Thank you for standing by. My name is Ellie, and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Accor 2023 Half-Year Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question- and- answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, please press the star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question again, please press the star and the number one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. I'd now like to hand you over to Martine Gerow, Group CFO. Martine, you may now start the session. Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us on this call, which is my first earnings call as the CFO for Accor. Let's just dive right into the presentation for our first half results. I'm going to start with the financials on slide three of the presentation. We are very pleased with the performance in the first half. We've seen continued solid growth, momentum, and strong earnings and cash flows. Our RevPAR is up a very healthy 38% versus prior year, and that's on a like-for-like basis in the first half, and 25% in the second quarter, which is also very solid. As compared to 2019, we actually saw an acceleration of the growth in the second quarter. Our pricing momentum continues, contributing about two-thirds of the overall RevPAR growth, with occupancy gains contributing for about one-third. Our net EBITDA growth actually accelerated this quarter, reaching 3.5% when you measure it over the last 12 months, and that was driven both by a higher number of openings as well as lower churn. This translated into group revenue of EUR 2.4 billion, which is an increase of 35% versus prior year, again, on a like-for-like basis. Now, moving to earnings and cash flow. We delivered strong earnings and cash flow in the first half. Our EBITDA more than doubled versus last year to EUR 447 million, and services to owners was positive in the first half, which is in line with the FTO guidance we shared with you during the Capital Markets Day. Recurring free cash flow also significantly improved versus prior to EUR 157 million, primarily driven by EBITDA growth. That was partially offset by high working capital, reflecting the higher activity. I remind everyone that we do have a seasonal working capital with H1 being much lower than H2 because of working capital. In light of these results, we have raised the full year guidance for EBITDA to EUR 930 million-EUR 970 million for 2023. Let's dive in, starting with RevPAR, which is presented on slide four, which is well balanced across both divisions. We've shown in red the contribution of rates and in blue, the contribution of occupancy to the growth in RevPAR. Starting on the left, Premium, Midscale & Economy Division posted a RevPAR growth of 26% in the quarter versus prior year. As you can see, that's driven by strong pricing gains and occupancy, which is actually now close to 2019 levels. Moving to the region, Europe and North Africa, RevPAR was up 20% in the second quarter versus prior year. Just to give you a bit of color on some of our key markets, France remains strong, with large inflows of international leisure and business guests in Paris for large events. We had the Bourget Air Show, Viva Tech, and of course, Roland-Garros. To note that riots in early July did not have a significant impact on our summer booking thus far. In the UK, we saw a very, very balanced performance across London and the province. Germany, we were pleased, improved significantly in the second quarter and is actually now back at about 2019 levels. Now moving to MEAPAC. Second quarter was up 37% RevPAR, versus last year. Really good performance in Middle East Africa, despite difficult comp, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Growth in the Pacific is in line with the previous quarters, which is encouraging considering that Australia recovered earlier, as you may recall. Southeast Asia and India is well above 2019, notably in the large cities, and that's supported by the return of international business guests. In China, we've seen a strong acceleration despite what is still a very limited flight capacity in this region. Moving to the Americas, which, as you know, is dominated by South America for Premium, Midscale & Economy. The RevPAR in the second quarter was up 24%, with stable occupancy as the region recovered faster than the other regions. In Brazil, which is our main market in this region, occupancy is slightly above 2019, and rates are significantly better. I will now move to Luxury and Lifestyle on the right. We posted a RevPAR growth in the quarter of 24% versus prior year, with, as you can see here, balanced, pretty balanced across occupancy and rate gains. The growth in this segment is in line with the growth in PM&E, and that is good because you may recall that again, that segment recovered faster. Luxury, second quarter RevPAR was up 25% versus the second quarter. Luxury accounts for about, actually slightly over 70% of the room revenue of the division, and it's mainly Fairmont and Sofitel. As we saw in PM&E, the region, MEAPAC, was a key contributor to the growth. Our brands have a very strong presence in this region. Finally, lifestyle. Second quarter RevPAR was up 20% versus last year, like for luxury, lifestyle have recovered so much faster in 2022. But to note that RevPAR is now more than twice the level of 2019, and this is actually driven by the resorts component of our lifestyle portfolio. Speaking of portfolio, let's see next, slide five, where we see the breakdown of our hotel portfolio by division, with Premium, Midscale, and Economy on the left side of the slide and Luxury and Lifestyle on the right. As indicated, in my introduction, overall net unit growth for the group accelerated to 3.5% in the second quarter, again, on an LTM basis, and was well balanced across both divisions. The majority of openings came from conversions, which demonstrates the strength of the Accor brand portfolio. Premium, Midscale, and Economy portfolio net portfolio grew by 3.6% over the last 12 months, driven by MEAPAC and China, which demonstrates the strong recovery in the and the momentum in these regions. Luxury and Lifestyle portfolio grew by 3.4% over the last 12 months, driven primarily by Ennismore, which as you know, is our lifestyle brand. We do expect the growth to pick up material in the second half based on the planned openings for our Luxury and Lifestyle. Total pipeline is 217,000 rooms, notably driven by PM&E, which benefited from strong signings in the quarter. You can see our fee per room is in line with the guidance that we shared with you at the CMD, and to note the one to three ratio in favor of Luxury and Lifestyle. Overall, we confirm our annual net unit growth guidance between 2% and 3%. Bearing in mind that in the last 12 months, net computation of 3.5%, it does embark a strong second half of 2022, that effect will survive as we lap over those two quarters. I will now move to slide six, with the revenue breakdown by segment. The group revenue, again, reached EUR 2.4 billion in the first half, up 35% on a like-for-like basis. On a reported basis, you see the growth is a bit higher at 39%, due to the consolidation of Paris Society, which sits in the hotel assets and other segments, and which we acquired at the end of last year. For Premium, Midscale & Economy, like-for-like revenue growth is 34% versus prior year, with a revenue of EUR 1.4 billion. Management and franchise revenue was up a very healthy 39%, which is well above RevPAR, thanks to a strong recovery in incentive fees. We're actually very, very pleased with that, with that strong growth in incentive fees in the first half. This demonstrates the solid operational performance of the hotels, you know, across really all regions and segments. Now, services to owners also grew slightly faster than RevPAR. Finally, hotel assets and others was up 24%, which is primarily driven by Australia. Again, the recovery took place earlier in this region, hence the somewhat lower growth in this activity. Turning to Luxury and Lifestyle, like-for-like revenue was up 40% in the first half to reach slightly over EUR 1 billion. Management and franchise revenue was up by 58%, again, significantly outperforming the RevPAR growth, driven again by the very significant growth in incentive fees. Services to owners in line with RevPAR, and hotel and assets on a reported basis, mainly sorry, reflects the acquisition of [Paris] Society. Let's take a closer look at M&F fees on slide seven. For Premium, Midscale, and Economy, all the regions are delivering solid growth, with MEAPAC leading the pack, if I may say, with 68% growth in the first half. Growth in Luxury and Lifestyle, M&F fees was also very strong at 58%, with both activities growing well above RevPAR, and again, driven by the growth in incentive fees. The share of incentive fees within M&F is actually now back to 2019 levels. I will now turn to slide eight. Again, in the introduction, the group's overall EBITDA in the first half, more than doubled versus last year, reaching EUR 447 million. It's really the combination of strong recovery in M&F EBITDA, driven by solid growth in both divisions and cost discipline on services to owners, which led to a positive EUR 21 million EBITDA for FTO, as compared to an EUR 87 million loss in 2022. Regarding Premium, Midscale, and Economy, EBITDA is up 71% on a like-for-like basis to EUR 330 million. M&F EBITDA is up 33%. FTO EBITDA is back in positive territory, again, after being negative last year, due to the step up in marketing efforts that we did to support the rebound of travel. As for hotel assets, another EBITDA slight decreases is related to cost pressures seen in our Australian operations. Turning to Luxury and Lifestyle, EBITDA more than doubled to EUR 174 million in H1, driving about 50% of the growth in EBITDA for the group. M&F EBITDA jumped by 76% like-for-like with very solid operating leverage. For FTO, I'll make the same comment. As for PM&E, which with EBITDA slightly positive as well, and as for hotel assets, another, again, EBITDA mainly reflects the acquisition of Paris Society. Finally, to point that we have held our holding costs, the cost of the holdings flat to prior year. Moving on to the rest of the income statement on slide nine, we achieved a net profit of EUR 248 million in the first half versus EUR 32 million in the prior year. I'm not going to go through all the elements of the income statement, just point out a few highlights. I'll start with a share of net profit of associates and JV, which turned positive at EUR 9 million versus a loss of EUR 27 million in prior year. This improvement essentially, you know, stems from our 30% share in AccorInvest. With the recovery of the European activity, AccorInvest reported a significant result improvement as well. Our non-recurring items were essentially not material in the first half. Net financial expenses benefited from higher interest income on cash flows, but was negatively impacted by non-cash items, which included FX and change in fair value of investment. Speaking about cash flow, I'll now move to slide 10. The recurring free cash flow reached EUR 167 million in the first half, as compared to EUR 41 million in prior year. It's really mainly driven by the growth in EBITDA. The main highlights on cash flow, I point out three. First one, the cash cost of net debt decreased to EUR 28 million. That's again, mainly due to higher interest and commons, you know, over 90% of our debt is fixed. Recurring investments slightly increased to EUR 80 million in the first half. For the full year, we continue to plan a level of around EUR 200 million for recurring investments. That really reflects the group's acceleration in the development of Luxury and Lifestyle, which requires higher key money. The working capital change is negative EUR 88 million versus a negative EUR 25 million last year, and that really reflects the strong growth in the business. As I pointed out, you know, our working capital is seasonal, our recurring free cash flow is seasonal, and we do expect this working capital impact to reverse in the second half. Finally, Net debt reaches EUR 1.8 billion, slight increase versus December 2022, and this is due to some one-off items essentially, such as the FIFA events report, events reversal, event payment reversal and the pay-go tax arbitration. To close this presentation, before I turn now the floor back to you, let us move to slide 11, with the key takeaways of the first half. As I just shared with you, we had a solid momentum in the second quarter. We expect a sound demand this summer, which is on the back of high comps. We had also a good summer last year. With this backdrop and taking, you know, into consideration the current macroeconomic uncertainties, we have raised our guidance for the full year of 2023. The growth in RevPAR is now expected at the top end of the 15%-20% range. Our consolidated EBITDA is now expected between EUR 930 million and EUR 970 million for the full year. I thank you for your attention. I will now open the floor for questions. Hello, everyone. If you'd like to ask a question, please press the star button and number one on your keypad. We have our first question coming from Vicki Stern from Barclays. Please, your line is now open. Morning, Martine. First question, just talking about the RevPAR for the Q2 did come in a little bit better than consensus was expecting, but the EBITDA was pretty much in line. Just trying to get it, if there's anything to call out there in terms of phasing of cost, incentive recognitions for first half versus second half, really just sort of the implied drop through on that RevPAR, which does seem just a little bit lighter than expectations. Second one on the demand outlook, as obviously, it all sounds pretty confident. Just are there any cracks anywhere? Specifically, just Australia, which does seem to have flatlined now, so is one of your biggest markets. Just thoughts there on the outlook and the potential to continue to see year-on-year growth in that market or any risks that you think it could turn backwards. Finally, when you see the trends playing through in the luxury segment in the U.S., where some of that very extreme pricing growth we've seen is now just starting to pare back a bit, how does that leave you feeling about the potential to sustain the current sort of very significant price increases you're seeing in some areas? I'm thinking more into the next 6, 12 months. Thanks. Hi, Vicki. Thank you for your for your question. In terms of the RevPAR growth being slightly above consensus, really, I mean, really nothing to, you know, to signal here. You know, we, as you know, we recognize incentives on a quarterly basis, on a best estimate basis. There is, you know, some, let's say, a judgment that comes into that, but nothing to underline on that. Regarding the outlook, you know, as I commented, Australia did recover faster. You know, you see a, you know, a softening, let's say, of the, of the growth versus value, but there's, you know, that's to be expected. As you come closer to the, to the recovery, your sequential growth rate will, you know, slow down. You know, on the other hand, China is, which is also in this region, has accelerated and still has very strong potential given the, very limited flight capacity in this region. I think your last question was, you know, is there, you know, is there any crack in the, you know, in the model? Again, you know, thus far, we see very sustained demand, going into the summer. No sign of slowing, other than, you know, the obviously quarter-over-quarter growth rate, which, as we, lap over recovery periods will, you know, slow down slightly. Thank you. Just coming back on the first one then about that flow- through to EBITDA. Sorry, is the point then that The way in which you receive the incentives or you sort of account for the incentives is more sort of back-end skewed, and therefore you sort of effectively have a better EBITDA/revenue flow- through from the RevPAR H2 versus H1? Yeah, I wouldn't say, well, I'm not sure I would say back-end loaded, but we have a really solid visibility of the incentive fees at the end of the year. During the year, we do, you know, we do estimates, and they're fairly, you know, they're obviously fairly linear in that respect. Okay, thanks very much. Is going to come from Richard Clarke from Bernstein. Your line is now open. Hi there. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just I guess this is your first session as new CFO at Accor. The release looks very similar to a normal Accor release. Any sense of what you might change? You've mentioned incentive fees a few times already. Will you start systematically reporting that? Anything you'd like to change in the presentation? Second question, just on the NUG. We had Hilton report yesterday, and they were saying that we're in this kind of air pocket at the moment, but guided that NUG would accelerate by a percentage point into next year and then another percentage point effectively into the year after that. Is that what you're expecting as well? You'll begin to kind of build back up to that 5% NUG you did pre-COVID over the next couple of years. Just a third question, appreciating the Potel & Chabot deal is very small, but a little bit of a departure from the message of the CMD that no M&A was being looked at really. Are there other deals like that? I mean, this is a simplifying deal, but are there other JV assets that you want to consolidate? You know, what's the sort of scope of the of that sort of consolidation, investment phase that we might see? Hi, Richard. Thank you for your question. You know, with respect to your first question, I have not thus far informed you as to whether there's, you know, anything that I'd like to change in the earnings release. Allow me some time to do that, if at all. Regarding the net unit growth, we do see, you know, and we have communicated this at the Capital Markets Day, you know, we do see an acceleration as we go in the outer years. That will be, if you recall, primarily driven by the Luxury and Lifestyle. Actually, the, you know, the openings that are planned in this, in this portfolio or in this division for the next year is very strong. With respect to Potel & Chabot, I mean, that's part of the, you know, strategy that we have to simplify our portfolio of investments. And we have, you know, we have no plans to make further M&A deals, you know, at this point, as we discussed in the CMD. Potel & Chabot, we're already, you know, a 37% shareholder, and this investment is part of the strategy that we have to extend our footprint, our original footprint in the particularly in the lifestyle and the nice premium segment. Understood. Thanks very much. We have our next question from Jaina Mistry from Jefferies. Your line is now open. Hi, it's Jaina Mistry from Jefferies. Martine, really great to hear from you. I've also got three questions. The first question, kind of going back to Vicki's question. I, you know, I appreciate there are some big events coming up in H2 and, you know, also the Olympics next year. How are you thinking about reinvestment and potential for more marketing required to really capture on these events and growth in H2 and H1 next year? And just on the back of that, how should we think about the sensitivity of EBITDA to RevPAR growth? Can you give any guidance, as you used to in the past, around, you know, 1 percentage point of RevPAR translates to X of EBITDA? My second question is around the shape of growth really for next year. We've spoken about net unit growth being a bit more challenged versus history. Macro aside, do you think that price growth can offset any weakness in supply? Anything you can say to help us think about the shape of growth would be very helpful. Lastly, in terms of your pipeline, do you have any visibility around what proportion of your pipeline is under construction today? Thank you. Thank you for your question, Jaina. With respect to the to the west part, and the big events and whether we need to, you know, invest more into marketing, we, you know, we've invested what we need to invest in marketing. You know, that there was a big investment that was made last year, and we've made a strong commitment, and we've met that commitment in the first half of SQ being positive. We will remain on that path. In terms of the, in terms of the. In terms of the shape of the growth, as you may recall from the Capital Markets Day, what we've guided in the medium term in the RevPAR growth of 3%-4% for the group. We have, in some sense, you know, factored in the fact that, you know, the recovery is obviously well underway, and the growth, the rate of growth, sorry, will, you know, will slow down as a matter of fact. We also have, you know, 3%-5% net unit growth in the medium term as per the Capital Markets Day. When you combine the two, it still gives you a revenue growth, which is in the mid-mid single digits. In terms of the pipeline, I can't comment on what is new construction versus what is actually under development. What I can say is that our conversion rate remains very, very strong, and that's the strength of the group, because of the preference, but also the depth of the portfolio of brands. Our conversion rate is above 50% for the pipeline, which is a very, very strong conversion rate. Thank you. Then just going back to the first question, do you have any guidance around the sensitivity of EBITDA to RevPAR growth today? We actually don't, you know, we don't give sensitivity on West Palm. You know, it's really, there's many elements in that go into, you know, into this, we, you know, this is not a data that we communicate on. Sure. Thank you. We have our next question from Leo Carrington from Citi. Your line is now open. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. If I could firstly follow up on some of the earlier questions, on Richard's question on the, you know, unit growth progression. The pipeline's obviously stepping on very well. Can you give an indication on how the signings are progressing within that? I, you know, I assume this is signings driven. How do the pipeline signings tie into the pressure on openings for the rest of the year? Are you finding projects are sitting in the pipeline for longer between signing and ground breaks, so we can expect a bit more of a pipeline build into H2? Anything on signings would be really helpful. Secondly, and tying into this theme, can you give some more color on the portfolio conversion deal in Japan? How that deal originated, what the implications are for the business in that region, and more broadly, the scope for further similar deals? Lastly, in terms of the credit rating, I know this is under your out of your control, sorry, but it's, is it reasonable for us to expect that the ratings agency will revisit the ratings again this year? The reason I ask is I'm conscious that the performance is Accor's performance is tracking well ahead of the S&P assumptions from earlier this year. Thank you. Thanks for your question, Leo. With respect to the to the pipeline, you know, we don't see a, I'd say, a longer conversion time between, you know, kind of signing, and opening. As I mentioned, you know, we do expect a very strong opening in the second half, and our conversion market is strong. Actually, you know, what we see is a growth in the in the pipeline in the, you know, in the next 6 to 12 months. With respect to Japan, what that allows us to do is to double the number of properties we have in Japan. Japan is a really, really good market. You know, it's a market in which all intensives in particular are very strong, so we're quite pleased with, you know, with this deal. With respect to the credit rating, it's not entirely not in control, but we do have a regular dialogue with the agencies, and we're obviously planning to meet with them following the release of our first half earnings, although that will be in the post-summer. We will, you know, we will take it one step at a time, but, you know, strong results in the first half should certainly help. Okay, thank you. If I might just follow up on the second one on Japan. Does doubling your size there mean, you know, potentially an ability to grow more in the country going forwards, given more scale? Or what might the implications of the doubling in size be? Then just very briefly on scope for further deals, not necessarily similar deals, not necessarily in Japan, but elsewhere. Yes, no, I mean, clearly having a, you know, having a base that size to size gives us, you know, further growth potential in Japan. This is actually, you know, when talking about the region for near us, but Japan, you know, saw good growth in Japan cities, in particular in the first half. You know, they do tend to travel, they have high purchasing power. This is actually an objective we had to significantly grow our presence in Japan. Again, we're quite pleased with the deal. Meister is, you know, now a strong brand. The other market that we're looking at is India. I think I said, as I commented on the Capital Markets Day, this is a market that has really good growth potential given the emergence of the middle class and, you know, very good growth potential for us. Thank you, Martine. If you'd like to ask any question, please press the star and then the number one button on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Jarrod Castle from UBS. Your line is now open. Good morning and welcome, I guess. I'm gonna take a slightly opposite angle to some of the questions, just revisit, basically. I mean, firstly, just on your pipeline, actually, it's gone backwards. It was 216,000 rooms at year-end, it was 214 at Q1. It's now 213. Do you think you'll finish the year up on last year's pipeline? You know, is it getting more difficult to sign people in, or are people more worried about high interest rates, outlook? Just interested on your thoughts there. Just China, I mean, you know, there's been, obviously flags around, you know, slowing China or, you know, not recovering at the same pace as people expected. You know, I think some of the recent RevPAR data has also been a bit, you know, lackluster compared to kind of expectations, at the very least. Are you seeing anything there recently? I'm talking about like, you know, May, June or July. Then just lastly, anything you can say on conversations about disposals at the moment, you know, such as AccorInvest? Thanks. Thank you, Jarrod. Hi. On the pipeline, our pipeline at the end of June is actually 217,000. It is up versus where we were at the end of 2022. We haven't seen yet, you know, signs of slowing down in China. As you know, we have a very strong master franchising with in this area. Your last question, which was on AccorInvest, there's no change to the communication we've had before on this subject. I mean, the priority for AccorInvest is really to dispose of some of its assets and refinance debt. Okay, thanks. My mistake. Thank you. Our next question comes from Jaafar Mestari, from BNP. Your line is now open. Hi, good morning. I've got three, if that's all right. Firstly, on incentive fees, can you remind us when exactly they reached 35%? What I mean by that is, they've been fully recovered, but for exactly how long? Are they still a tailwind into Q3 and Q4, or has it been at max levels for more than 12 months already? On operating leverage, I appreciate you do not have a communicated RevPAR sensitivity. If I take the midpoint of guidance, you're now expecting tw or three points better RevPAR for the full year. In terms of EBITDA, you're expecting about EUR 10 million better. I'm sure you don't want us to think that the RevPAR sensitivity is only EUR 4 million per point of RevPAR. Could you maybe talk about some of the other moving parts there that I think you've alluded to? Or are you just baking in a wider range of macro scenarios? Lastly, could we get a short update on refurbishments and on the rollout of revenue management systems? Because at the CMD, I think they sounded like two very exciting drivers of RevPAR that aren't just macro. Curious if you're doing more of this, if you're pausing refurbishments for the summer and resuming later, or is there a lot you can do before the end of the full year on these two points? Sure. Thank you for your question. On the, you know, on incentive fees, they're, you know, back to 2019 levels, as we indicated. You know, that being said, they're very much related to the performance, operational performance of the hotel. You know, what they represent as a percent of M&F fees is important. You know, if the hotel continues to perform strongly, then that, you know, the growth in that portion of our M&F fees will continue to, will continue to improve. You really need to take both into, you know, into consideration. With respect to the, you know, sorry, the RevPAR guidance versus the EBITDA guidance. RevPAR guidance is between 16%-20%, right? The midpoint is 17.5. We're now saying, you know, we're guiding now towards the top end of the guidance. We, you know, we have raised our EBITDA guidance, and I think we'll be able to, you know, give you a, you know, a view on that as well as we publish our results. You know, the summer is an important quarter for us, we'll, you know, we'll give you, we'll keep you updated at that point in time, if, you know, if that is relevant to do so. We feel that the guidance we put out right now is probably, you know, a good balance as we see it today. Thank you. Just this last question on anything micro you can do to support RevPAR. At the CMD, you brought up refurbishments, and you brought up revenue management systems. If that's something that's making a ton of progress in 2023, or if that's more medium term? On the on the RMS, this is more of a, obviously, you know, starting to deploy that, but this will be more of an impact in 2022, and the refurbishment, we continue to, you know, to do that. It's more of a two-year program, so we actually have an impact, I would say, on a relatively consistent basis, maybe again, maybe one of the consistent support of RevPAR. All right. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from André Juillard. Your line is now open. Good morning, congratulations for these strong results. A few questions on my side. First one is on the type of clientele. We saw that the recovery first came with the leisure clientele. What do you see on the corporate side, and especially the MICE segment? Do you see some big events being back, especially in some hotels, such as Pullman and so on? Second question around the split of RevPAR by regions. The recovery in China is a little bit more painful than what we could expect initially. What do you see in the rest of Asia? Do you see that the recovery is taking place month after month, or not? In term of pipeline, the pressure is improving on the pipeline almost everywhere, and Hilton confirmed that yesterday, as already mentioned. Could you give us some more color about the split by region of your pipeline? Thank you very much. Thank you for the question, Andr é. So, with respect to the, you know, leisure versus corporate and MICE, yes, we definitely see a, you know, solid growth in corporate and event. And in particular, in the MICE space in particular, we are seeing a very good recovery of the events, which is obviously going to benefit hotels such as Pullman, but also, but also Fairmont, which has a material MICE activity. In terms of the, you know, RevPAR, you know, China, you know, China again, is, is growing very, you know, very strongly, which is, you know, to be expected given where they are on the recovery curve. This is, you know, primarily domestic China, because the, you know, the, inbound traffic is, fairly restricted. Very stable growth potential there. With respect to the other Southeast Asian countries, we've got, you know, good growth as well, in, and I mentioned the big, you know, the big cities, for example, Thailand is doing, very well in this, in this region. Australia is really the one that we expect to, you know, where the growth is a bit more subdued. Again, you know, Australia recovered faster, so they're just at a different point on that, on that recovery curve. I think you had a question on pipeline, by, you know, by region. Where we see a particularly stronger pipeline is in the Asia Pacific region, and the, you know, and the Middle East in particular. Those two regions are quite important in our pipeline development. Okay. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Simon Lechipre. Your line is now open. Good morning. Just one for me, a follow-up question on the operating leverage. I'm sorry if I missed some of your previous comments, but, I think the management and franchise EBITDA margin for the PM&E division, was declining in H1. I mean, I'm a bit surprised on the strength of RevPAR. What is the reason for this? Do you expect margin for the year for the division to improve year-on-year? Thank you. Thank you for the question, Simon. Two comments on that. One is, you have to remember that when you compare to the first half of 2022, I'm not speaking about, you know, services of doing [SEO part], because we did make an investment in that area. With respect to the M&F cost base, you know, we entered 2022, obviously, with Omicron, so we were very prudent, not to say very cautious in terms of growing up the cost base because, you know, there was uncertainties with respect to the need. You start from a natural cost base, and if you were to look at the drop through volume, I think 22 versus 21, you would see that it is a very, very significant drop through. You have that baseline effect, when you look at, you know, M&S, for PM&E in the first half, and we do expect, you know, this effect to essentially reverse in the second half and the margin to, you know, to improve as compared to the first half. The, for the specific division, the 2023 margin should be, relative to 2022, or? Yes, slightly. Okay. Thank you. Looks like we don't have any other questions. I'd now like to hand over back to the management for the closing remarks. Thank you for your questions. Thank you for attending. I wish everyone a good rest of the day and a good summer, and we'll speak again in the fall. Thank you.