Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Bertelsmann interim results conference call. I will take you through the slides, which has been made available to you on our website. Should you have any questions, I will be more than happy to answer them at the end of my presentation. I will now begin with the highlights and key topics of the first half year 2026 on page number one. Bertelsmann recorded a strong business performance in the first half of 2026. Revenues increased to EUR 9.3 billion, with organic revenue growth of 5.1%. The EBITDA margin improved and group profit increased. Our financial position remains sound. The leverage factor stood at 2.4 x EBITDA, while the equity ratio was 47%. Our commitment to a prudent financial policy remains unchanged. Operating free cash flow was lower due to higher investments in music rights. We continued to make strong progress on our strategic growth priorities. Major milestones included the acquisition of Sky Deutschland and the planned combination of BMG and Concord. I will further provide details on these and other strategic progress later in the presentation. For the full year 2026, we expect strong revenue growth and a significant increase in operating EBITDA adjusted, supported by accelerated growth from our strategic initiatives. Now to an overview of our group key figures on slide number two. Despite negative exchange rate effects and the absence of contributions from RTL Nederland, revenues increased by 2.3% to EUR 9.3 billion, while organic growth accelerated to 5.1%. Operating EBITDA adjusted increased by 4.9% to EUR 1.3 billion, resulting in an improved EBITDA margin of 14.1%. Earnings growth at BMG, Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments more than offset slight declines in other businesses. Group profit increased significantly to EUR 292 million, reflecting the improved operating performance across the group. Let's turn to slide three, which shows revenue and operating EBITDA adjusted by division. RTL Group recorded a decline in reported revenues of 6.4% to EUR 2.9 billion, primarily reflecting the sale of RTL Nederland in prior year. Despite lower revenues at Fremantle and declining TV advertising revenues were stable on an organic basis, mainly driven by higher streaming revenues. Operating EBITDA adjusted was largely stable at EUR 347 million, supported by achieving profitability in the streaming business for the first time, and positive contributions from the inclusion of Sky Deutschland. Penguin Random House increased revenues by 2.3% to EUR 2.4 billion. Positive organic growth, supported by a strong performance of new releases and backlist titles, as well as continued business expansion, more than compensated for negative exchange rate effects. Operating EBITDA adjusted declined slightly to EUR 251 million, mainly due to higher costs and negative exchange rate effects. BMG delivered further growth in the first half of the year. Revenues increased by 4.9% to EUR 444 million, with a strong organic growth of 8.1%, driven by both the music publishing and recorded music businesses. Operating EBITDA adjusted rose to EUR 127 million, while the EBITDA margin remained at the prior year's record level. Arvato Group again reported strong growth in both revenues and earnings. Revenues increased by 7.3% to EUR 2.2 billion, driven primarily by the continued expansion of its logistics services business. Operating EBITDA adjusted increased by 8.6% to EUR 396 million, supported by positive contributions from the logistics, financial services, and IT services businesses. While growth-related startup losses in logistics services partly limited earnings growth. Bertelsmann Marketing Services, our marketing and printing services provider, continued to operate in a challenging market environment. Revenues decreased by 5.4% to EUR 418 million, reflecting lower demand for print products and marketing services. Operating EBITDA adjusted declined to EUR 7 million, mainly due to lower earnings contributions from the U.S. book printing business and DeutschlandCard. Bertelsmann Education Group delivered strong growth in both earnings and revenues. Revenues increased by 6.6% to EUR 511 million, driven by organic growth across all operating units. Operating EBITDA adjusted increased by 11.5% to EUR 211 million, with Afya and Relias making the largest contributions to earnings growth. Bertelsmann Investments reported a significant increase in revenues to EUR 451 million, driven primarily by the continued strong business performance of Applike. Operating EBITDA adjusted increased to EUR 57 million. Slide number four shows the reconciliation from operating EBITDA adjusted to group profit. The first item after operating EBITDA adjusted is depreciation and amortization, which were slightly above the prior year at EUR -573 million, reflecting continued investments in the business. Special items amounted to EUR -151 million and improved significantly compared to the prior year. This was mainly driven by positive fair value measurements in the Bertelsmann Investments portfolio, partly offset by higher reorganization expenses and acquisition-related costs associated with major transactions. The financial result was EUR -168 million, mainly reflecting higher financial expense. Income tax expense was higher, also due to higher earnings before taxes. In total, group profit increased by EUR 201 million to EUR 292 million. Let me now turn to slide number five at our cash flow and investments. Operating free cash flow and our cash conversion rate decreased compared to last year's level, mainly due to higher CapEx and higher adjustments, partly offset by a lower increase in net working capital. Economic investments remained at a high level. The largest investment in the first half of 2026 was RTL Group's acquisition of Sky Deutschland. Higher CapEx reflects further investments in growth and expansion initiatives, particularly the acquisition of music rights at BMG and in the logistics site network and automation technology at Arvato Group. Slide six shows our financial status. Economic debt increased to EUR 6.4 billion, mainly driven by higher net debt. Besides the aforementioned investment activities, the higher debt position also reflects seasonal patterns, such as dividend and interest payments in the first half of the year. As a result, the leverage factor stood at 2.4 x EBITDA at the end of June 2026, compared to 2.0 x EBITDA at year-end 2025. Our equity ratio stood at 47%, remaining well above our minimum target of 25%. Finally, both our credit ratings remained firmly in the investment-grade category, with stable outlooks from both Moody's and S&P. Slide seven gives an overview of our liquidity and maturity profile. We had a comfortable liquidity position of EUR 1.4 billion at the end of June 2026, and in addition, we have an undrawn syndicated loan facility of EUR 1.5 billion. During the first half of the year, we further optimized our maturity profile. In January, we placed a new EUR 750 million benchmark bond maturing in 2034 and used part of the proceeds to repay an existing bond in April. We also arranged a EUR 1 billion bridge facility for the planned BMG- Concord combination and extended our syndicated loan by one year until 2031. As a result, there are no further debt maturities in 2026, and our maturity profile remains well-balanced over the coming years. Our strategic framework is shown on slide eight. As you might remember, our strategic focus is on a fast-growing digital, international, and diversified group portfolio. Since 2021, Bertelsmann has pursued five strategic growth priorities: national media champions, global content, global services, education, and investments. Supported by our Boost and Boost+ programs, these priorities provide the framework for our strategic development and capital allocation. Through the Boost program, Bertelsmann has stepped up investments to sustainably accelerate growth and further expand its businesses. By the end of 2026, total Boost investments are expected to reach around EUR 10 billion. The original target of around EUR 8 billion is expected to be exceeded, primarily following the planned combination of BMG and Concord. By the end of the reporting period, around EUR 7.7 billion had already been invested. Slide nine shows some of the strategic progress made in the first half year. In terms of building national media champions, RTL Deutschland completed the acquisition of Sky Deutschland in June, creating a combined offering with around 12.4 million paid subscriptions. The streaming services, RTL+ and M6+ continued to grow strongly, with paid subscriptions increasing by 21% to 8.7 million. In addition, RTL's streaming business reached profitability for the first time and is expected to contribute around EUR 120 million in operating EBITDA adjusted for the full year. Groupe M6's FIFA World Cup coverage reached around 60 million viewers. We further expanded our global content businesses. Fremantle continued to invest in new productions and content formats. Penguin Random House published successful new titles, including "The Correspondent," achieved several number one The New York Times bestsellers, and celebrated a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. At BMG, the planned combination with Concord received all required regulatory approvals and is expected to close shortly. BMG artists and songwriters also received numerous awards. Let's now move to slide 10, covering our strategic progress in global services, education, and investments. The global services businesses continued to perform well. Arvato further expanded its logistics activities through continued organic growth and acquisitions. Riverty achieved an important strategic milestone by establishing its own bank in Luxembourg, providing the foundation for the further expansion of integrated consumer finance solutions. Arvato Systems further strengthens its position in sovereign cloud solutions and served as a launch partner for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Bertelsmann further strengthened its education business. Relias continued its organics expansion and now serves more than 13,000 customers. Afya further expanded its business by increasing the number of medical students. Our investment activities at Bertelsmann Investments remained highly active with 22 new investments and 19 follow-on investments, totaling more than EUR 100 million. At Bertelsmann Next, Applike continued to deliver strong organic growth, while LetsTransport also expanded significantly. Now to our outlook for the full year 2026, shown on slide 11. As mentioned earlier, the planned combination of BMG and Concord is close to completion. Following the strong first half performance, the acquisition of Sky Deutschland, and the expected closing of the BMG- Concord transaction, we have raised our outlook for the full year. We now expect strong revenue growth and a significant increase in operating EBITDA adjusted for 2026. The achievement of profitability of RTL Group's streaming businesses in the first half of 2026 further supports our confidence in the full-year outlook. With Sky and Concord, Bertelsmann's revenues would rise to around EUR 22 billion on a full-year consolidated basis, and EBITDA, including synergies, to EUR 3.8 billion. Thank you very much for listening, and now I am happy to take your questions. Thank you very much. We have a question on the line, Victoria Ade from Barclays. The floor is yours. Good morning and congratulations on today's results. Thank you for taking my question. I actually have three, please. First, this morning, Bertelsmann CEO indicated in the press that the group could complete one or two further sizable acquisition over the coming months. Wondering if you could comment on this, and also, if the group is interested in specific segments to expand into. Following up on this, I was wondering if further M&A implied that you could tolerate a higher leverage for a longer period, notably given you will be at the top end of the requirement for the [BBB] after the closing of the Concord deal. Lastly, regarding the Concord transaction, have you received all regulatory approval to complete the deal? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for the question, and I will take them in the order that you have posed them. First of all, the segments that we are interested in are largely unchanged. We are going to continue with what we have done in the past in the execution of our Boost strategy, expanding in particular further our music business. The most important step for that, of course, is yet to come with the conclusion of the BMG and Concord transaction. We are also further interested and will continue to invest, in particular in our service business in the logistics sector, like we did last year with two acquisitions, like we did this year with a smaller acquisition in Canada. If there were further opportunities for Arvato, we would also be ready to seize them. Third of all, a third segment that is also, of course, of interest to us is education. We have multiple options in our education portfolio, both in the U.S., maybe also with the further expansion of our Brazilian business, Afya. We are continuously working to execute on our strategy in that regard. Your second question was on the development of our leverage factor and our financial policy. All M&A that we are contemplating is always within the bounds and the limits of our financial policy. We are committed to maintaining our solid investment-grade rating, including the BMG- Concord transaction and including also any further M&A that might yet come. Your third question, yes, we have received by now all regulatory approvals for closing the BMG and Concord transaction, and that is the reason why we guide the market to a closing still in the third quarter of this year. So pretty shortly. Thank you. That was very helpful. Thank you very much. That was the only question asked. With that, I would like to thank you for your participation and would like to hand over to your host, Rolf Hellermann, for the closing remarks. Thanks for your interest in Bertelsmann's strategy and the update on Bertelsmann results. With that, I wish you a pleasant Friday and a happy weekend.