Good morning, everyone. I'm Victoria Buxton, Group Head of Investor Relations, and with me this morning are Tadeu Marroco, our Chief Executive, and Javed Iqbal, our Interim Chief Financial Officer. Welcome to our 2025 full year pre-close conference call. I hope you're all well, and I'd like to thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. Before we begin, I need to draw your attention to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements, as well as the notes and disclaimer contained in the trading update. Unless otherwise stated, our comments will focus on constant currency adjusted measures, which include adjustments related to profit from our Canadian combustibles business, and average year-to-date share data as to September 2025 versus full year 2024 average. I will now hand over to Tadeu, with a reminder that, as always, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions later on in the call.
Thank you, Victoria. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. We remain firmly on track for full year results and now expect to deliver around 2% revenue and adjusted operating profit growth. I would like to begin with four key takeaways from today's update. First, I'm particularly pleased that our U.S. business has continued to deliver positive momentum in the second half, driven by ongoing combustibles delivery and an excellent Velo Plus performance. As the world's largest nicotine value pool, the U.S. is an important growth engine for our business. Second, we expect an acceleration in our new category revenue growth to double-digit in the second half, driven by modern oral across all three regions and recent improvement in U.S. vapor. We expect to deliver mid-single-digit new category revenue growth for the full year. Third, we expect new category contribution growth to accelerate in H2, driven by our quality growth discipline.
Together, these reinforce our confidence in delivering our midterm algorithm in 2026, and finally, I remain fully committed to achieving our 2x-2.5x net debt to EBITDA leverage targets for the full year 2026, while delivering sustainable shareholder value through our progressive dividend and a sustainable share buyback program with GBP 1.3 billion announced for 2026. Let's start with new category dynamics. The global nicotine industry is growing and rapidly transforming, with adult smokers increasingly switching to new categories. We are well positioned to benefit from these consumer trends, leveraging our world-class insights, enhanced innovation ecosystem, brand-building and regulatory expertise, and distribution capabilities. We have invested to build a well-established and differentiated portfolio of global brands with premium product offerings across all three new categories. Modern Oral is by far the fastest-growing new category globally and is highly profitable with a fast payback.
It is now our second-largest new category and is becoming a meaningful contributor to our group delivery as Velo continues to go from strength to strength. We expect to deliver double-digit revenue growth for the full year as Velo continues to gain volume share up 590 basis points to 31.8% across top Modern Oral markets. It's also positioned as the lowest-risk new category, containing 99% less toxicants when compared to cigarettes. A recent peer-reviewed clinical study confirmed that oral nicotine pouch can deliver nicotine quickly and effectively to satisfy smokers. In addition, the FDA has recently recognized the positive role that nicotine pouches can play in helping adults transition away from combustibles, reinforcing their role in tobacco harm reduction.
We are also encouraged that the FDA has committed to providing accurate science-based information about the relative risks of different nicotine products in order to combat consumer misconceptions that may prevent switching to reduced harm products. We welcome the FDA's new pilot program to streamline the PMTA review process for nicotine pouches. We are confident in the strength of our science and portfolio, and we look forward to being able to launch our leading high-moisture Modern Oral products in the U.S. market. In the U.S., the Modern Oral category value is expected to almost double over the next two years and has already overtaken the size of the legitimate vapor category at around £2 billion. Velo Plus is the fastest-growing U.S. Modern Oral brand. It has already reached the number two volume and value share category position, gaining 15 percentage points of volume share since launch.
Encouragingly, despite the heightened competitive promotion activity we have seen in the last few months, our latest volume share is 21.9% in October, up from 6.9% in November last year, prior to the launch of Velo Plus. Velo Plus has continued to drive triple-digit U.S. modern oral revenue growth in H2, and importantly, we remain confident that it will deliver positive category contribution for the full year. These results reflect the strength of our products, branding, and distribution capabilities, and the sharper execution that our rejuvenated Reynolds is delivering. In AME, we are clear leaders, selling at a premium price and strongly outperforming our peers across the region. We are close to six times the size of our closest competitor and continue to capture around 60% of category growth, highlighting the further opportunity ahead. Our latest innovation, Velo Shift, was recently launched in key accounts and online in Sweden.
It's a premium product designed to reshape the Modern Oral experience with a new comfort pouch design, five new distinct sensory flavors, and a differentiated X-can, designed to stand out on the shelf. Velo Shift is driving incremental sharing channels where it has been launched, with a full national rollout planned for January and further market rollouts planned during 2026. In heated products, our year-to-date performance reflects a transitional period ahead of key innovation rollouts. Global volume share was down 1.2 percentage points in top markets, primarily driven by heightened competitive pressures in the value-for-money segments in Japan and the continued strategic phase-out of our legacy SuperSlims platform. In AME, volume share was down 60 basis points, with continued strong performance in Czech Republic, Spain, and Portugal, more than offset by competitive dynamics in Germany, Italy, and Romania as we relocated resource ahead of the launch of glo Halo.
Our new breakthrough innovation platform, glo Halo, includes our first two-piece device and is designed to establish glo in the premium segment, which represents over 80% of industry value. In September, we launched a national launch in Japan with a 360-degree target marketing campaign, including a new flagship store in central Tokyo, immersive pop-up experience with digital art collaborations, and strong retail visibility through convenience store takeovers. We are focused on driving trial, targeting premium consumers in the combustibles and HP spaces through online and in-person activations. Early performance indicators are positive, with an increase in brand awareness together with emotional and functional imagery resonating strongly with consumers. We are encouraged by early trial to retention rates around 50% from both smokers and HP consumers.
While the heated products category remains highly competitive, we are confident in the strength of this innovation and expect to progressively gain share in the premium space over time. In line with our quality growth strategy, we are focused on rolling out glo Halo in the largest heated product profit pools, where we can generate the strongest returns. We launched in Poland in October and in Italy in November and will continue the market rollout next year. Altogether, we expect broadly flat glo revenue growth for the full year. Vapor remains the largest new category in terms of number of adult consumers and continues to demonstrate strong conversion effectiveness. Vuse maintained global value share leadership and tracked channels across top markets at 38.3%, up 10 basis points versus full year 2024.
While the vapor category continues to be impacted by the proliferation of illicit products, we are encouraged by early signs of performance recovery in the U.S., where Vuse has returned to volume and revenue growth in recent months after 18 months of decline and gained 70 basis points of value share year-to-date to reach 50.4%. This has been supported by early signs of increased federal enforcement targeting borders and larger distributors, leading to increased seizures and fines together with enforcement at state level, with Vapor Directory Enforcement Legislation now enacted in 18 states representing around 50% of tracked industry volume. While we estimate around 70% of U.S. vapor industry value is illicit, over time, we believe Vuse is well positioned to benefit from stronger regulatory enforcement at both the federal and state levels.
We are pleased to receive a favorable initial determination on our International Trade Commission complaint from the administrative law judge, who has recommended a general exclusion order on imported illicit vapor device. We expect a final determination from the ITC in the coming weeks, which will then be subject to a 60-day presidential review. In AME, our value share in tracked channels declined 50 basis points, mainly driven by the impact of illicit headwinds in Canada. Early consumer response to the phased rollout of our new premium product has been strong, with Vuse Ultra gaining nearly 80% value share in rechargeable consumables in Canada, close to 5% in Germany and 2% in France in October, reflecting the appeal of its differentiated offer supported by positioning the Vuse brand as vapor done right.
While we expect a high single-digit revenue decline for the full year, this is a clear improvement versus the mid-tens decline in H1, primarily driven by the early signs of enforcement actions in the U.S. The full year performance will also be impacted by a strategic decision to reduce our footprint and reallocate resource away from markets where regulation enforcement does not support a responsible level and competitive playing field. Turning to combustibles, where we have continued to offset volume declines with robust price and mix and efficiency gains, we expect an improving H2 revenue performance led by the U.S. In our top markets, volume share declined by 10 basis points and value share was flat, with U.S gains offset by APMEA and heightened competitive activity in some AME markets.
While the U.S. macroeconomic environment remains dynamic, the pace of industry decline has improved versus prior years, down around 8% year-to-date on a sales-to-retail basis. Against this backdrop, I'm delighted that our U.S. combustibles business is expected to deliver both revenue and profit growth this year for the first time since 2022. In the U.S., our commercial actions, portfolio investments, and sharper execution have driven value share growth of 20 basis points with flat volume share. In AME, we have continued to deliver a resilient combustibles performance with robust pricing driving revenue and operating profit growth led by strong delivery in Brazil, Turkey, and Mexico. We are also taking target actions to rejuvenate key portfolio offers in Germany and Romania. In APMEA growth in key markets, including Pakistan, Nigeria, and Indonesia, is expected to be more than offset by previously guided fiscal and regulatory headwinds in Bangladesh and Australia.
Both markets are seeing significant double-digit industry volume declines year-to-date. In Bangladesh, January's interim budget introduced a broad-based increase in VAT and supplementary duties, alongside the largest-ever hike in minimum cigarette pricing, materially impacting consumer affordability. In Australia, years of excise increases above inflation, now compounded by sweeping regulatory reforms, the most extensive since Plain Packaging rules in 2012, are accelerating industry volume declines in the legal market. We expect these ineffective policies to further erode the legal market and fuel illicit trade, which already accounts for over 85% of nicotine usage when combined with illegal vapor use. Worryingly, these policies have also driven a return to growth in smoking incidence for the first time in 20 years by establishing a lower tier of affordable illicit cigarette offers and a more than 50% reduction in government excise collection over the last five years.
As a result, there has been a significant rise in criminality, in addition to the increased burden of associated enforcement costs, as widely reported in the media. Together, we continue to expect these headwinds to impact full year group revenue growth by around 1% and group adjusted operating profit growth by around 2%. Turning to cash, BAT is a highly cash-generative business with operating cash conversion expected to exceed 95% again in 2025, reflecting our strong cash discipline and a clear focus on returns. Our financial flexibility continues to improve, and we are on track to deliver more than GBP 50 billion in free cash flow by the end of 2030. We continue to focus on the deleveraging, and we expect to be within our target 2x-2.5 x adjusted net debt to adjusted EBITDA range by year-end 2026.
Our progress has been further supported by the partial disposal of our ITC hotel stakes last week. As we transform, I remain committed to delivering sustainable shareholder returns through our progressive dividend, which dates back over 25 years, and the sustainable share buyback program, including GBP 1.3 billion announced for 2026, starting in January. To conclude, before we move to Q&A, we are making good progress and remain firmly on track for full year delivery. Looking ahead, while there is more to do, I'm confident that the strategic choice we have made and the investment actions we are taking are the right way forward to BAT. I'm excited about the future and confident that we will return to our mid-term algorithm of 3%-5% revenue growth and 4%-6% adjusted profit from operations growth.
With 2026 expected to be at the lower end of this range as we continue to invest to drive sustainable financial delivery and transformation. Our confidence is underpinned by continued growth in the U.S., accelerating new category revenue growth led by Velo globally and the rollout of our premium innovations in the largest profit pools, continued robust delivery in AME, lapping Bangladesh combustibles headwinds, further improvement in new category contribution, and stepping up efficiencies delivered by our new Fit to Win program, in addition to the £2 billion cost of goods sold savings targets announced at our capital markets day. Moving forward, we expect our algorithm to drive 5%-8% Adjusted Diluted EPS growth. Therefore, to better align our guidance with investor returns from 2026, we'll be guiding to revenue and adjusted diluted EPS growth at constant rates on an annual basis. Thank you for listening.
Javed and I will now be very happy to take your questions.
Thank you, sir. As a reminder, to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. And our first question is from Andon- Ionita from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Tadeu, Javed, and Victoria. And thank you for taking my questions. A couple for me, please. First of all, in U.S. modern oral, you have alluded to a positive category contribution for fiscal 2025. Beyond that, how do you expect profitability to evolve as you continue to gain scale there? And then the second question for me is, in U.S. combustibles, the share gains have continued into H2. Could you give us a bit more color in terms of the key dynamics driving this and how much is attributable to a better end market versus BAT's improved execution in the U.S. market? Thank you.
Okay. Okay, look, the U.S. Modern Oral, absolutely, we are expecting to close the year already in the positive territory in terms of category contribution. Obviously, moving forward, as I said in my introduction, we are expecting a very strong growth of the new categories, and we'll be leveraging our operational efficiencies and the volumes and the brand in that environment. We have made huge progress over the last year in terms of positioning ourselves as a second player in the market. And I just give you some interesting headlines. If you take Velo outside the U.S., our category margin is already equivalent to the group margin. So we have a group margin around 44%. If you go for Velo outside the U.S., it's 39% at category level. Not talking about gross margin. As a percentage of NTO, I'm talking about category margin.
Obviously, the U.S. is just turning positive in the first year, which indicates how fast is the payback around modern oral category. And I don't see any reason why over time we cannot get to those levels. In terms of combustibles, our performance is a bit of everything that you just referred to. We are seeing slightly more supportive markets. The level of decline has reduced a bit compared with the previous year, despite the fact that low-income consumers, the consumer confidence is still very low in the U.S., but we are seeing some support coming from oil price mainly, and this could be a factor.
And we haven't, although despite the fact that we are seeing encouraging signs in terms of enforcement in the vapor, still some way to go to make a potential impact on combustibles, but this might happen in the future, but hasn't explained the performance of 2025 clearly. And I think that the performance is attributed more to what we have done in Reynolds over the last few years, and I mentioned about the commercial activities that we have put in place in terms of coverage, in terms of increasing our sales force, increasing our database of consumers, reaching out direct to consumers and improving our competitiveness in the market through our laddering in some brands. So there's a lot to do with that. We also have some benefits coming from the duty drawback that generates more employment in the U.S.
And Reynolds now is the largest buyer of leaf in the U.S. market, just to give some insights on that. So I think that is a combination of all, and that's the reason why we are very positive about the momentum can carry on for the next years.
Thank you very much.
Our next question is from Faham Baig from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good, good, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two as well. The first one on glo Halo, could you maybe talk a bit more about the early consumer sourcing signals you're seeing in Japan and Poland, whether from existing glo users, competitive products, or combustibles? And what early learnings gives you the confidence as you sort of plan broader rollouts in 2026? Any share figures that you can share here would be much appreciated.
My second question on FY 2026, you've guided toward the lower end of your mid-term growth algorithm. As you look into next year and maybe even beyond, what are the key drivers or variables that could help you migrate toward the upper half of that range?
Okay, thanks, Faham. Look, I'm very excited about glo Halo. I think that we have a fantastic product. It resonates quite nicely with consumers. The level of retention is, and I mentioned that in my introduction, is 50%, which is quite high. It's obviously a bigger change in terms of what we have had in the market, trying to establish a real, truly premium brand. In Japan, that is, as you know, a very highly competitive market. We have achieved 1% of market share with glo Halo. It's about 2% of the premium segment.
In Poland, that the brand health indicators of glo is even stronger than in Japan. We have already achieved 1% in a much shorter period of time, and in Italy, that we have achieved 0.5% in a month or so, so all those are very good early indications of glo Halo, which is a demonstration that we really have a differentiated offer in the market. Obviously, glo as a whole, we have to look after that. We have to look also to our platform Hyper as we go along, because we see a lot of competitive activities in many of these markets in the APMEA as well, and this will demand extra investments behind glo in 2026.
But we are really, really positive about the prospects of glo Halo and us being able to establish a credible offer in the premium segment where most of the value sits. In terms of our guidance, well, look, at the end of the day, we are, as you know, we have, in terms of revenue, we have just guided around 2%. Obviously, if we're not for Bangladesh, Australia, this number would be around 3%. For next year, we expect to lap Bangladesh, not necessarily Australia, because this misguided policy will probably carry on. And we also have some exit markets to lap, like Mozambique. And as you know, we have the expectation to leave Cuba as well. And that's the reason why we are getting guiding to the low end of the range.
Obviously, in terms of APFO, already shows that we expect operating margin continues to be a driver for the group next year. The low end is basically our desire to keep investing behind these innovative products that, in my view, is the best momentum that we have ever had. Velo Shift is doing extremely well in Sweden, and we want to roll out this premium innovation of Velo elsewhere. Velo Plus, obviously, we have to carry on investing in the brand, behind the brand. Glo Halo, we just spoke about, Vuse Ultra is doing extremely well in Germany and France and Canada, and we want now to roll out this premium offer in Vapor to other markets. So that's the reason why we are guiding the low end of the range.
I would say on the sensitivity side, the U.S. Vapor market is so huge, and the legality is still so big that any type of further crackdown, be from the federal level, from the state level, or the ITC that I just referred to in my opening, this could result in an upside. But it's too early days for us to call on that, hence the guidance that we are giving right now.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Damian Mcneela from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, morning everybody. Thanks for taking the question. First question is just back on the U.S. Vuse performance. Clearly, it's pleasing that we're back in volume and revenue growth.
I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more color on the sort of on a state-level performance and whether that performance is concentrated or the positive performance is concentrated on a small number of states, or whether you're seeing a more broad-based improvement for the brand across the U.S. Is the first question. And then the second one is just on, I think previously you've talked about sort of running pilots with Doral in deep discount. I was just wondering if you could provide an update on, A, how that's going, and B, whether there's plans to expand that pilot of Doral, please.
Okay, so Damian, look, on the Vuse U.S., we clearly see a better performance on the states that have implemented the directory. And as I said before, the levels of legislation vary by state.
There are some that are going deeper than others, and hence our level of performance also varies. But I would say overall, we have an upside around 7% that we are seeing around those states with a range of high and lower depending on which state and these particularities of the legislation. So what we expect in next year is that vaping in the U.S. will not be a drag anymore in our new category numbers. Now, from not being a drag to be an engine of growth depends on how much more we can see in terms of enforcement. And hence, I'm trying to be cautious here when I guide for 2026.
Doral, we are in two states with Doral, and we are being very thoughtful in how we roll out Doral across the states in the U.S. and being very thoughtful about the source of business in order to avoid any type of cannibalization with our own brands, which would be detrimental for the financial or the margins of the company. We expect to carry on rolling out Doral in some further states next year. And this will be a consequence of price increase eventually, and then if the case to launch Doral in a way that doesn't compromise our contribution margins are favorable. And then we carry on rolling out. So there are in the plans expectations that we can carry on rolling out Doral, but like I said, in a measured and thoughtful way.
Okay, very clear. Thank you, Tadeu.
Our next question is from Philip Spain from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I have two, please. The first one was just on the guide for 2026. Appreciate your comments on the profit while you're guiding towards the lower end, but just wanted you to provide a bit more color on why for the top line you're also expecting at the lower end, and also wondering how much of a benefit you expect the drawback in the U.S. to be for your top line next year as well, as in using that more next year. And then my second question is just on going back to the illicit vape crackdown in the U.S.
I just wondered in terms of what you're seeing in terms of consumers in states where the enforcement is occurring, what they're switching back to, and if they're mostly switching back into the legal vapor options, or if they're switching more into pouches or back into cigarettes as well. Just kind of interested to hear that shape. Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, the guidance on the top line of the guidance, like I mentioned to you before, we will be exiting some markets like Mozambique, and we have a desire to exit the Cuban market, like we have said before. And obviously, this doesn't trigger any type of organic adjustment. And we are also expecting Australia to carry on with this misguided policy towards the 100% illegality, if you want, of the use of nicotine. They are already 85%.
So these needs should be offset by, obviously, the momentum that we have in the U.S., by the new categories that we now expect to go back to double digits next year, as opposed to this year that has been mid-single digits, like I said before. And eventually, there will be a potential upside depending on the circumstances mainly on the illegal vapor market in the U.S. So that's basically what is triggering the guidance for 2026 on the top line. Obviously, the operating profit, like I said, will be impacted by our desire to keep investing for the long term of the business, not to make one year looking brilliantly. Obviously, I could have a much higher number in 2026, but this would be the wrong call for the business in the long term.
So now that we have very competitive products in every single category, like I said before. In terms of Vapor, the crackdown that we are seeing in some of the states, we are not seeing a return to cigarettes. What we are seeing is basically a return to legal vapor markets and also some of the pouches where the flavors are still there. Because one thing that we would like to see happen in the U.S. is not just about the crackdown on the illegality of the market, but reestablishing flavors in vapor back in the market. Because that's the root cause of why the traction of vapor illegal was there in the first place. The reason why this illegal vapor market in the U.S. went up so much is basically the absence of flavors in the legal market.
And eventually, the FDA could consider in the approval process to reestablish that at the back of an age-verified gate, for example, be in the device or be in the trade. So that's our hope that this could materialize. But as this is not there yet, what we'll be seeing is that probably some of these users of illegal vapor that don't find the product anymore are migrating more towards the pouch and some of them going to the legal vapor, like I said, but not in its totality. Okay.
Thank you very much. Can I just add one follow-up to that final point? In your conversations with the FDA, are they being more open towards introducing flavors in the legal vapor market again?
I think that they understand that the major root cause is this absence of the flavors.
But it's up to them and how they proceed on that. But I think that obviously we have some previous files of a device with technology that allows age verification, and that could be one route. But I don't have any further information on that. I know that they understand the problem.
Okay, thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Rey Wium from Anchor Stockbrokers. Please go ahead.
Good morning, all. Just a question around the rollout of glo Halo. You mentioned obviously full rollout in Japan in September and then October, November for Poland and Italy. I'm just curious, how long will this rollout take place? Will you be able to get a full-scale rollout, let's say, by the end of 2026, or are there any capacity constraints around the product availability?
Yeah, we expect to make big progress in 2026.
We are not seeing constraints in terms of product availability. Obviously, every time you get into a new market, it's very different from the pouches, where the payback is very fast. In HP, it takes longer. But like I said, we are entering a premium segment of HP, which means higher margins, which is positive for us. But we have to do it in a way that is also considered our resource allocation decisions in everything that we see out there in terms of the other categories and the other geographies as well. But definitely, we expect to make big progress in terms of rollout in 2026.
So is it safe to assume that THP will probably be the slowest growing unit of the three new categories?
Well, look, if you consider the glo Halo, we expect to carry on growing.
But overall, glo is not just about Halo, it's about Hyper. We know that it's very competitive in the APMEA, like I said. And hence, our objective for next year is to stop the share decline in the category and stabilize and start to come back to growth. That's what success looks like as a glo, as a family at the back of an increase in glo Halo moving forward.
Maybe just a quick follow-up. To talk about the combustibles business, you indicate an improvement into the second half. So is this just a marginal improvement on the first half? I mean, the first half revenue, I think in combustibles, was up 0.8%. So I just want to get sort of an idea of the improvement that you expect in the combustibles in the second half.
Yeah, you have to consider that the first half we were lapping a very easy comparator from the first half of 2024. But even that, we are still expecting an improvement in the second half compared with the first half. It would be a marginal improvement, but considering that the comparator is much harder in the second half of 2024, that is a very good momentum.
Okay, thank you so much.
Our next question is from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, there. Apologies if I missed this earlier, but I was just wondering if you could quantify the benefit that you've seen from the duty drawback.
Look, we are not quantifying the benefit. What I'm saying to you is that our performance will still be positive in terms of revenue of combustible, excluding the drawback.
Obviously, there is an element there that is helping with the results that we have achieved in H1. It will be the same for the full year. For next year, we expect to see some further creation coming from the drawback. But more importantly, that our underlying numbers will still be positive given the fact that we are growing value share in the U.S. market on the back of all the commercial activities that we have done.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you.
Our next question is from Bastien Agaud from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Bastien from Bank of America. Thank you for taking my question. I have one on Velo, Velo pricing. So in Europe, the product is priced at a premium over your main competitor, and I understand that you have not received PMTA yet for Velo in the U.S.
But going forward, if we should expect pricing for Velo in the U.S., in case you receive PMTA for the product, should we expect you to trade in line with your main competitor at a premium or continue to price the product at a slight discount compared to the competitors? Thank you.
Look, as you would expect, I cannot be making inference or discussions about future pricing. What I can say to you is that our Velo product can confirm that it's positioned at a premium price outside the U.S. The introduction of Velo Plus has been done with a discount, which is normal. Because when you introduce a product to get some traction in key accounts and with your consumers and the fact that we always knew that this would be a very competitive product, hence we need trial, we applied some discount to the price list.
And what happened is that we have been reducing this discount throughout this one year of Velo. But I cannot comment to you about future pricing strategy.
I understand. Thank you very much.
Thank you. There are no further questions on the call. And with that, I'd like to hand the call back over to Tadeu for his closing remarks.
So thank you for joining us today and for your questions. I'd like to leave you with this key message. First, our U.S. business has continued to deliver strong growth in the second half, and I'm encouraged by the sustained momentum resulting from the commercial actions we have taken combustibles. This reinforces my confidence for future delivery. Second, our new categories are gaining traction.
We expect full-year revenue growth to accelerate to mid-single digits, led by Velo Plus in the U.S. and supported by recent improvement in U.S. vapor alongside accelerated improvement in profitability. And third, I remain fully committed to achieving our 2x-2.5 x net debt leverage target for the full year 2026 while delivering sustainable shareholder value through our progressive dividend and a sustainable share buyback program with GBP 1.3 billion announced today for 2026. Finally, with this momentum, I am confident that we will sustainably return to our mid-term algorithm next year. Thank you again for joining us, and I look forward to updating you further at our full-year results on February 12th and at the CAGNY Conference the following week.