Robert Moskow: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Bryan Spillane from Bank of America. Bryan, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Bryan Spillane: Thanks operator. Good morning everyone. Steve, maybe just to take a step back on the snacking business. And obviously, there’s a lot of focus on getting these businesses separated. But as we look forward, like how do you — how opportunistic or how aggressive can you be in M&A, there’s a lot of opportunities for acquisitions in snacking, it’s definitely proven to be a very resilient category through everything we’ve been through the last couple of years, so just trying to get a sense of how quickly you might be able to begin adding to the portfolio or it’s not really part of what you think the strategy will be going forward?
Steven Cahillane: Yes. Thanks, Bryan. I think it will be part of the strategy. Obviously, we’re going to execute the spin. That’s priority number one. And we’ll execute the spin, and we’ll have a global snacking company with a very strong balance sheet, cereal company as well. And so as we look for opportunities, we’ll look for organic and inorganic opportunities. And our organic opportunities, as you can see, with Pringles remain exceptional, with Cheez-It, Rice Krispies Treats, remain exceptional. Cheez-It is only now really leaving the United States and expanding overseas in Canada, Brazil, and soon other geographies as well. So on balance, we’ll look at those opportunities for continued organic growth, but where we can supplement our portfolio with additions, we’ll definitely look to that because we do have great capabilities in snacking, great route-to-market, and bolt-ons or bigger will be part of our considerations going forward.
Bryan Spillane: Okay. And then just as a follow-up, just as we’re thinking about the split going forward, how dependent — like is there any risk that if the markets really melt down or valuations change or just what’s the risk that you decide to pull it or is there — like what conditions would create a scenario where you delay it or pull it?
Steven Cahillane: Well, Bryan, you never say never, obviously, right. But we are very, very confident that there’s no condition by which we won’t execute the spin by the end of this year. It’s a tax-free spin-off, a dividend to our shareholders really. And so we don’t have to rely on the debt markets. We don’t have to rely on IPO markets, equity markets. It’s a dividend to our shareowners and nothing is without risk, but we have a very high degree of confidence, and we absolutely plan on executing this by the end of the year.
Bryan Spillane: Great, thanks. We look forward to see you guys on a CAGNY.
Steven Cahillane: Thanks Bryan.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Eric Larson of Seaport Research Partners. Eric, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Eric Larson: Yeah, thanks for squeezing in everybody. Congratulations on a good year. So my question is really this, Europe seems to be the one area that might have a little more uncertainty for the kind of the forward look, probably a pretty difficult first half comparison, maybe better second half. Do you expect Europe to make a good positive contribution this year to the U.S. total? And are there any special onetime events that you had last year, either as a headwind or a tailwind, such as promotional events where Pringles has been very strong in things like soccer events, etcetera? Is there — can you kind of peel back an onion a little bit for us on kind of the forward 12-month outlook for Europe?
Steven Cahillane: Yes, Eric, thanks for the question. I’d say there’s nothing unusual that we’re lapping aside from an easier comp when we get to the Russian comparisons is one. And the first half is really the catch-up — pricing catching up to costs, and we’re very confident that we’re going to do that. The underlying brand strength remains very strong. Europe has just completed their fifth year of growth and so it’s been a long story of underlying momentum driven by great execution on Pringles. We’ve got a great plan for Pringles again based on a number of different activities, strong consumer engagement, strong customer engagement with Pringles. Our cereal brands remain strong. And one of the real surprises has been our portable wholesome snacks has really returned to growth and is doing quite well.
And so it’s a first half, second half, but it’s really more in terms of catching up, which we’re in process of doing. And we can see it. We can see it in our forecast that it’s happening, and it gives us a great deal of confidence that there’ll be a sixth year of growth in Europe. You want to add anything?
Amit Banati: No, I think just building on the phasing comment, I think we’d be expecting to catch up on the pricing at an increasing rate through the first half. And then I think in the second half, the combination of the pricing having been caught up as well as easier comp and, hopefully, moderating inflation, I think, would lead to a higher growth, OP growth in the — operating profit growth in the second half.
Eric Larson: One quick follow-up. Given that your pension income is really kind of a noncash event, but I think it gets priced and looked at as a cash event, have you ever considered reporting your EPS on a cash EPS basis as opposed to the way you report it now?
Amit Banati: No, we haven’t, but we’ll certainly study that.
Eric Larson: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question for today comes from Steve Powers of Deutsche Bank. Steve, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
