Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zumtobel Group's conference call on our first half and the second quarter results of our 2024-25 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 the 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. And with this, I hand over to Alfred. Yeah, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for your interest and your participation in today's call on our half-year results. We can be quite satisfied with the development of our business for the first half. Above all, we are seeing a slight recovery in the components segment, which has returned to a growth of 3.4%. And in the lighting segment, we also have a slight growth of 0.4%, totaling then in our revenue growth of 0.6% or EUR 577.6 million for the first half year. Looking at the development of our different regions, again, the DACH region, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, all contributed to the positive development. Compared to the same period of last year, the sales here increased significantly, also in the Northern and Western region, mainly driven by the U.K., but [Finland] is back on track with a double-digit growth. In contrast, sales in Belgium were significantly lower compared to the previous year. In the Southern and Eastern European region, the sales fell, particularly due to the weakness in the Czech Republic and in France. In Asia and Pacific, the component segment achieved a growth again in Greater China. The Americas are disappointing, mainly with the negative development of America, but a very good positive development of the Middle East. This positive development of the first half year is also reflected in our adjusted EBIT, which rose from EUR 40 million to EUR 41.2 million, or 7.1%, and Thomas will cover this in more detail. Before I hand over to Thomas, I would like just to guide you through a couple of highlights, what we again achieved in the second quarter. One is starting from the top row into the center, St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican State. We have become, since January 2023, the strategic lighting supplier of the Vatican State, and one of the highlights was in the St. Peter's Basilica, developed outstanding tailor-made projects. In October 2023, we started a project of one of the most important buildings. In the Vatican State, it will operate at the end of 2025, and another project in the Apostolic Palace will be operated in July 2025. Our light fittings were recently installed in the Baldacchino of the St. Peter's Basilica, really the highlight of the year, and here important design activities are planned for 2025, which is the Holy Jubilee year every 25 years in the Christian community. Another highlight is the Hilti Innovation Center in Liechtenstein, where it's one of the typical refurbishment projects, close to 2,000 luminaires replaced, and basically minimizing then the CO2 footprint, increasing quality of light. Similar in the insurance company, HU.K.-COBURG in Germany, an office application logistics, again, a renovation project, where here basically the success factors have been the strong network in the after-sales service with this customer. We are continuing with the plans according to the strategy of our stadium illumination, so sports illumination. The latest one was in the U.K., Sunderland, where we did the stadium. It is a complete refurbishment. It's close to our Spennymoor factory, which is just 21 mi away here, and here we have been able to deliver locally manufactured cutting-edge solutions for this stadium, not only [DOM], which is basically the floodlight, but also Zumtobel products like the CRAFT and the spotlight, and last but not least, the railway station in Paris was a huge project, again, for renovation of the railway station network around Paris and was initiated 10 years ago. We started to meet with architects, lighting designers, and electrical consultants many years ago and to see this is one of the typical projects, how long it lasts to do such huge projects in that magnitude. Before I hand over to Thomas, on page five, I would like to highlight a little bit the motivation, what is behind the restructuring, what we have. The current economic and geopolitical situation remains challenging. I guess we come into Q&A session to that already, and especially with the negative impact on our sector, which is the construction sector. Price pressure in the market for the professional lighting solution is tangible in some of our areas, and we are currently seeing a decline in the willingness to invest in professional lighting solutions, especially when it goes beyond the renovation. In October, we announced that our French subsidiary Zumtobel Group Europhane was reviewing the discontinuation of the production activities in Les Andelys in France, and the production plant is currently significantly underutilized and structurally unprofitable, and part of this process includes the search for a potential buyer with the aim of establishing new business activities at this site. However, we maintain the group-wide competence center for the outdoor luminaires and the sales activities in the country, so in Les Andelys, we will stay with the whole R&D for this segment. We also have decided to close our assembly plant and logistics center in Sydney, in Australia, and going forward, we will focus on profitability by selling high-end projects and optimize sales of mainly European products. In Q2, we had restructuring costs of EUR 9.4 million for both measures. They will help us to be more cost-efficient and profitable in the future. We expect that these measures will generate savings in the middle single-digit million euro range and will take effect in our next fiscal year. Closures and restructurings are never easy. We make it a priority to involve the employees' impact and consider their perspective. However, given the current challenges, these measures are essential to strengthen our company's resilience and competitiveness moving forward. While difficult, we see this as an absolute necessary step, and with this, I would like to hand over to Thomas to guide you now to the financial results. Thank you, Alfred. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start with the lighting segment. Revenues in the lighting segment amounted to EUR 229.5 million and were slightly below the previous year's level. The decline in sales was mainly related to CEE and France, whilst on the other side, we had a solid performance in the U.K. and positive currency effects. Nevertheless, the positive effects were not able to offset the negative ones. While revenues were almost flat, a negative inventory valuation effect, higher personal expenses, and the phasing of the research bonus in the amount of EUR 1.8 million i nto Q3 instead of Q2 last year had a negative impact on our adjusted EBIT. Adjusted EBIT in the lighting segment decreased from EUR 26.9 million to EUR 17.8 million. Our adjusted EBIT margins stood at 7.8%. Let's now move to the component segment. Revenues in the component segment rose by 2.5% to EUR 77 million. Sales growth was achieved primarily in the U.K., DACH region, but partially offset by price pressure and negative currency effects. Despite the challenging market environment, the component segment recorded an increase in both sales and margin. In combination with strict cost discipline, lower material costs, and the revaluation effect, in Q2 last year, we recorded an inventory write-off of EUR 1.5 million, and this quarter, the effect was positive at EUR 0.3 million. Adjusted EBIT in the component segment rose from EUR 3.2 million to EUR 6.5 million in the second quarter. The adjusted EBIT margin increased to 8.4% without having received the research bonus of EUR 1.8 million. Slide eight shows the overall results for the group. Our top-line development was flat. Revenues amounted to EUR 288.6 million. With flat revenues, the phasing of the research bonus into Q3, and the increased personnel expenses, our adjusted EBIT decreased from EUR 25.5 million to EUR 21 million. The adjusted EBIT margin stood at 7.3%. Let me now explain the main building blocks of our adjusted EBIT development for the first half year. Let's start with prior year's adjusted EBIT of EUR 40 million. Development in the lighting segment was slightly positive. Volume growth in the component segment was offset by price. Overall, we had a positive effect of EUR 0.3 million. Looking at our COGS, a positive inventory revaluation effect and lower material costs were slightly offset by higher personnel expenses. We recorded a positive effect of 11.3 million EUR. SG&A and research costs were impacted by higher personnel expenses due to wage and salary increases. Together with the phasing of the mentioned research bonus into Q3, the negative impact was at EUR 10.5 million in our result. Based on these factors, our adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 41.2 million. Slide 10 provides you with information on our income statement. As previously indicated, our adjusted EBIT increased to EUR 41.2 million. Special effects were negative EUR 11.2 million and include provisions connected with the lighting plant in Les Andelys, as well as in Lemgo and the assembly plant in Sydney. After the deduction of these special effects, our EBIT stood at EUR 30 million. Our financial result amounted to minus EUR 9.5 million. Our net financing costs amounted to minus EUR 5.2 million. Other financial income and expenses amounted to minus EUR 4.3 million and included the interest expense for the pension obligations, as well as currency and hedging effects. After the deduction of income taxes, our net profit for the first half year amounted to EUR 18.4 million. As a consequence, earnings per share stood at EUR 0.43. Let's now move to slide 11, the cash flow statement. Cash flow from operating results fell year on year from EUR 60.4 million to EUR 58.1 million. The cash outflow from changes in other operating items amounted to EUR -13.4 million, mainly due to payment of variable salaries, reduction of vacation entitlements, and guarantees. Restructuring provisions counteracted this effect. Cash flow from operating activities fell to EUR 33.7 million in the first half year. Cash flow from investing activities amounted to EUR -20.6 million in the reporting period. In addition to investments in property, plant and equipment, this also included investments in capitalized development costs of EUR 6.4 million. As a result, free cash flow amounted to EUR 13 million. Cash flow from financing activities amounted to minus EUR 20.6 million in the first half. The change compared to the same period of the previous year is mainly due to the repayment of the loan to the European Investment Bank in the amount of EUR 30 million. Offsetting effects resulted in the increased utilization of the syndicated loan amount in the amount of EUR 5 million. Let me finish with slide 12 and some comments on our balance sheet. The balance sheet structure remains stable and strong. Equity ratio improved slightly to 43.6%. Net debt decreased to EUR 89.5 million, and debt coverage ratio is very healthy at 0.86. With this, I hand back to Alfred. Before I guide you through the outlook of the second half, on page 13, you see the latest update on the market outlook for the non-residential construction. It's brand new from December, and it confirms, if you look at 2024, that we are still under pressure heavily, especially with the new build, and as reflected also in our projects, a slight positive development on the renovation. Basically, this confirms the weak construction prospect for the entire year 2025. However, if we look now into 2025, we do see a slight recovery in both segments, turning now first time again into positive, which means we expect a growth across all sectors, while the office and the industry will face limitations, and the storage building will be back to the normal levels. In summary, while we face the challenging calendar year 2024, which also will include and includes Q3, the outlook is a little bit more promising and anticipated in most of the sectors, but please be aware that we are late in the cycle, so we are still having a legacy of 2023, 2024 moving forward into our 2025 fiscal year. Our strategic focus will be leveraging the opportunity of renovation and maintenance, as well as positioning ourselves to capitalize on the recovery of non-residential construction, and with this in mind, let me now finish with the outlook of the 2024-2025 financial year. Despite the recovery in the component segment and adjusted EBIT in the first six months that is above our guidance for the full year, we are nevertheless remaining very careful, optimistic for good reasons. The current situation is more than tense, and the consequences of the global economy are again very, very difficult to predict, and this makes it difficult to anticipate also our economic development for the second half, and therefore, we are leaving our guidance unchanged. For the 2024-2025 year, we continue to expect sales to be at least slightly above the previous year in the level on adjusted EBIT margin between 3% and 6%, whereby we expect to reach the upper end of this range. Our CapEx spending is expected to be around EUR 60 million, as we guided also last time, and with this, thank you so much for listening to both of us, and now Thomas and myself will be more than happy to take your questions. Thank you for listening. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you'll press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. The first question comes from Markus Remis from RBI. Please go ahead. Good morning, gents. A few questions, please. The first one relates to the top-line outlook in the second half. What gives you the confidence to generate growth in the second half? With weak end markets, it seems that price pressure is intense. Where's that slight growth coming? And then staying with the guidance, when you say you expect the EBIT margin to be at the upper end of the range, does it mean the upper half of the range, or truly, I don't know, what's the top end of the range? That would be the first one. All right. Thank you, Markus, for the questions. Yeah. Top-line outlook, we have to differentiate. So first of all, on the Tridonic side, you're absolutely right. The price pressure is there, but that was already there since the beginning of the fiscal year. And as you have seen, we are continuing to grow. And also, the order intake, what we see, and the price perspectives, what we see, makes us confident that also the second half will be with a slight growth compared to the previous year. On the lighting side, we are mainly in the project business, both refurbishing and new, as you know. And the project pipeline, what we have, first of all, is indicating that we are able to continue the prices. Some of the projects, as you know, have been designed in six months, 12 months ago. Basically, we believe that we can basically also continue this for the second half of the year. In some markets, we are growing better than expected. U.K. is one of those. Switzerland is one of those. Interestingly, also, we are compared to the economic situation slightly better than previous year, also in Germany, and we plan to remain so, but it will be a slight growth, and it will be a challenging second half. Yeah. Okay. The second question will be answered by Thomas. Yes, Markus. The second question is with regards to the EBIT margin. We expect, or the probability is, in our view, much higher that it is in the higher upper half than in the lower upper half. Okay. Very clear. Can we stay with the cost development? Because to me, it looks as if material cost, and you outlined this in the presentation, that they give you quite a tailwind. Maybe can you shed some light on which aspects of the material cost bill are particularly favorable? And if there is maybe even an increased, say, deflation then in the second half, if your guidance is to be understood that way. And also related to that, I mean, on a divisional basis, when I look at the components segment, second half, even stripping out this inventory revaluation effect on slightly lower revenues, you've been able to increase the EBIT quite substantially. So on my numbers, first quarter, excluding revaluation, EUR 1.7 million. Now, second quarter, around EUR 6 million. So is that the material bill that is driving this increase? Let me start with the component segment. In the result of the component segment, it's about EUR 3.3 million inventory revaluation as positive effect. Then we had a settlement with one of our suppliers in the range of EUR 1 million. And the rest is by better performance and lower material costs, as well as also. Okay. This EUR 1 million, sorry, this EUR 1 million was in the second quarter then? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. That explains part of the outperformance. Material costs are decreasing. You are right, but this is very fluctuating. Steel is going down, aluminum is going down, copper is slightly going down, polycarbonates are going down. But we have also increased freight costs, and resin, another substrate, is also going up. So in total, we have a positive effect, but you can't predict this. It's so fluctuating all the time. Every single news on the wars going on drives the prices for our raw material. Okay. But what's kind of the base or the budget for your confidence to get to the higher upper end of that range? What's kind of the. For the second half, we have a good portion of our inventory already in our books. They have a quite long lead time, so we are confident that we can reach the upper end. Also on the top line, Markus, as I mentioned before, we do know the prices on the components business. Obviously, here, this is a short-term business with the orders coming very short and need to be delivered. On the luminaire side, we are in project business where a large amount of projects, not the orders already taken, but based on the quotes, what has been sent out, what will be turned into orders, we see already what the price range are. Based on this information, we are confident also that the margins, what we will achieve on the luminaire side, will be guiding us to the upper end of the EBIT, in addition to that on the material side. Yeah. That's the advantage for us that we are not so much dependent on wholesale or on this business where the pressure is much higher. We are much more, especially with renovation, the kits, what we have, the renovation kits of our luminaires and also competitor luminaires are more or less standardized now. And that is not something what can be easily replaced by somebody who is fresh in there because it takes time. And that's why we are quite confident. Okay. Then if I could follow up regarding the restructuring, from those measures that you have announced, Lemgo, Les Andelys, and Sydney, is everything adjusted now in the first half, or are there some legacy costs? I mean, not talking about minor numbers, but anything of relevant size still to come in the second half? You mean on these restructuring measures? Yeah. Sorry. If there's anything that you still have, I don't know, any plans that are in your drawers for. As you know, we are consistently looking at our costs. If we find something which is, in our view, necessary to do or bringing a high return on the investment, we will do this. For the moment, these are our restructuring measures we have found and we have started. Markus, your question is if there's anything else on those three topics. You mentioned Lemgo. Yeah. And you mentioned Sydney. This is already all in. All adjusted. Okay. Okay. Very clear. Then the final one regarding the impairment. You had a EUR 1.4 million of impairment charge in the second quarter. Is that part of this EUR 11.2 million of restructuring charges? Yes. These are assets of the restructuring. Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought. All right. Thanks. That's it. No, sorry. One more. Regarding the workforce development, I was actually a bit surprised to see that there was an increase in the second quarter compared to the year-end and Q1 development. Can you shed some light on what was going on the staff number? We have a couple, so basically, we have invested in a few countries where we believe that we can generate more sales, and then we have listed a couple of FTEs to our low-cost countries, and some have been just replacement, so it's not really a substantial increase of our FTEs. It's also a little bit fluctuating because in some of the countries, we are also having now retirement cases. We are also hit by the demographic change, and we have a couple of people hired who take over the functions of those who are going into retirement. Yeah. Okay. I mean, we're not talking about big numbers, but I was just surprised by the. Yeah. A little bit. By the build-up in the second quarter. Yeah. Something like 80 people up. Okay. All right. Thank you. And also, I have to say, not to forget, speaking on behalf of our COO, we have, of course, for some of the product categories, also a higher demand on Tridonic level. Obviously, you mentioned the price erosion, which automatically means we have a higher volume. And that means, I think, as far as I know, also in Shenzhen, we have a couple of more shop floor workers, what most likely is the majority of this increase. Okay. All right. Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone. The next question comes from Miro Zuzak from JMS Invest AG. Please go ahead. Good morning, gentlemen. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. I have a question relating to the questions of Markus before. So the EUR 9.5 million and EUR 11 million, respectively, were they all booked in the COGS line? Or were other P&L lines affected? If you look at our financial report, you should see in which lines they are recorded. Just let me open it and which page it is. You see on page six of our half-year report, the adjusted position. It's not booked in one line. It's booked on various lines. Okay. And the EUR 3 million inventory write-up you had in the component segment, that was booked in the COGS, right? Because you don't adjust for that, obviously. That was booked in the COGS, but this is not a special effect according to our accounting principles. Yeah. And the EUR 1 million settlement gain? Also. This one was also booked in the COGS? Yeah. Settlement in COGS. Say it again, please. Sorry. Settlement in? In COGS. In COGS for you. Yeah. Both were booked in COGS. Okay. Good. Then the next question I have regarding, let's say, the management focus right now. It seems like, I mean, obviously, you have now the closure that you want to do in France and in Australia. You had Lemgo. Are there other construction sites within the company that you have? Or is this basically the remaining bit of this larger refocusing of the company, which is basically ongoing since 10 years? No. We are having, as Thomas said, we are monitoring very closely, obviously, the cost development what we have. When it comes to Austria, where we have 1/3 of our workforce with constantly increasing costs, we have now, depending on the wage increases result, what we will see at the beginning of the year, a wage increase over the last four years for close to 30%. We need to see what of these products we can still manufacture in Austria and what we would need to move to other lower-cost countries. Based on that, we are evaluating that and then seeing whether we need to take some additional actions. Okay. Good. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone. The next question is a follow-up from Markus Remis from RBI. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. On the cost development, labor-wise in Austria, I mean, we are now seeing the results of these collective bargaining agreements in a couple of sectors. What's kind of your assumption for 2025 for your workforce? Yeah. Basically, I've seen, Markus, the annual, so the retail has now closed at 3.3%. In Austria, we have, again, this famous Benya formula. If this goes, we are expecting something between 3.8% and 4.5%, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But the negotiations are going on right now. But that's basically, if you take this into account, average inflation the last 12 months plus the efficiency gain formula, then you are in that range, 3.8-4.5. Right. And your kind of sector, I don't know what it's called in English, but the Electro. The Electro. Kollektivvertrag, that is, when to be concluded? 1st of May. 1st of May. Okay. 25th. 25th, yeah, our next meeting. Yeah. Rather late justice with the banks. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Back in the line. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your phone. The next question is a follow-up from Miro Zuzak from JMS Invest. Please go ahead. Yes. Thank you. Thank you again. I was just looking at page 6. As you indicated before, I see adjusted [EBITDA], 88.1, and reported [EBITDA], if I take the two lines together, is 90.3. So we're talking about EUR 2 million, which were adjusted. Can you tell me the components of the EUR 2 million, please? Yeah. On the spot, I can't. I have to send you this information via email. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no more questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Alfred Felder, CEO, for any closing remarks. Please go ahead. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for listening and also for the interesting questions. Obviously, in a summary, we remain cautious in our outlook, as I have indicated, but carefully optimistic on the development. And with that, I'm looking forward to talk to you again after our Q3 results in March. Thank you so much.