Welcome to the Vicat 2026 half-year results presentation. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, all the participants are able to ask questions. Now, I will hand the conference over to Hugues Chomel, Deputy CEO and Group CFO, and Pierre Pedrosa, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Vicat first half 2026 result presentation. I am Hugues Chomel, Deputy CEO and CFO of the Vicat Group. I'm joined today by Pierre Pedrosa, Head of Investor Relations. On slide two, as a preliminary remark, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that the forward-looking information presented here reflects our current assessment of expected trends across the group markets and should not be regarded as forecast. Let me start with the key highlights of the first half on slide three. In an international environment that remains complex, the group delivered strong results. Organic sales growth reached 10.8%, driven by the stabilization in Europe, the recovery in the United States, and an acceleration in emerging countries. EBITDA was EUR 367 million, up 13.6% like-for-like, with a particularly strong contribution from emerging countries. On the back of this solid performance, we are upgrading our full year 2026 guidance to like-for-like growth of 7%-9% in both sales and EBITDA. Last but not least, on the climate front, we achieved an important milestone with the startup and the inauguration of the catch4climate, our joint venture with three other leading cement producers. This R&D pilot in Germany, dedicated to second generation of oxyfuel technology, represents a significant step forward for carbon capture. Slide four provides our simplified P&L. Group sales came in at EUR 2.036 billion, up 10.8% on a like-for-like basis. On a reported basis, sales growth was 8%, taking into account FX that remained headwind through the first half. EBITDA reached EUR 367 million, up 13.6% like-for-like, with the margin improving to 18%. Net income group share was up 14.7% on a reported basis to EUR 117 million. Diluted EPS amounted to EUR 2.6 over the first half, up 14.5%. Overall, the first half numbers demonstrate our ability to convert top-line momentum into profit growth despite persistent currency headwinds. On slide five, we take a closer look at our sales performance, which was primarily driven by strong momentum in emerging countries. As I mentioned, organic growth reached 10.8% in the first half. While all four regions posted positive organic growth in the first half, momentum was particularly strong in Asia, Mediterranean, and Africa regions. Starting with Europe, which posted a moderate organic growth of plus 0.9%, volumes were slightly down in France in the context of the continued soft landing of the residential market. They were stable in Switzerland, despite a particularly high comparison basis in the first half of 2025. Prices continued to rise across Europe, reflecting the integration of CO2 cost, as well as higher energy electricity cost in France following the implementation of the CRPM contract with EDF at the beginning of the year. In the Americas, sales were up 7% organically. In the U.S., cement activity rebounded in H1, thanks to volume growth in our two regions. In Brazil, cement continued its strong momentum, supported by demand in the U.S. region, the integration of Realmix, which supports volume growth, and the positive price momentum. Asia/Mediterranean region was particularly dynamic, with organic growth of 27.7%, thanks to the contribution of all countries. In particular, volumes rose in India, Turkey, and on the Egyptian domestic market, while pricing was very dynamic in Egypt and Kazakhstan. Although currency effects remain strongly negative, this solid performance still resulted in a 14% reported growth for the region. Africa delivered similar strong growth at 26.3% organically, mainly driven by Senegal. Cement benefited from higher volumes and some recovery in domestic prices, while aggregate posted strong growth supported by major infrastructure projects. Mali and Mauritania also contributed positively. Overall, the first half showed solid sales momentum for the group. Europe is stabilizing thanks to positive pricing. U.S. volumes are recovering, and we are clearly benefiting from our presence in emerging markets. Change in scope added 0.9% points to the group revenue growth, reflecting the contribution of ceramics in Brazil. As expected, foreign exchange remained a significant headwind, with a -3.7% impact. FX pressure eased materially in Q2, where the impact was limited to 1.7% compared to 5.9% in Q1. Moving now to EBITDA on slide six. Like-for-like growth was 13.6% or EUR 45 million in the first half of 2026. Volumes contributed a positive EUR 33 million effect driven by Africa, Turkey, India, as well as the recovery in the U.S. Pricing remained a major performance lever. It contributed positively for EUR 140 million, reflecting price increases implemented across Europe and the emerging countries. It allowed the group to absorb EUR 134 million of additional costs, driven mainly by energy cost increase, both volume and prices, as well as high maintenance costs in Turkey and at Dragon in the U.S., which are expected to normalize in H2. Industrial performance improved, notably thanks to Kiln 6 in Senegal. Scope added EUR 1 million, and foreign exchange represented a tailwind of EUR 10 million or -3%. All in all, reported EBITDA rose by 10.8%. This is a solid performance for the group, demonstrating our ability to improve our profitability despite an economic environment that remained highly challenging. Let's now take a look at EBITDA growth by region on slide seven. As you can see from the chart, our 13.6% like-for-like EBITDA growth was entirely driven by emerging markets. Starting from the left, in Europe, EBITDA was down by EUR 2 million or -1.3% like-for-like, demonstrating resilience in the context of low volumes in France and rising costs, thanks to solid pricing momentum. In the Americas, the Americas were slightly similarly stable, down by only EUR 1 million, as a marked improvement in the profitability in Brazil was offset by the U.S., affected by a negative price-cost differential and exceptionally high maintenance cost in the Southeast, which again should normalize in H2. Our emerging markets made the difference. Asia/Mediterranean added EUR 11 million of EBITDA on a like-for-like basis, up 14.8%, on the back of a strong performance in Egypt and Kazakhstan. As expected, Africa was clearly the major driver, contributing EUR 36 million as the ramp-up of Kiln 6 in Senegal delivered a strong improvement in our cost base, compounded by cement price increases. Sorry. Let's now deep dive in some of our key geographies, starting with the U.S. on slide eight. Recovery is underway in U.S. markets. In California, cement volumes rebounded in the first half, turning to positive growth in both Q1 and Q2 2026. This recovery was supported by a particularly favorable base effect. In Q1 2025, activity had been affected by the Los Angeles fires as well as adverse weather. The pickup in volumes is broad-based across the different segments in California. This is illustrated by the projects such as the Beverly Plaza mixed-use development in Beverly Hills that you can see on the first picture. In the Southeast, volume growth accelerated in the first half of 2026 after having already outperformed a subdued market throughout 2025. Demand remains well-oriented, driven in particular by the non-residential segment and data centers demand. The second picture show the construction site of Equinix new hyperscale data center in Georgia. The United States are showing some encouraging signs of volume recovery and strong exposure to some of the most attractive segment in the non-residential market. Looking ahead, we did announce price increases early summer onward. Turning to Egypt on slide nine, where the group is delivering another semester of strong profitability. The EBITDA margin in Egypt progressed further in the first half of 2026 to 41.7%. This is an outstanding turnaround story as we were only breakeven in 2022. Our Egyptian business continues to benefit from strong export momentum, drawing on two significant competitive advantages: industry-leading cash cost and a clear logistic advantage with our Sinai plant located 50 km way from El Arish port. Over the period, export volumes were slightly lower, largely offset by strong price realization across our export markets. At the same time, domestic market continued to pick up, supported by large-scale real estate developments and by major infrastructure projects like the Cairo Monorail. Demographic and economic growth should support long-term cement consumption patterns. On top of this, Egypt provides exposure to attractive long-term opportunities in the region, including potential reconstruction need in post-conflict areas. Moving to Senegal on slide 10 and starting with our cement activity. The new Kiln 6 is already contributing to the improvement of our industrial performance, energy efficiency, and profitability. In the first half of the year, cement EBITDA in Senegal increased very significantly by EUR 23 million to reach EUR 32 million. This achievement reflects more of the impact of Kiln 6 and the increase in domestic prices. The industrial ramp-up of Kiln 6 is progressing, and it has already allowed us to fully substitute incoming imports, shut down two older kilns, start improving energy efficiency. It is a major step forward in terms of industrial efficiency and margin enhancements. Kiln 6 is clearly a major midterm EBITDA growth driver for the group. Once fully ramped up and operating with a 70% alternative fuel substitution rate, the plant will generate run rate cost saving of around EUR 20 per ton. Let's stay in Senegal on slide 11, but moving to the aggregate business, which is also delivering strong results. Aggregate EBITDA rose by EUR 8 million to EUR 13 million in the first half. This performance was driven by an acceleration in volumes since the second quarter of 2025, supported by strong infrastructure demand. In particular, the business is benefiting from the demand from basalt riprap used in major public work projects. Altogether, Senegal is becoming a robust regional growth platform for Vicat with a step change in cement industrial performance and profitability, as well as a fast-growing aggregate business supported by major infrastructure needs. Let me now turn to our cost base on slide 12. Energy cost, excluding transport, increased by 11.6% in the first half. This increase was mainly volume-driven. Excluding the volume effect, energy cost inflation remained contained, reflecting the effectiveness of our hedging policy. Transportation costs were also impacted by higher oil prices at 27% in the first half. Most of the group transportation contracts include indexation clauses, allowing us to pass through higher diesel costs to the market. As we have explained in the past, our hedging policy provides protection against short-term volatility, basically six months on average, but does not make us immune to a prolonged increase in energy prices. Given the global energy cost inflation we are facing, we expect the impact on our P&L to become more visible in the second half of the year. To summarize, cost inflation remains a headwind, and the increase in energy costs should accelerate in the second half. The group successfully implemented price increases in the first half in most markets to absorb these higher costs and limit their impact on profitability. Slide 13 illustrates how EBITDA momentum translate into EPS growth. Net financial income improved by EUR 11 million compared to the first half of 2025. This reflects two factors: foreign exchange gain on hard currency cash in emerging country, and a lower average cost of gross debt after hedging. Our effective tax rate of the group came down slightly to 26.1%. Altogether, this translated into earning per share growth of 14.5% in the first half on a diluted basis, a direct result of strong operational execution combined with unabated financial discipline. Turning to investments and cash generation on slide 14. Net capital expenditures amounted to EUR 113 million, broadly stable year-on-year, and still including payments related to Kiln 6 in Senegal. We are maintaining strict investment discipline, and we confirm in full the objective of net industrial CapEx dispersed around EUR 290 million. Free cash flow stood at EUR -36 million in the first half, including working capital outflow in H1, driven by strong revenue growth, business seasonality, and fuel cost inflation. Let me remind you that our free cash flow generation is highly seasonal, both from an EBITDA and working capital perspective, as you will see on the next slide. On slide 15, this is the monthly evolution of the group year-to-date free cash flow. You can see the pronounced seasonality pattern, where our free cash flow generation is heavily weighted towards the second half of the year. You can also see that the H1 2026 profile is fully consistent with that usual pattern. We are highly confident in our ability to deliver another year of strong free cash flow generation in 2026. The group balance sheet on slide 16, is characterized by a balanced debt structure and strong liquidity. Our deleveraging continued into H1 2026, with a net debt of EUR 1.3 billion at the end of June, down EUR 48 million over one year. This brought our leverage ratio to 1.65x from 1.81x a year earlier. It was lower at year-end 2025 at 1.49x due to the seasonality of our working capital requirement. Our gross debt of EUR 1.8 billion is well diversified across instrument and maturities, with an average maturity of 4.7 years and an average interest rate of 3.78% after hedging, which is down from 3.9% at end June 2025. With EUR 491 million of cash and EUR 578 million of undrawn credit lines at the end of June, Vicat benefits from a solid financial structure and ample liquidity to pursue its development. Turning now to climate performance on slide 17. In the first half, our specific emissions were temporarily penalized by higher emissions in the U.S. and India, and by an unfavorable geographic mix driven by strong sales growth in territories which carry a higher clinker content in Maharashtra, in India, in Egypt and in the U.S. We continue to make strong progress in Europe and particularly in France, where the alternative fuel rate rose by five points year-on-year to more than 70%, with three plants, Créchy, Xeuilley, and Montalieu, now above 80%. Clinker factor in France is also decreased, supported by the commercial success of our DECA range. Together with Paprec, we also commissioned a new waste recovery facility with a 50,000 tons capacity, capable of processing refuse-derived fuel to supply our La Grave-de-Peille plant in France. Beyond short-term volatility, we stay firmly committed to our decarbonization trajectory. On slide 18, I would like to focus on Catch4climate, a major step forward in CO2 capture in our industry. Together with three other leading cement producers, we inaugurated the Catch4climate facility on July 8th in Mergelstetten in Germany, dedicated to second-generation oxy-fuel technology to facilitate carbon capture. The principle is to produce clinker using pure oxygen in the kiln instead of ambient air. This generates highly concentrated CO2 exhaust gases. Since the startup, the plant is already showing promising results with CO2 concentration above 90%, compared with only around 30% for conventional cement plant. This is a world premiere. This higher concentration is the key to the economics. Carbon capture is very costly because of the separation step required. The more concentrated CO2 stream allows for a simpler, less expensive carbon capture process. Studies show that this second generation of oxy-fuel technology could lower the cost of capture, combining both CapEx and OpEx, by around 30% compared with the conventional amine-based technologies. This project is a breakthrough innovation in the cement industry and a concrete illustration of how we intend to make decarbonization technically and economically viable at industrial scale. Moving to artificial intelligence on slide 19. On June 16, we announced the acquisition of Araïko, a French startup specialized in AI solutions for industrial companies. This transaction is an important step in our digital and AI roadmap. Araïko brings strong expertise in generative AI, agentic AI, multi-agent system, and data science with a focus on improving knowledge sharing within industrial organizations. This expertise is highly complementary to Vicat in-house digital factory, le1817, which has been developing AI-driven solutions since 2021, particularly in machine learning, real-time optimization, industrial process, and product formulation improvement. This combination clearly accelerates Vicat AI roadmap. It is also in line with our strategy to build more AI capabilities in-house. For us, this means not only protecting our data, but also retaining control of the models, algorithm, and know-how that increasingly support our industrial competitiveness. Lastly, it creates opportunities for external expansion through client portfolio synergies. We have big ambitions in AI, which we view as a powerful operational lever that can deliver meaningful gains. Let's now turn to full-year guidance on slide 20. Following a strong first half, we are upgrading our 2026 full-year guidance. We now expect like-for-like growth of 7%-9% in both sales and EBITDA, up from the slight growth we guided previously. Our net CapEx objective is unchanged at around EUR 290 million. The guidance takes into account more demanding second half with higher energy costs and a tougher comparison base in some countries, namely Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, Senegal. It also assumes no further significant deterioration of the Middle East conflicts, given its potential impact on our activities. Overall, this upgrade guidance confirms both the quality of the first half performance and our confidence in Vicat's ability to continue delivering profitable growth in a still uncertain environment. Slide 21 recaps our medium-term priorities. The first priority is to maintain a strong profitability with an EBITDA margin of at least 20% over the 2025-2027 period. Our second priority is to continue deleveraging with a leverage ratio at or below one by 2027. This is subject to potential bolt-on acquisition opportunities in our existing geographies as we want to remain agile and keep the flexibility to seize value-creating opportunities. Third priority is to accelerate our climate roadmap and continue promoting our low-carbon products. Together, these priorities reflect the balance we want to maintain in the medium term: strong profitability, financial discipline, and continued progress on decarbonization. Finally, on slide 22, I would like to reiterate that Vicat is well positioned to benefit from several midterm growth catalysts. Kiln 6 in Senegal is already contributing meaningfully to our performance. Third railway infrastructure project in France has only started to contribute. Additional levers upside over the coming years, including the recovery of residential market in France and in the U.S. Lastly, the Mediterranean region offer attractive growth optionalities with the reconstruction of post-conflict areas when it materializes. This is what gives us confidence in the Vicat medium-term trajectory. We combine a well-balanced geographical footprint, high-quality industrial asset, financial discipline, and clear operational levers to drive profitable growth. Thank you for your attention. I will now take your questions. Please note that we will take audio questions from analysts only. You can request to speak via the green hand icon. We kindly ask investors to submit questions via the chat box below the player. Hello? First question comes from Ebrahim Homani from CIC. [audio distortion] Ebrahim? Yeah. Sorry, your line is not very clear, so it's difficult to understand your question. I'm sorry. Yeah, maybe it's better Yes. Okay, thank you. My first question is on your guidance on the organic growth and if we take the lower part of your guidance, it is an increase of, let's say, EUR 7 million in H2. What will be the Senegal contribution in H2? What are the geographies in which we have to be more cautious? My second question is about free cash flow generation. I understand the seasonality H1 versus H2, but just to be clear, the free cash flow generation will increase in 2026 or will be at the same level than 2025. Thank you. Thank you, Ebrahim. Our guidance reflects our assessment of expected performance of the group through H2 and considering the strong realization of H1. You have to keep in mind that we will have less easy or less favorable comparison base in quite a few countries that did accelerate last year, namely Brazil, Egypt, that was very strong in H2 last year. Turkey, that did accelerate at the end of H1 last year, as well as aggregates of Senegal. As well, Senegal, as the Kiln 6 started to contribute already in H2 last year. The comparison base is very different from the one we had in H1. Second point, as stated during the presentation, we do expect the energy cost to pick up in H2 and to be therefore less favorable even if we have implemented price increases to offset those costs. An additional point you may keep in mind is that our guidance does not integrate any more volume recovery in France in H2, as we do not see it happening. If this was to materialize, it would be, of course, first of all, we would be ready to supply it as we have the industrial setting to do it and happy to do so. It would be an upside risk, of course. To respond more specifically on free cash flow. As you know, we do not guide on the free cash flow. We have provided in the backup slides of the presentation, a history of semiannual free cash flow generation that illustrates pretty clearly the seasonality, both of EBITDA generation and of working capital requirement variation. Regarding working cap, I may give a word of explanation. We have delivered in H1 a strong organic growth, that drives increase in working capital requirement. We do see the usual seasonality pattern, there is already some inflation impacts of energy in inventory. Just in terms of days, you have to keep in mind that working capital has increased only by three days of operation. That's a minor variation. Most of it is activity and seasonality driven. I reiterate our commitment to deliver strong free cash flow this year. Thank you very much and congrats for the results. Thanks, Ebrahim. The next question comes from Arthus Piot from On Field Investment Research. Please unmute your microphone. Go ahead, sir. You are very far away. Please speak up. Sorry. Is it better now? Yeah, that's better. Okay. Amazing. I was saying I've got three questions. The first one is, are price increases currently planned for U.S. cement market like California, Georgia, and Alabama? The second one is, given the recent improvement in French indicators, do you think from conversation with your clients, they can translate into volumes in H2 this year or next year? The last one is there any additional price increases or fuel energy surcharges being implemented in France or Switzerland in H2? Thank you. Okay. We have announced price increase in the U.S., in both Southeast and California. California is July 1, and Southeast is, depending on the states, July 1 or August 1, and it is $5. It is of course too early to know what will be the effective part of it. As mentioned, we have a negative price-cost differential in U.S. It was already the case last year, the industry needs price increases, and we are committed to it. French indicators, well, you are right. Both permits and starts have been positively oriented for a few months already. We have not seen any signs of it materializing into cement consumption as of now. As mentioned previously, our year-end guidance does not include a recovery of the French market in the second half. Would this materialize, we are fully ready to serve it would be an upside to our guidance. As mentioned, we are not expecting this to happen as of now. There is a correlation between those early indicators and cement consumption, usually with a rather long timeline. You have to keep in mind as well that the permits and starts do include, I would say, some heavy renovation or extensions of constructions. Those are not always cement intensive. This is difficult to track and to modelize what is the actual differential of those specific projects compared to purely new buildings. This may be one of the factors to explain the gap we are witnessing as of now. Regarding price increases to compensate higher energy costs, of course, we are monitoring energy costs carefully, especially transportation fuels that are the most volatile ones. It is obviously changing day after day. We cannot change our pricing policy every day. Our aim is to compensate the cost, not more, not less. As of today, what we have implemented is roughly making the job, and we will adjust as the timing goes with this specifically. Thanks a lot. Just to bounce back quickly, you quantified the price increase in the U.S. to $5, right? Yes. Yeah. This is the announcement. I don't know what will be. Yes. Perfect. Just to make sure, you did not announce any additional price increases in France or Switzerland for H2 yet? Yes. Okay. Amazing. Well, thank you very much. As a reminder, please note that we will take audio questions from analysts only. You can request to speak via the green hand icon. We kindly ask investors to submit questions via the chat box below the player. We have a question on capital allocation, and more precisely on the dividend. Please comment on the dividend per share growth for 2026 and 2027. Can we assume growth in line with EPS, keeping in mind our deleveraging and the stock market not fully recognize your execution with low valuation? It is obviously early in the year to speak about dividend decisions, and those are in terms of charters. I can, nevertheless, remind you a few elements we shared in the full year presentation, where we had a specific capital allocation slide I advise you to look at. We consider that at current level, our payout rates has reached, I would say, more or less normalized level. Going forward, dividend will follow the results. Now it is a general trend. It is not always a year-by-year evolution. That is what I can share at this stage of the year. Thank you. There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for the closing comments. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. Our next event will be our nine-month 2026 review release on November 5th. In the meantime, Pierre and myself remain available and look forward to meeting many of you during roadshows and conferences. I wish you all a relaxing summer break.