Item 1. Business.
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Item 1. Business.
General Development of Business
General
Philip Morris International Inc. is a Virginia holding company incorporated in 1987. In March 2008, we became a U.S. public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and subject to the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). We are a leading international tobacco company, actively delivering a smoke-free future and evolving our portfolio for the long term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. Our current product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products. Since 2008, we have invested over $14 billion to develop, scientifically substantiate and commercialize innovative smoke-free products for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, with the goal of completely ending the sale of cigarettes. This investment includes the building of world-class scientific assessment capabilities, notably in the areas of pre-clinical systems toxicology, clinical and behavioral research, as well as post-market studies. In November 2022, we acquired Swedish Match AB ("Swedish Match") – a leader in oral nicotine delivery – creating a global smoke-free combination led by the companies’ IQOS and ZYN brands. Following a robust science-based review, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the "FDA") has authorized the marketing of Swedish Match’s General snus and ZYN nicotine pouches and versions of PMI’s IQOS devices and consumables - the first-ever such authorizations in their respective categories. Versions of IQOS devices and consumables and General snus also obtained the first-ever Modified Risk Tobacco Product ("MRTP") authorizations from the FDA. We describe the MRTP orders in more detail in the "Business Environment" section of Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Through our acquisition of Swedish Match in 2022, with its leading nicotine pouch franchise in the U.S. under the ZYN brand name, we acquired a market leader in oral nicotine delivery with a significant presence in the United States market. The Swedish Match acquisition has been a key milestone in PMI’s transformation to becoming a smoke-free company. The Swedish Match product portfolio is complementary to our existing portfolio, permitting us to bring together a leading oral nicotine product with the leading heat-not-burn product. By joining forces with Swedish Match, we expect to accelerate the achievement of our joint smoke-free ambitions, switching more adults who would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes to better alternatives faster than either company could achieve separately.
In 2022, we reached an agreement with Altria Group, Inc. to end our commercial relationship in the U.S. covering IQOS as of April 30, 2024. PMI now holds the full rights to commercialize IQOS in the U.S. For further details, see Item 8, Note 3. Acquisitions and Divestitures.
In 2021, we began our long-term growth ambitions beyond nicotine in wellness and healthcare given our strong foundation and significant expertise in life sciences. Our Wellness and Healthcare business strategy currently focuses on developing and commercializing oral and inhaled consumer health and wellness offerings and inhaled prescription products for therapy areas that include pain management and cardiovascular emergencies. This includes medical and pharmaceutical cannabinoids, and non-recreational cannabinoid products (including CBD), in line with applicable regulatory requirements, though any revenue related to cannabinoids is expected to be negligible in the near to medium term.
Smoke-Free Business ("SFB”) is the term PMI uses to refer to all of its smoke-free products. SFB also includes wellness and healthcare products, as well as consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches.
Smoke-free products (also referred to herein as "SFPs") is the term PMI uses to refer to all of its products that provide nicotine without combusting tobacco, such as heat-not-burn, e-vapor, and oral smokeless, and that therefore generate far lower levels of harmful chemicals. As such, these products have the potential to present less risk of harm versus continued smoking.
We have a range of SFPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment and commercialization. Our smoke-free products are designed for, and directed toward, current adult smokers and adult users of nicotine-containing products. We put significant effort to restrict access of our products from non-smokers and youth. We believe regulation must include measures designed to prevent youth initiation; and we also support and engage with relevant authorities to seek sensible regulation of flavors, mandated health warnings and minimum age laws.
Our IQOS smoke-free product brand portfolio includes heated tobacco and nicotine-containing vapor products. It uses a precisely controlled heating device into which a specially designed and proprietary tobacco unit is inserted and heated to generate an aerosol. Heated tobacco units ("HTUs") is the term we use to refer to heated tobacco consumables, which include our BLENDS, DELIA, HEETS, HEETS Creations (defined collectively as "HEETS"), SENTIA, TEREA, TEREA CRAFTED and TEREA Dimensions, as well
as the KT&G-licensed brands, Fiit and Miix (outside of South Korea). HTUs also include zero tobacco heat-not-burn consumables (LEVIA). IQOS was first introduced in Nagoya, Japan, in 2014.
IQOS and ZYN are the leading brands in our SFPs portfolio. As of December 31, 2024, our smoke-free products were available for sale in 95 markets. With regard to nicotine pouches, we increased our presence to 37 markets.
Our cigarettes are sold in approximately 170 markets, and in many of these markets they hold the number one or number two market share position. We have a wide range of premium, mid-price and low-price brands. Our portfolio comprises both international and local brands and is led by Marlboro, the world’s best-selling international cigarette, which accounted for approximately 40% of our total 2024 cigarette shipment volume. Marlboro is complemented in the premium-price category by Parliament. Our other leading international cigarette brands are Chesterfield, L&M, and Philip Morris. These five international cigarette brands contributed 80% of our cigarette shipment volume in 2024. We also own a number of important local cigarette brands, such as Dji Sam Soe and Sampoerna A in Indonesia, and Fortune and Jackpot in the Philippines.
Source of Funds — Dividends
We are a legal entity separate and distinct from our direct and indirect subsidiaries. Accordingly, our right, and thus the right of our creditors and stockholders, to participate in any distribution of the assets or earnings of any subsidiary is subject to the prior rights of creditors of such subsidiary, except to the extent that claims of our company itself as a creditor may be recognized. As a holding company, our principal sources of funds, including funds to make payment on our debt securities, are from the receipt of dividends and repayment of debt from our subsidiaries. Our principal wholly owned and majority-owned subsidiaries currently are not limited by long-term debt or other agreements in their ability to pay cash dividends or to make other distributions that are otherwise compliant with law, including governmental capital and foreign currency exchange controls.
Description of Business
Following the combination and the progress in 2023 toward the integration of the Swedish Match business into PMI's existing regional structure, PMI updated in January 2024 its segment reporting by including the former Swedish Match segment results into the four existing geographical segments. Our four geographical segments are as follows:
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Europe Region is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and covers all the European Union countries, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and also Ukraine, Moldova and Southeast Europe;
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South and Southeast Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, Middle East and Africa Region ("SSEA, CIS & MEA") is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It covers South and Southeast Asia, the African continent, the Middle East, Turkey, as well as Israel, Central Asia, Caucasus and Russia;
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East Asia, Australia, and PMI Duty Free Region ("EA, AU & PMI DF") is headquartered in Hong Kong, and includes the consolidation of our international duty free business with East Asia & Australia; and
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Americas Region is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and covers the United States, Canada and Latin America.
Our Wellness and Healthcare ("W&H") segment, which includes the operating results of our Wellness and Healthcare business, remained unchanged in 2024.
Following the sale of Vectura Group Ltd. on December 31, 2024, we will update our segment reporting by including the remaining Wellness & Healthcare results in the Europe segment. In addition, we will be renaming our “PMI Duty Free” business to “PMI Global Travel Retail” effective in the first quarter of 2025. As a result of this change, PMI's segment that includes our duty free business will be renamed East Asia, Australia & PMI Global Travel Retail (“EA, AU & PMI GTR”). As of the first quarter of 2025, our reporting will reflect these changes.
Our total shipment volume, including cigarettes and heated tobacco units, increased by 2.5% in 2024 to 756.6 billion units, with shipment volume of heated tobacco units reaching 139.7 billion units in 2024, up from 125.3 billion units in 2023. Shipment volume of our principal cigarette brand, Marlboro, increased by 3.7% in 2024.
References in this Form 10-K to total international market, defined as worldwide cigarette and heated tobacco unit volume, excluding the United States, total industry (or total market) and market shares, are our estimates for tax-paid products based on data from a number of internal and external sources, and may, in defined instances, exclude China. Past reported periods may be updated to ensure comparability and to incorporate the most current information for industry and market share reporting.
Unless otherwise stated, references to total industry (or total market), our shipment volume and our market share performance reflect cigarettes and heated tobacco units.
Key data regarding total market and market share were as follows:
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||||||
| Total Market, billion units (excluding China and the U.S.) | 2,618 | 2,579 | 2,621 | ||||||||
| Total International Market Share (1) | 28.7% | 28.3% | 27.7% | ||||||||
| Cigarettes | 23.5% | 23.7% | 23.6% | ||||||||
| HTU | 5.2% | 4.7% | 4.1% | ||||||||
| PMI Cigarette over Cigarette Market Share (2) | 25.3% | 25.2% | 25.0% | ||||||||
| Marlboro Cigarette over Cigarette Market Share (3) | 10.1% | 9.8% | 9.8% | ||||||||
| (1) Defined as PMI's cigarette and heated tobacco unit in-market sales volume as a percentage of total industry cigarette and heated tobacco unit sales volume, excluding China and the U.S., including cigarillos in Japan | |||||||||||
| (2) Defined as PMI's cigarette in-market sales volume as a percentage of total industry cigarette sales volume, excluding China and the U.S., including cigarillos in Japan | |||||||||||
| (3) Defined as Marlboro's cigarette in-market sales volume as a percentage of total industry cigarette sales volume, excluding China and the U.S., including cigarillos in Japan | |||||||||||
| Note: Sum of share of market by product categories might not foot to total due to roundings |
We have a market share of at least 15% in approximately 100 markets, including Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the Slovak Republic, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
Distribution & Sales
Our main types of distribution and sales are tailored to the characteristics of each market and are often used simultaneously:
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Direct sales and distribution, where we sell directly to the retailers;
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Distribution through independent distributors that often distribute other fast-moving consumer goods and are responsible for distribution in a particular market;
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Exclusive zonified distribution, where the dedicated multicategory product distributors are assigned to exclusive territories within a market;
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Distribution through national or regional wholesalers that then supply the retail trade;
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Our own e-commerce infrastructure for product sales to trade partners and to consumers; and
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Our own brand retail infrastructure for our SFPs and accessories for sales to consumers.
Competition
We are subject to highly competitive conditions in all aspects of our business. We compete primarily on the basis of product quality, brand recognition, brand loyalty, taste, R&D, innovation, packaging, customer service, marketing, advertising and retail price.
The competitive environment and our competitive position can be significantly influenced by weak economic conditions; erosion of consumer confidence; competitors' introduction of lower-price products or innovative products; adult smoker willingness to convert to our SFPs; higher product taxes; higher absolute prices and larger gaps between retail price categories; and product regulation that diminishes the ability to differentiate tobacco products, restricts adult consumer access to truthful and non-misleading information about our SFPs, or disproportionately impacts the commercialization of our products in relation to our competitors.
Competitors in our industry include Altria Group, Inc., British American Tobacco plc, Japan Tobacco Inc., Imperial Brands plc, new market entrants, particularly with respect to innovative products, several regional and local tobacco companies and, in some instances, state-owned tobacco enterprises, principally in Algeria, Egypt, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Some competitors have different profit, volume and regulatory objectives, and some international competitors may be less susceptible than PMI to changes in currency exchange rates. Certain new market entrants in the non-combustible product category may alienate consumers from innovative products through inappropriate marketing campaigns, messaging and inferior product satisfaction, and without scientific substantiation based on appropriate R&D protocols and standards. The growing use of digital media could increase the speed and extent of the dissemination of inaccurate and misleading information about our SFPs, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our profitability and results of operations.
Procurement and Raw Materials
We purchase tobacco leaf of various types, grades and styles throughout the world, mostly through independent international tobacco suppliers. In 2024, we also contracted directly with farmers in several countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Pakistan and Poland. In 2024, direct sourcing from farmers represented approximately 18% of PMI’s global leaf requirements. The largest supplies of tobacco leaf are sourced from Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Italy, Indonesia (mostly for domestic use in kretek products), Malawi, Mozambique, the Philippines, Turkey and the United States. We believe that there is a sufficient supply of tobacco leaf in the world markets to satisfy our current and anticipated production requirements.
Given the global reach of our value chain, properly managing land and water resources and utilizing a geographically diversified sourcing strategy for agricultural products are priorities as we seek to increase the resilience of our production systems and minimize operational risks. We conduct a global water risk assessment annually in tobacco-growing regions to identify potential hotspots for physical water risks that require adaptation measures. Our water stewardship strategy includes guidance for applying a landscape approach to water optimization projects, protecting natural resources and recharge areas, and improving the efficiency of irrigation systems to integrate better farm water management. These business practices are intended to mitigate the risk that climate change could influence weather patterns in ways that negatively impact the quality or cost of the agricultural products used to manufacture our products.
In addition to tobacco leaf, we purchase a wide variety of direct materials from a total of approximately 500 suppliers. In 2024, our top ten suppliers of direct materials combined represented approximately 60% of our total direct materials purchases. The four most significant direct materials that we purchase are printed paper board used in packaging, acetate tow used in filter making, fine paper used in the manufacturing of cigarettes and heated tobacco units, and susceptors used for TEREA and other consumables. In addition, the adequate supply and procurement of cloves are of particular importance to our Indonesian business. For our oral smoke-free products, direct materials include plastic cans and lids for nicotine pouches and traditional snus products, nicotine salt or nicotine premix for nicotine pouches, pouch material for individual pouchmaking and additives. Our devices are made by various electronic manufacturing services providers ("EMS"). The components used in the assembly of these devices can be made by the EMS or purchased from other suppliers. These components include mechanical parts, electrical and electromechanical components, batteries, semiconductors, and packaging materials.
We discuss the details of our supply chain for our SFPs in Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of this Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Item 7”) in Business Environment—Reduced-Risk Products.
Business Environment
Information called for by this Item is hereby incorporated by reference to the paragraphs in Item 7, Business Environment to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Other Matters
Customers
As described in more detail in “Distribution & Sales” above, in many of our markets we sell our products to distributors. In 2024, sales to a distributor in the Europe Region and a distributor in the EA, AU & PMI DF Region each amounted to 10 percent or more of our consolidated net revenues. See Item 8, Note 13. Segment Reporting for more information. We believe that none of our business segments is dependent upon a single customer or a few customers, the loss of which would have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations. In some of our markets, particularly in the Europe, SSEA, CIS & MEA, and EA, AU & PMI DF Regions, a loss of a distributor may result in a temporary market disruption.
Human Capital
Our Workforce*.* At December 31, 2024, we employed approximately 83,100 people worldwide, including full-time, temporary and part-time staff. Our businesses are subject to a number of laws and regulations relating to our relationship with our employees. Generally, these laws and regulations are specific to the location of each business. We engage with legally recognized employee representative bodies and we have collective bargaining agreements in several of the countries in which we operate. In addition, in accordance with E.U. requirements, we have established a European Works Council composed of management and elected members of our workforce. We believe we maintain good relations with our employees and their representative organizations.
Our Internal Transformation. To be successful in our transformation to a smoke-free future, we must continue transforming our culture and ways of working, align our talent with our business needs, successfully integrate acquired businesses and innovate to become a truly consumer-centric business. To achieve our strategic goals, we need to attract, retain, develop and motivate the best global talent, talent that is diverse and has the right degree of experience, competencies and skills. Our compensation and benefit programs are set at the levels that we believe are necessary to attract the best talent and remain competitive with other consumer product companies.
Oversight and Management. Our Board of Directors (the "Board") provides oversight of various matters pertaining to our workforce. The Compensation and Leadership Development Committee of the Board is responsible for executive compensation matters and oversight of the risks and programs related to human capital management. Our Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines highlight our commitment to ethical business conduct and honesty, respect, and fairness.
Collaborative Culture. We are proud of the global reach of our company, which operates in approximately 170 markets with employees representing more than 130 nationalities. We reflect the demographics of the countries, communities, and consumers we serve, which is key to the variety of thought, innovation, and consumer-centric approach that enables us to deliver a smoke-free future.
Our focus is on fostering a performance-driven and collaborative culture, recognizing the value of our global workforce and their contributions. We remain committed to the impact, growth, and well-being of our employees, providing them with the right environment, support, and resources for their careers and professional development.
These principles are codified in our cultural values, which we call the PMI DNA, and we embed these principles throughout our people and business guidelines, practices, and systems.
As the first multinational company to receive a global EQUAL-SALARY certification from the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation in 2019, we completed another year of market level reviews with success and maintained our global certification. We believe this certification is a valuable component in our reputation as an employer.
Government Regulation
As a company with global operations in a heavily regulated industry, we are subject to multiple laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which we operate. We discuss our regulatory environment in Item 7, Business Environment.
The regulatory landscape related to sustainability matters is rapidly evolving. We closely monitor these developments and implement initiatives addressing PMI’s priorities in line with our sustainability strategy. In particular, we are subject to international, national and local environmental laws and regulations in the countries in which we do business. We have specific programs across our business units designed to meet applicable environmental compliance requirements and reduce our carbon footprint, wastage, as well as water and energy consumption. We report externally about our climate change mitigation strategy, together with associated targets and results in reducing our carbon footprint, through CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), the leading international non-governmental organization assessing the work of thousands of companies worldwide in the area of environmental impact, including climate change.
Our environmental and occupational health and safety management program includes policies, standard practices and procedures at all our manufacturing centers. Furthermore, we have engaged an external certification body to validate the effectiveness of this management program at our manufacturing centers around the world, in accordance with internationally recognized standards ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 for safety and environmental management. Furthermore, we progressively certify our manufacturing centers against AWS (Alliance for Water Stewardship) and Carbon Neutrality, requiring improvement actions year on year. Our subsidiaries expect to continue to make investments in order to drive improved performance and maintain compliance with environmental laws and regulations. We assess and report to our management the compliance status of all our legal entities on a regular basis. Based on current regulations, the management and controls we have in place and our review of climate change risks (both physical and regulatory), environmental expenditures have not had, and are not expected to have, a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations, capital expenditures, financial position, earnings or competitive position.
As discussed in more detail in Item 1A. Risk Factors, our financial results could be significantly affected by regulatory initiatives that could result in a significant decrease in demand for our brands or by climate-related regulations that increase our cost of operation. More specifically, any regulatory requirements that lead to a commoditization of tobacco products or impede adult consumers' ability to convert to our SFPs, as well as any significant increase in the cost of complying with new regulatory requirements could have a material adverse effect on our financial results. Further, tightened climate-related regulation may lead to additional carbon taxation or energy price increases impacting our cost of operation. These shifts in regulation and other market trends could, amongst others, impact current deforestation rates. Availability of deforestation-free materials could be impacted by increased demand for alternative energy sources and low-carbon fuels, such as biomass, which could result in increased sourcing costs.
We discuss additional information regarding regulatory matters relating to climate change in Item 7, Climate Change Laws and Regulations.
Information About Our Executive Officers
The disclosure regarding executive officers is hereby incorporated by reference to the discussion under the heading “Information about our Executive Officers as of February 6, 2025” in Part III, Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance of this Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Item 10”).
Intellectual Property
Our trademarks are valuable assets, and their protection and reputation are essential to us. We own the trademark rights to all of our principal brands, including Marlboro (outside of the U.S.), HEETS, IQOS, IQOS ILUMA, TEREA, VEEV and ZYN, or have the right to use them in all countries in which these brands are advertised or sold.
In addition, we have a large number of granted patents and pending patent applications worldwide. Our patent portfolio, as a whole, is material to our business. However, no one patent, or group of related patents, is material to us. We also have registered industrial designs, as well as unregistered proprietary trade secrets, technology, know-how, processes and other unregistered intellectual property rights.
Effective January 1, 2008, PMI entered into an Intellectual Property Agreement with Philip Morris USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Altria Group, Inc. (“PM USA”). The Intellectual Property Agreement allocates ownership of jointly funded intellectual property as follows:
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PMI owns all rights to jointly funded intellectual property outside the United States, its territories and possessions; and
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PM USA owns all rights to jointly funded intellectual property in the United States, its territories and possessions.
The parties agreed to submit disputes under the Intellectual Property Agreement first to negotiation between senior executives and then to binding arbitration.
An agreement was reached with PM USA in 2022 relating to IQOS commercialization rights in the U.S. including, among other things, an agreement relating to intellectual property rights consistent with the commercialization rights for relevant IQOS products.
On February 1, 2024, Philip Morris Products S.A., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of PMI, and Nicoventures Trading Limited, an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco p.l.c., entered into a settlement agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) for an eight-year term, under which, among other things: (i) certain pending legal proceedings (the “Proceedings”) between them concerning certain of their respective products were dismissed with prejudice, subject to certain limited exceptions, and
without admission of liability; (ii) the Limited Exclusion Order and Cease and Desist Order issued by the International Trade Commission on September 29, 2021, prohibiting the importation of certain heat-not-burn products by PMI and its affiliates into the United States was rescinded; and (iii) any injunctions granted to either party in the Proceedings were fully and finally discharged, without admission of liability.
The parties have also agreed to certain covenants not to sue on a perpetual, royalty-free basis or on a royalty-bearing basis, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Settlement Agreement, and, among other things, both parties may introduce certain heat-not-burn and vapor products under the Settlement Agreement (including certain evolutions of the existing heat-not-burn and e-vapor products, and certain variants and product line extensions of heat-not-burn and e-vapor products), which products may be royalty-bearing or royalty-free depending on the patents of the other party that may have been used in the development thereof.
Seasonality
Our business segments are not significantly affected by seasonality, although in certain markets cigarette consumption may be lower during the winter months due to the cold weather and may rise during the summer months due to outdoor use, longer daylight, and tourism. However, we typically experience higher SFP adult user growth in the first half of each year versus the second half of each year due to seasonal influences.
Available Information
We are required to file with the SEC annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). The SEC maintains an Internet website at http://www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, from which investors can electronically access our SEC filings.
We make available free of charge on, or through, our website at www.pmi.com our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Investors can access our filings with the SEC by visiting www.pmi.com.
The information on our website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this report or incorporated into any other filings we make with the SEC.
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