Pyxus International (NYSE: PYX) reported Q3 EPS of ($0.56), versus $9.80 reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $524.5 million, versus $477.78 million reported last year.

Pieter Sikkel, President, CEO and Chairman said, "It has been one year since we announced our 'One Tomorrow' transformation plan, in which we revealed our pursuit of future growth opportunities and commitment to reshape our brand as the trusted provider of responsibly produced, independently verified, sustainable, and traceable agricultural products and services. Since that time, we have made tremendous progress developing higher margin, fast-growing categories and building upon the strength of our leaf operations, all while maintaining our commitment to delivering the high-quality products and services our customers expect from us.

"In line with strategic initiatives to enhance the leaf business, the cultural and operational changes we are implementing in our leaf business are having a positive impact. Despite challenges impacting the North America market, including Hurricane Florence and foreign tariffs on U.S. tobacco, our leaf business's third quarter was one of the strongest we have had in four fiscal years, with sales and other operating revenues increasing 9.8% to $524.5 million from the same period last year.

"This quarter's performance was also impacted by restructuring and asset impairment charges of $1.7 million, primarily related to the consolidation of our U.S. green tobacco processing operations that should result in $4.5 million to $6.5 million of annual cost improvement going forward. Our SG&A costs increased $7.4 million, or 21.6% to $41.7 million for the three months ended December 31, 2018, which reflects the investment we are putting into our new business lines, with $9.6 million of those costs associated with the build-up of our new business ventures related to branding, marketing, advertising and new personnel.

"We are confident that we will see continued momentum as we move into the fourth quarter. We remain focused on long-term debt reduction and have now purchased approximately $100 million of our most expensive debt since we began our debt buy-back program. Based on the current outlook for the remainder of fiscal year 2019, the company now expects revenue to be in a range of approximately $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion with Adjusted EBITDA in a range of approximately $150.0 million to $160.0 million. This guidanceincludes the $7.6 million impact of Hurricane Florence, foreign tariffs of $4.5 million for U.S. tobacco, increased export tax of $2.5 million in Argentina and SG&A costs of $36.1 million associated with our new start-up business lines."

GUIDANCE:

Pyxus International sees FY2019 revenue of $1.8-1.9 billion.

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