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Good day, welcome to the Altria Group 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Today's virtual meeting is scheduled to last less than one hour. In the unlikely event we experience technical issues today, we ask that you stand by while we try to resolve the issue and resume the meeting or otherwise provide an update on the status of the meeting. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Kathryn McQuade, Chair of Altria's Board. Go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I call to order Altria's 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I am Kathryn McQuade, Chair of Altria's Board. With me today are Billy Gifford, Altria's CEO, and Brandt Surgner, Altria's Corporate Secretary. Thank you for joining us virtually once again this year. Let's start the meeting agenda and rules of conduct, which are located at the bottom right of the virtual meeting site. The rules of conduct explain how we will conduct the meeting, including our question and answer session. We will begin by presenting our meeting documents, move to electing directors, and then vote to ratify the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Altria's independent registered public accounting firm. Next, we will move to the advisory vote on the compensation of Altria's named executive officers and the frequency of future advisory votes on named executive officer compensation.
Finally, we will proceed to the vote on two shareholder proposals if properly presented. After the shareholder proposals, we will close the polls and Brandt will announce the preliminary voting results. Billy will share brief remarks and then answer your questions. Only shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 27th, 2023 are entitled to vote during the meeting. Shareholders may vote through the virtual meeting site until the polls are closed. You will need a valid 16-digit control number to vote. If you voted before the meeting, there is no need to vote unless you wish to change your vote. If you are voting at the meeting, we suggest you vote on each matter as it is presented. The window for shareholders to submit questions will remain open throughout the meeting.
Again, I direct the shareholders to our rules of conduct for instructions on how to submit questions and for any additional information about the question and answer session. You must have a valid 16-digit control number to submit a question. Only questions relating to the meeting will be answered during the question and answer portion, subject to the 30-minute time limit prescribed in the rules of conduct. With that, Brandt, please present our meeting documents.
Thanks, Kathryn. I present, together with the affidavits of mailing, a copy of the notice of meeting, form of proxy statement as supplemented, and annual report, which includes Altria's financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2022. 81.38% of Altria's common stock is represented here today. A quorum is present.
Thank you, Brandt. Please file the documents with our meeting records. Altria has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as the Inspector of Election. Mr. Jim Alden has taken the oath of Inspector of Election and will be tabulating the votes for this morning meeting. The Inspector's responsibility is to determine the number of shares represented at the meeting and to certify the votes. All proxies are confidential unless shareholders have commented on them. Let's turn to the election of directors. Before doing so, we would like to honor the memory of Leo Kiely, a long-standing member of our board who passed away earlier this year. Leo served on our board since 2011 and made many contributions to Altria, including as Chair of the Compensation and Talent Development Committee. We miss his leadership, guidance, and friendship.
Please welcome our board of directors, all of whom are in attendance today. It is an extraordinary and committed group that provides strong leadership and thoughtful oversight to Altria. We value the skills, experiences, and perspectives they bring to the boardroom. Brandt, please announce the names of the nominees for director.
The nominees are Ian L.T. Clarke, Marjorie M. Connelly, R. Matt Davis, Billy Gifford, Jacinto Hernandez, Debra J. Kelly-Ennis, Kathryn B. McQuade, George Muñoz, Nabil Y. Sakkab, Virginia E. Shanks, Ellen R. Strahlman, and M. Max Yzaguirre. Each to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders and until his or her successor has been duly elected and qualified.
Thank you. Under our bylaws, the nominations are closed. Our board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of each nominee for director. We will pause momentarily to allow votes to be cast. Our next item is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Altria's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023. We welcome Kevin Kelly from PwC, who has also joined us today. Brandt, please present the matter.
I move the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, that shareholders of Altria Group, Inc. ratify the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Altria's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2023.
Thank you. Our board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this matter. We will pause momentarily to allow votes to be cast. Let's now move to the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. While this vote is non-binding, the Compensation and Talent Development Committee will consider its outcome when making future decisions. Our board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this proposal. Brandt, please present the matter.
I move the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, that shareholders of Altria Group, Inc. approve on an advisory basis the compensation of Altria's named executive officers as described in the compensation discussion and analysis section of the proxy statement.
Thank you. Our Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this matter. We will pause momentarily to allow votes to be cast. The next item on our agenda is the advisory vote on the frequency of future advisory votes to approve Named Executive Officers' compensation. While this vote is non-binding, the Board will consider the outcome when determining the frequency of future advisory votes. Brandt, please present the matter.
I move the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, that an advisory vote of the shareholders of Altria Group, Inc. to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers shall be held at an annual meeting of shareholders every year, every two years, or every three years.
Thank you. The board recommendation is a vote for one year on this proposal. We will pause momentarily to allow votes to be cast. We will now turn to the two shareholder proposals and, if properly presented, vote on them. The board recommends a vote against both proposals for the reasons explained in the proxy statement. Operator, please open the line for Ms. Cathy Rowan, who will be presenting the shareholder proposal on behalf of Trinity Health regarding a report on the congruence of political and lobbying expenditures with the company's values and policies. Welcome to the meeting, Ms. Rowan. Please proceed with your proposal.
Thank you. Good morning. I'm Cathy Rowan, and on behalf of Trinity Health and the co-filers CommonSpirit Health and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province, I ask for your vote in favor of Proposal five, which asks Altria to analyze and report on the congruence of its political and lobbying expenditures during the preceding year against its publicly stated company values and policies, list and explain instances of incongruent expenditures, and state whether the identified incongruencies have or will lead to a change in future expenditures or contributions. Corporate political spending and lobbying are key issues for investors as they manage governance, social, and environmental risks in their portfolios. More investors are seeking transparency and disclosure of companies' efforts to review and analyze their political and lobbying expenditures in order to ensure they are aligned with corporate responsibility strategies and commitments.
We recognize that Altria's disclosure on political and lobbying expenditures has improved over the years and that Altria has added two more additional disclosures this year in its lobbying and political activity transparency report. We don't believe these steps meet the standards of what we hope to achieve in our proposal. The Responsible Lobbying Framework looks for companies to have processes to review and proactively manage relationships with third-party organizations, including clear steps to be taken in cases of misalignment of positions. It also recommends conducting periodic audits of all public disclosures to ensure accuracy and completeness, audits of all lobbying activities within the organization to ensure alignment and of controls over third-party membership organizations. The Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce of the University of Michigan's Erb Institute developed a nonpartisan template to help companies determine whether and how to engage in civic and political affairs responsibly.
One of their recommendations is that companies commit to take meaningful and proactive steps to address any misalignment in their political activities and provide mechanisms for hearing stakeholder concerns. Unlike what Altria writes in its statement of opposition, our proposal does not seek an endless examination of every position taken by the trade associations of which Altria is a member. We ask for a focus on the company's priority issues to review alignment, explain instances of incongruent political or lobbying expenditures or activities, and report whether any identified incongruencies have or will lead to a change in future expenditures or contributions. This is meant to ensure that the politicians and trade associations Altria supports are not working at cross-purposes with the company's stated values and strategic goals. Altria is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit that works with state lawmakers and companies to promote model laws.
Last year, the council proposed model laws barring public pensions from considering environmental, social, and governance investment criteria. This would create massive legal risks for any pension fiduciary. We believe the council's model bills are misaligned with Altria's own practice of having a sustainability strategy. We believe that implementing the proposal will help to mitigate risks that the company's assets would be used to promote public policy objectives that might not be reflective of investor interests or be at odds with other corporate values or jeopardize Altria's reputation to the detriment of shareholder value. Therefore, we urge you to support proposal five. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Rowan. We will pause momentarily to allow votes to be cast. Operator, please open the line for Mr. Tom McHaney, who will be presenting the shareholder proposal on behalf of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia to commission a civil rights equity audit. Welcome to the meeting, Mr. McHaney. Please proceed with your proposal.
Thank you. Good morning, Ms. McQuade, members of the board, Altria representatives, and shareholders. My name is Tom McHaney, and I submit proposal number six requesting the board commission a third-party civil rights audit on behalf of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and six co-filers, all members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. This proposal asks that the civil rights audit reviews the impacts of the company's policies, practices, and products on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, as well as the impacts on youth. Input from civil rights organizations, employees, customers, and communities in which Altria operates is imperative to fully understanding these impacts. Through good faith dialogues with Altria representatives, we learned that the company intends to conduct an internal assessment in response to our shareholder proposal, thus acknowledging their concerns of the company's behavior.
What the proposal requests and what is needed is an independent third-party audit. How will this advisory board evaluate what questions were not asked, what gaps were left unanswered? The advisory review board can only evaluate what is placed in front of them. How can Altria, in its opposition statement to this proposal, call it unnecessary? We all know the tobacco industry's long and sordid history of exploitation of African Americans and other communities of color and teenagers. A company asked to evaluate its own weaknesses, shortcomings, and misdeeds is a futile exercise and will result in a report focused more on its virtues than its failings. An honest review requires an independent audit. Thank you, and we ask for your vote for proposal number six.
Thank you. All matters to be voted on have now been presented. If you wish to vote, please do so at this time. We will pause momentarily to allow final votes to be cast. Since all shareholders have had the opportunity to vote, the polls are now closed. We now move to the preliminary voting results. Brandt, please summarize the inspector's report.
The Inspector of Election has completed the preliminary count of the vote. The preliminary voting results are as follows. Shareholders have elected each of the nominees for director, with more than 95.99% of the shares voting for their election
The selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Altria's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31st, 2023, has been ratified with more than 96.84% of the shares voting in favor. Shareholders have approved on an advisory basis the compensation of Altria's named executive officers with more than 94.09% of the shares voting in favor. Shareholders have voted on an advisory basis that future advisory votes on the compensation of the company's named executive officers should be considered annually. Of the shares voting, 97.80% voted for an annual frequency, 0.44% voted for a two-year frequency, and 1.75% voted for a three-year frequency.
Proposal five has been defeated with 89.11% of shares voting on the proposal voting against and 10.88% voting in favor. Proposal six has been defeated with 69.23% of shares voting on the proposal voting against and 30.76 voting in favor. That concludes the report.
Thank you, Brandt. Please file the report and the proxies with our meeting records. We will post the final voting results on Altria's website and file them with the SEC on a Form 8-K in the next few days. This concludes the business portion of the meeting. That portion of the meeting is now adjourned. With that, I will now turn the meeting over to Billy for his brief remarks, followed by the question and answer session. Billy?
Thanks, Kathryn, and good morning, everyone. I hope you've had the chance to review the business, financial, and corporate responsibility resources that we provided on altria.com, including our 2023 Investor Day presentation, full year 2022 and first quarter 2023 business results, and our latest corporate responsibility reports and snapshots. These materials demonstrate our continued progress towards our vision of responsibly leading the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future. We believe that by meeting the opportunity to advance tobacco harm reduction, we will both align with societal demands of our business and create substantial shareholder value. Thank you, and let's proceed to our question and answer session. Mac Livingston, our Vice President of Investor Relations, will present questions you have submitted through the meeting site. Let's begin.
Thanks, Billy. As we describe in our rules of conduct, we will take questions in the order in which they are received, subject to the 30-minute time limit. To permit as many questions as possible, we may group questions submitted by multiple shareholders on the same topic. The rules of conduct explain how we will handle questions if we run out of time. Your first question comes from Anne Gherkin. Considering the 11% cigarette shipment decline in Q1 and that domestic smokers are at an historic low level, may we please get an update on the current outlook for the domestic cigarette category, current challenges faced by consumers, and down trading trends? Given the recent revision to the national price elasticity to -0.35%, is that conservative enough? Can pricing still be an effective source to drive revenues for the cigarette segment going forward?
Is there any update on the ABI stake following the continued evaluation discussed at Investor Day? Thank you.
Thanks, Anne, for joining the meeting. I appreciate the question. I think when you're thinking about the domestic cigarette industry volume for the category, I think that you see in our quarterly releases, we actually have a decomposition on a 12-month moving basis of what's taking place and a diagnostic of what we believe is happening in the cigarette industry. If you look at the first quarter of 2023, you'll see the normal secular decline, you'll see price elasticity, and you'll see the major factor that we believe was affecting industry volume in the first quarter was macroeconomic. That leads into the second part about challenges faced by our consumers. As you're well aware, our consumer tends to be at the lower end of the socioeconomic status.
The cumulative impact of high inflation, not just one quarter in particular, but the cumulative impact has certainly had an impact on their disposable income, and so they're certainly under economic pressure. As far as price elasticity, we did make a small tweak when we presented at Investor Day from -0.30 to -0.35. It was a small change. I think when you think about pricing overall, two ways that we look at it is if you benchmark the US, and you can either use minutes worked to buy a pack of cigarettes or you can use percent of discretionary income, you'll see that the US is still at the very low end when benchmark to countries around the world that have a mature cigarette industry similar to the US.
As far as the ABI stake, nothing new to report there. You're correct. We do have a regular analysis of the ABI stake. Our goal there is to maximize the return to shareholders over the long term. That's what we're looking to do. Thanks again for your question.
Your next question comes from Jonathan Chaffee. Studies have proven that menthol smokers have a harder time becoming successful in quitting. With local and state governments proposing bans on menthol in cigarettes and flavors in other products, does Altria see this as an opportunity to support these policies, to help switch consumers of smokeless products which Altria is moving beyond smoking and help our goal of building our smokeless product line?
Thanks for joining the meeting. As far as a menthol ban, we believe banning the use of menthol in cigarettes is not supported by the weight of the scientific evidence. However, we do share the common goal with the FDA and other legislative bodies to move adult smokers from cigarettes to potentially less harmful alternatives. Prohibition doesn't work. We believe policymakers should support harm reduction. With that's an approach that focuses on preventing youth usage of any tobacco or nicotine products. At the same time providing adult smokers with the support, information, and then the choice to either quit or move to smokeless products. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from Eric Pearson. You've talked about the opportunity with NJOY ACE, given its currently limited distribution. Once your transaction closes, are you envisioning immediately rolling out ACE to all retailers served by AGDC? Should we expect a more measured rollout of ACE? Are there any manufacturing capacity constraints with the suppliers for NJOY?
Thanks for the question on NJOY. We are extremely excited about the announced acquisition of NJOY. Our focus right now is achieving clearance by the Federal Trade Commission. As far as the details of the business plan, we certainly have a business plan in place. I won't share the details of that due to competitive reasons. Referring to your questions about manufacturing capacity or supply constraints, it's part of our due diligence. We didn't see any of that that would concern us. We're excited to get clearance by the Federal Trade Commission and be able to bring the strengths that we have to bear on NJOY that they couldn't do alone, and actually expand distribution and be able to bring more competitiveness to the e-vapor category.
Your next question comes from Edward Sweda. Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $37 million to a woman suffering from cancer caused by smoking our company's cigarettes. That case was brought by lawyers from the Public Health Advocacy Institute, where I work. The court faulted Philip Morris USA for falsely representing that light cigarettes, quote, "delivered lower tar and nicotine and were a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes." After a disastrous December 2018 decision to buy a 35% share of Juul Labs for $12.8 billion, this company's management has cost shareholders dearly and continued its long history of ignoring the advice of shareholders who are concerned with business, public health, and litigation. What steps will Altria Group's management take to factor into its decision-making process the views of shareholders it has historically dismissed?
Mr. Sweda, thank you for joining the meeting. We regularly meet with shareholders, most recently our Investor Day, where we laid forth the strategy, our goals framework, and how we would measure ourselves and interact with our shareholders on a regular basis to show progress against our mission statement. It certainly is a dynamic time in the industry because it's evolving rapidly, and we're evolving as well because we wanna continue to satisfy our consumers. As you are well aware, we employ a portfolio strategy, and we're trying to position ourselves to win in every category to be there for our consumers as they make different choices.
Your next question comes from Trishelle Goodwin. On your website, it states you have the duty and the opportunity to shape a better future for adult tobacco consumers. My question is, how can you ensure this better future when you continue to broaden the variety of products that will cause people harm?
I think in response to that, you see our mission, which is to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future. I think it's widely published in public health that there's a risk cliff that occurs between combusted nicotine products and smoke-free products. We're in the process of bringing those products before the FDA to receive authorization, and that's an independent body that evaluates the science and evidence and makes a determination whether they're appropriate for the protection of public health. As our mission states, we're committed to transitioning adult smokers to a smoke-free future.
Your next question comes from Steven Stokes. The Carpenter Funds support the company executive compensation plan. Our question relates to the US Securities and Exchange Commission new disclosure provisions requiring the disclosure of compensation actually paid to senior executives, as well as pay versus performance tables. Has the preparation of these disclosures prompted any Compensation Committee reconsideration of its practices concerning the mix of equity compensation provided, the financial and qualitative metrics used, or Named Executive Officer target compensation levels? Thank you.
Yeah, I think compensation is an important topic, not just at Altria, but companies across the country. It's laid out in the proxy, but let me briefly recap how we approach it and how our Comp and Talent Development Committee approaches it. Really, as a guiding principle all along, regardless of the new SEC disclosures, it's about alignment with shareholders. We wanna make sure our NEOs are paid for performance, so we align our incentive comp with performance of the overall company, which means executives do better when shareholders do better. It's based on specific financial measures, and all of these decisions related to those executives that you've mentioned are made by independent directors on Altria's Compensation Committee. We lay out in great detail the committee's rationale in the proxy statement for determining executive pay.
I would encourage you to look there for additional questions.
Your next question comes from Peyton Taylor. In April of 2022, the FDA proposed a menthol ban. Given the high number of menthol products we sell, how do we plan on maintaining sales without menthol?
I think when you think about menthol banning, you heard me earlier, but I think it's worth repeating. We believe that banning the use of menthol cigarettes is not supported, by the way, to scientific evidence. We believe policymakers should really support harm reduction, as I mentioned earlier, that approach focuses on preventing underage use, but providing adult smokers with the support information and the choice to either quit or move to smokeless products. We disagree with it. We detailed that with our submissions to the FDA. I would encourage you to look online where we have those submissions publicly available for an in-depth review of our positions and our papers which we file with the FDA.
Your next question comes from Jim Merrick. What can shareholders expect for future dividend increases?
Thanks very much for the question on dividends. You saw as part of our goals framework that we established at Investor Day, we laid out for our dividend goal. Of course, it's always at the discretion of the board, but to implement what we called a progressive dividend policy, in which we would have a goal in mind of increasing dividends in the mid-single digits on an annual basis. Again, it's always at the discretion of the board, but that's what you can expect as our goal in mind as we think about dividends and the recommendations we make to the board.
Your next question comes from Zoe Pippin. According to Altria's website, less than 1 in 50 middle and high school students smoke cigarettes. However, most youth have moved beyond smoking to e-cigarettes and vapes. Currently, more than 1 in 10 students are vaping. What is Altria doing to lower the youth vaping rates to the same level as cigarette smoking rates?
Yeah, let me be clear on our position is we believe no youth should use any form of tobacco or nicotine products. Specific to your question, some of the steps we've taken to reduce underage use of cigarettes and also e-vapor is we advocated for the minimum age, the legal age to purchase at retail to be 21 plus. We felt like that was important because it shut off social access where an individual that was of legal age would buy for other individuals and give them those products. We lobbied for that. That is now federal law and has been enacted in 43 states. We also committed an additional $100 million to help address underage access to e-vapor products.
You can see with the results that have been experienced in cigarettes, these approaches have been very instrumental in reducing underage use. The final thing I would mention is we've invested in age and identity verification technology at retail, and that's been widely deployed across the U.S. and that requires a form of ID to interact with that purchase. There's always still more to be done, and we're committed to continuing to reduce underage use of all products.
Your next question comes from Michelle Jimenez. 2.5 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes and 85% use flavored products. According to your Twitter post recently, you state you strongly supported legislation to raise the minimum age of purchase for all tobacco products to 21 nationwide. Would you also support a ban on flavors because eight out of 10 youth start their addiction with flavored products?
Again, let me state our position is kids should not use tobacco products or nicotine products, flavored or not. We do believe the most effective way to prevent youth access was what you mentioned, which was the lobbying and support for the passage of moving the legal age to purchase to 21, which is both law at the federal level and as I mentioned earlier, enacted at 43 states. However, flavors do play a role in helping adults convert from combustible to smoke-free products. I think that's something that's in front of the FDA. They agree with that position that flavors do play a role. We believe that smoke-free products should provide an off-ramp for adult consumers, but should never provide an on-ramp for underage use.
Your next question comes from Abigail Leone. Referring to your website, you've been working with Keep America Beautiful in support of their litter prevention programs for 20 years. Cigarette butts are still the most littered item in the world, and 600 million trees are cut down every year to produce cigarettes. What are you going to do to make a substantial difference in the amount of environmental harm your products cause?
Yeah. Thank you. You raise an important topic on environmental goals, and you'll see the environmental goals that we have established on our website. I'm happy that you looked at the website to arrive at your question. You'll see our environmental goals are out there and established, and we'll continue to partner with Keep America Beautiful to find solutions to litter.
Your next question is actually a statement from Jane Garcia. Good morning, Mrs. Chair, board members, and fellow shareholders. I am Jane C. Garcia from Detroit, Michigan. I would like to applaud Altria for their commitment to equity and diversity throughout the organization. This should be a benchmark within the industry, a true top-down commitment. A prime example is former Secretary George Muñoz, who has devoted his life to bettering so many communities. Thank you for your commitment to youth programs in Virginia. I hope that these programs will be expanded throughout the country.
Thank you for your comments.
Your next question comes from Devin Lasari. Could management further rationalize the new progressive dividend policy with context on why the previous long-standing policy was insufficient, and why buybacks aren't a preferred route of returning capital to shareholders?
Now I'll answer the dividend question first. We felt like the goals framework that we laid out established better certainty for the shareholder, as we're making the transition from combustible products in pursuit of our mission to smoke-free products, and it gave more certainty and assurance around the dividend. As far as share buybacks, we're currently active in a program as we disclosed in our first quarter. We go through a capital allocation process. We think about how to distribute capital to our shareholders and reinvest in the business. We share that on a regular quarterly basis, updates against that capital allocation and decisions that have been made, and that's how we approach our capital allocation decisions.
Your next question comes from Samantha Ly. Executive findings of a survey posted on your website claim that 73% of adults believe tobacco should remain legal for proper regulation. On the other hand, an independent poll in the state of Hawaii indicated that 59% of voters favored ending the sale of all tobacco products. How do you explain this discrepancy in data considering the fact that you spend thousands of dollars lobbying against tobacco regulations?
Yeah, we stand by the study. It was an independent study where we actually did a survey of society at large and tried to get a representative sample across the U.S. I can't speak to the specifics of the other study you mentioned, but we disclosed how we approached the survey and the results of the survey on our website.
Your last question comes from Philip Johnson. It appears smoke-free products are more accepted in many European countries versus the US. Why is this? Is there an opportunity for expected growth in the US?
As far as smoke-free products, I can't speak specifically to the occurrence in Europe, but I think you see it starting to take root across the world, including in the US. You see the growth that we've experienced over the past, call it, five years in e-vapor. You see the emergence of nicotine pouch products that are emerging. As far as heat-not-burn, that's nonexistent in the current US marketplace. I think when you think about the process that manufacturers have to go through to establish these products and keep them in the marketplace is through FDA regulation and ultimately authorization.
We are encouraged that the Reagan-Udall Foundation studied some input to the FDA as far as effectiveness and efficiency in their authorization process, and we look for that to improve through time, the efficiency of those authorizations. I would expect that you would continue to see smoke-free products grow in the U.S. This concludes the question and answer session. Thank you all for your questions and for your continued interest in Altria. The meeting is now adjourned.