PG Procter and Gamble Co

RISK FACTORS

We discuss our expectations regarding future performance, events and outcomes, such as our business outlook and objectives in our Form 10-K, quarterly and annual reports, press releases and other written and oral communications. All statements, except for historical and present factual information, are "forward-looking statements" and are based on financial data and business plans available only as of the time the statements are made, which may become outdated or incomplete. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or other factors. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and investors must recognize that events could significantly differ from our expectations.

The following discussion of "risk factors" identifies significant factors that may adversely affect our business, operations, financial position or future financial performance. This information should be read in conjunction with the MD&A and the Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes incorporated in this report. The following discussion of risks is not all inclusive, but is designed to highlight what we believe are important factors to consider when evaluating our expectations. These and other factors could cause our future results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements and from historical trends.

Our business is subject to numerous risks as a result of our having significant operations and sales in international markets, including foreign currency fluctuations, currency exchange or pricing controls and localized volatility.

We are a global company, with operations in approximately 70 countries and products sold in more than 180 countries and territories around the world. We hold assets, incur liabilities, earn revenues and pay expenses in a variety of currencies other than the U.S. dollar, and our operations outside the U.S. generate a significant portion of our net revenue. Fluctuations in exchange rates for foreign currencies may reduce the U.S. dollar value of revenues, profits and cash flows we receive from non-U.S. markets, increase our supply costs (as measured in U.S. dollars) in those markets, negatively impact our competitiveness in those markets or otherwise adversely impact our business results or financial condition. Moreover, discriminatory or conflicting fiscal or trade policies in different countries could adversely affect our results. See also the Results of Operations and Cash Flow, Financial Condition and Liquidity sections of the MD&A and Note 9 to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

 

We also have businesses and maintain local currency cash balances in a number of countries with exchange, import authorization, pricing or other controls or restrictions, including Nigeria and Ukraine. Our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely impacted if we are unable to successfully manage such controls and restrictions, continue existing business operations and repatriate earnings from overseas, or if new or increased tariffs, quotas, exchange or price controls, trade barriers or similar restrictions are imposed on our business.

Additionally, our business, operations or employees may be adversely affected by political volatility, labor market disruptions or other crises or vulnerabilities in individual countries or regions, including political instability or upheaval, broad economic instability or sovereign risk related to a default by or deterioration in the credit worthiness of local governments, particularly in emerging markets.

Uncertain global economic conditions may adversely impact demand for our products or cause our customers and other business partners to suffer financial hardship, which could adversely impact our business.

Our business could be negatively impacted by reduced demand for our products related to one or more significant local, regional or global economic disruptions, such as: a slow-down in the general economy; reduced market growth rates; tighter credit markets for our suppliers, vendors or customers; a significant shift in government policies; or the inability to conduct day-to-day transactions through our financial intermediaries to pay funds to or collect funds from our customers, vendors and suppliers. Additionally, economic conditions may cause our suppliers, distributors, contractors or other third party partners to suffer financial difficulties that they cannot overcome, resulting in their inability to provide us with the materials and services we need, in which case our business and results of operations could be adversely affected. Customers may also suffer financial hardships due to economic conditions such that their accounts become uncollectible or are subject to longer collection cycles. In addition, if we are unable to generate sufficient income and cash flow, it could affect the Company's ability to achieve expected share repurchase and dividend payments.

Disruptions in credit markets or changes to our credit ratings may reduce our access to credit.

A disruption in the credit markets or a downgrade of our current credit rating could increase our future borrowing costs and impair our ability to access capital and credit markets on terms commercially acceptable to us, which could adversely affect our liquidity and capital resources or significantly increase our cost of capital.

Disruption in our global supply chain may negatively impact our business results.

Our ability to meet our customers' needs and achieve cost targets depends on our ability to maintain key manufacturing and supply arrangements, including execution of supply chain optimizations and certain sole supplier or sole manufacturing plant arrangements. The loss or disruption of such manufacturing and supply arrangements, including for issues such as labor disputes, loss or impairment of key manufacturing sites, discontinuity in our internal information and data systems, inability to procure sufficient raw or input materials, significant changes in trade policy, natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism or other external factors over which we have no control, could interrupt product supply and, if not effectively managed and remedied, have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our businesses face cost fluctuations and pressures that could affect our business results.

Our costs are subject to fluctuations, particularly due to changes in the prices of commodities and raw materials and the costs of labor, transportation, energy, pension and healthcare. Therefore, our business results are dependent, in part, on our continued ability to manage these fluctuations through pricing actions, cost saving projects and sourcing decisions, while maintaining and improving margins and market share. Failure to manage these fluctuations could adversely impact our financial results.

 

 

Our ability to meet our growth targets depends on successful product, marketing and operations innovation and successful responses to competitive innovation and changing consumer habits .

We are a consumer products company that relies on continued global demand for our brands and products. Achieving our business results depends, in part, on successfully developing, introducing and marketing new products and on making significant improvements to our equipment and manufacturing processes. The success of such innovation depends on our ability to correctly anticipate customer and consumer acceptance and trends, to obtain, maintain and enforce necessary intellectual property protections and to avoid infringing upon the intellectual property rights of others. We must also successfully respond to technological advances made by, and intellectual property rights granted to, competitors. Failure to continually innovate, improve and respond to competitive moves and changing consumer habits could compromise our competitive position and adversely impact our results.

The ability to achieve our business objectives is dependent on how well we can compete with our local and global competitors in new and existing markets and channels.

The consumer products industry is highly competitive. Across all of our categories, we compete against a wide variety of global and local competitors. As a result, we experience ongoing competitive pressures in the environments in which we operate, as well as challenges in maintaining profit margins. To address these challenges, we must be able to successfully respond to competitive factors, including pricing, promotional incentives and trade terms. In addition, evolving sales channels and business models may affect customer and consumer preferences as well as market dynamics, which, for example, may be seen in the growing consumer preference for shopping online. Failure to successfully respond to competitive factors and effectively compete in growing sales channels and business models, particularly e-commerce, could negatively impact our results.

A significant change in customer relationships or in customer demand for our products could have a significant impact on our business.

We sell most of our products via retail customers, which include mass merchandisers, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, department stores, distributors, wholesalers, baby stores, specialty beauty stores, e-commerce, high-frequency stores and pharmacies. Our success is dependent on our ability to successfully manage relationships with our retail trade customers, which includes our ability to offer trade terms that are mutually acceptable and are aligned with our pricing and profitability targets. Continued concentration among our retail customers could create significant cost and margin pressure on our business, and our business performance could suffer if we cannot reach agreement with a key customer on trade terms and principles. Our business could also be negatively impacted if a key customer were to significantly reduce the inventory level of our products or experience a significant business disruption.

If the reputation of the Company or one or more of our brands erodes significantly, it could have a material impact on our financial results.

The Company's reputation, and the reputation of our brands, form the foundation of our relationships with key stakeholders and other constituencies, including consumers, customers and suppliers. The quality and safety of our products are critical to our business. Many of our brands have worldwide recognition and our financial success is directly dependent on the success of our brands. The success of our brands can suffer if our marketing plans or product initiatives do not have the desired impact on a brand's image or its ability to attract consumers. Our results could also be negatively impacted if one of our brands suffers substantial harm to its reputation due to a significant product recall, product-related litigation, changing consumer perceptions of certain ingredients, allegations of product tampering or the distribution and sale of counterfeit products. Additionally, negative or inaccurate postings or comments on social media or networking websites about the Company or one of its brands could generate adverse publicity that could damage the reputation of our brands or the Company. If we are unable to effectively manage real or perceived issues, including concerns about safety, quality, ingredients, efficacy or similar matters, sentiments toward the Company or our products could be negatively impacted and our financial results could suffer. Our Company also devotes significant time and resources to programs that are consistent with our corporate values and are designed to protect and preserve our reputation, such as social responsibility and environmental sustainability. If these programs are not executed as planned or suffer negative publicity, the Company's reputation and financial results could be adversely impacted.

 

We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, which creates additional risk.

Due to the scale and scope of our business, we must rely on relationships with third parties, including our suppliers, distributors, contractors, joint venture partners and external business partners, for certain functions. If we are unable to effectively manage our third party relationships and the agreements under which our third party partners operate, our financial results could suffer. Additionally, while we have policies and procedures for managing these relationships, they inherently involve a lesser degree of control over business operations, governance and compliance, thereby potentially increasing our financial, legal, reputational and operational risk.

An information security incident, including a cybersecurity breach, or the failure of one or more key information technology systems, networks, hardware, processes, and/or associated sites owned or operated by the Company or one of its service providers could have a material adverse impact on our business or reputation.

We rely extensively on information technology (IT) systems, networks and services, including internet and intranet sites, data hosting and processing facilities and tools, physical security systems and other hardware, software and technical applications and platforms, many of which are managed, hosted, provided and/or used by third parties or their vendors, to assist in conducting our business. The various uses of these IT systems, networks and services include, but are not limited to:

·	ordering and managing materials from suppliers;

·	converting materials to finished products;

·	shipping products to customers;

·	marketing and selling products to consumers;

·	collecting, transferring, storing and/or processing customer, consumer, employee, vendor, investor, and other stakeholder information and personal data;

·	summarizing and reporting results of operations, including financial reporting;

·	hosting, processing and sharing, as appropriate, confidential and proprietary research, business plans and financial information;

·	collaborating via an online and efficient means of global business communications;

·	complying with regulatory, legal and tax requirements;

·	providing data security; and

·	handling other processes necessary to manage our business.

Numerous and evolving information security threats, including advanced persistent cybersecurity threats, pose a risk to the security of our IT systems, networks and services, as well as to the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our data and of our critical business operations. As cybersecurity threats rapidly evolve in sophistication and become more prevalent across the industry globally, the Company is continually increasing its attention to these threats. We continue to assess potential threats and vulnerabilities and make investments seeking to address them, including monitoring of networks and systems, increasing information security skills, deploying employee security training, and updating security policies for the Company and its third-party providers. However, because the techniques used in cyber attacks change frequently and may be difficult to detect for periods of time, we may face difficulties in anticipating and implementing adequate preventative measures or mitigating harms after such an attack. Our IT databases and systems and our third-party providers' databases and systems have been, and will likely continue to be, subject to advanced computer viruses or other malicious codes, unauthorized access attempts, denial of service attacks, phishing and other cyber-attacks. To date, we have seen no material impact on our business or operations from these attacks; however, we cannot guarantee that our security efforts or the security efforts of our third-party providers will prevent breaches, operational incidents or other breakdowns to our or our third-party providers' databases or systems. If the IT systems, networks or service providers we rely upon fail to function properly or cause operational outages or aberrations, or if we or one of our third-party providers suffer a loss, significant unavailability of key operations or disclosure of our sensitive business or stakeholder information, due to any number of causes, ranging from catastrophic events or power outages to improper data handling or security incidents, and our business continuity plans do not effectively address these failures on a timely basis, we may be exposed to reputational, competitive, operational and business harm as well as litigation and regulatory action. The costs and operational consequences of responding to the above items and implementing remediation measures could be significant and could adversely impact our results.

 

Changing political conditions could adversely impact our business and financial results.

Changes in the political conditions in markets in which we manufacture, sell or distribute our products may be difficult to predict and may adversely affect our business and financial results. For example, the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union has created uncertainty regarding, among other things, the U.K.'s future legal and economic framework and how the U.K. will interact with other countries, including with respect to the free movement of goods, services and people. In addition, results of elections, referendums or other political processes in certain markets in which our products are manufactured, sold or distributed could create uncertainty regarding how existing governmental policies, laws and regulations may change, including with respect to sanctions, taxes, the movement of goods, services and people between countries and other matters. The potential implications of such uncertainty, which include, among others, exchange rate fluctuations and market contraction, could adversely affect the Company's business and financial results.

We must successfully manage compliance with laws and regulations, as well as manage new and pending legal and regulatory matters in the U.S. and abroad.

Our business is subject to a wide variety of laws and regulations across all of the countries in which we do business, including those laws and regulations involving intellectual property, product liability, marketing, antitrust, privacy, environmental, employment, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, tax, accounting and financial reporting or other matters. Rapidly changing laws, regulations and related interpretations, as well as increased enforcement actions, create challenges for the Company, including our compliance and ethics programs, and may alter the environment in which we do business, which could adversely impact our financial results. If we are unable to continue to meet these challenges and comply with all laws, regulations and related interpretations, it could negatively impact our reputation and our business results. Failure to successfully manage regulatory and legal matters and resolve such matters without significant liability or damage to our reputation may materially adversely impact our results of operations and financial position. Furthermore, if pending legal or regulatory matters result in fines or costs in excess of the amounts accrued to date, that may also materially impact our results of operations and financial position.

Changes in applicable tax regulations and resolutions of tax disputes could negatively affect our financial results.

The Company is subject to taxation in the U.S. and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Because the U.S. maintains a worldwide corporate tax system, the foreign and U.S. tax systems are somewhat interdependent. For example, certain income that is earned and taxed in countries outside the U.S. is not taxed in the U.S., provided those earnings are indefinitely reinvested outside the U.S. If those same foreign earnings are instead repatriated to the U.S., additional residual U.S. taxation will likely occur, due to the U.S.'s worldwide tax system and higher U.S. corporate tax rate. The U.S. is considering corporate tax reform that may significantly change the corporate tax rate and the U.S. international tax rules. Additionally, longstanding international tax norms that determine each country's jurisdiction to tax cross-border international trade are evolving as a result of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting reporting requirements ("BEPS") recommended by the G8, G20 and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ("OECD"). As these and other tax laws and related regulations change, our financial results could be materially impacted. Given the unpredictability of these possible changes and their potential interdependency, it is very difficult to assess whether the overall effect of such potential tax changes would be cumulatively positive or negative for our earnings and cash flow, but such changes could adversely impact our financial results. Furthermore, we are subject to regular review and audit by both foreign and domestic tax authorities. While we believe our tax positions will be sustained, the final outcome of tax audits and related litigation, including maintaining our intended tax treatment of divestiture transactions such as the fiscal 2017 Beauty Brands transaction with Coty, may differ materially from the tax amounts recorded in our Consolidated Financial Statements, which could adversely impact our cash flows and financial results.

 

We must successfully manage ongoing acquisition, joint venture and divestiture activities.

As a company that manages a portfolio of consumer brands, our ongoing business model includes a certain level of acquisition, joint venture and divestiture activities. We must be able to successfully manage the impacts of these activities, while at the same time delivering against our business objectives. Specifically, our financial results could be adversely impacted by the dilutive impacts from the loss of earnings associated with divested brands. Our financial results could also be impacted in the event of acquisitions or joint venture activities if: 1) changes in the cash flows or other market-based assumptions cause the value of acquired assets to fall below book value, or 2) we are not able to deliver the expected cost and growth synergies associated with such acquisitions and joint ventures, which could also have an impact on goodwill and intangible assets.

Our business results depend on our ability to successfully manage productivity improvements and ongoing organizational change.

Our financial projections assume certain ongoing productivity improvements and cost savings, including staffing adjustments as well as employee departures. Failure to deliver these planned productivity improvements and cost savings, while continuing to invest in business growth, could adversely impact our financial results. Additionally, successfully executing management transitions at leadership levels of the Company and retention of key employees is critical to our business success. We are generally a build-from-within company and our success is dependent on identifying, developing and retaining key employees to provide uninterrupted leadership and direction for our business. This includes developing and retaining organizational capabilities in key growth markets where the depth of skilled or experienced employees may be limited and competition for these resources is intense, as well as continuing the development and execution of robust leadership succession plans.