Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Emmanuel Babeau: Sure, Pam. Happy to do that. So yes, combustible is being resilient. We have a decline, but it’s a modest decline in Q3. Let’s be clear, this is driven by a few market where we see a nice share gain. One is Turkey, the other one is Egypt. As you can imagine, they are not market with great profitability per stick. So let’s be very clear. We have a nice performance on combustible on volume, to some extent on revenue. All the great work that we are doing now on increasing OI and growing margin is first and foremost driven by our smoke-free product, IQOS first, ZYN second and [indiscernible]. So yes, great performance when it comes to volumes, greater performance versus the decline that we have seen in the past few years. Good impact on revenue. We’ve been doing good on price increase as well. But remember, that’s a category on which we’ve seen a lot of inflation on our cost and part of the growth is generated by market with low profitability.

Pamela Kaufman: Okay. Thank you. And then on ZYN, when do you expect to hear a decision from the FDA on ZYN’s PMTA applications? And how are you thinking about the prospects for ZYN flavor approvals, considering the FDA has recently issued unfavorable decisions around flavored e-cig products.

Emmanuel Babeau: Look, we discussed that three weeks ago and there is nothing new on the PMTA. We don’t know what’s going to be the time line. It’s at the discretion of the FDA, and we see that a lot of things are taking significant time to be — decision to be taken. Let me make a couple of comments on this PMTA process, nevertheless. The first one is that, we have with our snuff product, [indiscernible] an MRTPA of Level 1. So the FDA has been recognized that this product are representing a reduced risk versus combustible cigarettes and we’re very clear as benefit claim. We believe that by nature, this product should be considered as equally good, if not better. And we believe that they have the potential to really convince million of smokers to move away from combustible cigarettes to have a better way of consuming nicotine.

So we are really helpful that — hopeful that the FDA will really take that as a very important element and that it’s important to make this product available for nicotine users in the U.S. Now on the flavor, because I think that was probably one of your questions. For the same reason, we believe it is important that the consumer has the choice of flavor, if it is a reason for them to move away from combustible cigarettes to this better product. Having said that, we have the example of a ban on flavor in California. And the reality is that, there was an adjustment during a couple of months, and then the [rules] (ph) resumed without flavor in California and we are today very, very significantly, I think we are close to 30% above the pre-ban level in California.

So it shows that these products are extremely attractive and resonate with the nicotine user, with the smokers and with other nicotine users beyond the flavor, which is very good news.

Pamela Kaufman: Great. Thank you.

Emmanuel Babeau: Thank you, Pam.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Matt Smith with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Matthew Smith: Hi, good morning, Emmanuel.

Emmanuel Babeau: Good morning, Matt.

Matthew Smith: If we take the full year organic profit margin guidance, the down 150 basis points or so and the year-to-date performance, along with your commentary around kind of a flattish year-over-year performance in the fourth quarter, can you talk about some of the factors in the fourth quarter. I understand there’s a lot of crosswinds here, but you get the benefit of Swedish Match rolling into the organic base. And then you mentioned you’ve completed the shift to — back to sea freight for HTU consumables in Japan. So can you talk about some of the headwinds to margin in the fourth quarter? Maybe some detail around your expectations around the incremental ILUMA launches or any other factors would be helpful.