Please note that there's a limit of two questions per caller. I would now like to turn the conference over to Christopher Sheldon, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, Moritz. Good morning, and welcome to Beiersdorf's Half Year One conference call. This is Christopher Sheldon. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. I'm here with our CEO, Vincent Warnery, and our CFO, Astrid Hermann. We would like to share with you Beiersdorf's financial results of the first six months of 2024. With that, I'd like to hand over to Vincent. Thank you, Christopher, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to welcome you to our conference call. In the next 30 minutes, I will provide you with an overview of our financial results and key developments of the first six months of 2024. I will then focus on the strategic initiatives that will continue to drive our performance in the future, enable us to be the best skincare company in the world. Following my remarks, Astrid will provide a detailed analysis of our financial statements. We'll then open the floor for your questions. Thank you for being with us this morning. Let's get started. First of all, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my Beiersdorf colleagues around the globe. Over the past six months, our team has again demonstrated remarkable dedication and resilience in the face of challenging market conditions, and the result speaks for itself. We delivered a strong performance in the first half of the year, achieved significant sales growth and outperformed the market, and we gained substantial market shares across brands and categories. As we look ahead to the second half of the year, we balance this outstanding performance and our full innovation pipeline against the ongoing, ongoing macroeconomic volatility around the world. Based on this, we confirm our sales and EBIT guidance. Now, we come to the top line figures for the first six months of the year. We grew our consumer business organically by 8%. This was in particular driven by broad-based double-digit growth at NIVEA across key categories and regions. NIVEA also again delivered balanced growth in terms of price and volume. A strong performance of our Derma brands fuels this consumer success as well. As predicted and promised in the first quarter, the tesa business picked up significantly in the second quarter with double-digit organic sales growth. This results in overall growth of 2.9% for the first six months for tesa. At group level, we kept our successful course and delivered strong growth of 7.1% in the first half of 2024. At the Capital Markets Day in June, we shared with you our vision to be the best skincare company in the world and introduce you to our corporate strategy, Win with Care, which will guide us towards this vision. Therefore, let's zoom in on some top-line key performance indicators of the consumer business overall before I take you through the performance at brand level. Looking at the overall market growth and our peers' performance in terms of organic sales growth in the first half of the year, I am particularly pleased to see us at the top of the list. We have clearly outperformed the market. It proves that we have a winning formula with our strong brands and our strategic direction, and it gives us confidence as we look to the future. The ongoing global success of NIVEA was the main driver for our strong performance in the consumer segment. Our icon delivered excellent double-digit organic sales growth of 11.1% in the first half of the year. Significant growth across all regions fueled this positive development. All key categories posted impressive double-digit growth rates with a healthy balance between price and volume. The Derma business delivered strong growth of 8.3% on top of the high comparison base from last year. Excluding Argentina, the performance continued on a double-digit level with strong growth across most regions. We also gained significant market shares with our Derma brands in every region and every category. The Healthcare business, which comprises the plasters business of Hansaplast and Elastoplast, contributed with solid sales growth of 4%. The economic situation in China remains highly volatile and challenging, which was the main reason for the 7% decline in organic sales at La Prairie for the first six months of 2024. Notwithstanding, we outperformed the Chinese market with La Prairie in this declining environment. Our business is strong, resilient, and based on a broad, successful global portfolio of brands, allowing us to compensate the headwinds in the luxury market with only limited impact to our overall results. This leads to substantial sales growth at group level and confirms that we are well on track to deliver our sales guidance of 6%-8% organic growth for the full year. We are particularly pleased with the performance of our two biggest regions, Europe and Emerging Markets. These regions are the two main drivers for our growth. They account for roughly three-quarters of our sales, and they keep on growing with continued strong performances across brands and categories. This growth trajectory is far from over. In the emerging markets, we are also fueling this development via strategic focus on conquering several white spot opportunities. I will share more on that in a moment... In Europe, we see a lot of further growth potential in the years to come, based on the anticipated impact of our strong innovation pipeline. Our e-commerce business continues to expand at a double-digit rate, with an increase of 16% in the first 6 months of 2024. Even more significant in this context, is the strong growth of our e-commerce share. With impressive growth trajectory this year, in the last 3 years, we are outperforming the competition and narrowing the gap to the industry leader. Now, to a part of our business that continues to deliver extraordinary results, the sun business. We delivered strong double-digit growth in the first half, driven by NIVEA and Eucerin. While our brands NIVEA and Eucerin performed strongly in the sun category, the predominantly bad weather in North America led to a sun market decline and a negative impact on Coppertone and sales results in North America. However, it is important to point out that Coppertone accounts for less than 20% of our overall sun business. Additionally, we are seeing some positive momentum there since June. I also would like to give a bit of color on our home country, on Deutschland. In terms of absolute net sales, Germany represents our largest market. We are currently on track to reach EUR 1 billion in annual sales, which is a fantastic development. It is even more impressive that we achieved 9% organic growth for NIVEA and 8% for Eucerin the first half of the year, given our long-standing strong position in Germany. Our pioneering spirit has its roots in Germany. We power our global success from here. This is the place where most of our innovations are created, enter the market, and start to develop into global success stories. We'll have our new Epicelline product under the Eucerin brand on the shelves in Germany in a couple of weeks from now. We are also particularly proud of our gross margin expansion in the first half of the year. We managed to grow plus 110 basis points in comparison to the first half of 2023. This excellent overall figure is attributable to significant gross margin gains across key regions all over the world. For instance, we managed to increase our gross margin significantly in our largest region, Europe, as well as in North America and in the volatile Chinese market environment. This amount of growth is extraordinary, especially given the fact that La Prairie sales declined in the first six months of 2024. Let us look at our icon in more detail. NIVEA led our brand portfolio in the first half of the year with outstanding double-digit organic sales growth of eleven point seven percent. We are excluding Argentina here, where macroeconomic factors, such as extremely high foreign exchange devaluation and inflation, distort the performance. We've also managed to keep an excellent balance between price and volume growth. Despite market volatility, our efforts to modernize, digitalize, and globalize NIVEA continue to pay off. We look to the future with confidence and have further ambitious plans for our global icon. This double-digit growth for NIVEA is driven by growth in all regions of the world. In particular, the regions LATAM, Eastern Europe, and Africa, Asia, Australia, posted outstanding double-digit sales growth. Furthermore, the 9% organic sales increase in the Northeast Asia region highlights our robust and successful market presence in that area with NIVEA, despite the well-known volatility of the Chinese ecosystem. Now, we come to the NIVEA categories. First of all, we grew significantly across all major categories of NIVEA in the first six months of the year. Our strategic focus on face care continues to pay off, led by the success of our LUMINOUS630 product range. In the first half of 2024, we grew by 49% organically with our NIVEA products containing the most effective anti-spot ingredient in the world. The body category also grew by double digits in the first six months of the year. Personal care complements the strong overall performance of NIVEA, with deo increasing by 19% in organic sales. The lip category also posted strong sales growth of 17%. Japan is also of great importance for us, and Japan delivers fantastic results. Having worked myself there for several years, I know how difficult it is to grow and deliver against the skincare expectations of the most demanding consumers in the world. In this context, I am even more delighted to report the strong sales growth of 10% in the first half of the year. Let me move to an outlook for the next months and quarters for NIVEA. We stated at the Capital Markets Day that our NIVEA face products are only present in 40% of the global face market. We see one of the largest potentials in the face category in India, a key geographical white spot for us in our Win with Care strategy. We have already established a strong bond with Indian consumers, voting NIVEA the most trusted skincare brand for several consecutive years. We aim to leverage this trust and are now preparing the launch of NIVEA Face in the first quarter of 2025. In order to become the best skincare company in the world, we also continue to lead in climate care. As a certified AAA company, we established ambitious net zero target for 2045 this year, which received SBTi validation and with which we continue to lead the industry. An integral factor in achieving this objective is a sustainable product transformation. The NIVEA body relaunch follows exactly this pathway. It is the biggest relaunch of our body portfolio to date, and perfectly combines improved performance of the product with an increased sustainability profile. The sustainability aspect is first. The revamped, yet recognizable packaging, will help Beiersdorf reach its total target for fossil-based virgin plastic reduction, and reduce its CO₂ impact by approximately 5,000 tons by 2025. The product performance improved as well. The NIVEA body milk formula is now newly enhanced with 100% pure hyaluron and deep nourish serum, which ensures healthy looking skin and deep, long-lasting moisturization. By incorporating the powerful moisturizer, hyaluronic acid, we reach the next level of superiority in NIVEA body care. An integral part of the global success of NIVEA is our LUMINOUS630 product range. We plan to further seize its potential and extend its influence across important markets and category. Adding innovation and enhancing the success of our hero ingredient, Thiamidol, under the NIVEA Luminous range, is a focal point of our innovation strategy at NIVEA, as well as outside of NIVEA. In China, we continue to work with patients on regulatory approval to introduce Luminous to the domestic market. This has been a long-standing topic, which we prioritize constantly due to the tremendous upside potential of launching Luminous in this market. Earlier on, I mentioned the launch of NIVEA Face in India in Q1 2025. On the back of this launch, we also plan to introduce an affordable, Luminous product range to the Indian market throughout 2025, thereby widening the appeal of our Luminous franchise across emerging markets. We are also cascading the Luminous success into additional categories on a global scale, most recently, for example, into the body category. In the USA, we'll add Luminous to the skincare portfolio under NIVEA Men. Now, leaving the world of NIVEA and moving to our Derma brands, Eucerin and Aquaphor. Excluding Argentina, the Derma business continued to grow double digits in the first half of 2024. We are very delighted with these results, especially given the high comparison base from last year and the well-known overall slowdown of the U.S. market. Exploiting the potential of the global face care market is an integral part of Beiersdorf's strategic plans, not only with NIVEA, but also with our Derma brands. And these efforts are starting to pay off, as we grew by 11% in sales organically with Derma face care in the first six months. Our strong innovation pipeline for Eucerin, further increasing our confidence in the continued success of our Derma business. The regional perspective on Derma truly delights us with so many success stories around the globe. Germany keeps growing at 8% in sales, as I mentioned earlier, and China is growing at 15%, which is extraordinary given the economic circumstances there. Another key growth driver for this success of Derma is our emerging markets business, which increased its organic sales by 18% in the first six months. In addition to the markets of Mexico, Brazil and Thailand shown here, the list goes on, for example, with Chile at 13% organic growth and Peru is an increase of 26%. The wait is over. More than 15 years of research in the field of epigenetics, we invested a significant double-digit million EUR amount in this research. We discovered our now patented ingredient, Epicelline. We developed a game-changing innovation, unlike anything the market has seen before. This breakthrough innovation allowed us to turn back the skin's age clock. The test results were exceptional to a level I've never seen before in my life. Our first product containing Epicelline, the Eucerin Hyaluron-Filler Epigenetic Youth Serum, is now hitting the shelves first in the UK, then Germany, and from there to the rest of Europe, and eventually the world. Our other brands will follow in 2025 and 2026. This is a proud moment for us as the company that invented modern skincare, and now is leading the industry again with this significant milestone. We may aim to make this our biggest ever launch, with a clear focus on digital excellence, a tremendous point of sale impact, and in close collaboration with dermatologists and the further medical world. With the world population aging, the anti-aging skincare market is huge and has enormous potential, and the business impact will be strong as well. To provide a comparison, you can see the level of net sales we achieved with Thiamidol in its first year on the market. Right next to it, you'll see an anticipated forecast for the first year of Epicelline on the market. This gives us a lot of confidence for the future of this amazing innovation. Staying with the innovation power under Eucerin, let me highlight the next steps for Eucerin Thiamidol, for which the journey is far from over by any means. Two important big steps for the remainder of 2024 are the launch of Eucerin Thiamidol in the U.S. market and the brand launch of Eucerin in India. Again, these decisions follow our strategic goal of conquering highly relevant geographical white spaces. Eucerin has the power to achieve high exposure in these markets, as does NIVEA and our further brand portfolio.... Let me now talk about luxury, starting with La Prairie. The weakened Chinese economy and the headwinds in travel retail are the main cause for the decline in sales for La Prairie. In the past, the success of luxury brands in China was largely driven by the high consumer confidence pre-COVID. As the economy has continued to falter since then, large sections of the population have cut back on luxury spending. As a consequence, the Chinese luxury skincare market faces a continued slowdown. But despite these developments, we continue to see China as a key opportunity to generate growth in the mid and long term. Looking at the results for La Prairie in the first half of the year, we see positive signs. In China, the luxury skincare market was down 12% in the first six months, but La Prairie strongly outperformed this market in terms of sell-out, and only fell by 6%. In Thailand, the performance was similar. The market declined by 34%, and La Prairie delivered a significant market outperformance here by 20%. Looking at e-commerce in China, the power of La Prairie becomes even more evident. Fueled by an excellent launch on TikTok, we achieved double-digit growth of 17% in a market that declined by 13%. To further put this into perspective, our retail sales, excluding Greater China, grew by over 20% in the second quarter. Looking ahead, we are modernizing the brand image. We are increasing our on and offline presence and communication, while we are focusing even stronger on topics of innovation, technology, and science. We are expanding our product range with attractive innovations, targeting new and younger consumers with entry-level propositions. We successfully introduced the Skin Caviar Mist in the first half of 2024, and have already beaten our sales target since launch by a factor of 1.5. At EUR 170, it is a perfect product to recruit more new clients, clients, while also enhancing the skincare routine. Around 70% of new consumers bought Skin Caviar Mist with at least one additional product, and Skin Caviar Mist has already gained a very high penetration among the existing customers. Another innovation with a strong link to La Prairie's birthplace, the Clinic La Prairie, will follow in the second half of the year. Moreover, our sales figure for July to December will benefit from the extensive destocking in travel retail in the second half of 2023. Staying in the luxury and premium part of our brand portfolio, I'm pleased to share an update on the performance of Chantecaille. Following organic sales growth of 4% in the first quarter of the year, we're able to strengthen the growth to a 4.8% increase in the second quarter. This growth accelerated at the end of the quarter as we relaunch our new product, Just Skin, in May 2024. The all-in-one complexion icon now comes with a more sustainable formula and an enhanced performance, providing even more hydration and skincare benefits. We will be expanding Chantecaille to mainland China in the coming days after already being present cross-border. This marks a significant milestone for Chantecaille, and the expansion follows a clear strategy with the objective of bringing this beautiful brand to a broader audience while solidifying its presence in the Chinese market. The focus here lies first on the digital presence, which is powered by a comprehensive partnership with Tmall, China's leading e-commerce platform. Over the course of the year, Chantecaille will, among several other activation measures, also host a commercial pop-up experience in Shanghai to immerse consumers in the brand's luxury experience. Before I hand over to Astrid for a detailed look at the financial figures for the first half of the year, let me summarize. Beiersdorf is performing strongly, and the future is even brighter. Of course, we will win with skincare. We are a skincare company. Skin comes first at Beiersdorf, and is our heritage, our present, and our future. We plan to continue bringing strong innovations to the market in the coming years. Beiersdorf is focusing on three key areas of innovation, which are also our global growth drivers. First, hyperpigmentation, with products based on our highly effective active ingredient, Thiamidol. Second, epigenetics, now entering the anti-aging market for the first time with a Eucerin product. Third, skin microbiome research, where Beiersdorf is currently working on a very effective treatment for acne based on living skin bacteria. To ensure our continued growth, we are also focusing on conquering additional white spaces and gaps in our global product presence. Not only in 2024, but also in 2025 and beyond, we'll be expanding our activities in countries and large skincare markets such as India, China, and the United States. We look confidently into the future. Now over to you, dear Astrid. Thank you, Vincent, and welcome to everyone. I am delighted to present our performance for the first half of 2024. Let's begin with the figures at group level. We are very happy to report strong organic sales growth of +7.1% or +4.8% in nominal terms. Our EBIT margin, excluding special factors, is 16.2%, which reflects a more balanced, balanced approach in our investment phasing. This results in a more harmonized EBIT for the first and second half of the year. The profit after tax margin is 11.4% and was impacted by a higher first half tax rate, which will benefit our tax rate in the midterm. Our earnings per share increased from EUR 2.56 to EUR 2.57. Let's continue with the development at segment level. During the first six months, our consumer business reported strong organic sales growth of +8.0%, thereby outperforming key competitors. Due to unfavorable foreign exchange effects, our nominal growth was lower at +5.4%. Our consumer business has continued its impressive growth trajectory on top of an outstanding performance of the first half of the previous year. This is largely driven by the exceptional performance of our core brands and regions. The first half of this year also demonstrated the continuation of well-balanced growth in volume and pricing. Our tesa division achieved +2.9% organic sales growth, with nominal sales slightly lower. This was primarily driven by the outstanding performance of our electronics division in the second quarter. Our first half year sales growth is in line with the full year guidance for the tesa business segment. We're pleased to report that our consumer business division has delivered strong organic sales growth of +8.0% for the first half of the year, with Q1 growth at +10.0% and Q2 growth at +6.1%. This is in line with our guidance. Let's take a closer look at the regional breakdown within our consumer business. In the first half of the year, almost all regions showed strong growth. Europe grew by +6.8% like-for-like, accelerated by the successful performance of our Derma and NIVEA business. Within Europe, Western Europe grew by +5.1%, driven by strong performances in Germany, Italy, the U.K., and Spain, significantly offsetting the unfavorable performances of the La Prairie travel retail business, which is accounted for in Western Europe. Eastern Europe achieved an impressive double-digit organic sales growth of +13.8%. Sales across all countries of Eastern Europe showed a remarkable increase. The brands and categories contributing the most were NIVEA face care, body care, and deo, along with Eucerin Sun and Face. In the Africa, Asia, Australia region, we delivered a remarkable double-digit growth of +13.9%, driven by the outstanding performance of our core brands, NIVEA and Eucerin, and exceptional results in Indonesia, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. The Americas region continued its positive growth trajectory, with Latin America achieving organic sales growth of +9.3%. This growth has been mainly driven by the double-digit growth in the dynamic countries of Brazil and Mexico, which offset the challenges in Argentina. Without Argentina, the growth in Latin America would be double digit. In North America, we faced a challenging market environment in the overall skincare market, resulting in a -1.8% organic sales growth for the first half of this year. A key driver was the softness of the sun care market due to bad weather conditions, which affected our sun care brand, Coppertone, in particular. We are, however, winning market share for our largest brands, NIVEA, Eucerin, and Aquaphor. We remain confident for the full year and are already seeing signs of recovery in July. In addition, our Derma face launch in the U.S. is starting off well, with Eucerin outperforming key competitors, and significant distribution gains, namely Target, are still to come in the second half of 2024. Overall, we are happy with the strong and balanced performance across our regions. Let's turn our attention to gross margin in our consumer business. On the back of significant pricing measures over the past 12 months, we managed to more than offset the increase in input costs in the first half of the year, which also demonstrates the pricing power of our brands. The cost increase is driven by unfavorable foreign exchange, while true underlying cost of sales are declining year-over-year. Together with a positive mix effect, this led to an impressive gross margin improvement of +110 basis points, despite the challenges we faced in the luxury segment. Let me provide you with some insights on the development of our marketing budget. As we had outlined during the Capital Markets Day, our priority is to increase the working media budget with a strong emphasis on digital channels. As you can see from this graph, we continue to make significant progress in this area. We have increased our marketing spend as a% of sales by 200 basis points, 190 of which are due to increased working media spend, a clear proof of our commitment to accelerate the investments behind our brands. We have also placed a greater focus on digital media and have increased our share in this area. I would like to give you some color around our EBIT development. Although we reported a lower EBIT margin compared to the first half of the previous year, we are still on track to deliver our plan and guidance. As already mentioned earlier, we have shifted our investment phasing to achieve a more balanced profitability in the first and second half of the year. We are committed to our full year guidance of +50 basis points EBIT margin expansion. Overall, we are confident in our midterm EBIT guidance of at least +50 basis points and remain focused on delivering profitable growth. On working capital, we are pleased to report a significant improvement in the first half of the year, with a working capital ratio to net sales of 5.6%, we are fully on track to get closer to the 5% target. This achievement is largely due to our constant focus on optimizing our payment terms and overall payment process. We continue to see further potential at the, as there was a slight increase in trade receivables driven by mix. We also had a temporary inventory buildup to maintain an optimal service level, to secure the supply of materials with limited availability, and to avoid bottlenecks in uncertain times. Let us now move to the tesa business in more detail. We are delighted to report that our tesa business achieved remarkable organic sales growth of +11.4% in the second quarter, resulting in a solid first half of 2024, with organic sales growth of +2.9%. This was largely driven by the exceptional performance of our electronics business and a positive development of our print and packaging solutions and our automotive business. However, it is important to note that the outstanding performance of our electronics business is supported by phasing effects, as key smartphone manufacturers have moved parts of their production capacities from China to India. Despite this extraordinary effect, we are thrilled with the results and remain fully in line with our expectations for the full year. With tesa, we invest a significant part of our annual sales in the development of new products and technologies. Collaboration with customers is key to a future-proof business. Listening to customers' needs, influencing their solutions, and performing tests are essential in the collaboration to gain projects and drive our sales. Current innovative technologies are, for example, debonding on demand, which is a new generation of intelligent and innovative adhesive tapes that can be removed as required. They have the potential to reduce the amount of waste, facilitate recycling, and enable product repairs. Other examples include human machine interfaces, EV battery solutions, and structural bonding. Let me conclude the financial overview with our group income statement. We are particularly proud that we have reached the EUR 5 billion threshold in the first half of this year. As already explained, we shifted our investments across the semesters to balance our profitability. Therefore, our EBIT margin, excluding special factors, decreased compared to the first half of 2023. However, we are very pleased with our strong gross margin progression. Additionally, in relative terms, our expenses are still below the full year 2023, and we are fully in line with our forecasts and guidance. As pointed out in our Capital Markets Day, we are committed to delivering profitable growth and to staying disciplined in our cost. This is an essential part of our Win with Care strategy. The income statement for the first half of 2024 clearly confirms this. Over to you, Vincent. Thank you, Astrid. If we look at our above market growth in the first half of the year, in contrast to the ongoing macroeconomic volatility around the globe, we confirm our sales guidance for full year 2024, as well as our ambition for profitable growth. Beiersdorf expects organic sales growth in a range of 6%-8% in the consumer business segment. The EBIT margin, excluding special factors in the consumer business segment, will be 50 basis points above the previous year's level. Beiersdorf also expects sales growth above the market in the tesa business segment, which translates to expecting organic sales growth in the range of 2%-5%. The EBIT margin from ongoing operations, excluding special factors, will be at the level of the previous year. Based on the forecast of the two business segments, group organic sales growth is expected to be in the range of 6%-8%. Beiersdorf anticipates the consolidated EBIT margin, excluding special factors, to be slightly above the previous year's level. Thank you very much for your attention and interest. Astrid and I are now eager to hear your questions, and I will hand back over to Christopher, who will kick off the Q&A session. Thank you, Vincent and Astrid. You will now have the opportunity to ask questions. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one, and please remember that we have a maximum of two questions per caller. The first question today comes from Jeremy Fialko from HSBC. Please go ahead. Okay. Hi. Hi, morning. Thanks for taking the questions. So, the first one is on Western Europe. Obviously, when we look at that Q2 versus Q1, the numbers you report show a big slowdown, but could you perhaps just sort of split that out between, let's say, the underlying growth of the kind of core Western European markets, how that was in Q1, Q2, versus just purely the impact of La Prairie? And then following up on the last part of that, just give us your thoughts on where La Prairie might end up in the second half. Clearly, you have very easy comparatives, but at the same time, the markets and the underlying sell-out is quite slow. Thanks. Thank you, Jeremy. As you pointed out, obviously, Western Europe is impacted by La Prairie travel retail, and this is obviously a strong negative in double digit. We are growing, in fact, in the second quarter, if you exclude La Prairie, we are growing high single digits in Western Europe, and it is driven by, in fact, the upper-inclusivity, the same growth on NIVEA, Derma, and Healthcare, which is mid-single digit, and giving us first semester, which is growing, including La Prairie, at +5%. On your question on La Prairie, obviously, we show you that we are doing well outside Greater China. We are growing retail sale 20%, and within China, we are doing better than the market. The big question is obviously the evolution of the Chinese market. For the timing, as you mentioned, we have a good historical comparative data, because last year, in Q3 and Q4, we destocked both Hainan and the overall travel retail market, but we are very cautious. We want to see the way the market is developing, and we believe that it will be obviously a better performance than what we have achieved over Q1 and Q2. The next question comes from Fulvio Cazzol from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I was a little bit surprised with the slowdown in the derma from about 10.2% in Q1 to around 6.5% in Q2. I was just wondering if you can put some context on the rollout of the face care products in the U.S. market, and whether there's going to be a more meaningful contribution from this in the second half of this year? And then, of course, Epicelline, you know, that could also contribute. So, could you maybe just give some comments on how you see the derma growth evolving in the second half versus what we've seen so far this year? And then my second question is on the margin weakness, which you highlighted. It reflects quite a meaningful step up in investments behind the brand. I was just, again, sort of trying to understand why it kind of falls so much more into H1, when it sounds like a lot of the big launches are happening in the second half. Why is this timing difference that we're seeing in the P&L, is it to do with, say, retailer listing fees in the U.S., or are there other factors that can explain that? Thank you. I will take the first question on derma, and Astrid will answer on the margin. On derma, you're right, you pointed out that, in fact, the big things are coming in the second semester. We just introduced Eucerin Face in the US only in three customers. It was at the end of the second quarter. So in those customers, which are CVS, Amazon, we are doing pretty well. We are growing double-digit and doing an extremely good job in comparison with the market. But the big part of Eucerin Face US is coming right now. We're introducing right now Eucerin Face to Target. So this is obviously a big game changer for us. And also, even more, you know, in January 2025, we're coming with Eucerin Thiamidol, which is the biggest growth driver of derma across the world. We're happy to be able, you know, to give access to American consumers to Thiam idol. On Epicelline, you understand the excitement of the team. I just I was looking at the first figures in the UK, because you can find Epicelline at Boots, you know, today in the UK. We are overperforming the market, but also overperforming our best SKUs. I was looking also at the ratings of consumers and the sales forecast. I mean, you look at the slide four times more than what we achieved with Thiam idol in the first year. We are launching Epicelline in all countries of Europe and most of the emerging markets in the coming six months. So obviously it will be a huge, you know, game changer for derma. This is why we're pretty optimistic for the, for the year to go in derma. You have also to keep in mind that we are also looking at the performance of, partly Q2, but also Q1, compared to last year, a 26% growth. So which is obviously something which is, which is not easy to match, or a +10% versus a +26% is a pretty good, performance for derma. Astrid, question on La Prairie? On margin? Margin. Yes. So, you speak about margin weakness. We do not consider our performance margin weakness. If you might remember, if you attended the Capital Markets Day, I even got a question related to the very strong EBIT first half versus second half, and I did mention that we will attempt to balance that much more so. And here, the investment is really to continue to drive our business, and it's actually related to a bit to your question, your third question in terms of second half launches. We have a much more balanced portfolio than in the prior year in terms of launches. We've already quite significantly supported the U.S. face care launch in terms of media, as well as we've tried to support our sun care business much more strongly and have achieved very great results in the first half, related to that business. Additionally, we did have some pullback in terms of support last year in the first half, given some negotiations with customers, and that is quite a different picture this year. Our strong investment in media is purposeful. We planned that. Also, in our other investments, digital and so on, they're planned. They're really investment phasing to a great extent. We really still feel very, very strongly about our margin to go, and it's also built on strong performance, as you've seen, of gross margin there. Despite the weight of La Prairie clearly not helping gross margin, we've performed very, very well. So we're quite confident about our performance in that regard. Thank you so much. Very good. Thank you for that. The next question comes from Celine Pannuti from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Celine Pannuti, your line is open. Yes, thank you. Good morning. Thank you for the questions. So my first question is on the deceleration, so, yeah, deceleration in Europe, excluding La Prairie—how do you expect the market performance in the second half? Because I presume we still have some benefit from pricing that is going to normalize in the second half of the year. And I think, Vincent, you were talking about high single digit in Western Europe, excluding La Prairie. I I wonder whether this is, you know, if you could give us the impact of sun care and excluding sun care, how competitive your performance is in terms of market share. And then maybe my second question relating to that is on the 6%-8% organic growth for the year. Obviously, you did base in consumer for the first half. That leaves some bandwidth success to deliver for the second half of the year. I was wondering what kind of expectation you have for the- I mean, the impact of those launches, if any, meaningful impact for the second half of the year, and whether, given the deceleration we see in the business, you would expect to deliver more at the bottom end of the 6-8 range. Yes, and then maybe just one last question on Latin America, Argentina. Could you please provide the impact on Q1 and Q2? Was there any difference in Q2 in terms of the impact it had on the business? Thank you. Celine, I will take the first question, and Astrid will take the second one and third question. In Europe, you have to remember that in Q1, 2023, this is where we came with an extremely strong price increase, so we faced, you know, some retaliation from some key customers, particularly in Germany and France. While Q2, I would say is more normalized because, you know, last year we had a normal business, and this year we are also not facing any big issue with customers, despite the fact that we ran again a price increase. When you look at the market share, we are growing in market share in the all skincare category, with one exception, which is in fact, lip care. In lip care, you know, we had to change, we changed the full line of lip care, and we increased also strongly the prices. We have some customers which are clearly using this Labello and NIVEA Lip as a kind of retaliation against us because of the price increase, so we are losing market share on lip care. But we are growing in face care, we're growing in body, we're growing in men, and also we are maintaining our market share in deodorant, which is also an achievement because we are investing less on deodorant than we used to do, focusing on investment on the skincare. On Derma, we are doing a fantastic first semester in Europe. We are clearly leveraging not only sun, where we are gaining market share every year since three years, but we are also continuing to expand the Thiamidol range. We are still growing, you know, 40% on, on Thiamidol, despite the fact we are still on the- we are on the fifth year of growth, and we have not yet, you know, fully leveraged the, the, the brand. So all in all, this explain, you know, the fact that the Q2 is below the Q1 in terms of growth, simply due also to the fact that we are entering into a more normalized time in terms of relationship with, with customer. Astrid, question two and three? The next question comes from Sorry, no, we have not finished answering Celine's question. Oh, my, my apologies. Sorry. Please go ahead. On your, on your second question related to guidance, top line guidance of 6%-8% and our expectations there, I think we are in a very similar place to how we were at the end of Q1, highlighting that the two areas, you know, of concern certainly, as we just mentioned, and also North America, feel... We're winning market share, we are seeing a recovery at the beginning of, this, quarter now, so we feel good about that. It should help us, you know, within this 6%-8% range. In terms of La Prairie, that is obviously the big question, and, based on these two regions, we'll have to see whether that ends up being at the higher or the lower end of that range, but we feel quite confident about our plans. In terms of. Astrid, excuse me, I think you cut off for most of the first part of your question, your answer. Could you please repeat, please? I had repeated again what I had said, so my apologies that I was cut up, but I said again the same things again. Yeah. And then in terms of LATAM, the impact was quite similar to end half year. So similar impact, obviously quite significant declines. You know that we report organic and nominal growth the same way. So we take a quite, you know, a strong approach to LATAM to Argentina, and it's obviously having an impact. We have a very sizable Derma business there, also sizable NIVEA business, and it's having an impact. We've already shown quite a few of the numbers without, and, you know, let me just call out Derma. You know, Derma without Argentina and double-digit growth. If for one minute you also allow me to just exclude, North America, given the market softness for Derma, we continue to have very nice performance there, and it's very broad based. Many, many different countries. Germany, we mentioned 15% growth, emerging markets, many countries that are top countries for Derma performing very well. So again, a really good performance there, impacted by a couple of countries. I'm sorry to insist, but we didn't hear your answer when you answered my question on the 6-8 guide. Okay, so I'll repeat it again. So what I mentioned there is that in terms of our top line guidance, 6%-8%, we feel quite the same way as we had been at the end of Q1, when we had mentioned that obviously that range will be impacted upper or lower end based on the performance of La Prairie, clearly. And Vincent had spoken about, you know, the challenges there. We'll have to see where the market is. Our performance, certainly in terms of what we're trying to do, is prepared for, you know, a good back half. And then the second one is North America. Again, there, the market slowdown that we've seen, at least for the first half, again, we feel very strongly about our three major brands there and the, you know, the plans we have for the back half, we're growing share there, and we are seeing positive signs there in the first part of Q3, at least with very good performance. So, but those two really are our major drivers in terms of where in that range of 6%-8% we will land. Excellent. Thank you so much. That's it. The next question comes from Guillaume Delmas from UBS. Please go ahead. Thank you very much, Christopher, and good morning, Vincent and Astrid. Two questions from me as well, please. The first one, more of a follow-up on La Prairie. Vincent, you mentioned that the brand managed to outperform the market in the first half of the year. Just to be clear, is the comment China-specific, or are you talking about the global luxury beauty market? Because if it's the latter, that would mean that the luxury market, you think, declined by more than 7%, in the first half, unless you're talking about sell out versus sell-in. And looking ahead for La Prairie, I mean, would you still expect La Prairie to achieve positive organic sales growth for the year, 2024 as a whole? Maybe some word on the most recent development of the brand, I don't know, late June, July, to maybe give us confidence we'll see that immediate uptick. Then my second question, it's Guillaume, sorry to interrupt you. Would you mind repeating the beginning of your first question? We had difficulties hearing it. If you just Yeah, of course. If you wouldn't mind repeating it. Thank you so much. No, no, of course. So it was about the comment around outperformance of La Prairie versus the market, and simply wondering whether this comment was China-specific or it was for the global luxury beauty market. Because with minus 7% organic sales growth, that would imply a very significant contraction for the luxury market in the first half. So any color on that would be helpful. And then my second question, going back to North America, I think the consumer division here achieved a negative mid-single digit organic sales growth in Q2. Could you maybe shed some light on the softness in the skincare category you are seeing at the moment there? What do you think, you know, it is driven by? Is it just sun care, or is it more reflective of a change in consumer behavior? And again, am I right to read into your comments around July or the start of the quarter being good, the number of new product launches, am I right to read into this that you would expect, at least for your organic sales growth, a immediate uptick, from Q3 for North America? Thank you very much. I will answer the first question on La Prairie and luxury. Globally, the first I was showing were China. This, the Chinese market, the Chinese ecosystem, which includes brick-and-mortar, which includes Hainan, which includes e-commerce. Ladies and gentlemen, yes, the operator, we currently cannot hear the speaker line. Please stay connected while we try to reconnect the speaker, please. Ladies and gentlemen, speaker's now reconnected. Please resume the conference. Guillaume, I will repeat. I'm sorry, we have some issues. I don't know if it's here or there. So back on the market, luxury market, declining market in China ecosystem, which includes brick-and-mortar, Hainan, and e-commerce, we are outperforming this market in the sense that we are declining less than the market, which is the difference of eight point I was giving before. In the rest of the world, the market is flattish, and we are overperforming the market, particularly in countries like Japan, countries also like France, Germany, U.K., and also in the U.S., where we are gaining market share. On your question about North America, clearly the beginning of the year was strongly negative on sun care. The first time, we had a little hiccup in April, and you might remember I mentioned that in the Capital Markets Day. A small increase of market and then declining, and particularly the two big events, you know, for the sun season in the U.S., which are the Memorial Day and Easter, the market was very negative because of the weather. Since June, things are getting better. They are also getting better for us. We have done a very strong month of July at plus 20%. We are also gaining market share on Eucerin, on Aquaphor, on NIVEA. And as I mentioned, the fact that now we are expanding the distribution of Eucerin Face to big customers like Target is also obviously making us more optimistic regarding the U.S. Thank you very much for that. Vincent, just so I, I understood properly, it was +20% for consumer in North America in the month of July. Is that what you said? Absolutely. Absolutely. So the combination of NIVEA, Eucerin, Aquaphor, Coppertone, we did +20% in July and August seems pretty positive. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Rashad Kawan from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, and, thanks for taking my questions. Two for me, please. So the first one, you talked about consumer A&P spend up 200 basis points year-over-year. I know you talked about more balanced kind of phasing through the year, but curious if you think we're entering a phase where you'd need a higher step up in A&P to drive growth, given the weak macro and increased competitiveness in the States, particularly in markets like the US and China? And then just a technical question. Tax rate in the first half was about 32%, I think. Should we assume a similar level in the second half, and, and what's really driving, that versus, the midterm guide of about 28%? Thank you. Rashad, I will take both of your questions here. So the consumer spend is really driven by us and our strategic initiatives, less about competitive pressure to, you know, to spend. And again, it's taking a more balanced approach and really looking also where we have the most effective spend throughout the year. We continue to measure that, and obviously looking to ensure that we put our dollars where it makes the most impact. So it's not something where we see really the pressure from competition. It's more so in really support of our key initiatives, our key drivers of growth. In terms of your question on second half tax rate, yes, we did have an impact, in the first half related to some withholding taxes, which should reverse in year to go. There are some other one-time impacts, though, that impact this first half, such as, for example, a smaller impairment write-down on the tesa business, which has no tax correlation. And obviously, what we have, also reflected a bit of a step up, but it's really small, related to Pillar Two taxation. So we should see an overall picture for the year that is better, than certainly what we've seen it in the first half. Thank you. The next question comes from Iain Simpson from Barclays. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Good morning. A A couple of questions from me, please. Firstly, can we talk a little bit about the phasing of sun care sell-in, sell-out? So you called out double-digit sun care growth for NIVEA and Eucerin in H1, but I would have thought that sell-out was a bit weaker than that, given the poor weather. So is there any risk we see some sun destock in Q3, or is that not something we need to worry about? And secondly, a little bit of help on the phasing of margin, if I could. So, you know, if I just take your margin guidance for consumer, that implies circa 200 basis points EBIT margin expansion in the H2. I'm guessing, given that you've talked so much about how hopeful you are for the Epicelline launch, that A&P will be up in H2 to support that Epicelline launch. So that implies gross margins really up in H2, and I'm sort of intrigued by your comment about how raw materials ex FX are coming down year on year. But, but any sort of sense checking of my math there, greatly appreciated, in particular A&P and gross margin phasing. Thank you. Thank you for your question. On sun care, you know, the healthiness of the business model of sun care is that we are no longer into a game of overstocking and destocking after, in the sense that the retailers are no longer returning the products. So what the sell-in we are doing is, in fact, is taking into account the anticipation of the sellout. Which means that, in fact, we are not expecting any destocking or returns in the second semester, and we are pretty safe on the forecast for sun care. What is happening, you're absolutely right. In fact, most of the sell-in is happening in the second quarter, and most of the sellout is happening in the third quarter. In fact, you don't do any sell in in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. Of course, I'm talking, the, the, north part of the world, in South America, in Chile and Brazil, this is a little bit, different. So we feel safe about sun care. We have some challenge in some markets, because obviously the private labels are gaining market share, but we are able to manage our market share, and particularly, as I said, with, with Eucerin, which is gaining market share every year, since three years. On the second question, Astrid? Yeah. So let me take your question related to phasing. Just to be very clear, we will not be increasing A&P spend 200 basis points for the full year. That is not going to happen. A bulk of our increase in the first half of the year is phasing related also to the launches in support of that, and again, to really drive effective spending of our A&P budget. That said, we do have more spend in year to go, in percent to sales in absolute, so we are really supporting the business adequately in to go.... In terms of gross margin, if you look at our business regularly, so not just this year, but it tends to have a higher gross margin, maybe outside of hiccups when we had really big cost increases the last couple of years. Higher gross margin in the first half, driven by obviously also the very strong sun care business we have in the first half. Regardless of that, though, our gross margin improvement is very strong. We feel strong about that, and we should continue to see a good performance in that area. Thank you so much. The next question comes from Tom Sykes from DB. Please go ahead. Yeah, morning. Thank you. Would you be able to clarify how much of your business now is at category average price points or above? And then if you look at the growth rate of the business, sort of split between those above category average price and those below, how would the growth differ? And I suppose I'm quite curious as particularly those which are perhaps the, the least premium or the most mass, how the growth of those is performing, relative to the rest of the group and your expectations for those into H2. And, and then just to clarify, you're saying you still expect A&P to be, to sales to be up year-on-year in H2, please? We'll take the first question, Astrid will take the second one. In fact, the good news is that both categories are growing the same way. In the first, I think you have in mind NIVEA, obviously, yeah? If you look at NIVEA, if you look at the growth of Thiamidol, which are obviously the most premium product of NIVEA, as I say, we are growing 24%, so we are clearly growing very fast. But if you look at deodorants, if you look at lip care, if you look at sun, which are products, you know, below 10 EUR, we are still growing strongly double-digit. The only categories on which we are not growing as fast are the products which are no longer a priority for us. Products like, for example, shower gels, you know, or shaving foams, which are priced below EUR 2 and which are absolutely not a part of the strategy. So, very, very homogeneous growth between the two categories, but obviously the investment we put it on premium product and particularly on face care. Second question? So, Tom, your question related to A&P. For the full year, we absolutely plan to have more A&P spend in absolute and also slightly in percentage sales. You will need to remember, though, that that is also an equation of our weight of the business, depending on how the various, let's say, brands and regions perform, and that mix impact could always, swing one way or another. But, the intent, certainly in our plans for right now, is for having more A&P spend overall for the year. Right. Thank you. The next question comes from Bruno Monteyne from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. I'd like to come back on the phasing shift between H1 and H2. I'm sort of, you didn't really mention it before, they're definitely not the same size. I sort of noticed a downgrade to 50 basis points margin increase rather than at least. You're talking about the effects that are on those margins, so all these are quite negative, and I'm thinking: Was this really a defensive necessity? Was it simply that everybody is putting a lot more A&P in the market, and you had to drive from NIVEA, really forced you to reshift profitability? Would that be a better characterization rather than a proactive move where you decide to move it? And the second one, have you seen any increase in the level of promotional intensity in your NIVEA brand, particularly in the U.S.? You know, is it harder to hold on to your net pricing there, yes or no? Thank you. Bruno, I will take your first question related to phasing. It is really our proactive decision to balance that much more between first and second half. One, as I mentioned, because of the timing of launches and so on, versus the previous year. There's also been a bit of a difference in terms of how we've supported the business last 2023 first half, given also some disruption with customers. So there are... This is really, truly a purposeful shift. It's not being forced to spend more to keep up with competition, but it's really our intent, and I did mention this at the Capital Markets Day. Also, in the challenge from mostly all the analysts, why we are making so much profit in the first half and so little in the second half, but it's really a purposeful shift, so not pressure from external to make that happen. On your second question, we know, no, there is no increase of promotional spending in the U.S. It's also a market which is pretty positive for brands because private labels have a pretty low market share, much lower than what you find in Europe. So, so far, no change, neither regarding Beiersdorf nor our competitors, and which is also why, as I mentioned in the beginning, we're able to improve dramatically our gross margin in the U.S. on both, you know, NIVEA and Coppertone, knowing that Eucerin Aquaphor already very high. Thank you. The next question comes from Olivier Nicolai, from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, Vincent, Astrid, and Christopher. Couple of very quick questions on my side, actually. Some of your peers in the U.S. have been calling out to slow down in the U.S. category, the U.S. skincare category, mostly do you see a similar dynamic, and are you concerned it could become potentially structural? And then secondly, Jesse mentioned Coppertone very briefly. Obviously, you flagged that there is some softness in the brand, more the sun care category really than anything else, but what is the strategy for the Coppertone brand ultimately? I know it's probably less exciting in term of innovation, but Eucerin or NIVEA, but what is the plan for this brand which you bought a few years ago? Thank you. Yeah, on your first question, so there was indeed clearly a slowdown. The good news, and I think it was mentioned also, in the calls done by my peers, June is much better. So we see clearly June getting better in terms of sellout, not only in sun care, but also in skincare. So, we used to be—we were negative, I would say, on the year to date May basis, but June has been positive, and this is why we are more optimistic regarding the U.S. business. On your question about Coppertone, if you allow me an image, you know, we used to try to fix, you know, the issue of Coppertone with OTC medicines; we have to move to prescription medicine. In the sense that, you know, we have to make more dramatic changes. We are too much dependent on sport, and sport is a business which is highly competitive. Neutrogena is very strong, and whereas as soon as there is a little bit of rain, you're not using the product, so we have to refocus, and this is what we are starting to do on face care. As a matter of fact, on the face care product we have launched this year, we have the best performance of the market. We have to change also the image of the brand. We have to move away from this kind of old, traditional American way of life, to something which is much more talking about innovation. We have, as you know, pretty good innovation in the area of sun care. So we're gonna be much more daring in the way we promote the technology innovation of our brand. And we'll continue; we need to over-invest in face care with new initiative, new product, new advertising campaigns, in order really to transform the brand and to get, you know, on Coppertone, the kind of success we are having on both NIVEA and Eucerin. 'Cause it's very important to see that on both brands, we are overperforming the market, and there is no other competitor globally, which is, you know, able to perform the way we are performing on Eucerin and NIVEA. So more to come on the Coppertone, and clearly, we have some pretty good ideas what we have to do to turn around the brand. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Molly Wylenzek from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. I just have one question. In your outlook statement, you say you expect further improvement in the global skincare market in the second half of 2024. Obviously, sounds like some of that's coming from the US. Just, you know, could you tell me where else you think that that's gonna happen? And if the 6%-8% guidance is reliant on that? Thank you. Clearly, we are very optimistic regarding the US, as I said, not only because the market is waking up, also because we're coming with a few, big things. I was mentioning Thiamidol, and Thiamidol will be a game changer for Eucerin. And Thiamidol is also launched, by the way, on NIVEA Men US also. We are clearly also optimistic regarding the year to go because of the innovation we are bringing to the market. You know, skincare is a market which is driven by innovation. So if we are, and we will be able to deliver the kind of sales forecast we have on Epicelline, we will clearly, clearly grow. As I mentioned in my speech, it start with Eucerin, but of course, you will not be surprised if I tell you that in 2026, we'll see it also on NIVEA and La Prairie and Chantecaille. The question mark still remain China. Not so much the mass market business. As a matter of fact, we are growing with NIVEA at +24% in Greater China. We are growing even at +50% on Eucerin in Q2, so I would say on NIVEA and Eucerin in China, we're pretty good. The question will be more the evolution of the Chinese market, and particularly, you know, the brick and mortar market and the travel retail. All of that, knowing that China, as you know, is not a big part of our business today, makes us more optimistic regarding the evolution of the market in the months to come. The next question comes from Victoria Petrova from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. I have two question. One is on your innovation on Epicelline. When we look at Thiamidol launch year and the year after, it generated between EUR 40 million and EUR 50 million in launch year, and slightly over EUR 100 million in the next year. How should we think about Epicelline in this context, and also considering your slide on a much higher contribution to sales overall? And my second question is on ongoing negotiation with, in particular, Western European retailers. Are you getting any pushback on pricing? Is there any potential negotiation, negotiations ongoing regarding price increase from your side, or price decrease from their side, and how should we think about it into the second half of the year? Thank you so much. On your first question, the jury is out. You know, we are now in the field. We are now on shelf. You know, I saw myself in Boots, you know, the highest ever distribution level for a new product is showing that we are not the only one trusting this launch. I gave you at the Capital Markets Day, the level of purchase intent, 87% people saying, "I will surely buy the product." I've never seen that in my life. And also, what is very important, you know, that the anti-age market is much, much bigger than the hyperpigmentation category. So by going into what is perhaps more red ocean than the blue ocean with such an Epicelline proposal, which is really a game changer, we are expecting, you know, really to overperform versus Thiamidol. But I don't want to be over-promising. Let's see what happens. We have done, I would say, a much better launch than what we did, what I did myself six years ago with Thiamidol, because we are launching everywhere at the same time with the same product, and we're also cascading it down to other brands much quicker than what we used to do on Thiamidol. So I think we will see, but as I said, the first figures in the UK, and UK is a very interesting market because you see immediately if innovation is picking up or not, is making me extremely optimistic. On your second question, we are into a business-as-usual moment, in a sense that, yes, we came with a price increase. In Europe, it was around 3-4%, depending on the categories. We had the usual, you know, irritations with retailers, but we had no delisting, no stop of sales, you know, no banning from the promotional event, so we are pretty good, but it's never a walk in the park, and we know that when we come with the next price increase, we will have also this kind of conversation. But nothing compared with the versus what we had last year when we came with a, it is true, with an extremely strong price increase. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Mikheil Omanadze from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Morning, all. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, please. One follow-up, really, again, on your outlook. If I think about your comments at the Capital Markets Day, if I remember correctly, you said that +6 would clearly be a disappointment, and I think the market it interpreted it as, well, maybe you are expecting actually to achieve growth in the upper end of this range. Have your thoughts changed at all since the Capital Markets Day on this year's growth outlook for consumer? And the second one is on the share buyback. I think that looking at what you've done already in terms of your share buyback activity, the EUR 500 million is almost completed now. Can we expect another share buyback to be announced anytime soon, or is it rather a matter to be discussed at the next AGM? Thank you. Thank you for the question. I would repeat exactly what I said in the Capital Market Day. I would be disappointed if we were at the bottom, you know, part of the 6-8 guidance. So clearly, we are absolutely maintaining the guidance we provided, and this is true not only for sales, this is also true for EBIT. We will deliver what we promised. In terms of the share buyback, we are also very excited that it's gone very well, and you are right. We're nearly at the end of the share buyback. Look, we're extremely excited, obviously, this year that we've made progress on both the dividend and the share buyback, but we are not ready right now to announce anything new. That said, you can be sure that these are topics we discuss regularly with our supervisory board, and we'll figure out what will happen come next spring, when we announce, obviously, our next year's result or this year's results. Thank you. Very clear. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Marleen Kaesebie r from Reuters. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you very much. I was curious, you mentioned in the beginning, or at an earlier question, that you faced customer retaliation after hiking your prices in Europe. Could you specify a little bit more, what you mean by that and what you saw? That would be great. Thank you. Last year, you know, when we came with a double-digit price increase, obviously it was a premiere for Beiersdorf, and we had a good rationale behind that because the cost of goods was increasing the same level. But customers were not used to that. So we had indeed some retaliation from key customers in Germany and France, which means, for example, we are banned from big promotional events. We are delisted, you know, on some categories, and the consumers could not find the product. So we had that, and obviously it impacted strongly the first quarter in 2023. In 2024, the situation is totally different. There is no retaliation except in some cases, as I mentioned, our lip care line, which has been delisted because, you know, we came with a pretty good price increase. But we are just into the normal negotiation on price increases, and so far, no burning issue. Just as I said, the normal, tense discussions we are having with retailers, at least it is not impacting our business, and we don't see why it will impact in the coming months. Okay. Thank you. Today's last question comes from Ulrike Dauer from Dow Jones. Please go ahead. Ms. Dauer, your line is open. Ms. Dauer, we cannot hear you. If there are no further questions, I think then we can, so this would conclude Yes. Our half-year 1 earnings call. Thank you for your participation. Beiersdorf's next investor relations event will be the release of our 9-month sales figures on October 24th. We appreciate very much your interest in Beiersdorf. Thank you very much, and have a nice day, everyone.