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Consumer Defensive - Tobacco - NYSE - US
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EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT
EARNINGS CALL TRANSCRIPT 2016 - Q2
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Executives

Sarah Fitzgerald Knakmuhs - Vice President-Investor Relations Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer.

Analysts

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc. Russell Miller - RBC Capital Markets LLC Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co. Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC Aaron Grey - Cowen & Co. LLC Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC Adam J.

Spielman - Citigroup Global Markets Ltd..

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Altria Group 2016 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is scheduled to last about one hour, including remarks by Altria's management and a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Sarah Knakmuhs, Vice President, Investor Relations for Altria Client Services.

Please go ahead, ma'am..

Sarah Fitzgerald Knakmuhs - Vice President-Investor Relations

Thank you. Good morning and thank you for joining us. We're here this morning with Marty Barrington, Altria's CEO and Billy Gifford, our CFO, to discuss Altria's 2016 second quarter and first-half business results.

Earlier today, we issued a press release providing these results which is available on our website at altria.com or through the Altria investor app. During our call today, unless otherwise stated, we're comparing results to the same period in 2015. Our remarks contain forward-looking and cautionary statements and projections of future results.

Please review the forward-looking and cautionary statement section at the end of today's earnings release for various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projections. Future dividend payments and share repurchases remain subject to the discretion of Altria's board.

The timing of share repurchases depends on marketplace conditions and other factors. Altria reports its financial results in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Today's call will contain various operating results on both a reported and adjusted basis, which excludes items that affect the comparability of reported results.

Descriptions of these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations are included in today's earnings release. Now I'll turn the call over to Marty..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Sarah. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Altria Group delivered strong 2016 second quarter and first half results, growing adjusted diluted earnings per share by 9.5% in the second quarter and by nearly 11% for the first half.

Our core tobacco businesses continued to produce very strong results, with yet another solid quarter of income and retail share performance. Marlboro matched the record retail share it set in the first half last year, and Copenhagen and Skoal produced excellent share results on a combined basis.

And we continue to reward our shareholders, paying out more than $2.2 billion in dividends to shareholders thus far in 2016. So here are some of the operating highlights from the quarter and the first half. The smokeable products segment continued to produce excellent results.

Despite difficult year-over-year comparisons, it grew adjusted operating company's income by 4.5% in the second quarter and nearly 7% for the first half. You'll recall that last year the smokeable segment grew adjusted OCI by nearly 16% in the second quarter and over 14% for the first half.

This growth in 2015 benefited from higher reported volumes at PM USA driven by stable industry volume and a trade inventory build influenced by upcoming cigarette excise tax increases. In the second quarter of 2016, the trade depleted inventory levels.

So when adjusted for these inventory movements, PM USA estimates its second quarter cigarette volume declined 3%, in line with PM USA's estimate for the total industry decline rate. For the half, PM USA estimates that its adjusted cigarette volume declined 1.5%, in line with the industry.

For the first half of 2016, Marlboro's retail share was unchanged at 44.1%, matching its record share level set a year ago. Marlboro's second quarter retail share also was 44.1%, down one-tenth of a point from the year-ago period. We are extremely pleased with the smokeable segment's performance in both the second quarter and first half of 2016.

Our Smokeless Products segment continued to deliver excellent income performance, robust volumes, and strong share growth on Copenhagen and Skoal combined. USSTC grew adjusted OCI by nearly 14% in the second quarter and more than 15% for the first half.

USSTC estimates that its volume, after adjusting for trade inventory movements and other factors, grew approximately 5% in the second quarter and 4% for the first half while estimated smokeless industry volume grew approximately 3% for the past six months.

Copenhagen and Skoal increased their combined retail share by 1.5 points in the second quarter and by nine-tenths of a share point for the first half. Copenhagen's retail share gained nearly three points in the quarter benefiting from the first full quarter of Copenhagen Mint's national expansion at retail.

Copenhagen Mint has performed extremely well, bringing excitement to the brand for both adult dippers and for the trade. Skoal's retail share declined 1.3 points in the second quarter, reflecting in part USSTC's portfolio strategy to invest behind Copenhagen and expand Copenhagen Mint.

And as you know, part of USSTC's strategy is to grow the combined share of Copenhagen and Skoal. In Innovative Tobacco Products, Nu Mark continues to invest with discipline in developing a portfolio of products to meet the evolving preferences of adult tobacco consumers.

In e-vapor, market results for MarkTen XL remain encouraging as Nu Mark has now distributed the brand into stores, representing approximately 50% of e-vapor category volume in mainstream retail channels including C-stores.

On the heated tobacco platform, our work with Philip Morris International on its FDA applications for pre-market authorization and a modified-risk tobacco product destination remains on plan, and we're making excellent progress on commercialization strategies for the U.S. market.

As you know, in May, the FDA published its final deeming regulations, extending its regulatory authority to all tobacco products including cigars and e-vapor. We believe we're well-prepared for these regulations, and Nu Mark and Middleton are working now to comply with them.

Our companies also continue to engage with FDA and other stakeholders to advocate for changes to the regulations where we believe appropriate. So in summary, we're very pleased with our first-half performance.

Based on these results and our expectation that our businesses will deliver solid results over the balance of 2016, we now expect to deliver 2016 adjusted diluted earnings per share in a range of $3.01 to $3.07, representing a growth rate of 7.5% to 9.5% from our 2015 adjusted diluted EPS base of $2.80.

As a reminder, this guidance does not include any impact from the proposed AB InBev/SABMiller business combination as the transaction remains subject to certain approvals and the closing date has not yet been determined. Speaking of our beer investment, we're pleased with the significant progress AB InBev has made securing regulatory clearances.

AB InBev has announced that it has obtained approval in 22 jurisdictions, including approvals in the United States, North America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe and Latin America. And AB InBev continues to pursue the remaining regulatory clearances that are necessary to close the transaction.

In addition, as you know, on July 26, AB InBev announced its revised and final offer to SABMiller. This offer among other things would increase the pre-tax cash that Altria expects to receive to $3 billion from the previously estimated $2.5 billion. The other material terms related to Altria remain the same.

Internally, our teams are preparing to transition our investment from SABMiller to the new combined entity. One such area of preparation is coordinating how our accounting teams will share information.

And through this preparation, we now expect a timing difference between how we currently report results for our SABMiller investment and how we'll report for our investment in the new combined company. Once the proposed transaction closes, we expect to record our share of results from the new company on a one-quarter lag.

Billy will provide you with more detail in his remarks. We remain excited about the proposed transaction and look forward to supporting the combination of these two great companies. Now I'll turn things over to Billy for more detail on our performance..

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Marty, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with some more color on the smokeable products segment. Adjusted OCI margins expanded by 2.6 percentage points in the second quarter to over 50%, primarily driven by higher net pricing and lower SG&A costs, partially offset by higher resolution expenses.

For the first half, adjusted OCI margins in the segment expanded 2.2 points to 49.2%, primarily driven by the same factors. PM USA's reported domestic cigarette shipment volume declined 5% in the second quarter, primarily driven by the industry's rate of decline and trade inventory movements.

In the second quarter last year, the trade built inventory ahead of excise tax increases in several states that went into effect in the next quarter. For the first half, PM USA's reported cigarette shipment volume declined 2.1%. At retail, PM USA's overall share was unchanged in the second quarter and grew 1/10 of a point for the first half.

In cigars, higher shipment volume contributed to the smokeable products segment's performance in both periods. Middleton grew Black & Mild's volume by 7.5% in the quarter and nearly 8% for the first half by focusing on the brand strength in the more profitable tipped segment.

In the Smokeless Products segment, adjusted OCI margins expanded in the second quarter by nearly 3 percentage points to 69.3% and by 2.6 percentage points to 67.5% for the first half, primarily driven by higher net pricing, partially offset by mix due to higher popular price product volume.

The Smokeless segment's reported shipment volumes increased 4.3% in the second quarter and 6% for the first half of 2016, primarily driven by the industry's rate of growth and retail share gains. In wine, Ste. Michelle continued to deliver strong income by growing volume of its premium wines. During the second quarter and first half, Ste.

Michelle grew adjusted OCI by nearly 6% and 5% respectively. Ste. Michelle's reported wine shipment volumes grew more than 3% in the second quarter and 5.5% for the first half. Altria reported equity earnings from its SABMiller investment of $199 million in the second quarter and $265 million for the first half.

So let me close with some more information on the accounting of our beer investment that Marty mentioned. For context, Altria currently records results for its SABMiller investment concurrent with Altria's reporting calendar.

Because NewCo's results will not be available to us in time to record them in the concurrent period, we expect to report our share of NewCo's results using a one-quarter lag.

This means that after the transaction closes, there will be a one-time three-month transition when no earnings from our equity investment in NewCo are recorded in our income statement. For example, Altria's share of NewCo's results in the quarter in which the transaction closes will be recorded in the subsequent quarter.

The precise periods affected will depend on when the transaction closes.

It's important to understand that this lag will not affect our cash flows or quarterly dividends per share, but we do expect it to impact our year-over-year comparability of our reported and adjusted diluted EPS in the short-term and could also affect 2016 adjusted diluted EPS guidance.

As noted in our earnings release, our guidance does not yet include the impact of the expected lag because the transaction remains subject to certain approvals and the closing date has not yet been determined. That wraps up our results. Marty and I will now take your questions.

While the calls are being compiled, I'll direct your attention to altria.com. Along with today's earnings release, for your reference, we posted our usual list of quarterly metrics including pricing, inventory, and other housekeeping items.

Operator, do we have any questions?.

Operator

Thank you. Investors, analysts and media representatives are now invited to participate in today's Q&A session. We will take questions from the investment community first. Our first question comes from Chris Growe with Stifel..

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

Hi. Good morning..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hey, Chris.

How're you?.

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

I'm doing very well. Thank you. Nice report here..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks..

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

I just had two questions for you, if I could. There was a comment in the release about higher promotional spending in both smokeable and Smokeless. And I know you've had, certainly in Smokeless, a good number of – some new product activity to help you there and I imagine that's the main item that's driving that.

But I was curious within the smokeable division how you see the promotional environment and if there was an area you gotten more aggressive on and where that promotional spending was rising..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Maybe I'll start, and then I'll ask Billy to comment on how it flowed through. I think that the environment remains relatively constant, Chris, is your short answer. It's competitive out there; it always has been but we haven't seen any material changes.

Billy, do you want to say more about it?.

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

No. I think the only thing I would add is, Chris, from a timing quarter to quarter in a short period, you'll have timing fluctuations. You'll recall as part of our productivity initiative, one of the areas we said we would reinvest in was brand building. And so this is reminiscent of that..

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

Okay. Got you. And then just a question overall on the category. Down 3%'s a little different from what Reynolds had indicated. But either way, we're moving back towards more of a normalized rate of decline. I know you don't like to give guidance on volume.

So in this quarter with the gas price down, the consumer still in better shape, it looked like volumes did weaken a little bit sequentially more than I expected. Anything you'd offer in relation to that? And if you could speak at all about the second half, that'd be great as well..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Sure, Chris. Listen, we don't see anything in the quarter that causes us to call it out for you. I do think it's consistent with what we've said and you and others I think have said over time that you would expect for the long-term trends to revert back to their trend line. If you look at 2015, we ended the year up a half (0.5%).

The quarter before was down a half (0.5%), and now for the year so far, the first half we're down about 1.5%. So 1.5% obviously is lower than the long-term trend line, but it's higher than it was in 2015 when we had these interruptions because of the gas prices and all.

So I think it's consistent with how we see it, Chris, which is it's just slowly reverting back to the long-term trend line..

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

Okay. That's very helpful. Thanks for your time..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right, Chris. Thanks for calling in..

Christopher Growe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

Thanks..

Operator

Our next question comes from Nik Modi with RBC Capital Markets..

Russell Miller - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Morning. This is Russ Miller on for Nik..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Russ..

Russell Miller - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Just a philosophical question for you guys.

How does Altria think about innovation within the context of the new deeming regs and the FDA's more stringent view on substantial equivalents? And more specifically there, should we assume innovation will be delayed from hitting the market? And if so, how should we think about volumes in that context? Thank you..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Thanks for the question. For a thorough summary, I think of our views, I might refer you and others to the comments that we filed – I'm sure you've seen them – in which we picked up this very point. We do think that innovation in the category is important.

We're working very hard on our innovation system and on innovated products for the adult tobacco consumer. And we believe that it would be good public policy for the FDA to encourage that. Our comments have pointed out to the FDA that some of what's in the deeming regulations does not seem to be particularly friendly to that concept.

And so we continue – I think we mentioned in our remarks this morning, we're both complying with the regs and we're trying to influence and advocate where we think the regs could be improved. And I think in the area of innovation, I think you've picked up on an area where they could be improved.

I think it's too soon to tell what the effect will be on volumes. I hope that's helpful to you..

Russell Miller - RBC Capital Markets LLC

That's excellent. Thank you, Marty..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks for calling..

Operator

Our next question comes from Judy Hong with Goldman Sachs..

Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.

Thank you. Good morning..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Judy. Good morning..

Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.

So I just wanted to clarify the industry volume numbers and understand there may be some differences in how you adjust for inventory adjustment, but it still seems like a pretty big gap in terms of what you're reporting as an adjusted industry volume decline versus Reynolds.

So is a 3% decline just purely sort of industry shipment that you estimate and then adjusted for? Your estimate of the inventory movement and when you think about sort of the true consumption decline, whether you'd look at wholesale shipment to retail or retail takeaway, is that 3% you think is the more representative of the true consumption decline?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Let me make a comment, and then I'll ask Billy maybe to talk about how we do the estimate so as to try to help you. Remember, it's a tough comp because the industry was stable for the second quarter of last year. So in terms of the underlying, I think that's the way to understand it.

And I'm sure you heard the conversation we just had with Chris about the reversion to the trend over time. I know, Billy, we can't comment on how other people estimate, but maybe you could help Judy with how we estimate it..

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Judy, basically the way we approach estimating that industry decline is we take total shipments that are reported and then we look at inventory movements and we adjust for those inventory movements so that we get towards a more true consumption offtake, to your point.

And then the only other difference in this period is a calendar day difference. And so those are the major factors that we would adjust for to get to a more consumption offtake..

Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And then, Billy, just – I mean, the press release talks about the accounting of SABMiller transaction and some of the quarterly lag.

So maybe just help us frame kind of what we should expect, and I know you're not necessarily talking about the updated guidance, but just broadly speaking, how does that impact potentially the full year guidance and just more on from a timing standpoint?.

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Really kind of reference, I'll give you an example. So if this transaction were to close in the fourth quarter, SAB would be recorded as we currently record it. All those results from NewCo would be picked up and recorded in the first quarter of 2017. So that's how that one quarter lag affects from a go-forward basis..

Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.

So the accounting of the equity income based on the 27% still holds, even if the transaction closes at the beginning of the fourth quarter for your year impact?.

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

That is correct. It continues until NewCo comes into existence and then those results are on a quarter lag..

Judy E. Hong - Goldman Sachs & Co.

Got it. Okay. Thank you..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for calling, Judy..

Operator

Our next question comes from Matthew Grainger with Morgan Stanley..

Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the question..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Morning, Matt..

Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

Thanks, Marty. I guess I just had two follow-up questions on deeming.

First – this may be pretty straight forward – but could you give us a reminder of where you stand on the challenge that you filed to the descriptor ban included in the cigar deeming portion? Do you have an injunction? Do you expect to have an injunction by August 8 or would you have additional flexibility to continue marketing your products beyond that date?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yep. Good question and I'm pleased to tell you the matter has resolved. So we had objected to that, as you know, in our comments and FDA put it in the deeming regulations. We filed suit and FDA has informed us that they do not at this time intend to enforce that against Black & Mild. And in consideration for that, we have withdrawn our lawsuit.

The parties have reserved their rights, but we will continue to use Black & Mild unless something changes..

Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

Okay. That's good to hear. Thanks..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yep..

Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

And just another one. Even though the published regulations didn't make any immediate changes in your ability to market products with characterizing flavors, the red line draft that was made public afterward indicated that the FDA had initially intended to take a more rigid position on flavored products....

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Right..

Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

And voiced some concerns around their impact on youth consumption.

So the end outcome was favorable, but I'm just curious how you interpret the implications of the red line draft and what that might mean for their orientation toward menthol going forward?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we'll have to see going forward. I mean, I think menthol stands on its own merits and I won't repeat what we both know, Matt, on that. You know the science on that and we've put in our papers on that. So I'm not sure it has a big effect on menthol.

I do think that there have been instances in which some in tobacco control have argued to take flavors away from adult tobacco consumers in the name of trying to prevent youth consumption.

Our view on that is that there is so much that can be done to prevent youth consumption, most of which we have worked on and the numbers are trending in the right direction that we want to defend the flavors for our adult tobacco consumers who have enjoyed them and the cigar category is a perfect example where flavors have been in that category for, gosh, decades and decades.

So we'll have to see how the FDA approaches that, but we think that they're actually very separate issues about youth consumption and flavors..

Matthew C. Grainger - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

Okay. Thank you, Marty. I appreciate it..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for the questions..

Operator

Our next question comes from Vivien Azer with Cowen and Company..

Aaron Grey - Cowen & Co. LLC

Good morning. It's Aaron Grey on for Vivien..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hey, Aaron.

How are you?.

Aaron Grey - Cowen & Co. LLC

Doing well. After benefiting from a benign excise tax environment over the last few years, I was hoping to get an update on the state excise taxes.

Given we saw three states pass tax increases in the first half of the year and have open legislation as well as notable proposed ballot initiatives, how should we think about the outlook for the weighted average SET over the course of the year?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we have a little bit of information in that in the housekeeping, but you're right, we've had three increases so far in 2016 – Louisiana, West Virginia, and most recently, Pennsylvania. We also had the phase-in effect of a few that were passed previously that came into effect, Connecticut, Minnesota and Oregon, if I recall correctly.

The weighted average I think is $1.56 as we stand, but we will have Pennsylvania coming online obviously after August 1. So it has heated up a little bit. It's a good question. We continue to resist these. We think they're unfair to adult tobacco consumers, but state budgets being what they are, we just have to go through this every year.

The one that I would recommend that you be watchful, of course, is California where the ballot has qualified. So that's proposed $2 which will be on the ballot in California in November..

Aaron Grey - Cowen & Co. LLC

Okay. All right. Great. Thank you..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right..

Aaron Grey - Cowen & Co. LLC

And with MarkTen XL distribution representing 50% of volume coverage in traditional retail, what can we expect as it relates to the cadence of XL's roll-out going forward?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Well, we're trying to step into it with discipline. We're trying to go where the business is. The stores that we've chosen have good e-vapor business. We've had a very good marketplace response. We've had very good consumer response.

So you know our strategy there which is we have aspirations to be the long-term leader, but we want to proceed with financial discipline, always learning from the consumer. And I'm very pleased with the progress that MarkTen XL is making in that regard. So I would expect more of the same kind of an approach..

Aaron Grey - Cowen & Co. LLC

All right. Great. Thank you very much..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for calling in with your questions..

Operator

Our next question comes from Michael Lavery with CLSA..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

Morning..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Michael. Good morning..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

Just curious if you could talk a little bit about how you think about some of the resource allocation – just looking at margins in Smokeless now, they're a hair shy in the quarter at least of 70%.

So do you give a disproportionate amount of R&D resources there, or to some extent I recognize you need to follow the consumer, but how much can you also try to maybe lead them a little bit versus say vapor? That's a different margin profile, certainly at least at the moment, and some different competitive dynamics.

How do you think about all that? And of course, price is a lever as well, and we saw that in the quarter too.

How do you think about balancing all those to take advantage of the opportunity in that segment?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we have a process to do that, of course. Actually, I have two processes. We have a strategy process and it's tightly linked to our budget process. So our operating companies come in with their plans. We've talked about this previously.

We have one-year plans and three-year plans and longer-term plans, and they make the case for investment, and then Altria Group decides on how to allocate resources about where the best opportunities lie for our shareholders.

And the good news is all of our operating companies have lots of good ideas, so it's always a good discussion about where best to go. But that's the process we use, Michael.

We look at it, and then when we put our strategy and our budget together for both one-year, three-year and longer plans, we try to put the resources where we think the greatest opportunities lie, including in margin enhancement..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

Okay. Thank you. And then looking at the other segment and PMCC, your finance assets on the balance sheet certainly have been coming down. Obviously, you've been not investing in that business and essentially unwinding it.

Can you give a look ahead at what the trajectory is on that? Certainly some of these leases have long lives, but you've been doing some sales opportunistically.

What should we expect for what that contributes near-term and maybe medium-term?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I think Billy can help you with that..

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, you're right, Michael. From a standpoint the net finance receivable is down to $1.2 billion and we have been unwinding that business for quite some time now. We look at those leases and when it makes sense to sell those, we do.

As you recall at CAGNY, we talked about a three year to four-year wind-down period that we would have before we're completely out of that..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

And is there anything that might accelerate that, or is that pretty likely to stick? What's the variance to that, possibly?.

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, leverage leases is kind of complex, but in the life of a leverage lease for both the counter-party and us, there's a, if you will, a nice period of time when those sales make sense to both parties, and so that's what really drives the unwinding of that business..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

Okay. Thanks. And then just lastly on iQOS, obviously there's a long process in terms of potentially commercializing that here. And needless to say, the FDA application is the one of the nearer-term and bigger pieces of that.

What's the right way to think about some of the costs and investments, and to what extent would that be offset by some of the reinvestments from your productivity savings from this year?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think we talked about this when we announced the productivity initiative, which is that we do want to make some continuing investments of area of long term value to the shareholder, and clearly an investment in innovative tobacco products, particularly those with the potential to reduce harm, are high on our list for investment.

So we haven't given much detail below that. Not to preempt your next question, Michael, but those are the areas. And I think when you think about vapor and iQOS and other innovative products for consumers, that's a good place to invest for the long-term proposition of both the company and for our consumers..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

Have you had an ability to engage with the FDA yet and have any sense on how receptive they might be to a heat (29:55) platform?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Well, I think we talked about this last time, right? Which is that I didn't want to comment in too many particulars about an application that involves obviously PMI, because it's their product that they're trying to get qualified. But we did talk about the process.

And the process is, there is typically a high degree of engagement between the manufacturer that's trying to bring that product to market and the FDA staff.

I think we talked previously about, for example, you don't want to design and execute clinical trials which are lengthy and expensive without knowing that the FDA I think is thinking that you're asking the right questions.

So I would also point to comments that Director Zeller has made publicly about understanding that there is a continuum of harm among tobacco products and that the agency has to be thoughtful about how they encourage manufacturers and consumers to migrate to these kinds of products. So, these things aren't done until they're done.

But I continue to be optimistic that this is the way forward, by bringing innovation to consumers which may reduce harm. It's a good idea for everyone..

Michael Lavery - CLSA Americas LLC

Okay. Thank you very much..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for calling, Michael..

Operator

Our next question comes from Bonnie Herzog with Wells Fargo..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Good morning..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Bonnie. Good morning..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Hi. I just had a quick follow-on question from an earlier one on your level of spending behind brand building.

Just hoping to get a sense of how much this might accelerate in the second half or should it be more evenly spread throughout this year? And then any thoughts on where your spending levels behind brand building will need to increase in the future? Just kind of want to get a sense of will levels stabilize or do you think you need to keep increasing spending to maintain some of the share gains you've been getting?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Billy, you want to take that?.

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Bonnie, when you think about brand building, it'll fluctuate from time period to time period. But I would not expect material fluctuations as we move forward. You always have fluctuations in a shorter time period compared to others.

From a standpoint of on a go-forward basis, you'll recall the strategy here is to maximize income and keep Marlboro healthy – the share momentum there. And so that's what we invest towards, that's what the top line strategy is for that segment and that's the way we think about that segment of the business..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Okay. That's helpful. And then I had a question on Marlboro. I was hoping to get a sense of what Marlboro volume was during the quarter, if you can adjust for the inventory fluctuations. And then could you drill down a little bit further on some of the different styles such as special blends and their performance? That would be really helpful..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

I could try to help you a little bit. I know that we've had this conversation before..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Yep..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

There is a desire, I know, to get under that. We just don't break them out. I mean, we have the tables in the earnings release which shows as much as I think we're willing to disclose. Look, the way to think about this, Bonnie, I think is that overall, Marlboro continues to perform terrifically.

You know, because most of our shipments in the Cigarette segment are Marlboro. And actually, you would expect for the volume to track. But we don't report at that level. But Marlboro's doing great. It continues to have, as we mentioned, record share if you measure it against the half. Its equity is doing great.

The Marlboro architecture continues to perform well. You and I have spoken previously about the exciting digital marketing for adult....

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Yeah..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

...tobacco consumers, and we've improved the app further and we've got exciting promotions on there. So I think the way to think about Marlboro is it's doing exactly what we want it to do and it's doing it well..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Yeah, speaking of that, I was going ask you a little bit more on that because I do keep hearing positive feedback on your Marlboro app. So give us a sense for the rollout and where – or how many stores that app is being used in and where that can be by, say, the end of this year..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, well, we're working it at two levels. One is directly with the consumer, obviously, because adult consumers, once they're age-verified, can get the apps and participate that way. But another big area for us – and we're very grateful for the partnership with our trade partners.

Our trade partners are increasingly excited about the ability to use their loyalty programs with our digital marketing and our apps and the like. And so many of our trade partners are working with us on that. So we're getting very good distribution on that.

I'd like to say that I think that we're ahead on this and I think that our trade thinks we're ahead on this. And our consumer reception has been nothing short of terrific. So it's very efficient and it's very responsible and we're reaching the people we want to reach in a responsible kind of a way. And I think it's the way forward..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Okay. One final question, which I know you're probably not going to want to answer this but I'm going to bring it up..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

The pre-tax cash proceeds from of the sale of SAB. Certainly $3 billion is a lot of money. I'd love to hear a sense from you of where these proceeds will be used. But if you can't say that, maybe just update us on your priorities for free cash co [consideration]..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right. Out of courtesy to you, I'm going to hand it to Billy to see if he'll accommodate you, Bonnie.

How about that?.

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

All right..

William F. Gifford - Chief Financial Officer

Hey, Bonnie. Thanks for the question. Yeah. We have not made decisions around the $3 billion. But I can walk you – let's step back from that. So absent the $3 billion – here's the way we think about allocating our capital, the excess cash. So we think about, of course, dividends first and that's that 80% dividend target payout ratio.

Then when we have the excess cash, you've seen us do a multitude of things with that. Certainly, we do share repurchases. You've seen us do debt tenders and you've seen us do debt tender refis. So this being excess cash, we would assess it based on market conditions at the time and make the appropriate decisions..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

All right. Thank you..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for the question, Bonnie. We'll see you..

Bonnie L. Herzog - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Thanks..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Bye..

Operator

Our next question comes from Steve Powers with UBS..

Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC

Great. Thanks..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Hey, Steve..

Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC

Hey. Good morning. Maybe another question on the ABI/SAB that you probably won't want to answer but I'll give it a shot..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right..

Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC

From a different angle – and it's one – the updated outlook which, aside from the $2.5 billion going to $3 billion is pretty much consistent outlook on that deal. It assumes a pretty high degree of confidence – or implies a high degree of confidence in very limited, if any, kind of proration risk.

And given the value gap between the PSA and the cash offer for SAB shareholders, I'm just trying to get a sense for how confident you really are in that proration risk being minimal.

What kind of insight you have to the SAB shareholder base and how to assess that risk as you look forward?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Well, Steve, I appreciate the question and I know there's a lot of interest in this. But I think it's probably best this morning that we kind of limit our remarks to what's in the earnings release and in our prepared remarks. We tried to give you as much color as we thought was appropriate under the circumstances.

But some of those questions I think are really best directed at the two principal parties to the transaction and I want to respect that. So I'm going to be careful about this, as you can appreciate..

Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC

Okay.

Billy, anything you want to add?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

No. I think Marty covered it..

Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC

All right. And then I guess from another angle, fundamentally, everything seems to be pretty solid up and down the P&L across the business line.

So I guess is there anything – focusing on things within your control, are there areas where you're more focused, more risk that you see, whether it's implementing the productivity initiative or any of the go-to marketing initiatives you've got in place? Anything that you're more focused on where the fundamentals, not to say they're weak but just more where they're more in question?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

No. I don't think so. Listen, we don't want to sound, for a moment, arrogant about it, but the business is really performing well. I think the strategies are the right ones. And I have to commend the people at our operating companies and our service companies. They are executing with high fidelity to the strategies, with high focus and high alignment.

And I think that's why the results are what they are. So look, there's always risks to the business. You know what they are. I mean, you've got regulation and taxes and the like. But I wouldn't call out anything of the sort that you're asking about, Steve..

Stephen R. Powers - UBS Securities LLC

Great. Thank you very much..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks for the questions..

Operator

Our next question comes from Adam Spielman with Citi..

Adam J. Spielman - Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.

Question. If I can come back to the deeming regs, and in particular two questions. First of all, you said you're in conversation about trying to change aspects of them.

And I wonder if you could just highlight what you are most keen to change that you think there's a realistic chance that the FDA will listen to what you're saying and actually change how they're approaching deeming? And the second question is this.

Reynolds has said that they believe based on Mitch Zeller's comments about continue of risk, that they're seeing some ways they may take a more relaxed approach to pre-market approvals for e-vapor products than they have done, it would seem, with cigarettes.

And I guess the related to question to that is, do you agree with that? And do you think those will be a difference in degree of let's say, harshness of interpretation of cigars and e-vapor products? Thank you..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks for the questions. I'll give you an example on your first question, which is predicate date. We had argued to the FDA and advocated to the FDA, as did many others, that it made little sense to go back and use a cigarette predicate date of 2007 for products that basically came into the marketplace after 2007. So....

Adam J. Spielman - Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.

Yep..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

...there continues to be a lot of dialogue about that. It's not limited to the FDA. You know that there are legislative proposals pending. And so I think a lot of people think that it would be wise to revisit that question. We certainly do. And you may have heard the conversation we had earlier about encouraging innovation.

Using that predicate date, to us, does not seem to do that. So that's one area.

With respect to PMTAs, I'm not familiar with the conversation you referenced with someone else, but I can tell you that it would seem to make sense that for pre-market approvals, you certainly if you were the regulator, ought to be taking into account the degree of harm of the products.

And so cigarettes, as we all know, bear a high degree of risk and while the evidence is not completely in, it appears to be that, because they don't burn, e-vapor probably has a lower risk. That, of course, ought to be taken into account in approving whether they should come to market. So that would seem to be a sensible approach.

I think that's a development that would be good for consumers and for manufacturers and for public health..

Adam J. Spielman - Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.

Thank you very much.

Can I just come back? I do understand that Congress may change the predicate date, but assuming they don't, do you think there's any realistic chance that a dialogue other than via Congress or maybe through litigation will actually alter that date?.

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

I hope so. Listen, FDA has a job to do. We have found them to be open to listening to reasonable arguments. But at the end of the day, Adam, it's up to them. But we have not found them to be immune from listening to points of view and hopefully coming to some reasoned judgment on it.

Particularly if other stakeholders besides us weigh in on it, as I understand is the case..

Adam J. Spielman - Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.

Okay. Thank you very much..

Martin J. Barrington - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks for those questions..

Operator

We will now also open the call for media questions. With no further questions, I would like to turn the call back over to Ms. Sarah Knakmuhs for closing remarks..

Sarah Fitzgerald Knakmuhs - Vice President-Investor Relations

Thank you, everyone, for joining our call this morning. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact us at Investor Relations..

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect..

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