performance in more established IQOS markets such as Italy, Greece, and Romania, was complemented by continued momentum in newer markets including Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Mexico, and in Taiwan, which maintain its impressive trajectory with offtake volume growth growing double-digit on a sequential basis as we progressively expand distribution. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:17:44Global travel retail also delivered double-digit adjusted IMS growth. In tandem, we are driving strong commercial execution and ongoing innovation across our device and consumable portfolio with the Remix Special Edition shown on this slide as one example. We also continue to expand our alternative heating technology, BONDS by IQOS, which was launched in Poland, Czech Republic, and Morocco this quarter with encouraging early results. The fundamental of IQOS remains strong. We continue to benefit from formidable brand equity, deep consumer connection, and an unparalleled commercial presence across a broad and diversified geographic footprint, and we maintain our global share of the fast-growing heat-not-burn category at approximately 76% in H1. This was further illustrated by the recognition of IQOS for the first time among the top 100 most valuable global brands, according to Kantar. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:18:55Looking at the IQOS offtake share performance, we continue to drive impressive progress across key cities globally, an important lead indicator of broader national adoption. In Q2, we recorded further strong share gains across established IQOS markets, including Greece, Italy, Romania, and the U.K., alongside global travel retail. We are also seeing very good momentum in emerging IQOS markets, notably Mexico, Indonesia, and Taiwan, with Taipei share of around 8% in a seasonally higher total market for cigarettes. These results reflect our strong commercial execution, as well as the increasing presence and scale of IQOS in more established markets, combined with excellent early adoption in newer markets, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term growth trajectory. In e-vapor, VEEV continue to deliver excellent results with H1 shipment growth of +72% and very good progression on financial metrics, including profitability. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:20:05This reflects robust growth across key open market, reinforcing VEEV's leadership position. VEEV is now the clear number one brand in Europe, both within closed pod and for pods and disposable combined, and the estimated number one closed pod brand in global travel retail where VEEV is present, all ahead of long-established players. This is supported by the structural evolution of the category, with closed pods now representing the predominant format internationally, excluding illicit and open system. High levels of consumer retention and brand loyalty underpin our performance, supported by responsible innovation and continued portfolio enhancement. This include the progressive rollout of our latest technology, VEEV One Plus, which offers an elevated consumer experience through a compact premium design, a swap and store functionality enabling two pods in one device, and a longer-lasting replaceable battery. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:21:14For ZYN, international shipment volume grew +6% in the first half or +32% excluding the Nordics. ZYN continued to gain share in this small but fast-growing category, reaching more than 17% of the international segment, excluding the Nordics in Q2. We are seeing encouraging progress across a broad set of geographies, supported by portfolio expansion and consumer adoption as awareness and availability improve. This includes markets such as the U.K., Pakistan, Poland, Greece, and the Philippines, with further footprint and portfolio expansion plan in the second half. Zooming in on Europe, where we are now present in every market with smoke-free products following the Q2 launch of IQOS in Malta, which recently established a new regulatory framework for smoke-free product. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:22:19Our multi-category portfolio drove strong growth with combined IMS up +8% in H1 as ZYN and VEEV strengths and complement IQOS, supporting growth, consumer acquisition, and long-term value creation. IQOS remains the core engine of our performance with adjusted IMS volume up by +5.1% in Q2 and +5.4% for the first half. We achieved this despite ongoing disruption in Ukraine and the impact of recent flavor ban in markets such as Poland and Hungary. Excluding markets where the ban took effect in the prior 12 months, underlying IQOS adjusted IMS growth remained robust at around +8% for both Q2 and H1, reflecting momentum across the region. This includes excellent growth across a broad set of markets, including Italy, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Spain. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:23:19Supported by our innovation and commercial initiatives such as the broader rollout of DELIA, new variants of both TEREA and LEVIA, special edition devices and consumable, and collaboration with partner that share our commitment to innovation, reinvention, and transformation. While VEEV is a global success, its biggest impact is in Europe, where the e-vapor category is highly penetrated. H1 shipments grew +81%, including impressive results in Romania, Greece, and Germany. Similar to its total international progression, ZYN displayed dynamic ex-Nordics growth of around +33% as the category continued to gain traction. In Japan, IQOS fundamentals remain strong despite expected volatility from pricing and timing effect. First half performance was in line with expectation with adjusted IMS growth of +3.4%. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:24:29Following an exceptionally strong first quarter, Q2 adjusted IMS declined by 3.4%, reflecting the reversal of consumer pantry loading ahead of the April 1st excise-driven price increase. Excluding this impact, underlying growth was around +1%. While this represented a moderation from recent quarters, the initial impact of consumer adjustment to the price increase was in line with our expectation. The April excise change required the largest HTU price increase to date in Japan to pass on the tax while there was no excise change for cigarettes. Despite implementing the largest increase in the market, IQOS adjusted category share held in the high 60s and adjusted IMS recovered nicely through the quarter to essentially match Q1 monthly volume, excluding pantry loading, a further testament to IQOS resilience. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:25:35Despite these factors, IQOS-adjusted HTU share was stable at 31.8% in Q2 or up +0.9 percentage point excluding pantry loading, supported by our tier portfolio, with SENTIA playing an important role in capturing more price-sensitive TEREA consumers. Importantly, underlying demand remained robust. The heat-not-burn category continued to represent more than half of total nicotine offtake, and we expect this to continue growing over time. While the biggest step is behind us, we expect further category volatility in H2, notably around the excise change in October, and we'll expect similar consumer behavior patterns, including pantry loading and subsequent normalization. We continue to target growth in IQOS adjusted IMS volume for the year overall. Moving to the U.S., where we delivered a sequential improvement of +38% in net revenue and +46% in adjusted gross profit compared to a challenging Q1. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:26:50This largely reflects the +25% sequential growth in ZYN shipment and reduced sales promotion as we prepared for new product launches. On a year-on-year basis, segment net revenue declined by close to 1%, reflecting a decline in cigars and unfavorable phasing dynamic in the wellness business, while ZYN net revenue were broadly flat. Gross profit was impacted by higher manufacturing costs, mainly related to the ramp-up of new ZYN capacity in Colorado, where full-scale commercial production began this month, reflecting our continued investment to support future growth. ZYN shipments returned to growth with an increase of +2% year-on-year to 2.9 billion pouches, despite an inventory restocking tailwind of around 150 million pouches in the prior year. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:27:51This growth is broadly in line with stable to slightly growing offtake volume and includes some initial shipments of new variants in June, including the ZYN Ultra range, which contains 20 pouches per can. Looking to the second half, we expect the dynamism of ZYN to be enhanced by our expanding portfolio and increased commercial activity, which I'll come back to shortly. However, it is important to note that volume comparison in Q3 will be impacted by the one-off promotional activity in September of last year, which accounted for around 250 million pouches. Importantly, ZYN remains the clear premium leader of the nicotine pouch category, with a retail value share of around 57%. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:28:43As discussed in prior disclosures, recent category share performance has been impacted by both competitive gaps in the growing higher strength segment, including moist product and in certain flavor segment, as well as an elevated price premium. With improving regulatory clarity and operational readiness, we have now taken the first step to address this with additional variants. This started with the launch of ZYN Ultra in nine and 11 milligram moist variants at a lower per pouch price than the ZYN flagship range of dry pouches, reducing the price premium to the closest competitor while maintaining a clear premium position alongside targeted addition to our flagship flavor range. These new variants are rapidly building distribution, and while early days, we are pleased by promising initial offtake trends and positive consumer feedback. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:29:44As a related aside, I will note that while scanner data typically provide a good directional indication of volume trend, it does not always fully capture the effective consumer price. We plan further extension in the coming months, including the introduction of 1.5 milligram and eight milligram dry formats in Q3. Together, these launches will broaden our offering with an expanded range of strengths and taste profile, enabling us to better address the spectrum of legal age consumer preferences and further strengthen our competitive positioning across segments. With such an exciting lineup of new product to complement the existing portfolio, we plan to accelerate our U.S. investment in the second half. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:30:31This includes a comprehensive commercial program across marketing, distribution, and in-store execution with a rollout of our major new brand campaign, When it Clicks, starting this month to support brand engagement and consumer relevance. We are also implementing commercial initiatives to optimize ZYN's premium positioning and enhance consumer value perception. In addition, our U.S. investment include preparation for the future launch of IQOS ILUMA, subject to FDA action. We also believe ZYN is well-positioned from a regulatory standpoint, notably following the modified risk tobacco product authorization of 20 SKUs, making it the only nicotine pouch product with the designation and allowing us to market the claim, "Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis." Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:31:38This further reinforces its differentiated and sustainable positioning, supporting consumer trust and long-term growth potential. Overall, we remain confident in the long-term trajectory of ZYN and the U.S. nicotine pouch category, supported by strong legal age consumer demand and the investment we are making in responsibly commercializing a significantly enhanced product range for long-term leadership. Finally, moving to combustible, where our business delivered a particularly strong Q2 performance. In addition to the favorable volume trajectory I described earlier, this was driven by a pricing variance of +9.2% in the first half, or almost +10% in Q2, with notable contribution from markets including Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Mexico. While we expect some moderation in H2 due to timing factors and annualization, we now forecast a pricing variance of more than 7% for the full year. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:32:46Although we expect this additional benefit will be largely offset by a more adverse geographic mix as volumes queue more to markets with lower per-unit revenues. Despite such strong pricing, our portfolio maintained its international category share at 25.3% in Q2, with Marlboro again demonstrating the strength of its premium brand equity, matching its record high of 11%. This combination of pricing power, brand leadership, and discipline execution translated into robust profitability, with international combustible gross profit growing by +6.1% in organic terms and by an impressive +8% in Q2. Our combustible business continues to demonstrate the strength of its model, delivering solid top and bottom-line growth while supporting the ongoing expansion and increasing profitability of our smoke-free portfolio. This brings me to our outlook for the full year. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:33:56With our international smoke-free business growing very strongly as expected, and the combustible business outperforming our prior expectations, we have additional capacity to invest while maintaining a best-in-class growth performance. The success of PMI is built on investing in the short term for long-term growth, just as we have with IQOS, and in decades past, Marlboro. The defining characteristic of our company over the last 15 years is that as we invest, we also deliver strong growth and cash generation. For 2026, we continue to target organic net revenue growth of +5% to +7%, organic operating income growth of +7% to +9%, and currency neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth of +7.5% to +9.5%. In dollar terms, we now forecast a currency tailwind of around $0.15 at prevailing rates. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:35:00Translating into an adjusted diluted EPS range of $8.26 to $8.41, an increase of 9.5% to +11.5%. With an expectation of broadly stable to slightly growing volumes, we are also aiming for our sixth consecutive year of total volume growth. For the second half, this implies a continued strong top line and an acceleration in organic operating income growth. Further robust international progression should be complemented by U.S. momentum, notwithstanding a fairly even phasing of international HTU shipments through the four quarters, with shipment broadly in line with adjusted IMS for the full year. We also expect robust progress at the EPS level while noting challenging H2 comparison on net finance cost and the effective tax rate. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:36:02For Q3, specifically, we expect HTU shipment volume of around 41 billion units against a strong Q3 2025, when HTU shipment grew by 15.5%. We, thus, expect mid-single-digit international smoke-free organic net revenue and gross profit growth. For PMI overall, we forecast mid-single digit Q3 organic top line growth with modest organic margin expansion. We target adjusted diluted EPS of $2.20 to $2.25, including an unfavorable currency impact of $0.08 at prevailing exchange rate. This also reflects the challenging tax rate comparison from Q3 last year. We continue to expect operating cash flow generation of around $13.5 billion, providing further flexibility to support both investment and continued attractive shareholder return. I will now conclude today's presentation with a few key takeaways. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:37:13We delivered an excellent first half, underscoring the quality of our business model and placing us firmly on track for another year of strong performance. Our results reflect the powerful combination of smoke-free growth and strong combustible execution, with the profitability of our smoke-free portfolio continuing to improve as IQOS, ZYN, and VEEV gain scale and drive synergies across markets. This performance, together with effective cost management, provide us with the flexibility to reinvest behind our smoke-free future while sustaining best-in-class growth. We also remain a highly cash generative business with an unwavering commitment to our progressive dividend policy and to returning value to shareholders. Looking ahead, we approach the remainder of 2026 with confidence, well-positioned to deliver superior and sustainable growth. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:38:15On a more personal note, this is my last earnings call as Group CFO of PMI, and I would like to thank our shareholders and analysts for your support, engagement, and constructive challenge over the past six years, a period of strong performance and shareholder returns. As I look at the business today, I am confident PMI will continue to represent a standout performer within CPG over the coming years, and I leave you in the very talented hands of my successor, Massimo Andolina, who will transition from his current role as Regional President for Europe in August. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International00:38:56Thank you, Emmanuel. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. Emmanuel, I would first like to pay tribute to your significant contribution to the performance of our company over the last few years and to the great collaboration that you and I have personally enjoyed, both in my previous roles and in the process of this transition. Emmanuel, I am fully aware that you leave behind big shoes to fill, and I will continue to count on your support in the coming months to do so effectively. Thank you. I am very much looking forward to serving as the Group CFO of Philip Morris International and continuing our relentless focus on delivering superior shareholder returns over the long term. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International00:39:46We have a very robust business model built on investing for sustainable smoke-free growth and a strong and talented organization with an excellent track record of delivering for shareholders. I look forward to engaging with our investors, our analysts, and all other stakeholders over the coming months and beyond. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International00:40:14Thank you, Massimo. Thank you, Emmanuel. The team are now happy to answer your questions. Operator00:40:23Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please limit yourself to two questions per person and rejoin the queue again for further questions. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question coming from the line of Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Bonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman Sachs00:40:58All right. Thank you. Emmanuel, it's been great working with you, and I do wish you all the best in the future. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:41:06Thank you, Bonnie. Bonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman Sachs00:41:08Yes, you're welcome. My first question is on your guidance. Despite two quarters of better-than-expected performance and strength, you did maintain your full-year underlying growth guidance. I did just want to verify this is primarily due to your strategic decision to step up investments in the U.S. in the second half, or is there something else we should be mindful of? Your guidance still does imply slightly faster income growth in 2H versus 1H. I wanted to understand how much flexibility you have with this greater spending, could you maybe just give us a little more color on these planned investments? For instance, should we anticipate a big step-up in promotional spend behind ZYN? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:41:53Thank you, Bonnie. H1, you've seen it, is great. The fact that after a great H1, indeed, with some very good news in Q2 globally and notably with the confirmation of a strong smoke-free business, CC, that is doing better than expected. The reason why today we're not revising the guidance is indeed the fact that we also are facing a very exciting moment in the U.S. We have an alignment of planet that is, of course, great. We have, as we've been explaining now, a much broader portfolio of variants. We're coming with more flavor on our dry offering, and you've seen that. We talk about peach Dragonberry and black cherry. We are coming with now ZYN Ultra. With nine and 11, we are announcing that we are coming with 1.5 and eight milligrams. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:42:57We are really putting together now a portfolio that is really, I would say, nicely matching consumer demand and the evolution of the market. On top of that, we have our new marketing campaign, When it Clicks. I think we are very enthused by the potential of this campaign to build further the emotion around the ZYN brand and develop the brand franchise. I would say the MRTP is almost coming as an icing on the cake. We were confident this would come. We were confident about the quality of the product, but it's great that we're able now to have this authorization to market the product with this reduced risk mention, and I've been elaborating on that. That's really a great moment in the U.S. to accelerate. I would say, we're going to go 360. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:43:52It's going to be every lever we can pull to accelerate the growth of ZYN and leveraging this new situation. It's going to come, of course, with a lot of marketing, commercial activity at the point of sales. That's going to be really important. I think you were questioning, okay, what does it mean in term of promotional activity? You've seen that Q2 has been more reduced in term of promotional activity. That's why we are close to flat year-over-year in term of revenue, with volume slightly up. I think we'll see. I'm not going, of course, to comment in advance, that would be anti-competitive, any kind of price action. There is one starting point which is absolutely intangible. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:44:38ZYN is a leading premium brand of the market and is going to stay as the leading premium brand of the market. Everything we will be doing in that respect will be to optimize volume growth and the bottom line growth. Once I've said that, I've said everything I can say in that respect. It's illustrating how we are looking at things. That's certainly in the U.S., after several quarters of frustration, it's a great moment, and it's great that obviously we have the capacity to deliver a very strong growth while accelerating our investment in the U.S. Bonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman Sachs00:45:17Okay. That was super helpful. Just maybe a quick follow-up on ZYN. Just hoping for a little more color on the rollout of ZYN Ultra, early feedback you've been hearing from retailers and consumers, space gains, how incremental do you expect it to be? You mentioned this morning that you have plans to roll out the lower nicotine ZYN. Just love to hear how you expect to position that within broader ZYN portfolio and how incremental that can be. Thanks. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:45:51Yeah. On ZYN Ultra, I don't think we want to be overplaying the first two weeks. You have seen these first two weeks of ZYN as we did. It's very nice. We have sequential growth. We are growing our share. We are capturing, I think, a large part of the evolution of the category over this two weeks period. We have a number of positive consumer feedback. I think here we want to stay cautious because we talk about two weeks, a lot to come, but I would say the first data and first feedback are certainly encouraging. Let's have a bit more week, and I'm sure after the summer, we'll be able to have a much better understanding of what ZYN Ultra is bringing. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:46:39On your question on the low nicotine, I think we've always said, and it's not specific to the U.S., generally on the nicotine pouch category, that we see the 1.5 milligram as particularly relevant to convince smokers to switch to this better alternative. We know that too high in nicotine content can actually create a bad experience and discourage some of them to be moving to this product. We hope that this 1.5 milligram is going to be helping really millions of Americans who really test the category, I would say, in the most favorable possible condition and with the best possible experience. Of course, I will stay silent on our plan in term of rollout, and what we're going to do because that's sensitive information. That's really the philosophy that we have behind this 1.5 milligram. Operator00:47:32Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Matt Smith with Stifel. Your line is now open. Matt SmithManaging Director at Stifel00:47:42Hi, thank you for taking the question, Emmanuel. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:47:45Morning, Matt. Matt SmithManaging Director at Stifel00:47:46Morning. I wanted to dig in a little bit further on the Japan dynamics during the quarter, and more importantly, the progression, both from a category growth standpoint in IMS as well as IQOS's growth during the quarter. The overall IQOS HTU share was resilient, but any more detail on the share trends within IQOS, the mix between the IQOS consumable portfolio and expectations in the second half, given another excise tax increase in October, whether you think that has another impact on the third quarter versus fourth quarter phasing. Thank you. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:48:33Yeah, Matt. Sure. Happy to do that. Again, maybe let me start by repeating that what we've been experiencing in Japan is in line with our expectations. We knew it would be a bit chaotic to read between Q1 pantry loading, Q2 with, of course, negative impact at the beginning and then a recovery. If you take a macro approach on what has been happening in Japan, yes, the category has been slowing in term of growth. What else would you expect? It's a significant increase for the consumer in a country where the consumer is not, I would say, used to have a very significant price increase. There is a kind of cultural shock here that is happening. That is, of course, something that is a disruption, but that's what we're expected to the category. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:49:23That has meant that the category has been slowing down, but it's still growing and as we see the data through Q2, we see things that are regularly improving. If now I focus on IQOS, we have been certainly more impacted on TEREA, which is the most expensive consumable brand. And there was a very nice SENTIA safety net, I would say, for the consumer. Without giving the precise number, what we've seen is that SENTIA is probably above where it was when TEREA has not fully recovered yet, because of this move from TEREA to SENTIA. Overall, we finish at 68%, we're at 69% in the quarter before. Frankly, I don't even know whether this is really significant. We have been the one, I've been saying it again in my remarks, with the biggest increase with our JPY 40. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:50:20We've gone through the worst for us, because this first increase was the worst. The pass-on, I'm not going to say what we're gonna do in H2, but the pass-on is lower. It's closer to JPY 20 in the second half. We've been going through the worst and we know that the competition, if they want to absorb their excise duty increase, they have to increase more than us, or they will have to have significant adverse consequences. That's really what we can say on Japan. We're not totally with this adjustment behind us. As we flag, there will be more disruption in H2. I would say we're quite confident that we've been going through the most difficult moment. It reacted as expected, I think it's a tribute to the IQOS strength in the country. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:51:13Now we go for H2, as I said, with a lower impact in term of pass-on. Now, just let me say about what's going to happen next, because it's important to have in mind, this one I think is gonna play positively. You know that in 2026, there is no increase on combustible. In 2027, there is already plan, I think it's 2027 till 2029, three years of excise duty increase at a much more limited level, of course, but both equally for CC and for heat-not-burn. As we've been moving to fixed rate, that is going to open the window probably for a favorable environment where as a leading brand in term of price, we are less impacted proportionally than others. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:51:58That is creating window to increase price, which was not always obvious in the past. The pass-on, I think, is around JPY 12 for the coming years. Probably after what was a difficult moment to absorb in 2026, I think that is going to translate into a much more favorable landscape 2027 and beyond. Matt SmithManaging Director at Stifel00:52:21That's very helpful. Thank you, Emmanuel. I'll pass it on. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:52:25Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Operator00:52:29Thank you. Our next question in queue, coming from the line of Eric Serotta with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Eric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan Stanley00:52:38Hi. Good morning. First of all, thank you, Emmanuel. It's been a pleasure working with you. Looking forward to working with you ahead, Massimo. Best of luck, Emmanuel. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:52:54Thank you. Thank you very much, Eric. Thank you. Eric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan Stanley00:52:59You're welcome. Turning back to Japan, could you comment a bit about the competitive environment there? We definitely saw a pickup in promotional activity over the past year from some of your competitors. Starting to cycle the beginning of that, how are you seeing that, or how have you seen that evolve in recent months? I know it's certainly noisy given the excise pass-through. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:53:37Yeah, Eric. In Japan, as you can imagine, I would say it's probably all hands on deck for every player, given this very strong pass-on in two steps. People are probably no longer playing with, I'm going to trying to make a promotion here. I'm going to try to play a kind of strange game here and there. I think everybody is saying, "How do I absorb to the best possible of my capacity what is a big increase?" When you don't have the best image in the market, it's more difficult for you to convince the consumer that your product deserves a significant price increase. I believe everybody is a little bit in the middle of that. I think we've been flagging the fact that before this excise duty alignment or equalization happened, Japan Tobacco had been gaining share. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:54:27I'm not going to comment on the trend on H1, and I'm not even sure that it's, at that moment, easy to read what's going on. The fact that we are maintaining our share broadly, I mean, 68 versus 69, is just showing that, yeah, you can have between competitor number two, competitor number three, you can have some move, but at the end of the day, we stay largely ahead of the competition. I think we will need to have the dust settling a little bit towards the end of the year to see what's gonna be the And with the further price or excise duty increase I mentioned, what is the new game of the competitor. I think today everybody is trying to really work on absorbing this significant excise duty. Eric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan Stanley00:55:12Great, very helpful. Just a quick follow-up on that. Have seen that Japan Tobacco applied to the Ministry of Finance for the October price increase. It looks like it was very slightly below the full pass-through of the excise. Is that consistent with your read on it based on pricing in the marketplace? Have you guys applied to the Ministry in terms of October pricing yet? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:55:46Look, I'm not going to comment on what a competitor has been doing. I think it's public what they've been granted by the Ministry of Finance. I'm not going to comment either on their strategy. I think we've been saying that globally, here I'm not being specific to the competition, the excise duty equalization meant a significantly higher price increase than for us. Remember that for us, altogether, it's around 10%. For the competitor, it could go up to 20%. It's a much bigger price increase if they want to fully pass on, but I don't know what they're going to do. For us, for our application, because this is your question, this is not public yet, I'm not going to comment on what we've been doing or not doing. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:56:32If you can be bearing with us a little bit, I'm sure you'll learn soon. Operator00:56:40Thank you. Again, as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your touchtone telephone. Our next question coming from the line of Faham Baig with UBS. Your line is now open. Faham BaigExecutive Director at UBS00:56:55Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, if that's okay. The first one is a clarification, Emmanuel. When you suggest optimizing ZYN's price premium positioning, I know you've introduced ZYN Ultra, which sort of helps with that, but are you also referring to ZYN Flagship? I know you're sort of conscious about market share, rightly so, but if that is the case, could this also help re-accelerate category growth, which is currently running around 20%? That's my first question. My second question, I appreciate pricing is a highly sensitive topic, and I'm not here looking for forward-looking guidance. Is it reasonable to assume that pricing is likely to be a greater part of the IQOS growth algorithm going forward? Is that a lever that could further drive gross margin expansion at IQOS? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:58:04Sure. Thank you for your question. On optimizing, I think I'm gonna go back to what I've been saying, which is for us, optimizing means to put ZYN globally, and you will allow me, of course, not to elaborate between ZYN Dry, ZYN Ultra or whatever ZYN in the future, is to position our ZYN variants at the price point where we are maximizing volume growth and bottom line growth. I'm gonna repeat it. ZYN is and will remain the premium leader of the market, and of course, it's a very exciting market that is the fastest-growing category in the U.S. We want to take our fair share of the growth of the category and to do it in a profitable manner. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:58:47That's what we mean by optimizing the price, and I'm not going to elaborate more on that. Now, on IQOS. You've seen that it's 3%, okay, in this first part of the year, the price increase on IQOS. To be clear, the name of the game today is more to optimize volume, and I don't need to repeat here that IQOS consumable are coming with two times more $ per stick revenue, even more in terms of gross profit because the gross margin is higher. Really optimizing volume is the name of the game, which doesn't prevent us from, of course, tactically, when we can and without damaging the volume, increasing price. For the timing, that's really the priority. On the long term, of course, there will be a moment where IQOS is becoming bigger. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International00:59:44The market will mature at some point in time in the future, and at that time, we are building a brand that is second to none. I'm not sure that people know that the fact that we are now in the Kantar list of the top 100 brands, that's quite an event. That's quite remarkable. The brand is 10 years old. I think we're building something very strong in terms of brand, and we all know that a strong brand in the future will mean our capacity to increase price because the consumer will see value in the brand. We are preparing the ground for indeed the capacity to accelerate price in the future. Today, the priority, as I said, is on optimizing volumes. Faham BaigExecutive Director at UBS01:00:23Thanks, Emmanuel. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:00:25Thank you. Operator01:00:28Thank you. Our next question in queue coming from the line of Pallav Mittal with Barclays. Your line is now open. Pallav MittalVP of Equity Research at Barclays01:00:39Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got two. Firstly, a question on IQOS in Europe. Clearly, the second quarter saw an impact from flavor ban in the remaining markets. You highlighted Poland, Hungary, et cetera. What gives you the confidence that IQOS IMS can accelerate again in Europe? And what, in your view, is a sustainable level underlying, say, growth rate in the near term in Europe IQOS? That's the first one. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:01:14I'm going to hand over to Massimo on that one, on Europe. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:01:20Thank you. Thank you for the question. Look, if you eliminate the impact that we have had during this year from Poland and Hungary in particular, that there are two markets that have been hit by a characterizing flavor ban and two markets where we had a high percentage of flavor propositions in the market, you will see that the underlying growth trend in Europe has not substantially changed. I think the confidence comes for me from a couple of things. Number one, we have already gone through this in a variety of other markets. We have seen that after the first couple of quarters, in which we take the hit, obviously, in terms of volume from the flavor ban. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:02:05Then we reestablish the growth trajectory that we had before that occurred, which is a testament to the commercial engine that we have in place and the strength of the portfolio. The second thing is that we have been expanding the portfolio in order to be able to prepare for this. Therefore, at this point, the portfolio is both tiered vertically with the introduction of DELIA. That is playing more and more a significant role for us, both in terms of acquisition, but also in certain markets where there have been significant tax increases, also in allowing consumer a more affordable proposition. More importantly, I would say, a lot of consumers have found in DELIA an opportunity, and especially CC smokers, an opportunity that they understand better and that they find that the taste profile adapts better to their needs. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:03:00Together with that, you have seen that we have launched LEVIA in a variety of markets. That is our non-tobacco flavor proposition. It's obviously still early days for that proposition. It's a different type of product, but we have seen that in many markets, and Hungary is certainly one of those, we have rapidly achieved double-digit percentage of our portfolio. Last but not least, I would bring the fact that our playground is, at this point, not only IQOS. You have seen that in the course of the past 24 months, we have made a significant pivot to a multi-category commercial engine in which we also play significantly with VEEV in the e-vape category. As Emmanuel said before, in the space of a couple of years, we have reached the number one position in Europe in closed pods and disposables. Massimo AndolinaPresident of Europe Region at Philip Morris International01:04:00Also more recently and from a small base, also with oral, where the early signals in market like Poland, for instance, or the U.K. or Austria, are extremely encouraging. We have been outperforming the category in growth in the markets and therefore gaining share pretty much everywhere where we have launched. I think these are all the reasons why we remain confident despite the fact the characterizing flavor ban is obviously a very disruptive action. Pallav MittalVP of Equity Research at Barclays01:04:33Sure. That's very helpful. Just one question on your full-year group revenue guidance. I understand higher investments, and which is why you're not increasing your EBIT guidance after a strong H1. You are talking of a better cigarette volume numbers, also better cigarette pricing with some adverse mix. There's no change in the group revenue guidance. Can you just talk about what is offsetting that in terms of smoke-free volumes and pricing? Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:05:06Yeah. Of course, we have a nice growth in H1 and we are 5.3% in terms of organic growth, so it's dynamic despite Japan. For the full year, we're targeting actually to be 5% to 7%. It's giving us ample headroom to be within the guidance while having a very dynamic H2. I think it is based on that we are comfortable keeping the guidance. Indeed, as we said, we expect better volume on CC. There is more price, but as we said, there is a negative mix. This one is probably largely offset as we've been explaining. That explains why we are comfortable keeping the guidance, again, based on H1, and on the overall trajectory. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:06:01For Smoke-Free, I should also emphasize the fact that in H1, you have a shipment that is a bit above IMS, when for the full year, we expect shipment and IMS to be broadly aligned. That means that we expect the reverse. We expect IMS to be a bit above shipment in the second part of the year, and that also will have an impact on the growth of our revenue. As I said, if you look at the guidance and what we have been seeing in H1, we are pointing to another six months, I mean H2, of very dynamic growth for revenue, and we are targeting an acceleration on the growth of the operating income. It's not as if we are expecting a slowdown in H2. Actually, quite the contrary. Operator01:06:57Thank you. Our next question in queue coming from the line of Gerald Pascarelli with Needham & Company. Your line is now open. Gerald PascarelliManaging Director at Needham & Company01:07:06Great. Thank you very much. I'd like to just go back to combustibles. Given the outperformance that you delivered in volumes this quarter, are you able to provide any color on whether that momentum has maybe sustained over the first part of July. Just looking at the comparisons, the volume comparisons look very favorable in 3Q, and really in the back half of the year, more broadly. Just curious, if there may be some conservatism in your full year volume outlook, or if there are any, I don't know, specific regional headwinds or timing considerations for us to be mindful of as we model this out. Thank you. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:07:52No, nothing to flag. You will allow me not to start commenting the Q3 numbers and July. Indeed, what is behind the strength of combustible in Q2 are countries with no smoke-free product presence or limited smoke-free product presence. We talk about Turkey, India, Egypt. Indonesia has been doing well as well. These are countries we know where you have big demographics. The legal age cohort are growing every year. There is a trend on smoking. India, for me, is a perfect example. You know how powerful the demographics are over there. Smoke-free product are banned, and therefore, combustible products are fully benefiting from that. That's the trend in Q2. Okay, it doesn't mean that the rest of the year is going to be at the same level. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:08:52Nevertheless, this is why we have been revising a bit the volume outlook from around minus 3% to 2%-3% decline. That's what we can say for the time being. Once again, we see a big, big difference between countries where people have largely access to smoke-free product and other countries. Operator01:09:20Thank you. I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks. James BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial Communications at Philip Morris International01:09:31Thank you. That concludes our call today. Thank you for joining us. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact the Investor Relations team. Thank you again, and have a nice day. Emmanuel BabeauGroup CFO at Philip Morris International01:09:40Thank you all. Bye-bye. Bye. Operator01:09:46This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesJames BushnellVP of Investor Relations and Financial CommunicationsEmmanuel BabeauGroup CFOMassimo AndolinaPresident of Europe RegionAnalystsBonnie HerzogManaging Director at Goldman SachsMatt SmithManaging Director at StifelEric SerottaExecutive Director at Morgan StanleyFaham BaigExecutive Director at UBSPallav MittalVP of Equity Research at BarclaysGerald PascarelliManaging Director at Needham & CompanyPowered by