— Strong first half results and solid forward visibility support increased full-year guidance —

— Well-implemented strategies continuing to offset El Niño margin pressures —

MORRISVILLE, N.C., Nov. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pyxus International, Inc. (OTC Pink: PYYX) ("Pyxus," the "Company," "we," or "our"), a global value-added agricultural company, today announced results for its fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2024.

Pieter Sikkel, Pyxus' President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are pleased to report a solid first half, establishing the necessary foundation to achieve strong full-year results. Our dedicated teams around the world successfully leveraged our global footprint to procure the volumes needed despite a challenging post-El Niño market environment, and maintained the operational discipline required to protect our margins. As a result, we are excited to increase our guidance for both full-year revenues and adjusted EBITDA."

Sikkel continued, "Healthy demand continues, and our business is accelerating as we enter the second half of the year. We are confident in our strategy and expect to continue to utilize our global presence to secure a mix of business, by customer and region, that enables growth, facilitates the capture of operating efficiencies, and optimizes returns on our working capital investments. In the current environment, we have successfully leveraged our presence in Asia and Africa to offset much of the impact of short crops in North and South America, and we expect these investments in inventory to drive profitable second half growth."

Financial Results

The Company reported second quarter sales and other operating revenues of $566.3 million compared to $624.3 million for the prior fiscal year's second quarter. The change versus prior year primarily reflects a shift in timing of certain shipments, a portion of which were accelerated into the Company's first quarter of the current fiscal year, with shipments being delayed out of the second quarter being expected to benefit second half results. The 9.3% reduction in second quarter revenue compared to the prior-year second quarter was the result of a volume decline of 23.0%, partially offset by a 14.5% improvement from pricing driven by cost increases.

The Company grew sales and other operating revenues for the first half of the fiscal year by 9.1% to $1.2 billion compared to $1.1 billion in the same period last year. First half growth of $99.8 million reflects 15.6% increase in average sales prices over this period, driven by higher tobacco prices. Our total processed tobacco inventory level increased to $750.6 million as of September 30, 2024 compared to $646.8 million as of September 30, 2023. This additional inventory positions the Company for a strong second half of the fiscal year with potential for earlier shipments.

Our reported gross profit was $75.4 million in the second quarter, or 13.3% of revenues, compared to $88.7 million, or 14.2%, in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. This reduction was expected as it was associated with the shipment of inventory purchased during El Niño market conditions in South America. Certain mitigation initiatives, particularly with respect to the mix of business by region, impacted the second quarter and are expected to benefit margins in the second half of the year. Gross profit per kilogram in the second quarter improved to $0.80 from $0.70 in the prior year's quarter due to a more favorable customer mix.

Gross profit in the first half of the year was relatively flat at $159.3 million, or 13.3% of revenues, compared to the prior year's gross profit of $161.8 million, or 14.7%. The impact of El Niño was partially offset by improved gross profit per kilo. The Company expects margins to improve in the second half as it benefits from operational initiatives designed to offset certain pressures of this El Niño market environment.

Selling, general, and administrative expenses in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 remained well managed and improved to $38.8 million compared to $40.0 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Total first half selling, general, and administrative expenses of $79.5 million were stable compared to $74.1 million in the first half of fiscal 2024. The increase is primarily due to the timing of accrued non-cash compensation.

The Company's second quarter operating income was $33.0 million as compared to $46.3 million in the prior fiscal year's second quarter, a reflection of the revenue, gross profit and expense items mentioned above. Second quarter net loss was $3.2 million, which included $6.9 million of pre-tax gain from the Company's retirement of $34.2 million of principal long-term debt in the quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter was $44.3 million compared to $57.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA through the first half of the fiscal year was $99.3 million compared to $100.8 million in the prior year.

Improved Visibility Prompts Guidance Lift for Fiscal Year 2025

As a result of the strong first half performance, successful implementation of mitigation strategies to address the potential impact of El Niño, and our growing confidence of expected shipping and pricing in the second half, the Company today increased its guidance for fiscal 2025.

The Company's expectation for total sales is now in the range of $2.15 billion to $2.35 billion as compared to a prior range of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion; the Company's expectation for full-year adjusted EBITDA is now in the range of $175 million to $195 million as compared to its prior range of $165 million to $185 million.

Conference Call Details

The Company will hold an earnings conference call and webcast today, November 12, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. EST. Investors and analysts interested in participating in the call are invited to dial (646) 828-8193 or (888) 204-4368 and use conference ID 6796333. The webcast can be accessed at http://investors.pyxus.com.

This release, as well as the Company's second quarter results presentation, will be available on the Company's investor relations webpage prior to the call. For those unable to join the live audio webcast, an archived recording will be available on the Company's investor relations webpage shortly after the call.

Any replay, rebroadcast, transcript, or other reproduction of this conference call, other than the replay accessible by calling the number above, has not been authorized by Pyxus International and is strictly prohibited. Investors should be aware that any unauthorized reproduction of this conference call may not be an accurate reflection of its contents.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Readers are cautioned that the statements contained in this report regarding expectations of our performance or other matters that may affect our business, results of operations, or financial condition are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, which are based on current expectations of future events, may be identified by the use of words such as "guidance", "strategy," "expects," "continues," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "will," "estimates," "intends," "projects," "goals," "targets," and other words of similar meaning. These statements also may be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate, or if known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from those anticipated, estimated, or projected.  These risks and uncertainties include those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2024, our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties include: our reliance on a small number of significant customers; continued vertical integration by our customers; global shifts in sourcing customer requirements; shifts in the global supply and demand position for tobacco products; variation in our financial results due to growing conditions, customer indications and other factors; loss of confidence in us by our customers, farmers and other suppliers; migration of suppliers who have historically grown tobacco and from whom we have purchased tobacco toward growing other crops; risks related to our advancement of inputs to tobacco suppliers to be settled upon the suppliers delivering us unprocessed tobacco at the end of the growing season; risks that the tobacco we purchase directly from suppliers will not meet our customers' quality and quantity requirements; weather and other environmental conditions that can affect the marketability of our inventory; international business risks, including unsettled political conditions, uncertainty in the enforcement of legal obligations, including the collection of accounts receivable, fraud risks, expropriation, import and export restrictions, exchange controls, inflationary economies, currency risks and risks related to the restrictions on repatriation of earnings or proceeds from liquidated assets of foreign subsidiaries; many of our operations are located in jurisdictions that pose a high risk of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; risks and uncertainties related to geopolitical conflicts, including conflict in the Middle East and disruptions affecting Red Sea shipping; impacts of international sanctions on our ability to sell or source tobacco in certain regions; exposure to foreign tax regimes in which the rules are not clear, are not consistently applied and are subject to sudden change; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange and interest rates; competition with the other primary global independent leaf tobacco merchant and independent leaf merchants; disruption, failure or security breaches of our information technology systems and other cybersecurity risks; continued high inflation; regulations regarding environmental matters; risks related to our capital structure, including risks related to our significant debt and our ability to continue to finance our non-U.S. local operations with uncommitted short-term operating credit lines at the local level; our ability to continue to access capital markets to obtain long-term and short-term financing; potential failure of foreign banks in which our subsidiaries maintain deposits or the failure by such banks to transfer funds or honor withdrawals; the risk that, because our ability to generate cash depends on many factors beyond our control, we may be unable to generate the significant amount of cash required to service our indebtedness; our ability to refinance our current credit facilities at the same availability or at similar or reduced interest rates; failure to achieve our stated goals, which may adversely affect our liquidity; developments with respect to our liquidity needs and sources of liquidity; the volatility and disruption of global credit markets; failure by counterparties to derivative transactions to perform their obligations; increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from governments, as well as other stakeholders such as investors and customers, with respect to our environmental, social and governance policies, including sustainability policies; inherent risk of exposure to product liability claims, regulatory action and litigation facing our e-liquids business if its products are alleged to have caused significant loss, injury, or death; certain shareholders have the ability to exercise controlling influence on various corporate matters; reductions in demand for consumer tobacco products; risks and uncertainties related to pandemics or other widespread health crises and any related shipping constraints, labor shortages and supply-chain impacts; legislative and regulatory initiatives that may reduce consumption of consumer tobacco products and demand for our services and increase regulatory burdens on us or our customers; government actions that significantly affect the sourcing of tobacco, including governmental actions to identify and assess crop diversification initiatives and alternatives to leaf tobacco growing in countries whose economies depend upon tobacco production; governmental investigations into the Company's business activities, including but not limited to, leaf tobacco industry buying and other payment practices; and impact of potential regulations to prohibit the sale of cigarettes in the United States other than low-nicotine cigarettes.  The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that we may make from time to time except to the extent required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

This press release contains financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP"). They include EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Free Cash Flow, and Net Debt. Tables showing the reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures are attached to the release. The range of Adjusted EBITDA anticipated for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 is calculated in a manner consistent with the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA in the attached tables. Because of the forward-looking nature of the estimated range of Adjusted EBITDA, it is impractical to present a quantitative reconciliation of such measure to a comparable GAAP measure, and accordingly no such GAAP measure is being presented.

About Pyxus International, Inc.

Pyxus International, Inc. is a global agricultural company with more than 150 years of experience delivering value-added products and services to businesses and customers. Driven by a united purpose—to transform people's lives, so that together we can grow a better world—Pyxus International, its subsidiaries and affiliates, are trusted providers of responsibly sourced, independently verified, sustainable and traceable products and ingredients. For more information, visit www.pyxus.com. 

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SOURCE Pyxus International, Inc.