“This is in contrast to a forecast currency tailwind of $0.04 for H2 overall, which enables us to target accelerated U. S. dollar adjusted diluted EPS growth.”

In context

“versus prior guidance is primarily due to the Q2 impact already described. As shown by the increase in our forecast U.S. EPS growth to plus 5% to plus 7%, the underlying strength of our business and proactive mitigating actions have allowed us to more-than-compensate for this, and we expect to deliver on our objective of strong growth in dollar terms. Focusing on the second half in more detail. We expect another strong performance driven by excellent IQOS adjusted IMS growth, the progressive improvement in ZYN volume and continued positive impact from our actions to drive bottom-line growth. For Q3, we forecast a record high quarterly adjusted diluted EPS of $1.77 to $1.82 despite a significant step-up in commercial spending and an unfavorable currency impact of $0.02 at prevailing rates. This is in contrast to a forecast currency tailwind of $0.04 for H2 overall, which enables us to target accelerated U. S. dollar adjusted diluted EPS growth. We include a table of estimated currency impact by quarter in the appendix. This Q3 forecast notably reflects another quarter of dynamic growth with HTU shipment of 34 billion to 35 billion units and an acceleration in HTU adjusted IMS growth. Given expectation for a strong full year profit delivery, we are forecasting operating cash flow of around $11 billion which is at the upper end of our previous forecast range at prevailing exchange rate and subject to year-end working capital requirement. We expect this improvement to more than offset an increase in capital expenditure to around $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion as we further accelerate ZYN capacity expansion. Last, we continue to target 0.3x to 0.5x improvement in our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio in 2024, driven by profit growth a”