Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Veolia Conference Call on H1 2023 Results with Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO, and Claude Laruelle, CFO. I now hand over to Estelle Brachlianoff. Madam, please go ahead. Thank you very much. Good morning to all of you. Thanks for joining for this conference call to present Veolia's first semester's results. I'm accompanied by Claude Laruelle, our Chief Financial Officer. I'm on slide three. Following the record result in 2022, the performance achieved during the first semester is once again, very strong and a new all-time high. At constant stock and Forex, our revenue increased by 14.2% to EUR 22.7 billion. EBITDA grew by 8.2%, current EBIT by 13.3%, current net income by 18.7% to EUR 662 million. Our free cash flow has significantly improved. Our net financial debt is well under control. These very good results in a complex environment are a testimony to Veolia's powerful business model of value creation. The group is built on a diversified geographical footprint, 40% outside Europe, as well as on the portfolio of complementary activities in Waste, Water and Energy, and a balanced customer portfolio of industrial and municipal customers. Over the years, we've demonstrated a strong track record of delivering efficiency plans that enhance our results. They are again sustained in the first half of 2023, where we've achieved EUR 187 million of savings, ahead of our annual target of EUR 350 million. The merger with SUEZ is already a success, and is bearing fruit at a fast pace, with EUR 230 million of synergies already achieved since day one, barely 18 months ago. Ahead of our cumulative objective of over EUR 280 million at the end of 2023, and EUR 500 million in total. Above all, our unique positioning as the leader of ecological transformation, offering solutions to cities and industries to decarbonize, to depollute, and regenerate resources, is a powerful engine for growth. This was illustrated in H1 with many new contracts, notably in water scarcity solutions. This should continue over the long term, as our growth potential has been strengthened with the acquisition of SUEZ. Given those strong foundations, I expect those good results to continue in H2 and beyond. This allows me to fully confirm our annual guidance and even target now the upper range of the 5%-7% EBITDA guidance. To give you some additional color on our first half results, I'm on page four. The main feature of H1 is essentially that all the very strong operational levers in Q1 continued in Q2. Top line, driven by strong pricing, margin protection against inflation, a strong commercial momentum, and resilient volume, as well as operational excellence and the positive effect of the merger with S UEZ. Our revenue grew by 14.2% as constant scope and exchange rate to EUR 22.7 billion, we registered very strong growth in all our activities. Water grew by +8.4%, driven by tariffs, volume, and a good commercial momentum, notably in Water Technologies, where our order book increased again significantly. Waste activities continued to grow by +3.3%, or even +6.4%, if I include recycled price, thanks to price increase and indexation. Finally, Energy activities grew very fast, by +41%, driven mostly by Energy prices, which is essentially passed through. The operating leverage was fully effective, thanks to saving and synergy, leading to an EBITDA growth of +8.2%, at the same pace as in Q1 and above the annual guidance range. EBIT grew by 13.3%. Net income increased by 18.7% at constant Forex to EUR 660 million, well in line with the annual target of EUR 1.3 billion. As you've seen, we've improved as well, the free cash flow generation with the debt well under control. These outstanding results were delivered despite softening economic conditions and continued flat Waste volumes. This is thanks to our strong foundations and powerful growth engine. First, a balanced geographical mix with 40% outside Europe. Our performance in H1 was very strong in the U.S., in Latin, and Eastern Europe, which has more than offset softer delivery in France. Second, our strong position in key activities and countries. As you know, we are now number one in hazardous waste, number one in Water Technologies worldwide, as well as in the top three in Water, Waste, and Energy services in all the main countries where we operate. A complementary portfolio of Waste, Water, and Energy, and of public and private customers provides unique know-how we can combine to offer solutions for the ecological transformation. This well-balanced and resilient set of business means we are 85% macro immune and protected against inflation. We enjoy a strong commercial momentum in all our activities as well, thanks to perfect positioning in fast-growing markets. Finally, we've sustained a strong delivery track record, notably of efficiency gain, quarter after quarter, which are now complemented by the benefits of the merger with S UEZ, ahead of schedule and with a positive momentum. When I refer to our balanced geographical portfolio, I think it's useful to focus on the performance of our U.S. operations, and I'm on slide six. In the U.S., we've changed dimensions, thanks to the merger with S UEZ, and our business there now has an annual turnover of $5 billion, in part with the Water Technologies segment, in part within our North American services activity, which are very strong in municipal water, in particular regulated water and in hazardous waste. In those two businesses, we're amongst the top three players in the U.S. Excluding Water Technologies, which, as you know, is reported separately, our revenue in the U.S. in H1 has grown by 10% at constant scope and Forex, and more at the EBITDA level, fueled by the outstanding performance of our hazardous waste operations. As a Waste revenue increased by 13% and EBITDA by 75%, thanks to a strong improvement of our Waste mix. Regulated water continues to deliver strong revenue and EBITDA growth as well, driven by good volume and price escalation mechanism. This solid growth is here to stay, thanks to our strong position in hazardous waste, which is key to treating new pollutants such as PFAS, as well as water scarcity solutions, including, for instance, water reuse projects. Moving on to our strengths and leading position in key activities. I'm now on slide seven. I will take the example of Water Technologies, where we rank number one worldwide, thanks to a unique portfolio of patented technologies in reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration membranes, evapocrystallization technologies, and desalination, just to mention a few. Water Technologies is another very good example of our growth capacities, with revenues up 9% and EBITDA up 13% in H1. We registered very strong bookings, EUR 2.7 billion at the end of June, with in particular, a strong pipeline in desalination and lithium projects. As I said in my introduction, and I'm now on page eight, this semester is another demonstration of the strength of our business model. All our businesses have been growing in H1, and as you can see on this slide, they are all well, very protected against inflation. We've been monitoring inflation and price increases as early as the spring, 2021, demonstrated quarter after quarter, our ability to pass on cost increases. This was again, the case in Q2. We do protect our margins via pricing, either through indexation formulas for 70% of our business, or through specific price increases for the remaining 30%. The results for H1 are shown on slide eight, they should be read, of course, in addition to the 2022 price increases already granted. Let's now turn to the commercial success of the first image, I'm on page nine. I've chosen to illustrate those with a few examples of the solutions we offer to our customers to tackle water scarcity and water quality issues, where we've enjoyed many new contracts in H1. There is certainly a growing demand from our clients for resource preservation, water reuse and water quality. Starting in France, we were awarded a EUR 700 million potable water distribution contract in Perpignan for the next 12 years, in which we committed, in particular, to significantly reduce leakage from 20 down to 12% in this very scarce water part of France. In Abu Dhabi, we won another big desalination contract worth EUR 300 million, in which we will implement innovative technologies, allowing us to significantly reduce energy consumption. In terms of water reuse, in France, again, Veolia is a pioneer. In less than a year, we've secured more than 50 of our compact water reuse units, and we are targeting 200 by 2024. In the Ivory Coast, we are now operating the largest drinking water treatment plant in Abidjan, with a total backlog of EUR 390 million over 15 years. Regarding Water Technologies, Veolia has recorded many success since the beginning of the year. I will give you a few examples. We will provide Samsung with wastewater treatment equipment for their semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas, for $158 million. In the lithium recovery market, we've won three new contracts in Canada, South Korea, and the U.S. for a total of EUR 181 million. I'm now on slide 13 to talk about synergies. Finally, our delivery track record in terms of efficiency and synergies, I guess, has continued. In terms of synergies. which comes in addition to efficiency gains, as you know, we've delivered EUR 84 million in H1, leading already to a cumulative amount of EUR 230 million since the start of the said merger. Ahead of our annual target of more than EUR 280 million in cumulative synergies by the end of 2023. I could fully confirm our target of EUR 500 million. We achieved EUR 187 million of efficiency gain in the first semester, and I'm on slide 14, which is ahead of our annual target of EUR 350 million, with 53% already delivered in H1. Efficiency gain are now part of Veolia's DNA. I will ensure this remains so. Slide 15 now. ESG is completely at the heart of our business models and our offerings, as Veolia's business is about offering solutions to abate, to de-pollute, and to regenerate resources. Regarding sustainable management of water resources, we've set a net zero water commitment for activities in France by 2033. It's a little bit like a net zero carbon, but with the water in mind. Of course, the New Deal Contract is a good illustration of that. Remember that in 2022, Veolia helped save 320 million cubic meters of water through our services, which is the equivalent of Singapore's consumption. This is huge. In terms of carbon, we accelerate our coal phasing out program in H1. We've already achieved a third of the decarbonization CapEx plan. We completed Germany. We are about to commission new facilities in the Czech Republic, in Prerov and Karvina. Next will be Poland. In addition, we've helped reduce our customers' footprint by 14 million tons of carbon in 2022 alone, which is an amazing achievement. This is what I call Scope 4. As for our employees, I'm very proud of our 89% engagement rate, measured by an external firm within our 220,000 employees base, which corresponds to answering questions, and of course, answering positively to questions such as: Would you recommend working for Veolia? Do you feel your daily work contributes to the ecological transformation? Again, do you feel the working atmosphere is positive? I'm on page 16. Veolia has capacity to deliver strong earning growth. I guess, to sum up, I would like to remind the main characteristic of Veolia's business model. A solid, agile group with sustained results growth. We are now the world leader in depollution, in decarbonation, and circular economy services, with a unique range of offering on a fast-growing, more than 2 trillion market. Our business portfolio is very resilient, with 85% not exposed to the economic cycle, due to the key position we have in very resilient infrastructure-like assets, where we are in the top players. The indexation of 70% of our contracts, as well as a disciplined pricing for our offers, allow us to be protected against inflation. We've been able to deliver significant hedging effect, which are now supplemented by the synergies from the merger with Veolia. Our balance sheet is very solid. All these elements allow us to forecast solid growth in our results and our dividend, with accelerated growth from 2023 to 2025, thanks to synergies. Now on page 17, you have our 2023 guidance. I fully confirm our annual guidance, I even improve the organic EBITDA growth target, now expected at the top end of the range. You understood that I'm very confident for the rest of the year. We will continue to benefit from our strong foundations, pricing power and indexation, operational efficiency, a very well balanced and resilient set of business, 85% macro immune and fully protected against inflation, and a very balanced geographical mix with 40% outside Europe. The operational trends we've seen in H1 have continued in July. Therefore, we have great visibility for the rest of the year, including in terms of Energy, thanks to our hedging policy. Of course, we will maintain our balance sheet discipline. I will now hand over to Claude Laruelle, who will comment on our results in more detail, and then we will be able to, go, available, sorry, to answer to your questions. Claude? Thank you, Estelle, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm on slide 19, and as Estelle already highlighted, following our 2022 record delivery, our H1 2023 results are remarkable. In H1, with EUR 22.7 billion revenue, we experienced a very strong organic revenue growth of 14.2%, 5.2% excluding Energy prices, driven in all our businesses by first, increasing indexation on our long-term contracts and continued price increases on non-indexed businesses, and second, good commercial momentum and resilient volumes. EBITDA is significantly up, at EUR 3,162 million, an outstanding +8.2% at constant scope and Forex, which is above the organic growth of revenue, excluding Energy prices. H1 EBITDA growth is above the annual guidance range, which makes us very confident for the rest of the year. Thanks to the operating leverage, current EBIT is growing faster at EUR 1.674 billion, and is up 13.3%. This shows the strength of our business models, highly resilient on delivering results quarter after quarter, and fully protected against inflation. Net financial debt is well under control at EUR 19.2 billion, thanks to a significant improvement in free cash flow generation from -EUR 300 million last year to -EUR 78 million this year, due notably to strict discipline on working capital and lower integration and restructuring charges. We expect a net debt below EUR 19 billion at year-end, including the positive free cash flow in H2, and bolt-on acquisition that should be closed by year-end. You can also see on the slide the detailed Forex impact in H1, which were slightly negative and more significant in Q2 than in Q1. The negative impact trend from the U.K., LatAm, Australia, and China. For the full year, we now expect a continuation of these Forex trends. I'm moving to slide 20. You can see the quarterly growth of our main geographies. Obviously, revenue growth in Q2, 8.8%, was lower than in Q1, due to the end of the heating season. All the strong operational trends of Q1 continued in Q2. Our revenue grew by 8.8% at constant scope and exchange rate to EUR 10.7 billion. We registered very strong growth in all our activities. Water grew by 7.1%, driven by good pricing and well-oriented volumes and works. Waste activities continued to grow by 3.3% and +7.1%, excluding recycled prices, thanks to resilient volume and commerce impact, price increases, and indexation. Finally, Energy activities grew very fast by 23.8%, driven mostly by Energy prices. Adjusted for the Energy price effect, organic growth was 5.2% in H1, which is a very good performance, and it's fueled by a continued good commercial momentum. This number is slightly lower than in Q1, due to two main effects. First, project completion in Water Technologies with little impact on EBITDA. It is just a timing effect, and as I said, the backlog of Water Tech increased sharply in 2023. Second, lower Water volumes in France coming from adverse weather, with colder April and May, and more rain in June. All in all, there is no change in trend in Q2 compared to Q1. EBITDA growth in Q2 stood at 8.4%, in line with Q1, thanks notably to continued strong synergy delivery, EUR 41 million in Q2, leading to accumulated EUR 230 million ahead of our annual objective. Q2 current EBIT increased by 13%. I'm on slide 21. Revenue increased strongly in H1 by 14.2% to EUR 22.7 billion. Most of this growth came from outside France. Water Technologies were up 9%, which is very good, with a very solid pipeline of new projects. In the rest of the world, double-digit growth continued in Q2, coming from all geographies. For example, the U.S. grew by 10.6%, driven by hazardous waste, and Latin America by 28%. In the rest of the world, all our operations were very well-oriented and experienced high revenue growth, 23.2%, with strong Energy prices in Central and Eastern Europe. The U.K. continued to perform well, with resilient volumes, good commerce, and price increases, leading to 6.1% revenue growth. Iberia grew by 10.6%. France and hazardous Waste Europe is at 1.5%, slightly lower than in Q1, with lower Water volumes due to adverse weather, as I said. Waste volume remained flat, like in Q1, while recycled suffered from a very high comparison basis. On the next three slides, we detail our performance by activity: Water, Waste, and Energy. We start by Water, our largest activity. I'm on page 22. Our Water business experienced a very solid organic growth of 8.4% to EUR 8.8 billion. Growth was driven by increased indexation and prices for 4.4%, and volume, commerce, works, accounting for 4.3%. In France, higher indexation of +6% were partly offset by the end of the Lyon contract and lower volumes, down by 2.8% due to adverse weather. Commercial momentum remains very strong. In particular, I'm very proud to announce, after Lille in Q1, as I still said, the new Perpignan water and wastewater contract, with a backlog of EUR 700 million, on which we will implement our newly patented WTS driven technology. In Central Europe, revenue was up 19.2%, driven by increased tariff indexation and strong works activity. In Spain, revenue increased by 11.3%, driven by good Water volumes, tariff increase, and strong works activity. Regulated water progressed strongly, thanks to good volumes in the U.S., + 5.2%, in Chile, + 1.4%, and indexations. Our Water Technology business performed very well, growing by 9%. Veolia Water Technology, its revenue increased by 4.6%, thanks to service and technology business. Bookings are sharply up, $500 million, +$500 million, with significant growth in desalination and lithium extraction. WTS revenue grew by 11.4%, driven by good commercial momentum and continued price increases in chemicals. On projects, WTS has booked a very large contract for Samsung in the U.S. that will fuel the activity in the next months. Engineering backlog increased by $200 million to $2.6 billion. I'm now on slide 23, you have the main trends of the waste activities. Our waste activities performed well despite flat volume and low recycled prices. We have delivered a strong performance, thanks to our price discipline, indexation in municipal business, contract selectivity, operational excellence, and a very high availability rate of our incinerators in France and in the U.K., and also an improved mix in hazardous waste in the U.S. Our revenue grew by 3.3% like-for-like to EUR 7.3 billion. Excluding recycled price impact, revenue grew by a solid 6.4%. The scope effect of -7.2% is significant. It is due, if you remember, to the antitrust disposal that have been made in 2022. It includes, of course, S UEZ U.K., sold in November of last year, but also assets in Australia. The growth came mainly from pricing, complemented by resident volumes and partially offset by the negative impact of lower recycled prices. Volume was stable, -0.3%. Commerce, +0.8, was solid, notably in the U.K. The main driver of revenue growth was pricing, with +4.7%, partly compensated by lower recycled prices. Recycled prices have decreased since August 2022 from record high levels. In H1, higher electricity prices contributed to 1.1% to revenue growth. The impact at revenue level was mitigated by taxation and profit sharing at EBITDA level. Hazardous waste remain well-oriented, with +4.4% revenue growth, notably in North America, as Estelle described earlier. I'm now on slide 24, you have the details of our Energy business. As you know, Energy for Veolia is local, decarbonizing energy, and it's a key business priority at the heart of our ecological transformation strategy. We delivered strong results in the Energy business in H1, of course, thanks to the favorable pricing environment, but also to the value and efficiency of our offerings, which we keep in providing local, affordable, and renewable energies and energy efficiency services. Energy revenue in H1 was EUR 6.6 billion. Revenue growth achieved 41.3% like-for-like, due to the sharp increase of Energy prices for 37%. Our business models allow us to pass the cost of Energy increase to our clients, which protects our results. Weather was unfavorable, with an impact of -0.7%. In H1, we continued to implement the heat price increases, notably in Poland, in line with our fuel cost increase. I'm also proud to highlight the very good performance of our newly opened Braunschweig biomass facility in Germany, which is a very good example of how we are transforming our Energy business in Central Europe. Electricity revenue is largely hedged for 2023, as well as our Energy purchase, and we have secured our heat prices for the next heating season. Our visibility is therefore very strong. Building and industrial energy services have also performed very well, with new contracts in the Middle East and in Spain. I'm now on slide 25, and you have our usual revenue bridge detailing the different effects. Organic revenue growth in H1 of 14.2% was lower than in Q1 due to the end of the heating season in Q2. Price has a small negative impact of 1.5% due to lower GBP, Argentine peso, Australian dollar, and Chinese yuan. Scope impact was not significant. The 14.2% organic growth is fueled by good commercial momentum, Energy price increase, and price and indexation increases. In solid commercial momentum, as Estelle highlighted at the beginning of this presentation, is contributing to 2.8% to revenue growth. The weather impact was slightly unfavorable. The contribution of price increases in Water and Waste was +3.9%. It is partly offset by lower recycled prices for -1.2%. Moving to page 26, let's have a look at the EBITDA bridge, detailing the remarkable 8.2% organic growth in line with Q1 and above the annual guidance range. Scope and price impact were not were more significant than in Q1. Scope amounted for EUR -12 million, mainly to the divestment of SUEZ U.K. Price negative impact, which EUR -21 million, after EUR -7 million in Q1, due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, the lower GBP, Argentine pesos, and Australian dollars. Volume and commerce impact was EUR +56 million, or +1.9%. Weather impact was slightly negative of EUR -22 million. As usual, the main contributor to our EBITDA increase is the net efficiency and synergies. The gross efficiency gain reached EUR 187 million, ahead of our EUR 350 million targets for the year. Net of shared efficiencies with clients and contract renegotiation, net efficiencies amounted to EUR 73 million. The synergy delivery was also very good, reaching EUR 84 million in advance of our annual target. In total, synergies and net efficiencies contributed to EUR 157 million in Q1, which is 5.3% EBITDA growth. Energy and recycled impact was EUR 52 million, with Energy more than compensating the decline in recycled prices. The favorable Energy impact at EBITDA level, mainly comes from the benefit of the new biomass in Germany, generating higher EBITDA. Higher electricity prices for incinerators in France and in the U.K. The positive impact of the catch-up of prices in Central Europe, China and Italy, and a few opportunity gains in electricity in Central Europe. Our Energy business will remain a strong contributor to our results in 2024, thanks to our secure heat tariff for the next heating season, which represents 75% of our cogeneration revenue. The negative impact of recycled prices almost offset the exceptional positive impact that we had in 2022. We are back to a normal level of profit in recycling. I'm moving to slide 27. Let's see how the EBITDA increase is fueling the current EBIT, which is growing very strongly by 13.3%, at EUR 1.674 billion. Annual expense at EUR 153 million is comparable with 2022. Amortization and offer amounted to EUR 1.479 billion, slightly above last year. Industrial capital gains, net of provision and asset impairment, is EUR 93 million. This amount is significantly down compared to H1 last year, due in particular, to lower industrial capital gains. In 2022, we recovered higher capital gains from S UEZ on antitrust disposals. In H1, 2023, this EUR 93 million includes EUR 29 million of industrial capital gains coming from the last S UEZ antitrust divestment, and pension scheme alignment between Veolia and S UEZ, combined with the implementation of the new pension law in France. JVs are slightly down to EUR 53 million, mostly due to divestment. I'm now on page 28, you have the current net income, which is sharply up by 18.7% to EUR 662 million, thanks to current EBIT growth. Cost of net financial debt is slightly down to EUR 412 million, thanks notably to the early reimbursement of the sterling bond in September 2022. Net cost of financing is stable at 3.66% in H1. Other financial income and expense were significantly down to EUR 120 million, compared to EUR 199 million. It is due to the lower fair value adjustment of the Aguas Andinas inflation-linked bond, and unfavorable S UEZ -related one-off in H1 2022, which was reversed in H2 2022. I expect total current financial charges for the full year, around EUR 950 million. Current tax rates stood at 28%, slightly lower than last year, and we expect a 26% tax rate for the full year. Minority interest increased in H1, due to Chile and Central Europe. For the full year, we expect around EUR 400 million. I'm now on page 29, and you have the bridge from current net income to net income group share. Net income more than doubled to EUR 523 million, compared to EUR 236 million in H1 last year. Non-recurring items were very high in 2022 due to the S UEZ acquisition and integration costs. They decreased sharply to EUR 123 million in H1 this year, thanks to lower restructuring and integration charges. They are now back to normal levels. I'm on page 30. You have the detailed free cash flow of H1. Free cash flow improved significantly from -EUR 304 million in June last year, to -EUR 78 million. First, H1 CapEx reached EUR 1.8 billion, compared to EUR 1.6 billion, due to increased discretionary CapEx from EUR 150 million last year to EUR 285 million this year. Mostly decarbonization in Central and Eastern Europe, that reached EUR 104 million in H1. So we are accelerating the decarbonization in Central Europe, and a total of, almost EUR 500 million since January 2020, well above our initial commitment in the Impact 2023 plan, that was EUR 400 million by the end of 2023. Ongoing hazardous waste project in the U.S., in Germany, and in the Middle East. The phasing of works on contractual CapEx, and IFRS 16 impact with the renewal of the HQ lease. We improve our working capital variation by EUR 50 million compared to H1 last year, despite strong revenue increase, thanks to our numerous cash initiative across the group. Group DSO, for example, decreased by four days. Net financial debt reached EUR 19.2 billion, including almost EUR 200 million of negative ForEx, and we expect net debt to be below EUR 19 billion at year-end, thanks to our extra free cash flow and the likely closing of bolt-on acquisition. On slide 31, you have the detail of the net financial debt variation, where you can see the different effects I have just mentioned. I'm now on slide 32, you have your 2023 improved guidance. EBITDA organic growth is now expected at the high end of the +5% to +7% range, driven by EUR 350 million of efficiency gains, more than EUR 280 million cumulative synergies at the end of 2023. Current net income around EUR 1.3 billion, which means a double-digit growth compared to 2022. As usual, our dividends will grow in line with our current EPS. Given our remarkable H1 delivery, we are, of course, very confident for the full year. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Claude. Now, you know, I let you the floor for questions you may have. Thank you, madam. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw from the queue, please press star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please keep your hands before pressing any keys. One moment please, while we compile the roster. The first question comes from Ajay Patel with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Good morning. Firstly, thank you for the presentation today. I got two questions, please. Firstly, one is around the guidance. You clearly are in the presentation and the press release, highlighting optimism for your performance and, and for the full year, and you reflect that in the, the, the tilt in the, in guidance on the EBITDA. Could you maybe explain, one, what the assumptions that you're assuming for the second half of the year are, so we have a way to follow the journey? Secondly, that that optimism doesn't seem to translate down to the net income level. Is that conservatism, or is there any other adjustments between the lines that I need to think of? The second question, please, would be on synergies. Clearly a fantastic performance. You have the EUR 500 million target. You're running ahead of that, at the moment. I just wonder, given that you're halfway through the journey or towards halfway through the journey, what have you learned? Is there other opportunities to take advantage of? Should we think about that EUR 500 million target being just delivered earlier, or are there other opportunities emerging as you've had time to look at the portfolio? Thanks. Thank you very much. I guess, you, you're very right, as in, you know, you've heard from the results, plus the tone, that, you know, I am very confident for the rest of the year and for the years to come for Veolia. This is why we've given you a very positive color about the guidance for the year, because we now aim at the upper end of the range from 5%-7% EBITDA. I guess, you know, what are the underlying assumptions? I guess, you know, as usual, when we give a guidance, you know, I won't give you assumption about the economy in the world or proper recyclate or whatever, because, you know, I'm here to drive the company, not to make assumption about things I, I cannot anticipate. The reason why whatever happens, we are very confident for the rest of the year is manifold. Basically, very strong foundation for Veolia. I've said it, you know, like a very good geographical mix with, just to give you an example, 40% outside Europe and an outstanding performance in the U.S., just to mention one example. The second is a very good mix of wastewater and energy, which, of course, is another very strong foundation. The third, of course, is, you know, our very good ability to derive cost cuttings and efficiency and to be very agile, and that's our very strong fundamentals. The third element is probably as well that, you know, we don't see any change in trend in the beginning of the summer. July is very much alike, the first semester. If, if anything, a slightly positive when you look at, say, the Germany volumes, for instance. A little bit of negative in terms of weather, in France, because it has been raining basically most parts of July. All in all, no change in the, in the trend here. As Claude highlighted, you know, we've hedged, you know, basically the vast majority of energy for the rest of the year and even for 2024. I shall recall you on the energy one, that you remember that the, what we call the heating season, is always a very positive driver for the growth of our results and is basically 50% more in terms of volume for the January to April, compared to the November and December heating season for obvious reasons, which are just a number of days here. All in all, very confident for the rest of the year, which is why, you know, we've raised, you know, our assumption to the upper range of the guidance in terms of EBITDA. I would say very comfortable with the consensus as well, the yearly consensus for Veolia. In terms of synergies, I guess, you know, I'm asked the question every quarter now, because as I said, we have a very good track record of delivery. I intended to go on this way. As you mentioned, we are ahead. I fully confirm the EUR 500 million targets. We are delivering it quicker than anticipated, which is not by chance, it's by a lot of preparation and a lot of attention to details. If we can deliver more, of course we will. So far, my priority is to deliver according to our commitments to you and to the investors. I guess, what have we learned? This is an interesting question. We've learned that we have a very good potential of revenue synergies, because of course, when I talk about EUR 500 million, we're talking about cost synergies only. We've seen a lot of examples in the last few months of, you know, how cross-fertilization of offers and teams could help fuel the growth of the company. Just to mention two examples which comes to my mind, the Istanbul engine from my large contract that we've won that you want to go, which is a very big like a green energy, if you want on greening the energy mix of Turkey wouldn't have been won with only of the audience. I guess, you know, it's the combination of the two things in this country which has helped us win this contract. Another example is what I said about the reviews. You know, we have many opportunities in a country like France or for use of wastewater and actually in the U.S. as well, which is helps a lot by the many references in particular in Spain we've gathered by acquiring states. If anything, I guess we've learned that the attention to detail and delivery is always paramount, but we've, and we've delivered that, but that we may have more to come in terms of growth for the company. Thank you very much for the answers. I just maybe one bit that I didn't get, and that's likely, if you may, is that, that optimism of the other side. Seemed like you said, Look, you're pretty much prepared for most macro outcomes in regards to the full year and your confidence in your guidance at the EBITDA level. How come that doesn't translate to your net income? Oh, maybe on the net income. Why isn't that number being traded on the income line? I will, I will start by the first part, the economical part, and let Claude answer to the net income specific question. Sorry, I didn't answer first to this one. Just, I'm very happy, just want to, to rephrase what I said about the 85% macro indexing at Veolia. In the first semester, just to give you one example, you've seen that volumes of Waste were flat. With flat Waste volumes, we've enjoyed, we've delivered 8.2% growth in our EBITDA. That's another testimony of, you know, the decorrelation, if you want, of the two indicators. That was more an additional comment. On next results, Claude, maybe? As current net income, as Estelle said, we are comfortable with the consensus, not only on EBITDA, but also on the net income. If you understand the consensus correctly, it's EUR 1,445 million. We can confirm that we are comfortable with this number. Fantastic. This is very clear. Thank you for your help. Thank you. Your next question comes from Arthur Sitbon with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Hello, thank you for taking my questions. I have two. The first one is on the EBITDA bridge that you presented. You show a EUR 52 million net positive on recyclate and energy item. I was wondering, well, I suspect the positive comes mainly from the Energy activities. I was wondering exactly which part of the Energy activities, and you seem to say that you're quite confident that this will remain, well, quite solid, at least in 2024. I was wondering if at some point, we should expect some mean reversion here as Energy prices come down. The second question is on the EUR 92 million of capital gains in the first half of the year. I think you mentioned part of that was linked to the pension reform in France. Maybe I'm, I'm not sure I've understood that correctly. If you could provide a bit more detail, that would, that would be helpful. Mainly, I was wondering if you expect that budget to remain roughly stable by the end of the year, or if we should expect more capital gain or, or actually some, some negative items. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. I hope we heard well your question because the line was a little bit blurred. Claude, maybe starting with the capital gain, the pension one was not exactly that easy to understand. Yes. Maybe if you could elaborate. We have two main topics. In this line of EUR 93 million, it's on page 29. The first one is industrial capital gains. It's the disposal of the Water U.K. business that has been sold in February. This year, that was the last remedy that we had to sell, and it was part of WTS business. We got from this disposal, as I said, EUR 29 million of capital gain. The second topic is the combination of the, in France, of the SUEZ and the Veolia pension scheme. The combination of this pension scheme, because we are now one company, and the people that joined us, they joined with what they had from SUEZ, and we wanted to have one single pension scheme. We were able to record around the provision reversal of around EUR 20 million. The second topic is pension reform, because now we have to work on in EUR 64 million in France. 64 years old. Sorry, in France. So the pension reform was a very small effect, Arthur. It was only EUR 4 million at the provision reversal, because now we have the pension provision a little bit streamlined. That's the first topic. That was on capital gain. On the, the bridge, plus energy, minus recycle, Claes, equals 52, Claude? Yes. The main positive impact on this bridge is the Braunschweig new biomass facility. It's a significant impact. You know that we have invested EUR 250 million. We started this facility in November of last year, and so it's really a significant impact. Around more than EUR 50 million just for this facility. The second topic is the rest of it, is Energy that we have got, as I mentioned, Energy, the Energy business, that is compensating the recycled prices pretty much for the same amount. All in all, If your question was, you know, should we anticipate all of it to be neutralized down in a way, when the Energy price goes down? The answer is, a lot of it is more like recurring and based on the fundamentals, such as the BVGF, as the Braunschweig one, Claude just mentioned. as we said also, that the heat is secure for the next heating season with a very good tariff, which is, as I said again, 75% of the volume of Energy that we sell. It's a main topic for us. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Olly Jeffery with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Thank you. Three questions for me, please. The first one is, can you give your view on your outlook for Waste volume growth, maybe what you've seen in July and what you expect for the remainder of this year, just in the context of a lot of companies in the chemical sector and construction sector, profit warning this year? You know, what is your outlook on that, and what do you incorporate for the second half? Second question is on, you mentioned the strong growth in hazardous waste pricing in the U.S. You know, a very strong increase in pricing. Do you think that's sustainable into 2024? Then the last question I have is, if you repeat the amount of synergies which have been, you know, fantastic, you managed to do that many in the first half, doing 60% of the full year target. If you manage to repeat that number in the second half, do you think you might be able to get up to EUR 1.4 billion in current net income? Thanks very much. You understand, we are very confident in many, many ways, you know, top line, bottom line, and for the rest of the year and the years to come. In terms of volumes of Waste, to answer your questions, you know, we've seen flat volume in basically H1, exactly like we had seen flat volumes in H2 2022. So far, we don't see any change in trend. If anything, a little bit of a positive in Germany, as Aaron mentioned. Again, you know, like, you know, we've demonstrated in a way, +8% in the first semester, despite stable volumes of Waste. I guess, you know, happy to answer our question, but in a way, it's less and less relevant to discuss the economy and the Waste volumes versus Veolia's result, as we've proven for the last quarters and again in this quarter. By the way, we, we barely do any construction waste, because your question was more on construction. In terms of chemical volumes, it's not what we see in hazardous waste. Again, we haven't seen any change in trend in the hazardous waste volumes, neither in Europe nor in the U.S. Nothing specific to say here. In terms of the hazardous waste price in the U.S., how long will it stay? We've been able to deliver strong price increase since basically the spring of 2021, and we've given you the figures quarter after quarter. Our objective here is basically to follow at least inflation of costs. I guess, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't go on. We don't have any sign of, of, you know, like, anything but our various treatment facilities are basically full, and they still are, so I don't see any reason why this should change. In terms of synergies, I was smiling because you're right, you know, we've, we've been very confidently setting this result this morning, with raising our objective for the year to the upper end of the guidance in terms of EBITDA, which we are very confident again, and hopefully it's a sign of a smile you can hear maybe from the phone this morning. In terms of how does it translate to net results, you know, as Claude mentioned, you know, we're comfortable with the consensus for the year. There is a little bit of the specific H1, H2 on the financing cost as well, which you cannot just do a times two, if you want, for specific one-off in H1. Maybe, Claude, you want to elaborate on this second point? What I said, if you look at the total financial cost, that was very good in H1. As I said, the total for the year is expected at EUR 950 million. Again, on the, on net income, we can confirm that we are very comfortable with the consensus. Of course. Thank you very much. If we can deliver, if we can deliver more synergies, we will. Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Harleaux with Société Générale. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for taking questions. Just one, can you please share with us your views on the read-across for Veolia, if any, from the government's plan to tax toll road operators? According to declarations of Bruno Le Maire, hydroelectric concession operators as well as airport operators. Thank you very much. Wow! I, I said wow, because, you know, not a lot of people have read those, those, speeches, from the minister. I guess, the answer is there is no read-across for Veolia. We are not, neither legally nor operationally in the same type of concessions as, as the, the one which are, potentially under scrutiny from the tax road, tax, sorry, toll roads or, the, the dam, in France. No read-across, we don't have any risk here. Thank you. Very useful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Your next question comes from Arnaud Palliez with the CIC Market. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one is regarding the amount of shared efficiencies. Can you give us some indication about this amount? You no longer make a split between the efficiencies and what is returned to the customer. Can we have some indications? Are we in business as usual, let's say, or is there any change at this level? That's the first question. Second question is a more general one about waste water we use. There are a lot of talks now in France about pushing the industrial companies to recycle their water. I just would like to know, what's your view on this emerging market, let's say, and are you currently in discussions with some big industrials for moving to the reuse of their, of their water? Maybe Claude, the first question, and we'll handle the, the second one. First question, to answer your question is very simple, is really business as usual. To give you figures, if you come back to the EBITDA bridge, we have delivered EUR 187 million of efficiencies, cost efficiencies in H1, we have retained EUR 73 million, which is 40% of what we have delivered. We have always said that the range is 30%-50%, so the 40% is really business as usual. In terms of the second question you've had, you know, you're right, it's a big series of opportunities for Veolia. We are very number one in terms of both references and technologies to help industrial customer to do water reuse in France, like in many other countries. Many more opportunities to come in Veolia. Actually, some of the customers are already our customers in France, as you can imagine, where we have a good, a good footprint already. Just to give you an example, which is outside France, we signed a contract with a big lithium mine in Australia, they're called the Talison Mine. It's a lithium mine. They had to double the capacity, they wanted to double the capacity of the mine. The limiting factor was the water, as you can imagine, in Australia. We've been able to deliver thanks to a combination of Actiflo and membranes, which are two patented technology of Veolia. To have them double the capacity without taking one single drop of water more from nature. This is an example of wastewater reuse, but industrial wastewater reuse, thanks to the technology of Veolia. We have many examples in France now, and many more to come. Good opportunity for us, and we're, that's why I was very pleased to announce not only a very strong result, very good confidence for the rest of the year, but as well, a lot of new contracts, which are fueling the growth, will fuel the growth of the years to come. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Jenny Ping with Citi, please go ahead. Hi, thanks very much. Two questions from me. Just firstly, on inflation, can you just remind us what is the lag in the inflation contracts in both of the Water and Waste businesses, please? As inflation starts to come down, when are we expecting to see some of that to flow through? Secondly, just an earlier comment around the Waste volume to Olly's question, saying that some of the construction waste exposure is very minimal. Can you just run us through in terms of which are the most, which are -- which sectors are the most exposed to in terms of your Waste and, obviously a big chunk of that m- will be municipal as well. Just of the industrial, what are the most exposed sectors? Thanks. Okay, maybe for the first one? Yes, in terms of in-inflation, you, you know that the, the lag is six to 12 months on inflation. This is what you can see on the Water, the Water France, for example, we had close to 4% last year. We are 6% this year. You have this lag effect that is. We, we see the inflation going slightly down in the second part of the year, to answer your question, Jenny. The lag effect, six to 12 months, that we will translate to the next, the next coming month if inflation goes down. On the second question, so again, we haven't seen any, any growth in the volume of Waste in the this semester and last semester as in S2 2022. Despite that, we've been delivering a very strong growth of our results. If you want to understand why, in a way, we are immune to, to 85%, as we said, immune to economic growth and Waste volume, this is because a lot of it, as you mentioned, is municipal. The other half, it spread through various type of sectors, barely in construction. A lot of it will be retail. Typically, if I had to mention one, which is a lot of where the volume of Waste comes from. Again, you know, like our adaptation, our reaction, our cross-cutting delivery track record, helps us to, in a way, disconnect from these type of indicators, from the results of Veolia. I think that's the two questions? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Olly Jeffery has a follow-up question. Olly, your line is now open. Thank you very much. Just two other questions. On the bookings within WTS, I think you said that increased EUR 200 million. Could you just clarify how much that's increased since the bookings there have increased since the full year results? Second question is on, in normally at the half year, working capital is quite negative. You normally unwind by the end of the year, and you spoke about debt being below EUR 19 billion. I might expect it a bit lower than that. Could you just explain, are you still expecting the normal, largely full working capital unwind over the second half of the year? My last follow-up is the Lydec contract. Can you please just confirm, is that now included within the guidance or not? My understanding, if it would be, it might be, it would be a scope effect, it wouldn't be the EBITDA line, but obviously, it could be in the net income line. Clarifications on those points would be great. Thank you. I guess, on the first one, the booking, you know, we've mentioned a few figures, so maybe we were not clear enough. The EUR 200 million was just a single segment within the Water Tech, so it's not the overall booking. The overall booking secured on the H1 only is EUR 2.7 billion in six months. That's the figure, of which EUR 200 million was in a part of the business, and EUR 500 million was another part of the business. The overall is EUR 2.7 extra in just the first half of the year. I've given you a few illustration of what's within those 2.7, and these are contracts for one, and a lot of good results related to the lithium factories. You might wonder why lithium in particular. The first is, of course, lithium, mined or factories need a lot of water, so there is a lot of water reuse and what you call ZLD. The other part is, we have as well, a wonderful piece of technology which helps us recruit the little, little, little lithium you still have in the effluent of wastewater to concentrate it. That's what we call evapocrystallization, and that's a unique one. As you can imagine, given the price of lithium and the scarcity of it, it is a technology where we have a lot of incoming calls to apply to recruit any single gram of lithium you can think of. That was it. The real figure is EUR 2.7 billion, of which we've given a little bit of the details. Mm. The headline is 2.7. Maybe on the second, On the working capital, only you're right, if you take into account just the working capital, because the working capital reversal that we do every year, will contribute significantly to the free cash flow of H2. You know that we continue to have a very strict discipline on free cash flow, on cash generation, on invoicing and collection, in order to continue to deliver strong free cash flow generation at Veolia. As I've, as I said, we may close some bolt-on acquisition by year-end, and so you have to take into account a couple of acquisition that could come by year-end. If you combine the two, we know that we will be below EUR 19 billion at year-end. As far as the Lydec question is concerned, Casablanca Water and Power, it's count in scope. In terms of effect, to give you an idea, around the thirty something type of million euros of EBITDA in the first half of the year. It's limited compared to the size of the group. Very, very limited. In terms of net income, is not significant at all. All right, thanks very much. It's super limited. Thank you. Your next question comes from Philippe Ourpatian with ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning to all of you. Many thanks for taking my question. I have only two, which are more some precision. Could you just give us the, your hedging prices? Because you mentioned that you are fully hedged in terms of electricity 2023 and 50% 2024. Just to have an idea about the trend in terms of prices, you can deliver the, the, the exact figure. That's the first things. The second thing is, you mentioned that the weather impact was not so significant, was not so good, I would say, in the first half. Looking at the weather in France in July, the impact could be even worse. What do you have in terms of, let's say, statistics and mainly main figure in your management control for the months of July? Just to have an idea about the volumes impact in the French business. Many thanks. In terms of the hedging policy for Energy, Claude? Yeah. Hedging policy for 2023 is done, and that's the reason why we are explaining. As you know, Philippe, we are hedging a fraction of the years to come in the year that we are and a little bit of the next year. The policy of the group is to hedge the full year pretty much at the beginning of the year. It's done for 2023. We are confident, very confident with 2023. Good, solid delivery. We have a progressive, as I said, for next year. If you look at the progressive that we have, we are pretty good today on electricity prices for the incinerator. We have a good hedging today, so we know that we should deliver better 2024 Energy prices for the Waste to incinerator in 2024. That could be slightly mitigated, but we are well progressing on this one. That's for the hedging policy. In terms of the weather impact, if you ask, do we have a magic wand in Veolia and a specific KPI to anticipate the weather? We don't. What we can say is just having a look through the window and of course, you know, measuring. July was not great in France, you're right. In other geographies, it was very good. Just to give you an idea, as we've mentioned, the weather impact in France for the first semester, overall, the volumes of Water worldwide for Veolia was +4% in the first half. We are present, as you know, in Spain, in Chile, in Czech Republic, and in the U.S., a lot. Uh, so I guess, uh, I'm inclined to zoom a little bit, uh, compared to the weather I see in my, in my own window, uh, through my own window, sorry. Uh, and, uh, and I guess, uh, uh, I, I said, you know, repeatedly that, you know, I'm very confident for the rest of the year. I would say despite, uh, the rain in July in France, to, to say it in other words, uh, and which has, uh, enabled us to raise our guidance to upper range, uh, of the five to seven percent EBITDA progression. Many thanks. Thank you. Your next question comes from Juan Rodriguez with Kepler. Please go ahead. Thank you, and good morning, thank you for taking our questions. I have a follow-up on, on the net debt, if I may, especially on the M&A that you signal that is included already on your below EUR 19 billion target. Can you please tell us what, what size of the envelope, will be targeted in this, this bold M&A acquisition? Something around EUR 500 million would be, would be good to, to have in mind. Then, are you including any contribution of this on your embedded net income? That would be the first one. The second one, if you can update us on where the concession renewal process of this, important set of, concession in, in the, in the Water business, in the, in Ile-de-France, is currently today. Thank you. Maybe on the first question, although I would discourage my CFO to give you the names of the target, because we, we have in mind, because of course, we're in discussion, and this is very confidential, but you can give a bit of color on the size of the bolt-on. We're talking about a couple of hundred million euros, so nothing very significant, but that will fuel the growth for next year and the earnings for 2024, and we expect to close in Q4. That's the reason why it will have a limited impact on our accounts in terms of EBITDA revenue and on net income. That will help also to have a strong 2024, and as we said, we, we are very confident as well for 2024 at Veolia. In terms of the SEDIF contract, we are in the middle of the tender. We've already put two offers together in succession, which is the typical one. Just to give you an idea, the end of the contract is meant to be at the end of 2024, so till in basically a year and a half. You know, we've put a very, very good offer together with all the technologies and the know-how of the group. In terms of technologies, to give you an idea, you know, there is a state-of-the-art of everything you can treat, which could end up being in the Water, as well as a state-of-the-art of, in terms of, leakage rates, which is already very low, but could be even lowered, thanks to all our technologies and AI and digital. You know, I'm very proud of the offers we've put together. Again, there will still be a bit of a few months to wait for, because the end of the contract is at the end of 2024. Very helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the conference back to Madame Brachlianoff for some closing remarks. Thank you very much. You, you've understood that we are very happy about the results for this first half of the year, which are, again, an all-time high for Veolia. Very confident for the rest of the year as well, which has helped us to raise our guidance to target now the upper range of the 5%-7% EBITDA. That's well under control, with a very big improvement in the working cap and good ambition for the rest of the year as well. Veolia is in a very positive trajectory. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day!