“We expect strong IMS volume growth to continue in Q4, with a corresponding increase in market share.”

In context

“in the Europe region, where our third quarter HTU share increased by plus 1.3 points to 8.6% of total cigarette and HTU industry volume. Continued share gains include the growing take-up of ILUMA, which is available to over 80% of IQOS users in the region. In addition to Q3 launches in Denmark and the UK, ILUMA was launched in Poland, which, like Japan, is a market with high competitive activity. We look forward to driving its performance here over the coming quarters. While sequential share is, as usual, optically affected by the seasonality of the cigarette category, adjusted IMS volumes continue to exhibit robust sequential growth and reached a record high on the four quarter moving average. This reflects strong year-on-year growth of plus 16% in Q3, despite limited growth in Ukraine. We expect strong IMS volume growth to continue in Q4, with a corresponding increase in market share. In the EU, the majority of member states have transposed a delegated directive withdrawing the heated tobacco product exemption from the characterizing flavor ban international law. The ban in this market will be effective as of October 23rd and the remaining markets are expected to adopt in 2024. As previously mentioned, we are adjusting our HTU portfolio as required in line with this transposition, and while short-term volatility is possible, including in year-end trend inventories. We do not expect significant change in the structural growth of the category. In Japan, IQOS ILUMA celebrated its second anniversary of the national launch in September and continues to exhibit strong growth due to excellent conversion, consumer satisfaction, and retention rates. Adjusted total tobacco share”