Good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure today to present our H1 2024 results together with Sreedhar, our Group CFO. Two main takeaways on our first half: once again, we delivered very strong results in H1 with a record operating margin. Second important point, we successfully achieved significant milestones in our strategic repositioning. Before I start, let me share with you a few recent examples of our light and sustainable solutions. Let's start, of course, with residential new build, with the landmark project of the Olympics Athletes' Village, where we have delivered 14 Saint-Gobain innovative, sustainable solutions. It is the D-Day. As you know, we are an official sponsor, so I cannot miss the great opportunity. We are so proud of having delivered on this landmark job site. Our solutions also bring many benefits in non-residential applications, such as enhanced guest comfort in hotels or also acoustic and light solutions for offices. On renovation, some of you have visited our world-class testing facilities in partnership with the University of Salford in Manchester, where we develop and we measure the efficiency of our full-scale renovation solutions. And finally, our solutions are also used on infrastructure markets, sometimes for very critical applications, like the French Guiana Space Center, where we have put our construction chemical expertise at work. Moving to our financials now. In H1, we delivered strong, very strong results despite a challenging market environment. Our sales for H1 were at EUR 23.5 billion. New record operating margin at 11.7%, beating our previous record of 11.3% in H1 2023. A strong recurring net income at EUR 1.7 billion, and also record levels of free cash flow at EUR 2.5 billion, up 12% versus the first half of last year, with a 75% cash conversion ratio. Sreedhar will give you all the details in a few minutes. Our Grow & Impact has proven to be very effective. Once again, during the first half on a strong set of financials, margin, cash, and all this is based on two things, very important. One, our solutions approach, through which we are delivering increased share of wallet within our customers, improved product mix, and also increased pricing power. Second, also, we have achieved very significant milestones in terms of how we have strategically repositioned the group towards high-growth markets and construction chemicals. These milestones, you know them, three important moves that we have announced and sometimes closed in the first half. On the two strategic axes, where we have allocated very rigorously our capital over the last years. First, on our geographic axis, growth angle, Canada, Australia, and the second one is on construction chemical, which has been the third milestone achieved, announced in the first half with the acquisition of Fosroc. Altogether, those three moves will add EUR 2 billion of sales and EUR 450 million of EBITDA after EUR 100 million of synergies in year three. So I'm very confident that our strategy will continue to drive consistent and strong success going forward. Now, Sreedhar, the floor is yours to take us through all the financial metrics. Thank you, Benoit. Good morning, everyone. Let me give you some details of our first half 2024 results. Starting with sales, volumes continued to be impacted by the weakness in the new construction in Europe, but were supported by growth in the Americas and in Asia Pacific. However, sequentially, we saw an improvement in volumes and stability in prices. The structure effect turned positive in Q2 as we continue our strategic repositioning with important acquisitions in the high-growth markets of North America, Asia, and emerging markets, and also in construction chemicals. Now, let us look at the operating margins. If you look at it, we have actually reached a new record high of 11.7%, and operating income remained close to its record high, despite the low volumes. We achieved a positive price-cost spread in all segments, thanks to our robust pricing discipline and also the tailwind from certain raw materials and energy costs. As I remain very confident that we will deliver a positive price-cost spread for the full year, although the spread will be much smaller in H2 than H1 due to the comparison basis. This demonstrates the resilience of the transformed Saint-Gobain. Now let us look at the other lines of P&L below operating profit. So you see here, we once again achieved a new record EBITDA margin and an EBITDA in euro terms, close to its all-time high. Non-operating costs came to its normal level for a first half year, in line with our guidance of around EUR 250 million for the full year that we gave in Capital Market Day. Capital gains and losses are much lower than last year, which was impacted, if you remember, negatively by the divestment of the UK distribution business in the last year, first quarter. Recurring earnings per share is also at a very good level. Now let's look at the cash situation. We have, again, a record level of cash flow and a very good cash flow, free cash flow conversion ratio. The strong cash culture that we have installed throughout the organization has started clearly showing a good payoff, and we see that the free cash flow is now structurally higher year after year in all the businesses. The strong free cash flow generation has enabled us to maintain a strong balance sheet, while at the same time we are investing for growth and also delivering attractive shareholder returns. The net debt to EBITDA ratio was 1.4 times at the end of June. If we also include the acquisition that we are going to pay in CSR in the second half, which is already closed now, and the Fosroc, which will come typically, technically next year. If I take even Fosroc into account, we are talking about the range which we articulated in capital market, 1.5 times to 2 times, we would be at the low range of this range that we set for ourselves. Now, let us look at the results by segments. If you just look at the Europe overall, the new construction remained down, while the renovation market, accounting for 60% of our sales, continues to be resilient. Importantly, we saw a sequential improvement of volumes between Q1 and Q2, bringing us close to a low point. In Spain and Italy, in Europe, Eastern European countries, and in Middle East and Africa, we are seeing volume growth. We have trough in the UK, and we are close to low point in Nordic countries and Germany. In France, the new construction market remains significantly down, but we continue to outperform, thanks to our strong exposure to the renovation market with our comprehensive solutions. We expect it to take a few quarters before we reach a low point in France. Despite the challenging environment, the operating margin remains stable at a record level of 8.7%. Turning to the Americas, the growth was supported by North America. North America saw a good growth in both volumes and prices in H1. Despite the tough comparison basis, as expected in Q2, in particularly in roofing business, this good growth performance was driven by a dynamic renovation market in roofing, while the new construction remained at a good level. We saw further market share gains to our comprehensive, differentiated offer in the U.S. market. And in Canada, we are benefiting from the integration of our recent acquisitions Kaycan Building Products of Canada and Bailey. In Latin America, the markets remained down, and we began to stabilize in Q2, with volumes almost flat in the second quarter. The region saw again, a new record operating margin and operating profit of EUR 945 million, and when you look at the margin, we're talking about 19%. Now, looking at Asia-Pacific, organic growth in Asia-Pacific was driven by India, where volume growth continued, and we once again outperformed the market. We continued to play a very leading role in shaping the market through our differentiated and value-added low-carbon offer. In China, in a difficult new construction market, we continued to capture market share against a very high comparison basis in Q2 of last year. Southeast Asia remained at a good level, driven by Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Again, the region achieved a new record operating margin. Now, let us look at the global customer markets. If you see High-Performance Solutions, like-for-like sales down by 3.5%, but sequentially, there is a good improvement in Q2. Businesses serving the global construction customers saw a continued weakness in reinforcement glass grid solutions, but a progression in Q2, as well as growth in construction chemicals, which were up 3.1% for like-for-like. Mobility sales stabilized against a high comparison basis. We continue to invest in innovation and optimize our footprint with the closure of the plant in Spain. Businesses serving industry declined due to the weak industrial markets, especially those linked, in particular, to the investment cycles of our customer. The operating margin remained stable at 12.3%, even though the volume is down. To sum up, you have seen that we have delivered an excellent performance, even though the market environment has remained very difficult. I remain very confident that we are going to deliver once again in 2024, an excellent year for Saint-Gobain. Now I pass on the floor to Benoit. Thank you. Thank you, Sreedhar. Let me update you on our strategy now. As the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction, Saint-Gobain is stronger and more resilient than ever. Why is that? Because we have repositioned the group on strong markets. Second, also because we have put in place all the levers to outperform and deliver very well on what we can control. We have a disciplined capital allocation with clear areas for growth investment to meet one goal: strengthen the group profitable growth profile. We make growth investment along two clear axes: geographic and construction chemicals. In recent years, we have rotated around 40% of our sales, thanks to a very decisive M&A approach. We have also allocated 70% of our growth CapEx towards North America, Asia, emerging markets. Altogether, thanks to this decisive capital allocation, two-thirds of our operating income now comes from North America, Asia, and emerging markets, and we enjoy a well-balanced geographic footprint. I will now zoom on each of these markets. In North America, Asia, and emerging markets, there are structural needs supporting the demand for light and sustainable construction. In the U.S. and Canada, there is a significant structural housing shortage, plus an aging housing stock that does require renovation, notably in the must-have roofing replacement renovation, which is, as you know, important to us. In Asia, we have a continued urbanization, expecting around 1.2 billion additional urban residents by 2050, so a big need for construction, productivity, light construction, and performance. This means that we see a huge growth potential driven by higher penetration of light and sustainable solutions. I take two examples. For instance, we anticipate a 5-10x increase in plasterboard consumption in emerging markets compared to developed markets where we are today. Same on ready-mix mortars, with a 10x in years to come in terms of increased penetration in emerging market in order to deliver productivity on the job site. We have made several acquisitions in the past 3 years to expand in those high-growth geographies, and notably, we have built strong leadership positions in Canada, where we have tripled our size in the last 3 years. More recently, we have finalized on July 9, the acquisition of CSR, where we have now established a leadership position in the very attractive Australian market. I would like to bring to you, Paul Dalton, who is our CEO of CSR, and hear from Paul in a short video. Hello, I'm Paul Dalton, and I'm honored to have been appointed the CEO of CSR. I'm a civil engineer. I have a rich experience of over 30 years in the construction industry in Australia, and I've led organizational transformation focused on supply chain, commercial excellence, and innovation. I've been part of the CSR team for 4 years, leading the Interior Systems division, which includes our plasterboard business and acoustic insulation. The construction market in Australia has good mid- to long-term growth prospects, supported by a growing population and immigration... and an increasing need for light and sustainable construction solutions. Indeed, our new construction code and regulatory frameworks are accelerating progress to more sustainable and energy-efficient construction. There is also a significant structural housing shortage in Australia, and government support for programs currently targeting to build 1.2 million new homes over the next 5 years. As you know, CSR is a leader in the Australian construction market with iconic brands, and we're excited about the many opportunities that will open up in the Australian market now that we are part of Saint-Gobain, a global leader in light and sustainable construction. The well-planned integration has kicked off, and I'm very confident to accelerate CSR's growth and deliver the synergies and the strong value creation. Thank you, Paul. You know, thank you, Paul. We have a great team in Australia. I was there again three weeks ago for the closing, and they are all super excited and motivated to join Saint-Gobain and to benefit for Australia from all what we can bring to them in terms of innovation, sustainability, operational excellence, you name it. Along with the geographic axis, our second growth axis is construction chemicals, where we are building a very strong global leadership platform. As you know, we are delivering well on Chryso and GCP acquisitions, and we are, of course, very excited about the recently announced acquisition of Fosroc, which will put us all together at EUR 6.2 billion annual sales in construction chemicals and enhance our presence in the fast-growing markets of India and the Middle East, as well as Asia Pacific. We are expecting the close to happen in the first half of 2025, and here again, I can tell you that all the internal communication we have done with the Fosroc and the Saint-Gobain teams has been extremely positive. Moving to Europe, we are also well-positioned with our comprehensive solutions for renovation. The European renovation market continues to demonstrate resilience. First, all the EU member states are actively implementing regulations for energy renovation, be it for public buildings or private buildings in terms of energy efficiency. On top of this, and I think we shared that, at the beginning of the year already, we can already see a green value, a green value being reflected in the property valuation of buildings, like in France, with almost a 50% 50 gap between the best and the worst in terms of energy efficiency within buildings. Besides that, we observe positive macroeconomic trends in Europe, some recovery in household confidence, lower mortgage rates, and improving affordability for home transactions, as well as encouraging lending data at the E.U. level. So you see that we have positioned the group on strong markets. Let's move now to all the levers we have put in place to outperform. At Saint-Gobain, we have a powerful operating model based on a country-led organization. Our local teams are close to their customers, they understand their market, they are eager to deploy adapted solutions, and their decision-making process is agile and execution is fast. Second, our CEOs are incentivized on their margin management, and they are empowered to take proactive decisions on pricing, on cost actions, in order to deliver for their country the best possible results. Our country CEOs also leverage the full breadth of Saint-Gobain offer to design and deliver comprehensive and complete solutions that bring value to our customers. Let's hear directly from Mike Chaldecott, our CEO in the UK, on how Saint-Gobain has become a one-stop shop in the UK for solutions of all construction types. Let's hear from Mike. The UK is a strong, profitable country, and Saint-Gobain's operations within our country have transformed over the last four years, post several divestments. Now, we're in growth mode. We have strong brands, a broad range of complementary solutions, and expertise in specification and system selling, underpinned by deep customer relationships and unique capabilities in building testing. The UK market has strong tailwinds to support our growth. New regulations from 2025 push for higher standards on new buildings, and the renovation of the UK's aging housing stock means 27 million homes need to be retrofitted by 2050. That's 90% of the existing housing stock. We have transformed our business and are now a leading one-stop shop for solutions for all construction types, like our complete through-the-wall solutions to meet new residential standards in timber frame, comprising of eight different Saint-Gobain solutions, or our low and medium-rise steel-framed solutions, helping customers build faster with less embodied carbon and lightweight foundations. Our approach is customer-centric, and we have well-established relationships with our customers, with distributors, with contractors, and with house builders. Saint-Gobain is the leader in light building materials in the U.K., with strong double-digit margin.... with iconic brands, full solutions for all customer segments and all parts of the building, through the walls, through the floor, and through the roof. Our close customer relationships help us deliver strong specifications and solutions that add value for our customers and Saint-Gobain, and drive our purpose of making the world a better home. Thank you, Mike. I think a lot of you could interact with Mike during our Investor Day on July second, which was a great day in terms of showing in real life, on the ground, our Saint-Gobain solutions. We also bring specific solutions on energy renovation for public buildings such as schools and hospitals. Here, this is an example, very specific, for a hospital in Paris, where we combine insulated exterior facade solutions, our COOL-LITE XTREME solar control on double glazing, and also external thermal insulation on the facade. With that, we can decrease, and we measure it, the energy consumption by more than 50%, and also greatly improve the thermal comfort in summer by 40%. This ability to outperform is also driven by our commitment to innovation, which I would like to illustrate with two examples. Glasroc X in gypsum is a great example, launched successfully now in 81 countries, where we have tripled our sales since 2019. Another example is Lanaé, our soft eco-design glass wool. These are great examples, among many others, of innovation, and also to show how our group innovation and marketing and development teams are rolling out new products across the group, working with country CEOs, according to, of course, the local needs of any specific country. As part of our innovation, all our initiatives also in terms of leadership on sustainability and low carbon offers, are an excellent way to differentiate ourselves from competition and bring additional benefits to our customers. We have the widest range of low carbon solutions in the world across all the product lines of Saint-Gobain, and you can see several examples on this slide in terms of plasterboard, glass, siding, etc. To conclude, the group is strongly positioned, and we have all the levers to continue to outperform. A value accretive capital allocation towards high-growth markets, innovative and value-added solutions for our customers, and also leadership on sustainable construction. Let me give you now an outlook for the rest of the year to come. We expect some of our markets to remain difficult overall for 2024, but in the second half we should benefit from an easier comparison basis and also a sequential improvement in certain countries. So to conclude, we expect a double-digit operating margin for the second half and for the full year 2024, which will be the fourth consecutive year, and I'm very confident about the strategic positioning of the group for years to come. We are now at your disposal, together with Sreedhar, to take all your questions. Thank you, sir. As a reminder, please press star and one on your telephone for any questions. The first question comes from Elodie Rall of J.P. Morgan. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two. The first is on top line. I was wondering if you could give us an update on your forecast. You had previously guided for volumes to be down, low single-digit, and pricing down 1%-ish. So I was wondering if you had an update on that, what kind of initiatives in terms of pricing you've taken, since the start of the summer, maybe, and what kind of current trends you're seeing on volumes? My second question is on margins. So you said margins will be double-digit in H2, but could there be... What would be the reasons why they would be below last year in H2, so below the 10.6%? You said you expect a lower price cost in H2 versus H1, but still positive, if I understand correctly, and you expect some volume improvement sequentially. So why would an H2 margin be above the 10.6% level of H2 last year? Thank you very much. Thank you, Elodie. You asked all the questions in one, so I will do my best to answer one by one. Let's start with volumes. We have reached the floor. As we said, at the group level, we have seen the sequential improvement for the group and also in Europe between Q1 and Q2. In Europe, volumes were down 8.2% in Q1. They are down 3.7% in Q2. So we remain confident in our expectation of low single-digit volume decrease for the group at a full year level. We are confident on H2. As I said, the worst is behind us, so in volume percentage terms, it should be better than H1, with a further improvement in terms of certain countries and of course, a slightly easier comparison basis. So sequentially, we will continue to improve in volumes towards the second half. Second, on pricing- me this morning is Thierry Ochoa. ... So I will continue on pricing. We remain confident to deliver a price-cost spread in the full year and also in the second half. You have to compare always, because there is seasonality. In the last years, we have a smaller margin in the second half than in the first half. That has been the case for the last three years. So you have to compare H1 to H1 and H2 to H2 because of seasonality. So on the pricing, and then I will comment on the margin. We expect the price effect to remain negative, but slightly less than in H1, so still slightly negative in the second half, but slightly less than in H1, which was around minus one. Now, all this will translate in the margin. We are not going to be more specific about that. As you know, we always strive to do our best and to deliver the best possible margin. You need indeed to compare H2 versus H2, like we have improved H1 versus H1. We are confident to deliver a strong success for Saint-Gobain in 2024. I gave you some colors on prices and volumes for the second half, and altogether we are confident about the margin for one, for Saint-Gobain. Okay, thank you very much. The next question from the conference call is Cedar Ekblom of Morgan Stanley. Thanks very much. You guys have done a good job on cutting costs in the downturn and keeping a lid on CapEx. I'd like to understand, as we start to exit a negative volume environment and hopefully we get a bit of volume growth going forward, how do we need to think about how costs and CapEx evolve? Are there costs that have been taken out that actually need to come back into the business? Basically, have fixed costs been very variabilized? And same on CapEx. If we're gonna be getting into a growth environment, do we need to be thinking about a step up in CapEx spend? And similarly, on working capital, that's been reined in very nicely, does that need to start to be invested in as we hopefully grow? Basically, just to try and understand how much of the cost base actually has been deeply cut, which needs to come back. Thank you. Sreedhar, you take that? Yeah. So, thank you for your question, Cedar. In terms of cost, we have—you have seen, we have taken a lot of proactive steps, country by country. All the CEOs are really quite quick in adapting the cost structure based on what the market situation is. There are cost structures which are structural. There are cost structures which are discretionary. I would say that you should see some positive effect of leverage as and when the volume comes back, but it's not mechanical. But you should see some positive impact. And there is a super discipline and rigor in managing the productivity in every single industrial site. And you know that Saint-Gobain is very successful in driving the World Class Manufacturing program. This also helps us to quickly offset all the inflation we see from time to time, and particularly when you see the manpower cost. We have been quite successful in offsetting these kind of increases. CapEx, you know, CapEx is. You know, we are clearly allocating CapEx in a much more disciplined manner. You have seen that we have made a significant progress on maintenance CapEx. We have actually reduced close to 20% if you look at the past averages. The growth CapEx is very much focused on where we see opportunities to grow, create value. That has been the sole objective. So the allocation of CapEx will continue to happen. Again, this will be dependent on the market opportunities, the growth opportunities, where we think Saint-Gobain can go and get more market share. Working capital, you are right, we have been super disciplined. You have seen the focus on cash in the last five years. I mean, you're talking of more than half of the working capital has been reduced. This is for me a large part is structural, so you can be rest assured, the discipline, the rigor on cash will continue to remain super focused on cash. Yes, well, in terms of euro terms, the working capital will go up as and when the volume comes back. But in terms of number of days, I think we will remain super vigilant and manage it well as we did all these years. Thank you. Next question. Maybe... Sorry, one question in the room. You need the mic. Some have been courageous enough to travel in Paris during the Olympic days, so thank you for coming. Thank you. So I have two question, if I may. The first one is about your the GCP and Chryso margin. Could you give us more details on the maybe improvement of GCP margin? And the second question is about France. It's one of your worst geographies in H1. What about the MaPrimeRénov', the 2025 version? It seems to be more attractive than the 2024 version. So maybe if you have more details on this. Thank you. Thank you for those two questions. So we told you that last year we improved by 400 basis points, the margin of the combined entity, GCP plus Chryso. So we continue to make progress. We deliver very well on the synergies we outlined at the time of Chryso plus GCP, so we continue to make good progress. You have seen that we delivered 3% organic growth in this segment in the second quarter, so we continue to have a good winning momentum on GCP and Chryso. On France, well, you know, in France, if I take a bit of a micro view, the last two weeks have been a bit of a limbo on the political side, so I'm not an expert, and I will not take any risk on that. So it has created a bit of a wait and see attitude, to be, to be frank, in France. So we think it will take a few more quarters for France to reach the trough. Nonetheless, all the energy efficiency renovation trends are there. And indeed, the MaPrimeRénov' has been simplified on May fifteenth, if I'm correct, to allow not only the global renovation, but also come back to the single, easy to do gesture. If I take just the months of May and June, the public body, Anah, collecting that, took 10,000 global renovation in May, 10,000 again in June. So those trends are there to continue, and if I'm correct, a decree has been published mid-July in France to lower the threshold in terms of income for all the households to benefit from MaPrimeRénov' going forward. So I would say all those measures are there to stay. They have been made a bit easier on single plus global renovation, plus lowering the threshold so that more households could benefit from it. So I think it's something that will continue to be positive on energy efficiency without forgetting, and this is why I wanted to highlight public buildings. There are programs to renovate public buildings in France. So we are still in this low new construction environment, but resilience in renovation, and as you know, we are very strong on renovation in France, where we outperform the market. So I'm confident that that trend going forward, even though the short term is challenging. We are talking of 70% of our sales in France comes from renovation market. Is there another question in the room? If not, I go back to the call. So let's go back to the questions on the phone. Thank you, sir. The next question is from Brijesh Siya of HSBC. Hi, guys. Good morning. I have two questions. The first one is on the mobility segment. Sorry, the decline is a lot less compact. Brijesh? Sorry, can you hear me? Yeah, now better. Can you restart, please? Sorry. Yeah. So, I'll start again. So, the first one is on the mobility segment's improvement in, you know Q2 we saw. Given the headline news about electric vehicles as well as the auto production, what we are, I mean, seeing that there could be a slowdown coming into second half, how do you see that mobility segment growth evolving in the coming quarters? And the second one is on your margin comment. You helpfully set out how you think about second half. But, if we are going to see another volume decline in second half, will that margin still remain in double digit term? Sorry, Sreedhar, that's a question for you. Sreedhar will take the second. So, mobility, I think you should always decouple a bit what could be the short-term news on the overall mobility market around the world and what we deliver. 'Cause as you know, it's depending on the models that you have taken, sometimes 1, 2, 3 years ago, and what you can deliver on the ground. So we expect, you know, our performance on mobility to be around stable in the second half. Why? Because it's not only in Europe, it's also in North America, it's also in Asia, it's also in India. So altogether, we expect to be in a flattish scenario in the second half for mobility, benefiting from the innovation drive and also the models we have taken on all kind of segments in the past years. Maybe on the margin, and also maybe a comment on the price- cost spread in the second half, Sreedhar. Yeah. So, you know, the price cost spread, as I said, for the full year, we are going to have positive, and also for the second half, we are going to be positive. So we are very confident of delivering a price cost spread, I think thanks to the discipline on the the price, pricing discipline. I think it's important to just keep in mind that we have, when you look at the price cost spread for the H2, it will be much less than what we have seen in H1. It's primarily due to the comparison basis. If you recall, last year, the large part of the inflation was in H1. So in H2 onwards, we started seeing the reduction in energy and raw material costs. It's just pure technical comparison basis. As far as the discipline and our ability to continue to deliver price cost remains very high. Thank you, Sreedhar. Next question, I think, is from Yassine On Field. Yes, good morning. Maybe a first question on the latest trends that you see in July. Do you see anything that is consistent with what you mentioned for H2 with like better volume than in H1? Then the second question on pricing. I think your competitor, Rockwool, a couple of weeks ago suggested there might be a risk of negative impact from sales prices in the second part of the year because they want to preserve market share. At the same time, we see some price increase announced by your other insulation manufacturer in the US, in the UK. I just would like to get your view on insulation. Do you see a risk on pricing, or do you feel that the margin and business development should be good in the second part of the year? You, you take the first, and I take the second? Yeah... so it's in terms of H2 volume, right? Yeah, I think we answered, but you can repeat again. On July, if you've seen anything, any trends on July, that would give you confidence on the H2 outlook? Nothing specific. I think it's in line with what you're seeing, and we continue to believe that we should have a H2 should be better than H1, for sure. But again, it's all sequential improvement we are talking. On pricing, I think we should take a, a broader view. As I said, you know, we expect, prices to remain slightly down, a bit, less negative than in H1. I'm not going to comment specifically on one product line versus the rest. We adjust based on the solutions, based on what we bring to our customers. I can tell you that there are a lot of pricing actions on the positive side. For instance, if I take the U.S., if I take roofing, we are pushing prices up in the summer, and it will stick. We have positive pricing if I take gypsum U.S., if I take insulation. So here and there, it depends on the market dynamic, the product, benefits and merits that you can bring to the market. So I've nothing negative to report. We are very disciplined on the pricing, and we are very strong on our pricing power, thanks to the benefits we bring with our solutions and thanks to the proactive management that our country CEOs have on the ground. Thank you. Next is from Arnaud Lehmann from BOA. Thank you very much. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, very good. Two questions, please. My first is on the volumes. I think you mentioned in the introduction that Latin America volumes were stable in Q2. However, the Americas region, I think, was down 3% or 4% in volumes in the second quarter, so I'm assuming this is coming from U.S. volumes. Could you please give us a bit of color on that? Is it a choice you're making in terms of favoring pricing over volumes, or is it underlying market getting a bit softer? And the other question is on European volumes. I think you were down 5% or 6% in the first half. Do you think you outperformed the market? Did you take market share, or you think you perform more or less in line with market trends? The last one is probably for Sreedhar. After all the acquisitions that have been announced, closed, or, you know, CSR, Bailey, Fosroc, et cetera, do you have an order of magnitude of the purchase price accounting effect in the P&L, in terms of run rate, from next year? Thank you. So I take the first and indeed, Sreedhar, the second. So, on North America, you have to be very specific because we had a big swing last year on volumes in roofing. We're down in the first quarter by roughly 20%. Why? Because we wanted to protect our prices and push our prices up, and therefore we did build inventory during Q1, and we could deliver very, very well in Q2. We had 20% up in volumes in Q2 last year. So this is the swing in terms of comparison basis from last year, Q1, Q2. That explains that our volumes were a bit soft, well, negative in comparison basis in volumes for roofing in the second quarter of this year. Altogether, we had positive volumes in roofing for the first half. We are on allocation for our customers on roofing, so we'll have a very good year in roofing, with good growth both in prices and volume. So, the, the picture in North America, specifically on Q2, is related to this effect because we played very well last year, the pricing situation and the inventory buildup so that we could benefit from the season when it started in April of 2023. And again, we are with a strong prospect on roofing this year. If I take the other product lines, we are growing in insulation, we are growing in volumes, altogether, if I take the, the second quarter in gypsum, so same on siding. So I'm confident that we gain share in North America. Latin America, we expect some upside in the second half, so, we started to see at the end of the first half, some easing of the situation, notably in Brazil and Mexico. So this is the picture of Latam and North America with the comparison from, last year. In Europe, yet there are many countries where we think we outperform. France, clearly, based on the overall touch points we have, notably on the value chain for renovation. In the UK as well, I think you heard that from, directly from, Mike Chaldecott in, early July. I think in Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Poland, our volumes are up 5%. I think we do better than the, than the market. I would not say the same for Germany, where we are not the leader. Some, some local players, national players are ahead of us. In the Nordics, I think we are on par with the market. If I take the picture of those main countries, South Europe, because it's important to keep that, Spain and Italy, we are delivering very well, you know, with positive organic growth. So I think we outperform in Spain and Italy, if I take South Europe. So on PPA, Arnaud, you have seen the numbers. Last year it was EUR 85 million in H1, and this year it is EUR 103 million. It's a pretty elaborate process. I don't have a precise number, what it's going to be for 2025. It's too early because it takes time. It's, I mean, it takes as long as 6 months to get the precise numbers, so it will increase for sure. So you have an impact of Building Products Canada, which reflected in the first half, 85 moving to 103. So it should go up further in next year. ...Thank you. Thank you very much. Next question is from Gregor, from UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Excellent. Thank you. Sorry to push you on the volumes again. I mean, what I'm hearing is you're saying better than H1, but possibly still down. So just to be clear that that's what you're saying, and perhaps stability or flat is maybe a bit too optimistic. I don't know if I'm interpreting correctly. That's question one. Question two, now that you've closed CSR, can you just give us actually a full year estimate for the EBIT contribution from M&A? I guess all the deals added up together, that would be really helpful. And then, can I just check on construction chemicals? I mean, I saw there was some disclosure in HPS, but at a global level, which I guess includes mortars, how did the kind of overall revenues perform? I don't know, Q1, Q2, I don't know, which way, whichever way you want to tell me. Thank you. Thank you. So on volumes, I think we highlighted where we are. We are in a very, very narrow range. So I think it's a bit too early to be super, super precise, but we are confident that we are moving in the right direction, that the worst is behind us. So we will update you in Q3. But again, I think we are moving in the right direction. Take the big picture, that two-thirds of our profit now comes from North America, Asia, emerging markets, so this is the big picture on Saint-Gobain. I'm not going to be super precise at the last digit in terms of volumes, but clearly moving in the right direction and delivering well in terms of market share gains in... on the ground. On CSR- On CSR, I mean, CSR and Bailey, these two should contribute to second half, little bit less than EUR 100 million euro profits. Construction Chemicals all together, so on this, around EUR 6 billion platform, the first quarter was slightly negative, and altogether we are in the slightly positive mode for the, for the first half, doing even better on specifically additives and mixtures for Chryso GCP, around 3% in the second quarter. That's like for like, yes? Correct. Yeah. Thank you. Next is Ephrem from Citi. Thank you. Two questions, if I may. First, now that you have completed the CSR acquisition, you are looking to monetize the property portfolio and also explore options in the investment in the aluminum business. Can you give us an update on where you are on those? And secondly, just on the acquisition impact on cash conversion and working capital, we don't have a good handle on these aspects for CSR, Fosroc and Bailey. So the question is, should we consider the 75% free cash conversion and the low 20s days of working capital as a new normal for the group going forward, or will the acquisitions change that? Thank you. Well, I think on your second point, we will give a bit of time of Sreedhar to put all his expertise at work on those acquisitions, to bring them to 75% cash conversion and such a stellar working capital. So it's part of the operational excellence, for sure, we will bring to them, and they know it, because they look at our figures and they know where they stand. But, Sreedhar, you will elaborate a bit more. On CSR, yes, we have a plan to monetize portfolio. Again, we closed just three weeks ago. I can tell you that on my second day in Australia, I did visit, the big site they own, which is two miles away from the new Sydney Airport, and they are rehabilitating the site so that we can sell it over the next years, either in one go or two, three steps. But it's a fantastic site that is almost ready to go. So we have a plan. The team is organized. They have a group of 12 experts doing that. We want to find the right balance between not rushing, because we would leave quite a lot of money on the table. Remember, it's, we are talking about AUD 1.3 billion, so it's significant, and at the same time, monetizing it to free up some cash and reinvest for value creation of Saint-Gobain shareholders. Sreedhar? You really want me to say something on cash? I think all of you know, I think we have made a significant progress because this is all structural work. There is no rocket science. It is basics, go to the basic. Today, if you want to join Saint-Gobain, I can tell you, you have to first to go through the No Cash, No Game training program, as something like a compliance training program that you go through. So we did with Chryso, we did with GCP, all these employees, they went through this training program. Like that, CSR, Bailey, everybody will go through. This is part of Saint-Gobain culture. So I'm very confident on cash. I think it is now super part of the routine. Everybody looks at reasons, allocates based on cash value creation. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's Harry Goad now from Berenberg. Yeah. Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. You've obviously been busy on the acquisition side with Fosroc, Bailey, CSR. Can you just talk a little bit about maybe the other side of the coin when you're thinking about portfolio streamlining and potential divestments? And I guess specifically, how do you think about the distribution assets you still have and some of those assets within, or industrial assets within HPS? Are those still key strategic assets for Saint-Gobain to own? Thank you. Well, you know, we have been very active, very disciplined, very focused on the portfolio rotation over the last five years. So we'll continue to do so in order to create value for our shareholders and continue to strengthen the group growth and profitability profile. So yes, we have been a bit more active on acquisitions in the first half. We'll continue to look at how we continue to optimize the perimeter and the portfolio of the group. Nothing more specific to say. We are happy about the assets we have, and when it's the right time, in terms of strategy, in terms of value, acquisitions or divestitures, there is no taboo, and we do it. So we'll continue to drive that going forward. Okay, thank you. Next is Tobias from Stifel. Hello? Yes, Tobias, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Good morning, and happy Olympics to the French people in Paris. Thank you. Two questions from my side, if I may. Number one, you talk about a third consecutive quarter of improvement in Eastern Europe. Just remind us, Eastern Europe also went into the downturn first and seems to be coming out now. Is that correct when you look at your businesses, and what are you seeing in terms of profitability in these countries? Secondly, unless my math proved me wrong, up until the beginning of this year, the changes in portfolio probably would have implied a structural improvement of somewhere around 250-300 basis points. If you add all the acquisitions now, it looks more like above 350 basis points. Maybe just give us a sense on that. Thank you very much. So, Sreedhar, I will take the second. I take the first. So yes, Eastern Europe was down during the downturn and after the COVID because of interest rates, etc. We are running very healthy businesses in those countries. If I think of Poland, the Czech Republic, with double-digit margin. I think we benefit also because we have a large portfolio of solutions in those countries. Very well structured, with a Polish lady running Poland, a Czech manager in Czech Republic, and good plans on the ground. So I think we are outperforming the market on strong double-digit profit, so it's beneficial for the group. Yes, so, Tobias, you've done your calculation correctly. It's a bit more than 250 basis points, and if you add CSR Bailey, it should add another 10 basis points, a little more than 10 basis points. So that's where we are. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Thank you. I think next is Pierre de Fraguier from Goldman Sachs. Morning, Benoit. Morning, Sreedhar. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got two. First one is, could you help us bridge the very solid first half EBIT we've seen at EUR 2.7 billion? How much do you think was price cost? How much was volumes? Or other way to say it, you know, what would have been the margin without the 4% volume decline? So that's the first question, and second one, you've been very active on the M&A front. Leverage pro forma remains at the low end of your target range, 1.5 times. What's the appetite now to do more M&A? How's the pipeline? What do you see is attractive now? Thank you. I'll take the second, and you take the first. Okay, so, you know, when you talk about the margin improvement, there are plenty of things we are doing. I mean, you're seeing on a day-to-day basis. I think the biggest, biggest positive impact is that you have a country-based organization, where the country CEO is really looking into his P&L, protecting the margin on a daily basis. So price-cost spread is clearly one reason. We have a very strong price-cost spread and consistently delivering year after year. And the second is, we said, talked about the rotation of portfolio, you know, the perimeter or scope impact, which is positive. The third is the cost adaptation, you know, something which we are doing, especially in Europe. You have seen that, you know, we had a volume drop of -3.9%, but we have not reflected that it's... It's not getting reflected in the margin because we have done a lot of proactive steps in adapting our costs, again, country by country, local initiative, and it is not across the board. And then we have this World Class Manufacturing program, which I mentioned before, that it is something which is a powerful program, very structured. It enables us to improve the productivity in all industrial sites on a consistent basis and allows us to offset the manpower cost, which goes up. Like this year, we're talking of 3.5% is inflation on manpower cost. Some of these things we are able to offset because we have a structured program to do that. And then lastly, you know, which Benoit mentioned, that the fact that Saint-Gobain has moved towards more and more solution-driven. What it means for Saint-Gobain is better mix, better pricing power, better ability to get a wallet of share. I think that brings Saint-Gobain much more strong, much more resilient, and able to deal in a difficult situation, too. Thank you. That's super helpful. Can you put some numbers, Sreedhar N, just around the volume and the price cost? You know, we have said it in the past that actually it was a counterproductive. When you put the numbers, it is sensitive figure, and then it doesn't help us, you know that, how it happens. So I can only tell you that we have a positive price-cost spread, not just for the full year, but also first half and second half. On Pierre, on your question on M&A leverage, I would say first, we want to remain disciplined in terms of overall leverage. Even after Bailey, CSR, Fosroc will stay, you know, below the average of this range, 1.5-2 times. It's important to keep a very solid balance sheet. On M&A, it's very important to have strict criteria in mind first, in terms of 100% strategic alignment, to make sure that we deliver on the two axis, geographic development and construction chemicals. Second, also on the cultural aspects, I think we have created within Saint-Gobain attractive platforms. When I see the excitement of the Fosroc teams to join the winning team of Chryso GCP, that's where it's happening today. When I see the attractiveness we have created for CSR to benefit from the full scale of Saint-Gobain for the Australian market, same in Canada, same in the US, same in India. Culturally, it's very important that we align the teams, and we know how to bring value to those targeted acquisitions. And also, of course, on the financial side, to create value on year three, if not before, on year two, like we have done on Continental Green Products and on Chryso. So we have a reasonable pipeline of projects and acquisitions going forward. As I said, we are also considering and contemplating some divestitures. There is no taboo to continue, of course, to do that. So nothing specific to add. We continue to roll out with our strict strategic, financials, and cultural integration aspects to have good deliveries on our acquisitions and on our synergies. Thanks a lot. Have a good Olympics! I think now we have, if we have no more questions from the call, we have some questions online. Some came from Paul, which I've lost on my iPad. Do you have them? Yeah. If you could? Yeah. Thank you. So Paul Roger from Exane. Okay, let's start from the other side. Okay. You typically generate around EUR 2 billion free cash flow in H2. Is this achievable in 2024, or will some of the strong H1 performance reverse in the second half? It's a question for you. Paul, we will continue to be focused on cash flow. Please be rest assured that Saint-Gobain will deliver a good free cash flow for the full year. We are committed to it. You have seen what has happened in the last five years. Second question from Paul, I think, was a bit asked before: What contribution did productivity gains make to the H1 margin, and will some costs need to flow back into the business if European new construction volumes recover? Yeah, I think it will be, but, you know, we have done a lot of good work. I think there is a lot of proactive steps. I really feel when you have an organization by country, it's a huge, huge shift which has happened within Saint-Gobain. So I remain confident that we will keep adapting. Yes, if required, we will have part of it coming back, but what is important is there is a lot of focus on margin. Indeed, we have seen a lot of proactive actions on cost taken by all our European countries on a very coordinated and very disciplined approach. The other question from Paul is: Are we at peak Americas margins? I would answer with two colors on that. We are running with healthy margins in North America. I see no reason for that to change because we are delivering very well on roofing. Again, we are on capital allocation. The structure of the market is very healthy. Same on gypsum. So in the U.S., we are at healthy margins, but we bring a lot of benefits to our customers. We have fantastic teams on the ground. A lot of you were there for the Investor Day in September last year. We have well-invested plans and, and good cost position, so I expect that to continue. We will also benefit from the synergies in Canada. Having tripled in size in Canada, there is more to come and more to bring in terms of profit pool in Canada going forward. Now, the second point is in Latin America. You know, the last three years have not been rosy in Latin America, so I see some potential improvement on the margins in Latin America, notably in, in Brazil. So overall, we are good margins, very good margins in the Americas, but I still expect a bit of upside in, and recovery, I would say, notably in Brazil. Another question from Paul: How did distribution margins in France and the Nordics evolve in H1? As you know, those two businesses are very strong in terms of performance, very healthy positions in the Nordics and in France, in terms of market share, in terms of quality of the assets and the teams, running with the structural margin of 6%-7%, and they are there in terms of structure. Short term, because of the very tough macroeconomic environment, you know, we were down 10% in the Nordics. They are slightly below, but structurally, I'm very confident that we will stay in this 6%-7% operating margin for both, France and the Nordics, and altogether for, distribution margins. Another question from Jon Bell, Deutsche Bank: Can you elaborate on your longer-term ambitions in Construction Chemicals? Do you aspire to have EUR 10 billion, EUR 10 billion euros of annual revenues from this area? It's a good ambition, and I will share that with Thierry Bernard and David Molho and the teams. Clearly, we are on the consolidation mode in Construction Chemicals. We more than doubled, if I take the last 4, 5 years. We were 2.8 in 2019. We are at 6.2, if I take the pro forma of this year, and we have the ambition to continue to do some bolt-on acquisitions. We had 30 of them, if I take the last 3 years. It's a healthy market to consolidate. We have all the innovation. We have also the structure in terms of management, in terms of IT, in terms of supply chain, in terms of upstream manufacturing of polymers. So yes, we'll continue to consolidate. I think it will be relevant. You know, it's sometimes in 2025, we'll have a Capital Market Day because we'll be at the end of our 2021-2025 Grow and Impact plan. So we'll update you in due course on our ambitions for the group and notably for Construction Chemicals. A question from Manish Beria from Société Générale. Asia has seen huge sequential deceleration in Q2 versus Q1. What is the reason for that? Do you expect H2 returning to high single-digit growth as you have done in Q1? Sreedhar? As I mentioned, it's primarily China. It was a very tough situation in China for two reasons. One is the market itself has stopped. Second is the comparison basis was stopped. If you recall, last year we had a significant growth in the first half and more so in the second quarter. And China is, you know, for us, we just have to. We are not that big, but we have to remain constantly looking for opportunities, and we are actually gaining market share in clearly identified markets. Another question from Manish Beria. Will buyback still be a pillar in capital allocation, given you are able to find good value accretive M&A? As we always said, you know, we look at three pillars for capital allocation: CapEx, because we have some very good accretive growth CapEx with strict allocation, and it will increase a bit in absolute terms from this EUR 2 billion, as Sreedhar N. mentioned a bit earlier. So CapEx, organic growth, notably in emerging market, because sometimes we bring the new products to those countries. M&A, but it's not because we have a good balance sheet that we are forced to do some M&A and share buyback. We told you that this year we'll finish one year ahead, the five years, EUR 2 billion buyback that we had announced in 2021, and buyback is part of shareholder return and capital allocation. Another question from Manish. On pricing power, new Saint-Gobain organization delivers on margins. Have there been some margin benefits from macro? Is there any help from cyclical element also in the margin improvement, which we should be aware of? You know, margin, there are many elements to margin, but the fact that we are delivering and consistently delivering, it gives me confidence that we are doing all what we need to do. Again, by country. I think that's again, the focus is by country, because that's where you have levers to do a lot of things to make sure that the margins are making progress, and you protect the margin when the market is down. Is there any more question on the call or in the room? I don't think so, nor on internet. So thank you very much for your time. As a wrap-up, you know, in terms of, the equity story of, of Saint-Gobain, we are on a very good momentum. We have been delivering very consistently over many, many years in some recovery time after COVID, in some tougher times in terms of volume and macro environment in Europe. So yes, Saint-Gobain has a totally different new profile. I would like to state again that we are still at the beginning of our solutions journey, which will bring a lot to Saint-Gobain in terms of value to our customers, in terms of pricing power, in terms of overall presence on how we lead on the value chain, on how we improve and enhance the product mix. This new geographic balance is the new reality for Saint-Gobain. You know, two-thirds of our profit coming from high-growth markets, where we are delivering very well on the profit side, on the growth as well. We are happy about all the milestones we have been delivering, and I'm very confident about the growth prospects of Saint-Gobain mid- to long-term, and very confident about what we will deliver in the second half and for the full year of 2024, which will be another year of strong success for Saint-Gobain around the world. So thank you very much. I wish very good Olympics for all the teams, not only the French teams, Tobias, all the teams. It's a great event, and we are so proud to have sponsored this event with our motto, "Aiming Higher." Thank you very much, and have a great day.