Hello, and welcome to the Clariane 2024 half year results conference call. Please note this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Sophie Boissard, CEO, and Philippe Garin, CFO, to begin today's conference. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, dear investors, good afternoon. Welcome to the Clariane Group 2024 half year results presentation. I suggest we now move to slide number one. So, I'm Sophie Boissard, I'm the Group CEO, CEO, and I am today with Philippe Garin, Group CFO. I will begin on slide five with the four key highlights of this half. Firstly, over the first six months of 2024, we recorded dynamic revenue growth that led to an increase in EBITDA. Secondly, this was in part fueled by the strong improvement in German performance. Thirdly, we also moved forward on strengthening our balance sheet in line with our refinancing plan, making significant progress on reducing our debt during the period. Last but not least, we confirmed our 2024 full year outlook and midterm objectives. Let us move to slide number six. Here, we will have a look at the main indicators that reflect our performance this semester. Firstly, as you see, revenue increased by 6.8% in organic terms in the first half, supported by all businesses and all regions. EBITDA, pre-IFRS 16 and excluding disposals, rose 3.5%, while EBITDA post-IFRS 16 was up 7.5%. As a consequence, margin rate expressed in EBITDA pre-IFRS 16 settles at 11%, which, excluding the contribution of real estate development activities, which are at a low point, represents an increase of 75 basis points and reflects a solid performance from the operations. The net profit group share was -EUR 28 million and includes the loss on the disposal of the serviced residence business in France in June. The group result from continuing operation is -EUR 3 million, close to breakeven. Let us move now to operating free cash flow, which rose sharply to EUR 74 million, to be compared to EUR 45 million in the first half of 2023. Compared to last year, our net debt decreased by EUR 500 million, and as a consequence, the financial leverage ratio of the company improved by 50 basis points, falling to 3.6x, to be compared to 4.8x a year ago. Let us move now to slide number seven. On this slide, you see reflected some improvement we made on number of milestones in the field of ESG. Let me highlight two of them. Firstly, on the social component, Clariane received a Top Employer Europe certification, and we are the first care company to get such a recognition. Secondly, we have made good progress in the environmental field. In 2023, we made a commitment to join the Science Based Targets initiative, SBTi, and we obtained, in June 2024, official validation of our targets as regards reducing greenhouse gas emission in line with the Paris Agreements. This validation is a testament to the outstanding in-depth work of the teams in formulating a robust and achievable plan that covers all our networks across Europe. Let us move now to slide number eight, where you will find an updated picture on our refinancing plan. As you remember, probably the plan that we announced on the 14th of November 2023, was intended to secure and to accelerate Clariane's debt reduction trajectory and to enable the company to have a financial position suited to a more challenging economic and market environment. Our plan was comprised of four parts, of which three have been already accomplished. The first part was about the creation of two real estate partnerships to raise EUR 230 million equity. The second part was the arrangement of the EUR 200 million real estate bridge term loan. All these, these two elements have been done and achieved in 2023. More recently, we finalized a successful rights issue of more than EUR 300 million that we have cashed in on the 5th of July, and with that achievement, we have completed the third tranche of the plan to consolidate our financial position, and we have also embarked on the fourth and final part of the plan, which is of EUR 1 billion disposal program, which is outlined in the next slide. So where do we stand on the asset disposals program? As reminded here in the slide, our approach is guided by the twin objective of, first, reducing the debt and maximizing the deleveraging impact, and secondly, refocusing our activities on a more limited number of geographies according to our strategic roadmap. And of course, we only proceed with the disposal when we have reached a satisfactory level of valuation. So far, in only one semester, we have been securing more than 40% of the gross proceeds expected from the program through three targeted transactions, one in the UK, one regarding real estate in the Netherlands, and the last one regarding hospital-at-home activities, non-core activities in France. We are actively pursuing on several disposal scenarios to ensure that we achieve the target of EUR 1 billion in gross proceeds from disposals by the end of 2025. Finally, here on slide 10, I would like to recall how our reinforced capital structure is now reflected in Clariane's governance. On the left hand, you see the recomposed shareholding structure, post rights issue, with the substantial free float that we have managed to keep, 32% of free float. On the right hand, you see the way the board has been evolving according to this new equilibrium. We have welcomed three new directors representing the new shareholders, and all the directors have voiced their strong support and commitment to the company's corporate purpose, values, and strategy. In line with the support, the board has renewed yesterday my mandate as Clariane CEO for a period of five years as of January 1st, 2025. I would like now to hand over to Philippe Garin to present our income statement highlights. Philippe, the floor is yours. Thank you, Sophie. Moving to slide 12, now, the analysis of our income statement. We begin with our revenue numbers. The group consolidated revenue in the first half of 2024, totaled EUR 2.6 billion, representing a reported growth of 6.1% and organic growth from 6.8%. That performance confirms the relevance of the group strategy and the business model, which is based on diversified portfolio of businesses, each growing well and geographical markets. Long-term care shows strong dynamism, thanks to an improved occupancy rate and positive effect on pricing. Medical care is a bit behind, mainly due to the regulatory change in France. On slide 13, now, the long-term care organic growth was driven by the rising occupancy rate, which averaged 89.5 in the first half of 2024, versus 87.9 in the first half of 2023. I'd like to, I'd like to highlight, sorry, two key elements. Starting in Q2 of 2022, the occupancy rate has been increasing quarter after quarter, rising by roughly, roughly 400 basis points over the period. Secondly, it should be noted that the average occupancy rate at end of June 2024 was 90.5%, up 220 basis points on the 88.3% at the end of June 2023. We expect and have room for further growth based on the potential embedded in existing capacities. Slide 14. Looking at our performance breakdown by geography on slide 14, we were pleased to report a well-balanced performance on all our geographies. To note, Germany's strong revenue growth at 8.3%, driven by higher business volumes and improved pricing. And Spain, that is further developing on both nursing home and mental health activity. Slide 15 sets out the bridge in revenue from last year. Revenue growth of 6.1 came from higher business volume that accounted for 3.2 points of the increase, and price increases that accounted for 3.6 of the progression. The change in perimeter effect was negative due to the disposal of UK assets. Looking at our EBITDA performance by geography on Slide 16. EBITDA increased by 4.1%, even if margin was down slightly. Excluding real estate development, margin is up. This was especially true in France, excluding the real estate development impact, EBITDA margin would have increased by 90 basis points in the first half. Indeed, contribution from real estate development activities amounted to EUR 33 million in the first half of 2023, and was only EUR 4 million in the first half of 2024. In Germany, EBITDA improved by 170 basis points, in line with its recovery plan target, driven by the initial positive result of its efficiency measure. We are continuing to refocus our network in Germany with the aim of bringing profitability back to normal levels in 2025. To note, the strong performance of Italy, that grew its EBITDA by 100 basis points, thanks to strong cost and price management in a low volume increase environment. Turning to the EBITDA bridge on slide 17. EBITDA was up by 1.7%, as reported, and 3.5%, excluding disposal, to EUR 290 million. Overall, the positive effect were essentially higher volumes that generated an increase of EUR 24 million. Higher prices generating an additional EUR 92 million, with an increase in operating expenses of EUR 79 million, resulting in a net positive price effect of EUR 13 million or 10 basis points. This is the first time that the increase in pricing has more than offset the gross inflation in the past two years. EBITDA margin, including IFRS 16, was 11%-- excluding, sorry, IFRS 16, was 11% in the first half of 2024, versus 11.5% in the same period of 2023. As explained previously, the margin reduction is due to the decrease in the contribution of real estate development activity, representing EUR 29 million. Looking on slide 18, at how our revenue convert to EBITDA. EBITDA was up to EUR 22 million, and EUR 27 million if we exclude the UK disposal. This was a result of efficient revenue management with pricing adjustment. Staff costs ratio was down by 140 basis points, as it benefited from the steady occupancy recovery. EBITDA was up by EUR 5 million and EUR 10 million, if you exclude the UK disposal. Our active portfolio management led to stable external rent, despite a lower ownership rate. Excluding the real estate development impact, our EBITDA margin would have increased by 75 basis points. Looking at our P&L on slide 19, the group made a net loss of EUR 3 million from continuing operation in the first half of 2024, versus a profit of EUR 32 million in the first half of 2023. The decrease was mainly due to EUR 17 million increase in amortization, arising from the opening of new facilities. A EUR 33 million increase in net financial expense, due to the reduced positive impact of hedging, and the cost of transitory loans to ensure the group liquidity, pending the capital increase completed in July and the disposals. These negative factors were partly offset by a EUR 40 million reduction in tax expense. Finally, Clariane made a net loss group share of EUR 28 million, taking into account the negative impact of EUR 24 million euro related to the sale of the Essentielles, the resident service activity in France, which took place at end of June 2024. This 24 million loss includes period costs of EUR 10 million euro and capital losses of EUR 14 million euro. Turning to our cash flow statement in slide 21. Net debt decreased by EUR 95 million in the first half of 2024, compared with the EUR 232 million increase in the same period in 2023. This reduction in the net debt is a result of a very sharp fall in investment in the first half of 2024, down 33% to EUR 139 million, versus EUR 375 million in the first half of 2023. An increase of operating free cash flow, EUR 74 million versus EUR 45 million last year, and EUR 236 million of proceeds from disposal carried out on the first six months of the year. On slide 22, we have mapped out the evolution in the first half conversion rate from EBITDA to operating free cash flow over the past eight years. You can see how the this year figure of 25.6 signal a return to normal after the particularly low level of last year. It is a positive development in our way to returning the normative full year levels of around 40% conversion rate. Moving to our balance sheet on slide 24. You have on slide 24, the bridge of our real estate value through the first semester. The decrease of EUR 336 million, compared to end of December 2023, is explained by disposal of around EUR 246 million, mainly related to the UK. CapEx for EUR 40 million+, and finally, on a like for like basis, the negative impact of around EUR 129 million includes the positive acquisition effect of EUR 15 million, but a 6.3 cap rate increase, with an impact of EUR 144 million. As a reminder, our cap rate was an average of 5.9 at end of December 2023. On slide 25, you have the main element of our balance sheet structure. Net debt stood at EUR 3.7 billion at end of June 2024, down around EUR 100 million from end 2023. Taking into account the proceeds of the rights issue, the net debt number will be lower by around EUR 300 million at the end of June to EUR 3.5 billion. Compared to last year, this is a 500 million decrease in net debt. Moving to slide 26, we can begin with the loan to value level. Indeed, LTV is 63%, against 58% at end of June 2023, and 61%, end of 2023. The group syndicated loan agreement includes the LTV covenant at 65%, and our objective remains to reach 55% after the refinancing plan. This level of 63% reflects the lower level of debt of the asset sold off, that together with the increase in cap rate, lead to a transitory high level of LTV. The debt maturities of the second half will offer us many ways to lower the transitory level. Turning to the financial leverage, this ratio now takes into account the EUR 234 million net amount of proceeds of the rights issue, and as a result, stand at 3.6 at end of June 2024, down 50 basis points. I will now hand back to Sophie to conclude. Sophie, you're on mute. I'm sorry. Thank you very much, Philippe, and sorry for that. Let me now conclude based on slide number 28 on our outlook for 2024. We expect organic growth revenue to remain above 5%, and EBITDA expressed in pre-IFRS 16 terms, and excluding expected disposals, to remain at least stable. Our 2023-2026 outlook, as presented at the Capital Markets Day in May, is also reaffirmed. As we move ahead, our group will continue to focus on improving its performance in a balanced way, and on maintaining a high level of quality in all its activities, in line with our At Your Side corporate project. Thank you very much for your attention, and we are now open for Q&A. Operator, can we move to questions? Thank you to our audio participants. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind and want to withdraw your question, please press star two. Please ensure your lines are un-muted locally, as you'll be prompted to when to ask your question. As for now, the floor is open for written question raised by webcasters. Thank you. We have a first question, Sophie and Philippe, on the webcast. Regarding the M&A program, could you tell us what the status of the program is to reach the target of EUR 1 billion? Yes, I will. Thank you, Sarah, I will take this one. As I recalled, we have concluded three transactions over the first half. Firstly, we have sold our UK platform, HoldCo, so meaning OpCo and PropCo. Secondly, we have signed an agreement in order to sell our hospital-at-home business segment in France, and the transaction is expected to be closed over the second half of the year. And thirdly, we have also sold a PropCo asset in the Netherlands. So these are the three transactions that have been achieved over the first semester. We are now actively working on several scenarios, in order to secure the remaining 60% of the program, to reach the EUR 1 billion proceeds expected from that disposal program by the end of 2025. Thank you, Sophie. We have a question that has come in on the new build program. Can you provide more information on the new build program? As I mentioned in the question, of 10,500 beds have all been already built, how many are remaining, and in which countries, and which time period? What is the average investment? And so question overall on the pipeline, the size of the pipeline. Okay, I will take this one, and of course, Philippe and Stéphane can add the missing details here. So, to be very clear, the 10,500 new beds were in the pipeline before we went to the refinancing plan. So we have significantly cut the new build program in accordance to the deleveraging priority, in order to only keep today 2,700 beds to be delivered over the three next years. Those new beds are almost all financed because they are covered by the real estate partnerships we have put in place, mainly with the bank, with the Caisse des Dépôts subsidiary. So that Banque des Territoires for clinics in France, and with Predica and Banque des Territoires, again, for the AGV pipeline. So again, not to 10,500 new beds, but 2,700, all of them being already pre-financed by the joint ventures we have put in place with Banque des Territoires in one case, and with Banque des Territoires and Predica in the other case. Thank you, Sophie. We have a new question that's come in around the cash flow. The cash burn has significantly improved in H1 compared to a year ago, but the operating free cash flow at EUR 74 million wasn't sufficient to cover the CapEx in H1. Is the company still planning to ensure CapEx is self-sufficient, and be covered by the cash flow for 2024? Thank you. I may take this one. Yes, you are right. Our cash flow has improved. It is back to a normal situation for H1, and we are committed on two targets. So first one is to be back as soon as possible to a 40% conversion rate end of this year, and to reduce our investment to EUR 200 million. Both targets are still there, and will allow us to be cash positive, so auto-self-finance for the year of 2024. Thank you, Philippe. We have a fourth question coming in regarding the agreement between Clariane and the banks regarding to the hybrid bond with potential redemption next year. Are you allowed to call it, or is it subject to the leveraging criteria? If so, which criteria is that? I think it's a bit, it's still a bit too soon to speak about. As you know, we have not called it in June, so this hybrid is still in place, and we have, as an objective, to find a solution for this hybrid, but today, it's a bit too soon to share this topic. Thank you. Under Stéphane's control, I think we'll take a first question from the telephone line, and then come back to the chat. We have a question coming through the line of Ethan Garber from Imperial Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. It seems that Germany has rebounded strongly. It's something that you'd guided on over the last six months. At 19.7% EBITDA margin, what are your prospects for German pricing and recouping the inflationary hit on the nursing costs over the next, say, 12-24 months? Yeah, thank you very much for the question. So we are currently, we have, actively started a negotiation, pricing negotiation program for 2025, 2024. And this is actually, it cover the next 12 months, and we include the expected inflation on all cost dimension, meaning the wage. We expect another wage increase to happen in next year, and the inflation in the cost. So I expect actually the repricing to fully cover it, and more than cover it the inflation on the various cost items, first. And second, we see also good development in the volume, in the occupancy in Germany, and this definitely contributes to a margin rebound. As Philippe Garin explained, we expect margin to be back to normal level end of 2025 in Germany. Thank you, Sophie. We have another question on the web chat concerning the real estate debt maturing in the second half of the year. Are we expecting all of this to be rolled over, or will it be used, or will the cash in hand be used to pay this down? Philippe, do you- Even though- Yes. Yes, even though we are at a low point for this first semester, we have been able to secure the, to secure, sorry, around EUR 70 million of real estate. So we are still, and we are obliged to renew our real estate debt, quarter after quarter. And, we have plenty in file, of files, which are, to be renew. We, so we have the, we have the capacity to renew our debt, and we have, you are fully right, some bridge, which will, are going probably to be resized. As it was committed, we have reimbursed our bridge, of 100 or 200 million EUR, which has been reduced first time with UK to 175 million EUR. Now, in July, it has been fully reimbursed, and we will put in place new facility based on real estate, in the months to come. So I don't see big risk as we should have too much of real estate debt.... as we have some opportunity to adjust it, and I don't see, I have, as of today, we have plenty of plenty. We have some file which are moving the right way, and I would not say either to have not enough real estate debt. I hope it's answering your question. As a reminder to our audio participants, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. In the meantime, we have a similar question, but this time concerning the EUR 154 million, sorry, of other corporate debt maturing in H2 2024. Are you- Yeah. Expecting this to be rolled over? Exactly, and this is a relevant question. Actually, this, refers to the factoring, facility that is in place. So it is indeed, expected, not expected. It, it will be rolled over. So if I take, if- Thank you, Sophie. Sorry, there is a question concerning the occupancy rate at the end of H2 2024. Has this been adjusted for new openings? That's the first question. Maybe I'll read you the next question afterwards, sorry. Yeah, I see the question on the chat. Thank you very much for that. So, actually, we have done some in and outs in terms of available capacities, because we have been exiting some facilities in Belgium, and exiting also one facility in Germany. So actually the ins are offsets the outs. So the occupancy you see is has is actually totally consistent in terms of underlying available capacities. I hope this helps, but we are ready if we can provide further detail if needed. And I see a second question on the chat of do we think if we are going to complete the new property partnership by the end of the year? The answer here is yes, we are working, as Philippe just explained, on further partnerships on our PropCo on the various PropCo assets. And we cannot commit on the fact that this would be done by the end of the year, but it is definitely on our prospect to have further vehicles to be delivered. Thank you, Sophie. There's a question which is quite wide-ranging. Have you, have we seen any deterioration in our discussions related to disposal, given the political, the French political concerns that have emerged recently? As I recalled, the hospital-at-home transaction, which is the significant transactions we have done on the French scope, has been signed beginning of May. So before actually the latest political development in France. So I don't see any headwinds on the transaction program coming from the recent events from France. Thank you, Sophie. There's a question here about slide 21, which shows that there is a coupon payment on the hybrids of EUR 73 million. I think this is for you, Philippe. Can we explain this amount? Which is, can you explain that amount? A coupon, a coupon payment of say, EUR 73 million, I think you wanted to speak about the EUR 26 million of equity impact. As it is explained in this slide, in fact, we have net the equity impact, and during the first semester, we have two big equity impact. The first part of the capital increase of EUR 73 million net, and some payment of hybrid on the hybrid side. And on the real estate side, as you may remember, when we dispose of our UK asset, we reimburse, so the whole setup, which has been put in place end of December 2023. So we have a -EUR 99 million and a +EUR 73 million. The +EUR 73 is the +EUR 90 of the capital, the reserve capital increase, the first part of the capital increase, and the -EUR 20 regarding payment of coupon for hybrid. And Philippe, if I may complete, I think the 73, which is also on this slide, is actually the reserved capital increase, with some impacts of different coupons over the period. I think then that gives a full view. The next question is again related to the real estate, expecting on the new capacities, nursing home clinics, and which region is this development CapEx focused? Is Is it only in France or is it in different areas across the network? For the time being, most of the 2,700 new capacities will come in two regions. The first one being France, with the AGV program, plus the clinic development in France. The second region is definitely the Netherlands, with a significant pipeline of new build to come. For the time being, we have not planned to open additional capacities in Germany, in the nursing home segment in Germany. We first want to secure full margin and pricing recovery, and fully leverage the existing capacities. We have another small 10% of additional capacities to be fully leveraged, plus the result of active revenue management, additional services on existing capacities. So actually all countries will contribute to growth. Some of them with the better leverage of existing capacities and active revenue management, and some of them with new capacities to be open, and this mainly in France and in the Netherlands. We might also see that this is not reflected in the pipeline so far, further development in Spain, where we have recently taken over three nursing homes in the northern part of Spain through a kind of management contract. So we have not borne the weight of the investment there, but we have extended our network by three new facilities that we are operating with actually a very good contribution of these three new facilities. And I see further contribution to be expected in similar transactions or agreements. Thank you, Sophie. We have a question from our analyst, David Southern, who asked the question of assuming that we complete the EUR 600 million of disposal, how do we expect to proceed? I assume that this question is aiming on the types of debt that we would reinvest, but obviously, David, if it's a different angle, then please let us know. Yes, for sure. We are committed to reimburse our debt, so this proceeds will go to reimburse the debt. And after we have some steps, if we are below a level of leverage, we are less committed to reimburse our bank than if we have above. So the target is to reduce the debt by EUR 1.5 billion. So as a consequence, all this proceeds will be used for those reimbursement. Thank you both. At this stage, I think we have managed- To complete on this question, it is not only this commitment of anticipated reimbursement of the existing debts. Is not only for the additional EUR 600 million to come, but this is mainly also for the already secured transaction. So the first proceeds to come in the second half, coming from hospital-at-home disposals, for example. To our audio participants, as a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions from our audio participants, so I hand the floor back to Sophie Boissard to conclude. Yes. So, ladies and gentlemen, dear investors and analysts, thank you very much for attending to the call. Again, we have, we are well on track, and delivering on our roadmap, and I expect the second half to be very much the first half alike. Thank you very much for your attention, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have further questions or points you want to investigate further with us. Have a good afternoon. Bye-bye. Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your line.