General Mills Completes Sale of Canadian Yogurt Business and Updates Fiscal 2025 Outlook for Recent Portfolio Reshaping Activity
General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) today announced it has completed the sale of its Canadian Yogurt business to Sodiaal.
The divesture includes the Canadian operations of several yogurt brands including Yoplait and Liberté, as well as a manufacturing facility in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec.
The company continues to expect the sale of its U.S. Yogurt business to Lactalis will close in calendar 2025, subject to receipt of requisite regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
General Mills updated its full-year fiscal 2025 outlook¹ for adjusted diluted earnings per share ("EPS") growth to reflect the impact of the recent closures of the North American Whitebridge Pet Brands acquisition and the Canada Yogurt divestiture. The company now expects adjusted diluted EPS to range between down 4 percent and down 2 percent in constant currency, compared to the previous range of down 3 percent to down 1 percent in constant currency, reflecting the impact of increased interest expense related to debt issued to fund the North American Whitebridge Pet Brands acquisition.
The closures of these two transactions do not affect the company's outlook for fiscal 2025 organic net sales growth and did not have a material impact on the company's outlook for fiscal 2025 constant-currency adjusted operating profit growth and free cash flow conversion.
¹ Financial targets are provided on a non-GAAP basis because certain information necessary to calculate comparable GAAP measures is not available. Please see below for the discussion of the unavailable information.
About General Mills
General Mills makes food the world loves. The company is guided by its Accelerate strategy to boldly build its brands, relentlessly innovate, unleash its scale and stand for good. Its portfolio of beloved brands includes household names like Cheerios, Nature Valley, Blue Buffalo, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Totino's, Annie's, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. General Mills generated fiscal 2024 net sales of U.S. $20 billion. In addition, the company's share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1 billion. For more information, visit www.generalmills.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on our current expectations and assumptions. These forward-looking statements, including the statements regarding the proposed transactions and the timing and impact of such transactions, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. In particular, our predictions about future results could be affected by a variety of factors, including: disruptions or inefficiencies in the supply chain; competitive dynamics in the consumer foods industry and the markets for our products, including new product introductions, advertising activities, pricing actions, and promotional activities of our competitors; economic conditions, including changes in inflation rates, interest rates, tax rates, or the availability of capital; product development and innovation; consumer acceptance of new products and product improvements; consumer reaction to pricing actions and changes in promotion levels; acquisitions or dispositions of businesses or assets; changes in capital structure; changes in the legal and regulatory environment, including tax legislation, labeling and advertising regulations, and litigation; impairments in the carrying value of goodwill, other intangible assets, or other long-lived assets, or changes in the useful lives of other intangible assets; changes in accounting standards and the impact of critical accounting estimates; product quality and safety issues, including recalls and product liability; changes in consumer demand for our products; effectiveness of advertising, marketing, and promotional programs; changes in consumer behavior, trends, and preferences, including weight loss trends; consumer perception of health-related issues, including obesity; consolidation in the retail environment; changes in purchasing and inventory levels of significant customers; fluctuations in the cost and availability of supply chain resources, including raw materials, packaging, energy, and transportation; effectiveness of restructuring and cost saving initiatives; volatility in the market value of derivatives used to manage price risk for certain commodities; benefit plan expenses due to changes in plan asset values and discount rates used to determine plan liabilities; failure or breach of our information technology systems; foreign economic conditions, including currency rate fluctuations; and political unrest in foreign markets and economic uncertainty due to terrorism or war. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any future events or circumstances.
Reminder on Non-GAAP Guidance
Our fiscal 2025 outlook for organic net sales growth, adjusted operating profit growth, adjusted diluted EPS growth, and free cash flow conversion are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude, or have otherwise been adjusted for, items impacting comparability, including the effect of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, acquisitions, divestitures, and a 53rd week, when applicable. We are not able to reconcile these forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measure without unreasonable efforts because we are unable to predict with a reasonable degree of certainty the actual impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates and the timing of acquisitions and divestitures throughout fiscal 2025. The unavailable information could have a significant impact on our fiscal 2025 GAAP financial results.
For fiscal 2025, we currently expect: foreign currency exchange rates (based on a blend of forward and forecasted rates and hedge positions) and acquisitions and divestitures will have no material impact to net sales growth and restructuring charges to be immaterial.
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