Pyxus International, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter Results, Completes Strong Fiscal Year 2024

— Full-year Revenue and Margin Gains on Favorable Mix and Cost Efficiencies for Global Footprint Utilization — 
— Full-year Operating Income Grows to $137.2 Million and Net Income of $2.7 Million — 
— Adjusted EBITDA Near Top of Guidance at $193.9 Million; Positive Annual Net Income — 
— Executed $88.2 Million of $122.5 Million Debt Repurchase to Date; Expects September Completion — 

MORRISVILLE, N.C., June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Pyxus International, Inc. (OTC:PYYX) (“Pyxus,” the “Company,” “we,” or “our”), a global value-added agricultural company, today announced results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

Pieter Sikkel, Pyxus’ President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We achieved strong fiscal year 2024 results through our continued identification and capture of opportunities for growth, acceleration of our operating cycle times, improved working capital efficiency and increased availability of our total liquidity. Our discipline is enabling a significant reduction of long-term debt that strengthens our capital structure and demonstrates our ability to achieve near-term operating and financial objectives while ensuring that the business remains positioned for long-term success.”

Full Year 2024 Results

The Company grew sales and other operating revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 by 6.1% to $2.0 billion compared to $1.9 billion for the prior fiscal year. This growth was largely driven by consistent execution and an increase in average pricing of 10.5%, partially offset by slightly lower volume of 4.4% compared to fiscal 2023.

Gross margin for fiscal 2024 improved to 15.4% from 13.6% for fiscal 2023. This improvement in gross profitability was driven by several factors, including leverage over fixed costs from more efficient global footprint utilization, an increase in full-service crop volumes in certain geographies, and a generally more favorable mix by customer and by region. Average gross profit per kilogram for fiscal 2024 increased by 27.9%, rising from $0.61 for fiscal 2023 to $0.78.

Operating income increased 46.3% to $137.2 million in fiscal 2024, compared to $93.8 million in fiscal 2023, a notable improvement that reflects both a more favorable mix of business as well as certain operating efficiencies. Net income rose to $2.7 million for fiscal 2024, an improvement of $41.8 million compared to a loss of $39.1 million in fiscal 2023. The Company grew Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2024 to $193.9 million, an increase of 22.1% compared to $158.8 million in fiscal 2023, significantly exceeding its initial guidance and achieving the high end of its most recent guidance. 

Sikkel continued, “Our disciplined execution and continued achievement of efficiency in our management of working capital enabled us to meaningfully improve both our operations and our balance sheet, including the elimination of significant long-term debt, which will yield permanent benefits to our results. Our key credit profile indicators, including a leverage ratio that now stands at 4.8 and an interest coverage ratio at 1.5, are strong and continue to improve. We intend to pursue negotiated reductions in our cost of borrowing and will continue to evaluate a range of financial market opportunities to further strengthen our capital structure.”

Debt Repurchase and Retirement Update

As previously announced, in March 2024, the Company repurchased $77.9 million aggregate principal amount of its 8.5% senior secured notes due 2027 (the “2027 notes”) for approximately $60.0 million in cash plus certain customary fees and expenses and accrued and unpaid interest. Subsequent to the close of the fiscal year, the Company had completed the repurchase of $10.3 million of its long-term debt for $9.1 million in cash plus certain customary fees and expenses and accrued and unpaid interest. It continues to expect to to repurchase, by the end of September 2024, $34.2 million aggregate principal amount of the 2027 Notes for $26.3 million in cash plus certain customary fees and expenses and accrued and unpaid interest. With that remaining transaction, the Company will have completed the full negotiated repurchase of $122.5 million of long-term debt for a total of $95.4 million plus customary fees and expenses, an average discount of 22.1% to par, by September. The debt subject to repurchase is comprised of $112.1 million of 8.5% senior secured notes due 2027 and $10.3 million of senior secured term loans. In addition, the Company will retire $20.4 million of 10.0% senior secured notes at maturity in August 2024. As a result of these repurchases and retirements, the Company will eliminate 24.6% of its total outstanding long-term debt. 

Fiscal 2025 Guidance

For the full year, Pyxus anticipates sales to range between $2.1 billion and $2.3 billion and adjusted EBITDA to range between $165 million and $185 million. The Company believes it is well positioned to successfully navigate an industry operating environment for fiscal 2025 that, due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, is generally expected to have a short-term negative impact on margins.  

Financial Results Investor Call

The Company will hold an earnings conference call and webcast on on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 9 a.m. ET. Investors and analysts interested in participating in the call are invited to dial (929) 477-0448 or (888) 256-1007 and use conference ID 8109873. The webcast can be accessed at http://investors.pyxus.com.

A presentation of fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 results will be available on the Company’s investor relations webpage prior to the call. For those unable to join the live audio webcast, the 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 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 “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, 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 the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas 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 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, and litigation concerning, 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 it 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, Adjusted 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 fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 is calculated in a manner consistent with the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA in the attached tables, with the addition that, if included in the determination of net income attributable to Pyxus International, Inc., the amount of any non-cash employee stock-based compensation will be added back. 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, 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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