Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Zumtobel Group's Conference Call on the results for the first half and the second quarter of our 2023/2024 financial year. With me on the call are Alfred Felder, our CEO, and Thomas Erath, our CFO. Alfred will walk you through the highlights of the quarter, while Thomas will discuss the financial performance. After the presentation, both gentlemen will be available to answer your questions. In case you have not a copy of the report and the presentation, you may find both documents for download on our webpage. After the call, a playback of this conference call will be available on our webpage as well. With this, I hand over to Alfred. Yeah. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, also from my end, Alfred Felder here. Thank you again for your interest and, and the participation in today's call. As usual, I would like to show you a couple of highlights for the last quarter, illustrating that despite the difficult market environment, we are continuously driving our strategic technologies forward, and that's illustrated in a couple of examples. One is that we meanwhile are also making inroads into stadium illumination in China. We did the Chongqing stadium with almost 400 high-power units of our floodlights with models up to 1,500 Watt year, really meeting the key requirements for FIFA lighting standards. Another one, what goes into the section of refurbishment is the New York Times office, a fantastic, prestigious project, what we did already back some 20 years ago with T5 fluorescent, and we replaced 15,000 units with refurbishment kits, without basically taking out the luminaires. B asically, it's a preservation of 85% of the original luminaire, and it's a 50% reduction of energy consumption, what we did and completed in the last quarter. On the bottom left, you see a prototype project with SPAR. As you know, SPAR is one of our major customers, and we did a complete refurbishment of a shop in Lustenau, here in our headquarters, where we basically took back our TECTON refurbished parts of it and basically reused it, gave it a second life. That is basically one prototype example, how we could reuse our TECTON luminaires. It's in total 500 luminaires, what we replaced without basically throwing them into the garbage bin. A very big highlight is this hospital in Italy, going into the section of connectivity and controls. The Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, where we have sold controllers, 210 pieces, in line with LED drivers of 16,000 from Tridonic and sensors. B asically, it's an amount of over 2,500 switching modules. Remarkably, this is the largest single lighting project, what we did in our group, so far. In the middle, you see the name SiteWorx. This is an investment, what we did as part of an asset deal, where we purchased the rights of the so-called SiteWorx software developed by Digital Lumens. That is one of the pioneers of cloud-based solutions on connectivity, on wireless connectivity. T his IoT system for lighting management comprises the Siteworx cloud work software, the related Tune, Sense, and Area application, and uses intelligent devices to measure the energy consumption and lighting solutions, and show the use of internal rooms through connected sensors, and store and visualize all the associated data. We are currently working on the integration of the software, and this, we are convinced that this is a significantly, a asset to us to accelerate the digitalization of our products and services for our customers. As you see again, we have successfully completed a number of projects that, despite the difficult market environment what we have in most of our countries, and we will see it later in the presentation. Before I hand over to Thomas, let me share two more slides. One, the overview on the figures for the first half. As already indicated in our last call, in the Q1 reporting, the Zumtobel Group's components segment is currently faced with a very difficult economic condition. This was unfortunately also the case in Q2, and in line with our concerns, revenue did not really recover for the component segments.W e recorded a little bit a lower decline, but still the 22.8% decline in revenues compared to the first half of 2022-2023 to EUR 152 million. The lighting segment remained strong. It recorded a slight drop of revenue of 1.5% to EUR 454 million, and as a result, the group fell by a total of 8.5% to EUR 574 million, versus the 627, what we had last year. Thomas will go into more details. The EBIT totaled EUR 30.9 million, which is represent the margins of 5.4%, and the net profit declined to EUR 21 million. S till, we have a very strong balance sheet, and our equity ratio increased to 42.1%. Ladies and gentlemen, the first half, and then now I'm on page five of our financial year, was a challenge, and we had to tackle the difficult market environment, and especially our component segment, experienced an unexpected decline in revenue. We said it already, it's partly the overstocking of our customers, but partly also reflecting that the recovery of the lighting industry is lower than expected. The construction sector is confronted with a widespread weakness, and the forecast now of non-residential construction, especially in the DACH region, point to a further decline. W hat we have done, we have, under these circumstances, decided to reorganize the production location in Dornbirn, and, the goal is to convert the plant from a volume production, what is definitely too expensive, into a center of production innovation. That's, then require much less people. We will concentrate intensively on robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as new products in the industrialization of the production processes for our other brands. With that, we have carried out reorganization of the plant here in Dornbirn, and this will affect roughly 100 employees of the components, which is more than two-thirds of the employees, what we have in our factory in Dornbirn. A t the same time, we looked at our factory of luminaire in Dornbirn, and we did also an adjustment of the personnel capacity based on the lower volume, which is affecting roughly 70 jobs. This in total, 170 employees in the Zumtobel Group will be affected. Obviously, these decisions are painful for everyone, but unavoidable to protect and strengthen the company's competitive position. The related measures lead to a restructuring cost of -EUR 9.1 million in Q2. In order to show the actual development of the Zumtobel Group's operating business, in view of the circumstances, we have decided to report EBIT adjusted for special effects, beginning with this half year results. This will allow us to isolate this effect of restructuring activities on operating results and provide a transparent view of the company's sustainable operating performance. As a result of these measures, we expect recurring savings in the region of EUR 10 million, with an initial effect as already in fiscal year 2024, 2025. And with that, I will hand over to Thomas, who will explain in detail the Q2 results to you in more detail. Thanks, Alfred. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to start with the lighting segment. The revenues in the lighting segment amounted to EUR 230.3 million, and were slightly below the prior year's quarter. The decline in sales volume and the negative exchange rate development were largely offset by additional price management and increased sales in high-margin countries. This proves the resilience of the business in the lighting segment. Adjusted EBIT in the lighting segment increased from EUR 24.9 million to EUR 26.9 million. Deducting this year's Forschungspramie, yeah, this, research subsidy, which we received in Q3 last year of EUR 1.8 million, our adjusted EBIT is still increased to EUR 25.1 million. The slight decline in sales, negative FX effects, and the increase in fixed costs were compensated by higher sales volume, as said, in higher margin countries. As a result, our adjusted EBIT margin increased from 10.6% to 11.7%. Let's move to the component segment. The component segment lost 20% in revenues and recorded sales of EUR 75.1 million in the second quarter. The key factors were limited in demand as a result of still high customer inventories and a low momentum in general with customers. Due to the difficult market environment, adjusted EBIT in the component segment fell from EUR 8.9 million to EUR 3.2 million, which is a result of the drop in sales and the unfavorable FX effects. Similar to the lighting segment, the component segment also received this research subsidy, amounting to EUR 1.7 million in the second quarter. The adjusted EBIT margin declined to 4.6%. Slide 8 shows the overall result of the group. On our top line, our top line declined by 8% to EUR 288.9 million, due to low momentum in the component segment. The decline in revenues, negative effects is negative FX effects, and increases in personnel costs were, to a significant extent, compensated by higher sales volumes in high-margin countries and lower material and transportation costs. As well, as earlier said, this research subsidy. As a result, our adjusted EBIT fell from EUR 31.7 million to EUR 24.5 million. The adjusted EBIT margin reached 8.8%. Let me now explain the building blocks of our adjusted EBIT. Let's start with the prior year, adjusted EBIT of EUR 50.8 million. As already mentioned, our negative volume development, especially due to the low demand from customers in the component segment, had a negative effect of EUR 29.2 million. Looking at our costs, efficient price management and increased sales in high margin countries, in combination with lower material and transportation costs, had a positive effect of EUR 19.2 million. Higher personnel expenses due to wage and salary increases as a result of merit round increases were almost offset by the earlier payment of this quarter's premium. Thanks to these factors, our adjusted EBIT declined to EUR 40 million. Slide 10 provides you with information on our income statement. I have already indicated that adjusted EBIT reached EUR 40 million. As Alfred mentioned in the beginning, due to our restructuring measures, we recorded special effects of EUR 9.1 million. Thereof, EUR 6.3 million for personnel expenses and redundancies, EUR 0.8 million for depreciation, and EUR 2 million for other expenses. After deduction of these special items, our EBIT stood at EUR 13.9 million. Our financial results amounted to -EUR 7.4 million. Our net financing costs increased to EUR 5.3 million, mainly due to higher interest costs for current loans and finance leases. Other financial income and expenses amounted to -EUR 2.1 million, and included the interest expense for pension obligations and earnings effects from exchange rates and hedging valuations. After the deduction of income taxes, our net profit for the first half, 2023-2024 financial year amounted to EUR 21.2 million. As a consequence, earnings per share stood at EUR 0.49. Let's now move to slide 11, the cash flow statement. Cash flow from operating results fell from EUR 78.3 million to EUR 60.4 million, mainly due to the decline in volume. The changes in working capital improved compared to last year. As a result, cash flow from operating activities stood at EUR 45.4 million and was therefore slightly above the previous year. Cash flow from investing activities totaled EUR 22.3 million, compared to EUR 27 million in the previous year. In addition to investments in property, plant, and equipment, this position also includes cash outflows of EUR 4.5 million for capitalized development costs. As a result, free cash flow came in at EUR 23.1 million in the reporting period, compared to EUR 17.2 million last year. Let me finish with slide 12, and then comments on our balance sheet. The balance sheet structure remains stable and strong. The equity ratio was less at 42.1%. Net debt increased to EUR 93.2 million, and the debt coverage ratio is still, still at a very good 0.77. With this, I hand back to Alfred. Let's have a look at the sales development on slide 13. You know this slide already. Basically, you see we are having a slight recovery from -9% to -8%, but mainly driven by the downturn of the components business. I guess we are coming in the Q&A session, but we do see a slight recovery in order intake on the components segment. W e also see that the pressure on prices is increasing again with the low demand, especially on the new construction of non-residential construction. Going forward, we still expect the environment to be challenging in our market. On slide 14, you see the breakdown into the different regions, with the strongest region, DACH, with a slight decline in Q2, but still with a slight growth in H1, mainly driven by our markets in Switzerland and Austria, with Germany obviously with a difficult environment, struggling. In the northern and western territory, the growth was mainly in Belgium, but we are still having difficult times, especially in the U.K., in one of our key markets. I n south, we have declines in Italy. Very disappointing are the sales developments, both in Asia Pacific and the Americas. Again, where we are significantly below our targets. Before I come to the outlook, let me just briefly show the environment where we are in. The data, what you have on slide 15, you see on the right and on the left, they come from the latest Euroconstruct forecast, and it's really 2 days old, so the very actual forecast, what we have received some days ago. As you can see, in the non-residential construction sectors, it's a very difficult economic framework, where only 8 out of 19 countries expect to grow in 2023. What we see here in countries like Finland and like Poland, but in our major countries, we have either a stagnant or negative growth. W hat you see on the right-hand side, and that was a big change from the data what we had back in June, that the new construction for 2024 is negative. It was seen a quarter ago, still positive, whereas the renovation, what obviously is our key focus, continues to grow a little bit. As in, renovation is representing our focus point, and we see it in the different countries, with the tendency not replacing complete luminaires, but the refurbishment kits, where we meanwhile have a broad portfolio, not only for our product but also for competitors' products, where we can expect a certain momentum. A ll in all, the market environment in our key markets remains very, very challenging. I would like to conclude the presentations with a few words on our outlook. As already said, the economic situation remains tense. We do expect that in the second half, with construction index low, we expect a higher price pressure. We see this already in our component segment, but we also believe that will spill over to the luminaire segment. We also see that the recovery of the components is starting, but very slow, and therefore we expect a decline in revenues in the mid-single-digit for the 2023-2024 financial year. In view of the previously communicated restructuring measures, together with the resulting reintroduction of the EBIT adjusted and the related financial indicators, we have decided to focus on the adjusted EBIT margin in the future. This year, reorientation is intended to improve the comparability and reflects the efforts to isolate the effects of the structuring activities on operating results and to provide a transparent view of the operating performance. For the fiscal year 2023-2024, we expect an adjusted EBIT, excluding the special effects of 4%-6%. With the CapEx spending, we remain unchanged around EUR 60 million. With this, thank you very much for the attention. Now, Thomas and I will be more than happy to take your questions. Thank you for listening. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Our first question today is from Marcus Remmes, from Raiffeisen Bank International. Please go ahead with your question. Yes, good morning, gents. Thanks for the presentation. The first question relates to the restructuring. Is there more to come then in the second half in terms of one-off costs? I f so, where does this come from? Which parts are still being tackled? Yeah, thank you, Marcus. Good morning, also to you. Thank you for the question. Basically, what you have seen, we reacted, and we had to react on our components business with the restructuring. We believe with that, what we see, we can live with that, but obviously, if this continues, it might be necessary to do some more adjustments moving forward. What we are not seeing is how this will affect the luminaire business at the moment. In case this is further deteriorating, especially moving into the 2024, 2025, where the construction seems to be even lower than in 2023, 2024, we then need to adjust, but out of today's perspective, nothing is planned. Right. Okay. T hat's an optionality. I mean, if trading persists like this, or what are the conditions for more restructuring? Would it then be more headcount related, or are you also considering changes to the industrial? I think, Thomas... Yeah. Marcus, Thomas has said it already. I, I think, especially on the lighting segment, we have done a tremendous good job in the last two years up to now, and it's continuing, to basically being able to, to hand over higher costs with higher prices to our customers. And up to now- Yeah. Luckily, in the project business, it's working very well, and you see it from the results, that despite a slightly decrease of the revenue, we are still having a higher EBIT in the lighting segment than last year. What we are seeing right now, is on the component level, and it's always an early indicator, that the price pressure increases. T here are current negotiations going on with key customers for the volumes in 2024, so calendar year 2024. And it's clear that the price pressure increases and the high prices will—it will be difficult to keep here. On the other hand, we have, on the lighting segment and on the components, obviously, but also in lighting segment, despite the only slight, lower revenue, a much larger decrease of the volume, because obviously the volume, the demand is lower. I f that is continuing, that we have a price decrease, and a low volume, then it might be necessary to adjust the volume again, and obviously, that might affect also some, FTEs again. Okay... Very clear. T he adjusted EBIT, that is something that at least for the foreseeable future, will stay so into fiscal 2024, 2025? Well, you know, the thing is, the outlook is very unclear, but what's very clear is, I think wage increases and salary increases, depending on the volume we need to reduce fixed costs. You know, if the volume comes, it's more comfortable. I would say, at least also for next year, it's much better to show the operational performance net of one-time effects than to stay with reported. Yeah. Okay. I see. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's apparent with this selective agreement that, Yeah. Austrian Production Hubs are increasingly losing their competitiveness, so- Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Marcus, maybe I also comment from my end. This is exactly one of the things, you know, as in Austria, and that's why we reacted now. We had to absorb now, and most likely the third time, something what is either high single digit or even like last year, double digit salary increases. T he gap between our other locations, what we have, even gap between U.K., for example, and Austria, is widening. Yeah. We, we had to react on that one, and I believe, that in next year we are, can expect again something what is either high single digit, here in the range of 8%-9%, and that is a huge increase. T hat's why, looking forward, at least for the next year, we will keep the EBIT adjusted, like, reporting. Okay. All right, okay. L et's hope that, we can then return again to reported figures, because I mean, those people following the stock for quite some time, people remember that there have been, Yeah. Yeah, that there is a one cost written history, I would say so. Right. Can we stay with the components, please? And, is it fair to assume that the inventory cycle is bottoming out when you say, "Okay, markets are weak," but you still see a slow recovery volume-wise, would that kind of induce that these stocking effects are digested? Yes and no. W hat we do have is obviously, I think we discussed this last couple of times already. The good news is that Tridonic does still have a reasonably high order book, what was the result of this commitment, what Tridonic did with its customers to guarantee the shipments. T hat's basically scheduled now until the end of this fiscal year, where, let me say, the inventory of Tridonic will go down, based on the level what we have. On the other hand, what we are seeing the last six weeks, you know, and not longer, so I don't know if this is already a representative time frame. We do see a slight recovery, but the recovery is not in that magnitude that we can say that we are back on levels prior. Let me put it that way, prior to Corona, we have to say, because during Corona, we had so many rollercoaster effects, but it's difficult to compare. T he stocking in a couple of countries is still very high, but in others we are seeing slightly to ease it out. I t's now difficult to tell, also, depending our competitors here. Customers of Tridonic are also in the same environment, how successful they are in the market in selling their products. T herefore, it's difficult to predict whether after the next quarters, we are really seeing now the ramp up. I can only tell that now it's a little bit better than it was in Q2 to end of Q1, that we are seeing a slight recovery the last 6-7 weeks. All right. Okay. he magTnitude of the price pressure, what are we talking about currently? I s it kind of aggravating, so pressure is increasing, or? Currently, we are talking about around about 2% in the components business. Okay. Okay, so pretty much comparable to pre-pandemic period, so to say. Pre-pandemic, it was much higher- You know, but also the cost for the components deteriorated much faster than they are now. Okay. As you mentioned, with the competitiveness, Marcus, maybe also to compare, right? I f we look into our production and now, if we compare other European sites, we are still having high material costs across Europe. We have high energy costs and relatively high wage increases. If you look at our friends from the Far East, they have low inflation. They have basically same energy costs as they have been prior COVID or prior, in our case, the Ukraine war. And they have, similar to us, and that's our guess, also empty capacities or a lot of free capacity to produce. We are expecting that both on the luminaire side as well as on the component side, there will be more shipments coming from the Far East, what will also not be very helpful on our prices. Okay, that's very clear. Final question before I get back to the line, on the buyback that you've recently announced, just to get your general view. I mean, balance sheet is very solid. Should we see the 1 million shares as in kind of initial step, like dipping the toe into the water and more to come on a maybe opportunistic basis? Or what's the stance to it, and is it fair to assume that the shares will be canceled? Well, your first part of the question, you know, we have a huge, a huge, problem with our daily trading volumes. We need roughly a year to buy this 1 million, and in a year's time, you know, we have the authority of the annual general meeting to buy up to 10%. We will, we will see, you know, but as it takes so much, so much time, it would be not solid to say, you know, we continue, we continue it, we don't continue. We will, we will see. As you said, our balance sheet and our cash position is very comfortable, and we can afford the shares, especially with the share price. We will ask the super-- we will ask and discuss with the supervisory board in a year's time. Right. I think we have up to the 10% approved from the general annual shareholder meeting. A s Thomas said, the 1 million is taking us a year, and then after that, we will see how we continue. You know, we have some shares already on stock, 330,000, roughly about, about that. That shares we will cancel, the other ones we will decide what to do with it. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Marcus. Thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, I repeat, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one. It seems to be no further questions at the moment, and I hand back to Alfred Felder. Yeah. Then ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening. Just a last statement from my end. The next quarterly meeting in March, we will do exactly in the week where for us the big Light + Building event will take place in Frankfurt. O bviously, if you would be interested and you are around in Frankfurt, let Eric know. I would be delighted to have a chat with you, and also show you what innovations we have, because I think we have a lot to show, based on our strategy, to give you a feeling how we plan, move, how to move forward, with the different solutions, including the IoT. I f you are interested, let Eric know, and we can organize an event here. Yeah, with that, thank you so much for listening and have a great day. Thank you.