“Our year-to-date adjusted effective tax rate was 1% lower than our forecast of around 22% rate for the year, with a higher rate expected in Q4.”

In context

“uding a currency tailwind of $0.08 which includes around €0.03 of favorable transactional impact in the quarter. This better than expected delivery reflects the strength of our financial model, with both IQOS and ZYN performing at the high end of our expectation further supported by the resilience of combustible and a more favorable tax rate. Our progress on a year-to-date basis was outstanding with comparable growth above our mid-term targets on all metrics. Organic net revenue growth of plus 7.5% or around plus 9% excluding the Indonesia technical impact was driven by the same factor as the quarter. Adjusted operating income grew by plus 12.5% organically and close to plus 14% in dollar terms to $12.7 billion enabling EPS growth of plus 16%, both including and excluding currency impact. Our year-to-date adjusted effective tax rate was 1% lower than our forecast of around 22% rate for the year, with a higher rate expected in Q4. Turning to shipment volumes, where we again delivered positive growth of plus 0.7% in Q3, or plus 1.8% on a year-to-date basis. Q3 smoke-free volume growth of plus 16.6% was underpinned by the strong fundamentals of IQOS, where HTU shipments grew plus 15.5% to 41 billion units, above our prior expectation even when excluding a shipment timing benefit of around 1 billion unit. A year-to-date basis, HTU shipment grew plus 12%. The excellent volume trajectory of both ZYN and VIVE was again accretive to smoke-free product growth in both Q3 and year-to-date, notably including U.S. ZYN. Cigarette volumes declined by 3.2% in Q3, close to the more favorable end of our 3% to 4% forecast decline for H2, and reflecting better than expected dynamics in Turkey and Egypt. Emmanuel Babeau: Turning to Q3”