“We are holding our EPS call for the year despite these gains, since Cocoa will become a more material headwind in the second half.”

In context

“he Western India countries continue to demonstrate solid growth. Latin America delivered OI growth of nearly plus 24% supported by strong pricing. Turning to Page 16, In Q2, we saw strong double digit OI and gross profit dollar growth. Top line strength, pricing execution, ongoing cost discipline partly drove these results. Nevertheless, the strong half-one results also reflect our favorable cocoa pipeline compared to current market prices, which will clearly reverse and will be a meaningful headwind in the second half. Next to EPS on Slide 17. Q2 EPS grew plus 25% in constant currency. Most of this growth was driven by operating gains, as well as favorable cocoa cost pipeline and coverage strategies. And despite currency headwinds, we grew adjusted EPS at reported Forex by more than 19%. We are holding our EPS call for the year despite these gains, since Cocoa will become a more material headwind in the second half. We continue to demonstrate strong free cash flow and capital deployment, as you can see on our Slide 18. We delivered $1.5 billion of free cash flow in half one. We have repurchased $1.1 billion in stock through half one and will remain opportunistic for the remainder of the year. We also announced today that we are raising our dividend by 11%, marking nine consecutive years with a double-digit dividend increase. Before moving to our outlook, let me make a few comments relative to cocoa on Slide 20. As we know, this is a most likely top of mind for our investors. Our teams continue to monitor the market very closely to put ourselves in the best position possible. While we want to protect ourselves, we continue to put flexible structures in place that enable us to participate in potential”