“Given the combination of stronger volumes with accelerated pricing and continued smoke-free mix, we are increasing our forecast organic net revenue growth to around +9.5%.”

In context

“. dollar forecasts. First to volumes, where we target record organic growth and increase our outlook to +2% to +3% total shipment progression. Within this, we continue to expect adjusted IMS HTU volume growth of around +13% and shipment volumes of around 140 billion. This forecast continues to assume an impact from the EU characterizing flavor ban of just over 2 billion units and no volumes in Taiwan, where we continue to await regulatory approval. For U.S. ZYN we forecast shipment volumes at the upper end of our prior guidance, in the range of 570 million cans to 580 million cans, reflecting the progress made on capacity expansion as well as continued strong demand. Our outlook also factors in a robust combustibles performance, driven by a resilient total category as previously outlined. Given the combination of stronger volumes with accelerated pricing and continued smoke-free mix, we are increasing our forecast organic net revenue growth to around +9.5%. This includes strong double-digit organic growth in smoke-free net revenue and should result in close to $15 billion in total for the year. With the impact of this improved top-line performance, coupled with IQOS and ZYN operating leverage and further cost efficiencies, we now also raise our forecast adjusted organic OI growth to +14% to +14.5% for the year. We continue to target adjusted gross margin expansion for both smoke-free products and combustibles, and adjusted OI margin expansion for total PMI, all in both organic and dollar terms. Accordingly, we are raising our forecast for currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth to +14% to +15%, which also factors in lower-than-anticipated net financing costs, including higher interest income. This translates into a range of $6.45 to $6.”