Hello, and welcome to today's Apax Global Alpha annual results call. My name is Charlie, I will be coordinating your call today. If you would like to ask a question during the presentation, you may register to do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to your host, Ralf Gruss, COO of Apax, to begin. Ralf, please go ahead. Thank you, Charlie, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining AGA's annual results presentation for 2021. My name is Ralf Gruss, I'm the COO of Apax and a member of Apax Global Alpha's investment committee. Also with me today is Salim Nathoo. Salim is a member of Apax Global Alpha's investment committee as well, and he's also a member of the investment committee of the Global Buyout Funds and the Apax Digital Fund. Salim will cover the portfolio in more detail on today's call. We look forward to taking you through the presentation, and we will answer any questions you may have at the end of the call. However, before I go into the presentation in more detail, I wanted to take a moment to comment on the war and resulting humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. We are shocked and saddened by the horrific events we are seeing, and our thoughts are with those affected at this time. As a firm, we are supporting the disaster relief efforts on the ground through the Apax Foundation to help those displaced and in need due to the conflict. From a portfolio perspective, having reviewed AGA's exposure to Ukraine and Russia, we can confirm that the Apax Fund's portfolio companies' direct exposure to both Ukraine and Russia is very small, and none of the companies have any meaningful operations in either Russia or Ukraine. Let me turn to the key highlights for 2021 now. 2021 was a very strong year for AGA, during which AGA delivered a total NAV return of 28.7%. The adjusted NAV grew to EUR 1.5 billion in the year, up from EUR 1.2 billion at 31 December 2020. Translating this on a per share basis, this equates to €3.02 or GBP 2.54 at the end of 2021. The financial year 2021 was characterized by strong momentum across the portfolio, and the performance during the year was driven by a combination of operating improvements, earnings growth, and a supportive valuation environment across the four key sectors in which AGA invests. AGA also received record distributions of EUR 275 million from its investments in private equity, and a total of 15 portfolio companies in private equity were fully or partially exited or IPOed in the year. Now, these exits and IPOs deliver valuation levels significantly above the last unaffected valuations at which AGA had held these investments. The average uplift achieved by AGA on exits and IPOs was approximately 50% during the year. The liquidity position of AGA is very healthy. In anticipation of a higher level of capital calls from the private equity portfolio in the next 12 months, the liquidity position was increased and, you know, including non-current assets, is now approximately 10% of net asset value at year-end. At the same time, AGA also continued to invest cash not deployed in private equity into derived debt. Now talking about derived debt, AGA's derived debt portfolio continues to perform well. It is of high quality and has continued to deliver stable and attractive risk-adjusted returns. Moving on to dividends. In line with AGA's policy to distribute 5% of NAV on an annual basis, the board has approved a total dividend of 12.33 pence per share for the full year 2021, and the second semi-annual dividend of 6.36 pence per share is expected to be paid on 4, the fourth of April. Before taking a closer look at the performance across the portfolio, let's move to the next page which shows the portfolio composition as of 31 December. Now, the pie chart here on the page shows the composition of the portfolio at the 31 of December and together with some key metrics for the private equity and derived investments portfolio. Looking at the invested portfolio, the share of private equity in the invested portfolio slightly increased from prior year, and private equity now makes up 75% of the invested portfolio, and derived investments stand at 25%. Looking at the return metrics on the page, all parts of the portfolio performed strongly. These returns highlight the quality of the portfolio and the benefits of AGA's sector-led strategy. Again, you know, Salim will talk more about this later on in the presentation. Turning to private equity first, you can find key information on the left-hand side of the slide. Performance in private equity was very strong during the year. Private equity achieved a total return of 41% over the year. In terms of exposure to fund vintages, as you can see from the pie chart, AGA's exposure to Apax X has now increased to 17%, and you should expect the relative size of Apax X to continue to grow as Apax X continues to invest and also the capital call facility of the fund is repaid by investors, including AGA. The Apax IX portfolio companies still represent the largest exposure in AGA at 40%, and you might remember that AGA made a commitment to the Apax Digital Fund II during the year, and you should expect to see ADF II, the Apax Digital Fund II, appear on the page in the coming periods. Taking a step back though, you know, AGA's private equity portfolio is well diversified across vintages. You know, 17% of AGA's private equity portfolio is in what we call the harvesting phase, 60% is in the maturity phase, and 23% is in the investment phase. Just briefly touching on returns on exits and IPOs in the private equity portfolio. At the bottom left-hand side of the page, you can see that in private equity, you know, full and partial realizations in IPOs produced very strong results for AGA. The average gross multiple realized on exits and IPOs was 4.5x, and the gross IRR achieved in these transactions was 54.1%. You know, as I said earlier, it's been a very strong year indeed. Now, turning to derived investments. There was also some strong performance in the derived investments portfolio. You know, derived debt makes up the largest part of the derived investments portfolio, and derived equity now only represents 2% of the invested portfolio, and there was no new equity investments in the period. Derived debt, you know, showed strong and steady performance in line with strategy, and the returns were 13.4% for the period in that part of the portfolio. There was a significant currency gain in this year's year returns, but even on a currency-adjusted basis, the total return of 6.9% was very attractive and reflective of the strengths of the derived debt portfolio. Now I'd like to focus on financial performance of both the private equity and derived investment portfolio in a bit more detail on the following pages. Now, starting with private equity. Total return in this part of the portfolio was 41%, as I've just mentioned. There were, broadly speaking, you know, three main value drivers behind this private equity return, earnings growth, in the supportive valuation multiples, and premiums achieved on exit. Let me take them one by one. You know, earnings growth has continued to be very strong during the year. In terms of numbers, the last 12 months EBITDA growth in the underlying portfolio was about 35% on average, and this compares to about 21% at the end of 2020. Performance continued to accelerate during 2021. In the second, you know, the valuation environment, you know, remained supportive during 2021. Third, you know, importantly, you know, there was significant premiums achieved on exit. You know, drivers of these exit uplifts were both supportive markets in 2021, you know, particularly for IPOs, but also a re-rating of the portfolio companies achieved during the ownership by the Apax funds. Again, you know, Salim will talk more about this later on. The combination of two and three for the supportive valuation environment and those premiums on exit has led to the average EV/EBITDA valuation multiple increase to 23.2x at year-end. This is, however, largely driven by the re-rating of public portfolio companies, you know, for which this metric may be less relevant. We can talk more about this, you know, now turning to page 7. You know, looking at page 7, the bridge which you can see on this page breaks down the total return of 41% for the private equity portfolio into its main components. Now, you know, not surprisingly in light of, you know, what we've discussed so far, by far, the most important driver of returns was earnings growth during 2021. The second biggest impact on the upside, though, was a movement and change of comparable multiples used to value the portfolio. As I've just said, you know, using an average EV/EBITDA multiple, that multiple moved from 16.1x to 23.2x during the year. This movement is, however, skewed by IPOs and public companies in the portfolio. You know, these companies, you know, particular tech companies, are not usually valued by public market investors on the last 12 months EV/EBITDA basis, but they are often using, you know, forward earnings or revenue multiples to capture the growth aspect of these businesses. If you were to exclude public companies from the valuation multiple analysis, the average EV/EBITDA multiple moved to only 18.1x at year-end 2021. I also wanna briefly touch on the two other large movements shown in the bridge. In the first, you know, increases in carried interest reserves for future carry interest payable increased as the private equity portfolio gained in value. This is the most important driver behind the -12.2% movement you can see on the chart. Secondly, you know, also the private equity portfolio benefited from some currency tailwinds during 2021, you know, largely the movement in the U.S. dollar against the euro. Now before I talk about the derived investments portfolio, let me briefly pause to give some additional context around the public equity exposure, you know, which AGA has in its private equity portfolio. The public equity exposure is really a function of the successes AGA had in exiting some of the private equity holdings. You know, as of December 31, the share of publicly listed companies in the private equity portfolio was about 25% or 20% of NAV. Now this comes after a year of several successful public market exits, where the Apax funds took advantage of the high valuation environment to realize part of their holdings. Large public investment in Apax VIII, for example, include ThoughtWorks, which achieved a gross money multiple of 12.8x at listing or Paycor, and in Apax VIII, you know, the largest public exposure, Storkc raft. In Apax VIII, Global-e, a leading platform to enable global direct to consumer cross-border e-commerce, is the largest publicly held portfolio company. Now, while an IPO is only a partial exit, it's worth noting that, you know, today AGA has already realized three times the initial cost of investment, you know, through pre-IPO funding rounds, primary and secondary sale arms of shares in the companies in the private equity portfolio that were listed in 2021. All in, you know, a lot of good news to report here. What it also means is that AGA is well-positioned to receive further distributions in the future as the Apax funds exit their remaining positions. However, it also means that there will likely be a little bit more volatility in AGA's private equity portfolio from a valuation perspective. This is mainly because of the valuation methodology for a public stock where best practice dictates that the list of portfolio companies valued at the share price on the last day of trading in the reporting periods. Having said that, though, you know, public exposure, including public positions in private equity in the very small, you know, derived equity portfolio, represents, as I just said, about, you know, 20% of the AGA adjusted NAV. Which means that, you know, broadly speaking, a 10% move in public market valuations would create a 2% valuation move of AGA, everything else being equal. Moving now to the derived investment portfolio. The derived investment portfolio achieved a total return of 15.8% in the 12 months to 31 December. The performance was primarily driven by derived debt, which made up 91% of the derived investments portfolio. Taking a closer look at the derived debt portfolio, about EUR 243 million was deployed in derived debt in the period, reflecting AGA's strategy to invest capital as it becomes available following exits in the private equity portfolio. The portfolio shifted to include more first lien loans in expectation of additional investments in the private equity portfolio over the next 12 months. As such, the overall yield to maturity of the portfolio is now at 6.2%. The majority of positions in the derived debt portfolio were in floating rate securities, making the portfolio well-positioned in the event of further interest rate increases in the year ahead. In fact, you know, as base rates are expected to increase, you know, the overall portfolio of the derived debt portfolio will go up as well. Now let me hand over to Salim to give an update on the portfolio in more detail. Thanks, Ralf. Before I go into this section, just let me remind you of AGA's strategy. As Ralf mentioned, AGA's main exposure is to private equity and investments in the Apax funds, with a smaller portfolio of debt and equity investments, providing AGA with liquidity and flexibility while generating superior risk-adjusted returns. At a high level, AGA aims to build and maintain a global portfolio of investments across four key sectors, tech and digital, services, healthcare, and internet consumer, and deliver sustained value across economic cycles. This strategy is not predicated on continued tailwinds in financial markets. In private equity, for example, the foundation involves investing in companies which are an attractive subsector but are perhaps not fully polished. Because the businesses are not fully polished, it's possible to buy at multiples which are at a discount to comparable companies. The thesis involves pulling multiple micro levers to accelerate business performance and improve business quality so that the funds can benefit both from material increases in earnings as well as the potential re-rating as the quality of the business is higher and recognized as such on exit. Now, I'm gonna give you an example of this and through the investment in American Water Resources in a moment. However, before we go into the portfolio in more detail, I wanted to also touch on the impact of inflation and rising rates in the context of AGA's portfolio and investment strategy. We've seen a secular decline in interest rates now for over 20 years, which has in turn driven valuations ever higher. As inflation sets in, the central banks have a tightrope to walk between controlling inflation on the one hand, and on the other hand, not making the interest burden on the very high levels of debt throughout the economy unsustainable. While there is a debate of just how far interest rates can rise, given these high levels of debt, what is certain is that the long-term interest rate tailwinds for equities and private equity are now going to abate. Looking at AGA's private equity portfolio, there are a number of challenges and opportunities. First, we believe that this situation will inevitably lead to significant volatility as markets react to each interest rate move and believe that this will present opportunities, particularly given the Apax fund's multi-sectoral approach and wide geographic footprint. In addition, and as just discussed, the focus on key subsectors on businesses with strong economic moats at their core is and will serve us in good stead, as many of the businesses will have pricing power as input costs increase. Importantly, it also means there's going to be a more marked distinction between strategies reliant on riding continued increase in market multiples and those which have alpha creation at their core. For Apax, we believe in creating alpha through investing in hidden gems, businesses which are not fully polished, and therefore can be bought at a discount to comparable companies, but are in attractive sub-sectors and then focusing on business improvement. You compare that versus the alternative strategy of investing in very high quality companies at very high entry prices, where there is a risk of multiple contraction. In the derived investments portfolio, as Ralf has mentioned, the portfolio is positioned in the event of further interest rate rises, given the fact that the majority of positions in the derived debt portfolio were held in floating rate securities and thus in a position to benefit should rates increase. Moving now to the portfolio and starting with tech and digital on page 11. In terms of portfolio split, tech and digital continues to constitute the largest exposure, representing 40% of the invested portfolio, followed by services, healthcare, and internet consumer. While tech is a very broad sector, as a reminder, AGA and the Apax funds focus on three key sub-sectors within tech: tech-enabled services, software, and telecom. Given the market backdrop, I should emphasize that we typically focus on investments in more mature companies or moderate growth companies where there are proven unit economics, rather than the more speculative, very high growth, pre-profit companies, but where there is an uncertain path to profitability. It is interesting to note that while tech valuations have declined in public markets in recent quarters, mainly driven by increasing rate expectations, the most significant declines in valuations have been in the speculative, very high growth, uncertain profitability segment to which the funds are less exposed. Taking a step back, valuations in software and tech-enabled services remained higher in the year, and the Apax funds' focus was on exiting those investments that had already completed their business transformation journeys, taking advantage of the valuation environment. As evidence of this, there were several IPOs in the period, including ThoughtWorks, Paycor, and Global-e, as well as the sale of Signavio. As you can see on this page, there were quite a few new investments in tech and digital, including through the Apax Digital Fund. The Apax Funds continue to focus on the three core source sub-sectors of software, tech-enabled services, and telecom, often looking at platform investments where there's an opportunity to create material value through M&A and consolidation. An example of the latter is Apax X's investment in combining three software companies in EveryAction, Social Solutions, and CyberGrants, creating a scaled software player targeting the not-for-profit space. The individual companies, while attractive, were a little subscale, but the combination should allow a more diversified and greater scale platform for growth and command a different multiple. Meanwhile, in tech-enabled services, the Apax team focused on identifying new growth areas in midsize next generation IT services such as digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity services. As an example, Apax X invested in the Herjavec Group, a North American security services provider, and supported the company's further expansion through a merger with Fishtech Group at the end of 2021. Finally, in telecoms, where valuations have been more moderate, the Apax funds took advantage of the consolidation trend to pursue a combination of Inmarsat with Viasat, which will create a scaled player in a consolidating industry and allow the funds to monetize their position over time. This transaction signed in November 2021 and is expected to close later this year. As you can see on this page, there is also significant exposure to tech and digital in the derived investments portfolio, with more than half of proceeds in invested capital going into this sector. Moving now to services on page 12. Services is a broad sector, and the Apax team seeks opportunities to invest in businesses that, empowered by technology, can deliver improved services to customers. While very different, these companies often share similar business models and market structures, and they all benefit from economies of scale. Like in tech and digital, the Apax team has built deep expertise within a few key sub-sectors, including density-based businesses, residential services, and outsourced sales and marketing. At the end of 2021, the services sector represented 24% of AGA's invested portfolio. Let me take the key sub-sectors in turn and starting with density-based businesses. These are businesses that operate a network and have trucks that drive routes serving one customer after another. There were good opportunities for add-on M&A, with successful businesses able to achieve higher margins and faster growth. The Apax Funds benefited from this trend with companies like TOI TOI & DIXI, formerly known as ADCO, signing new add-on acquisitions, having executed 13 deals under the Apax Funds' ownership. Residential services is another area of focus for the Apax Funds, with the Apax team having identified an opportunity to invest in highly fragmented mom-and-pop markets with ample room to scale and professionalize and drive digital improvements. Following on from the investments in Authority Brands in 2018, the funds invested in SavATree, a U.S.-focused tree and lawn care roll-up, and American Water Resources in the year. I'll talk more about American Water Resources in a minute. Finally, in outsource sales and marketing, the Apax Funds portfolio companies continue to identify opportunities which are benefiting from increased outsourcing of specialist sales and marketing, such as insurance brokers. Consolidation continues to be a key theme in many companies in this area, presenting significant add-on opportunities for companies like TIB, a specialty European insurance broker. Let me now move on to the next page and talk a little bit about American Water Resources, a new investment in the residential services subsector, as just mentioned. American Water Resources is a good example of Apax's strategy, the mining hidden gem strategy, as we call it, which I mentioned earlier. It is Apax's tenth investment in a provider of various warranty protection programs and other home services in the U.S. On a look-through basis, AGA invested EUR 18.6 million in the company. Starting from the top, Apax X was able to invest in American Water Resources at a discount to where comparable companies are valued, in part because of the complexity of the carve-out from the parent company of American Water Resources, which is a U.S. utility. The team identified an opportunity to invest in a business that operates in an attractive subsector, given its high margins, high retention rates, long-term contracts, high barriers to entry, and ample opportunities for cross-sell. They also saw significant opportunity for business improvement, given this was a non-core subsidiary of a utility in areas such as digital acceleration to drive customer acquisition, margin expansion, as well as customer services improvements through enhanced mobile capabilities. The last piece of the Apax strategy would be to achieve a re-rating at exit. While it is still very early days, drawing on experience from previous investments in Authority Brands, AssuredPartners and Hub International, the team believes there is a real opportunity to drive growth and increase quality through business improvement and establishing American Water Resources as an independent company, leading to a business that acquirers would value on exit. Moving now to healthcare, which represents about 22% of AGA's invested portfolios. Portfolio companies in healthcare continue to benefit from attractive structural trends in healthcare, such as changing demographics, increased digitization, and significant investments in healthcare to improve and extend life. In the portfolio, there were two investments in the year in key subsectors. In med tech, the Apax Funds acquired Rodenstock, a manufacturer of premium ophthalmic lenses. The thesis here was to back and use our capabilities to help an entrepreneurial management team that was at the early stages of a transformation which is leading to accelerated growth. The Apax team identified an opportunity for the funds to invest in Eating Recovery Center, a specialist provider of eating disorder and mood and anxiety treatment in the U.S. In Europe, the Apax Funds exited Unilabs at 3.5x gross invested capital, which is a good example of the Apax Funds transformative ownership approach. The company completed over 50 add-on acquisitions under the funds ownership. Finally, before I hand back to Ralf and wrap up, let me talk about the internet consumer sector, which makes up 14% of AGA's invested portfolio. The main subsectors in the internet consumer sector were online marketplaces, where the Apax transformation capability in digital has driven improved growth in customer traffic and monetization. Secondly, consumer packaged goods. The latter includes well-invested premium consumer brands in specialized categories where consumers trade up to higher price points. Starting with online marketplaces, which represents a significant part of the internet consumer portfolio at 31%, portfolio companies experience continued strong performance, with many businesses benefiting from pricing power that translated to strong profit growth. In the consumer packaged goods subsector, there was an increased focus on premium specialized consumer packaged goods brands. Having acquired Nulo, a pet food brand, in April 2021, the Apax Funds also signed a new investment in Far Niente, a producer of premium wines in the U.S. in the year. There were some businesses that continue to face challenges. The e-commerce platform, Matchesf ashion, experienced some operational challenges, while the retailer Cole Haan continued to recover but remained below pre-COVID levels. Only a small part of the derived investments portfolio was in internet and consumer. As you can see, a lot of activity across the four sectors. Before we go into Q&A, let me summarize a few key takeaways. First, AGA experienced strong performance and continues to benefit from a focus on our four key subsectors. On our four key sectors, where experience and insight help deliver enhanced results. Returns were underpinned by strong operating performance, a favorable valuation environment, and premium valuations achieved on exit. In private equity, the mining hidden gems investment strategy, which I talked about, should be robust even in more challenging inflationary macroeconomic and valuation environments. Apax Global Alpha's balance sheet remains healthy, with derived investments providing additional liquidity to meet future calls from the private equity funds. In light of the geopolitical uncertainty and higher inflationary pressures, the portfolio remains well-positioned with a focus on micro levers of growth rather than financial market tailwinds. As mentioned at the beginning of the call, the board has determined a final dividend 6.36 pence per share, bringing the full-year dividend to 12.33 pence per share. This represents an increase of 21.5% compared to 2020, and the final dividend is expected to be paid on fourth April. Overall, a lot of good news, and we are excited about Apax Global Alpha's performance and feel confident about what the fund will be able to achieve. With that, Ralf and I are now happy to answer any questions. Back to you, operator. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question on the telephone line, please press star followed by one now. If you change your mind, it is star followed by two. We will start with a question from the webcast from Florian Harb. The question is, how might a significant rise in interest rates over the next 12- 18 months affect some or all of your portfolio companies and derived debt investments? Maybe I'll take that, Florian. In terms of derived debt investments, as Ralf mentioned, most of our debt is floating rate and so should benefit from increasing base rates. In terms of the private equity portfolio, I think a few things to note. One, obviously, the market is already pricing in significant interest rate rises in the next 12-18 months. The question becomes, well, what if interest rates were higher than anticipated? I think a few points. Firstly, a lot of our debt is hedged or fixed. If you look at the U.S. dollar proportion, we're just under half falls into that category. For particularly the euro debt, a lot has interest rate floors, which mean the floor is set well above where the current rates are, so that the rates would have to rise by quite a lot before it started to bite. I think on the debt servicing point, I think we feel pretty comfortable. The portfolio as a whole is not particularly highly levered and should be able to service interest rate rises within reason. The more difficult question comes on what happens to multiples. I think we've already started to see the more speculative super high growth stocks materially sell off in the last couple of quarters. As I mentioned, Apax isn't so exposed to those kind of companies. Particularly the more growthier companies will be affected. There will be some impact. However, of course, that also provides the opportunity on the buying side with an opportunity to buy companies at attractive valuations. Net-net, we think from interest servicing perspective, it should be manageable, and we have some natural hedges already to cope with the rising rates. The impact on multiples is more uncertain. We do see opportunity on the buy side as well as risk with some of the existing portfolio. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. We have another written question from Maitreyi Charmis. Given the environment in the markets in Q4 2021 and year to date 2022, where do you expect opportunities to come from in private equity? Should we expect high investment activity and lower realizations and multiples? Thank you. We are not changing our investment strategy based on the environment. We continue to see attractive opportunities in our four core subsectors or with this hidden gem type approach. It's impossible to call in any one year what the investment pace will be. I would say 2022 has got off to a reasonable start and the pipeline is decent. I would say in terms of realizations, I think we used 2021 to monetize a lot of positions and take advantage of the very strong valuation environment. If market conditions remain as they are, that is going to be more difficult in 2022, particularly on the public market side. We have also some companies that could be sold to strategics and financial buyers. Net-net, I would expect, from what we can see and obviously things can change, a decent investment rate in 2022 with perhaps slightly less realizations than last year. Thank you. The next question comes from Charles Murphy. The pace of portfolio activity has been strong for the last couple of years. Do you see this level of activity continuing this year? I think that was. I answered that just now. We do see a good pipeline and a good pace of activity we would expect in 2022. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll hand the call back over to the team. Well, thanks everyone, there are no more questions, for participating in today's call. As always, if you have any further questions or if you would like to arrange a meeting, you know, please contact the investor relations team. With that, you know, we wish you all a good day and goodbye everyone.