Amcor plc

Economic and Market Conditions

After experiencing more challenging market conditions in the first half of fiscal year 2024, with softer consumer and customer demand and increased destocking, particularly in the second quarter, customer volume trajectory sequentially improved in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 due to the abatement of destocking across many end markets and higher customer demand in parts of our business. While we continue to be impacted by softer consumer demand and customer order volatility in certain markets, and higher inflation in certain areas, such as labor costs, we have flexed our cost base to adjust to market conditions. Higher inflation, especially in Europe and the United States, has led central banks to rapidly raise interest rates to dampen inflation which has resulted in higher interest expense on our variable rate debt, particularly on U.S. dollar and Euro denominated debt in the first half of fiscal year 2024 compared to the same period in fiscal year 2023.

The underlying causes for the market volatility experienced in fiscal year 2024, particularly in the first half, can be attributed to a variety of factors, such as geopolitical tension and conflicts, higher inflation in many economies impacting consumption and consumer demand, and customer destocking following a period of supply chain constraints. In this context, we have remained focused on taking price and cost actions to offset inflation, aligning our cost base with market dynamics, and managing working capital. Sequentially improved volumes combined with the realization of benefits from structural cost initiatives and flexing our cost base has resulted in improved performance in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 versus the first half of fiscal year 2024, and we expect this improvement to continue in the last quarter of fiscal year 2024. However, there is no assurance that we will meet our performance expectations or that ongoing geopolitical tensions and other factors will not negatively impact our financial results.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict / 2023 Restructuring Plan

Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022 continues as of the date of the filing of this quarterly report. In advance of the invasion, we proactively suspended operations at our small manufacturing site in Ukraine. We also operated our Russian business until its sale on December 23, 2022, for net cash proceeds of $365 million. In addition, we repatriated approximately $65 million in cash held in Russia as part of the transaction. We recorded a pre-tax net gain on sale of $215 million. The carrying value of the Russian business had previously been impaired by $90 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2022.

On February 7, 2023, we announced that we expect to invest $110 million to $130 million of the sale proceeds from the Russian business in various cost savings initiatives to partly offset divested earnings from the Russian business (the "2023 Restructuring Plan" or the "Plan"). We expect total Plan cash and non-cash net expenses of approximately $230 million. Of the remaining cash received from the sale of the Russian business, we allocated $100 million to the repurchase of additional shares and the remainder was used to reduce debt.

As of March 31, 2024, we have initiated restructuring and related projects with an expected net cost of approximately $227 million, of which approximately $120 million is expected to result in net cash expenditures. From the initiation of the Plan until March 31, 2024, we have incurred $80 million in employee-related expenses, $36 million in fixed asset related expenses, $38 million in other restructuring, and $17 million in restructuring related expenses. The Plan has resulted in $70 million of cash outflows to date.

Management initiated other restructuring actions in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022 to help mitigate the impact of the Russian sale. Management expects to realize an annualized pre-tax benefit of approximately $50 million from structural cost reduction actions taken as a result of all Russia related restructuring by the end of fiscal year 2025.

For further information, refer to Note 5, "Restructuring," of Part I, "Item 1, Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements".

Highly Inflationary Accounting

We have subsidiaries in Argentina that historically had a functional currency of the Argentine Peso. As of June 30, 2018, the Argentine economy was designated as highly inflationary for accounting purposes. Accordingly, beginning July 1, 2018, we began reporting the financial results of our Argentine subsidiaries with a functional currency of the Argentine Peso at the functional currency of the parent, which is the U.S. dollar. Following the governmental election in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, Argentina devalued the Argentine Peso by approximately 55% against the U.S. dollar. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, the Argentine Peso stabilized against the U.S. dollar. The impact of highly inflationary accounting in the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 resulted in a negative impact on monetary assets of $4 million and $6 million, respectively, and $55 million and $19 million in the nine months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, in foreign currency transaction losses that were reflected in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of income. Our operations in Argentina represented approximately 2% of our consolidated net sales and annual adjusted earnings before interest and tax in fiscal years 2023 and 2022.