“In addition to higher revenue growth, we expect accelerated organic margin expansion.”

In context

“ed with positive smoke- free mix and efficient cost allocation also helps us to mitigate currency headwinds and should allow us, at prevailing rates, to deliver on our objective of robust growth in dollar terms. Given continued ZYN volume progress, we are increasing our U.S. shipment forecast to around 560 million cans. We have further accelerated our capacity expansion plans to support this additional step-up. We continue to target strong growth in both adjusted IMS and shipments of IQOS HTUs, and to reach close to $15 billion in 2024 smoke-free net revenues at prevailing exchange rates. Factoring the increased ZYN shipment forecast and a strong pricing outlook on both combustibles and smoke-free products, we are increasing our organic net revenue growth forecast to plus 7% to plus 8.5%. In addition to higher revenue growth, we expect accelerated organic margin expansion. This is strongly driven by a significant expected uplift in our smoke-free gross margin due to IQOS scale effects, ZYN mix and accelerated manufacturing productivities. It also includes organic gross margin expansion in combustibles, where we had previously assumed a negative development. In addition, we are focused on delivering further SG&A efficiencies while continuing to invest in smoke-free growth. As a result, we are raising our organic operating income growth forecast to plus 10% to plus 12%. Accordingly, we are raising our forecast currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth to plus 9% to plus 11%. This translates into an adjusted diluted EPS range of $6.19 to $6.31, including an unfavorable currency impact of $0.36, at prevailing rates. The increased forecast headwind is primari”