Good morning, and welcome to the Apax Global Alpha's Half Year 2023 results call. My name is Carla, and I will be the operator of today's call. If you would like to ask a question for the Q&A portion of today's call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. When asking your question, please ensure your telephone is unmuted locally, and to revoke your question, you can press star followed by two. Alternatively, if you have joined via the web, you may submit a written question using the Q&A box on your screen. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Ralf Gruss, to begin. Ralf, please go ahead when you're ready. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Apax Global Alpha's interim results presentation. My name is Ralf Gruss. I'm the CEO of Apax and a member of AGA's Investment Committee. With me today on the call is Salim Nathoo. Salim is also a member of AGA's Investment Committee, as well as a member of the investment committees of the Apax Buyout Fund, the Apax Digital Fund, and Apax Global Impact. I hope to give you an overview of AGA's portfolio and the performance in the first six months of 2023, and Salim will then cover the private equity portfolio in more detail before we open up for questions. If you joined the Capital Markets Day in June, you will have heard us talk about AGA providing access to a portfolio of hidden gems. As a reminder, these are mostly private companies owned by the Apax Private Equity Funds and which shareholders can't buy elsewhere. Also, they typically operate globally. The portfolio continued to perform well in the first six months of the year, with LTM EBITDA growth of 14%, despite some slowdown in earnings growth in Q2. Looking at AGA's overall performance, total NAV return for the first six months of the year was 2.4%, and at 30th of June, 2023, the adjusted NAV was approximately EUR 1.3 billion, which translates to EUR 2.64 or GBP 2.27 per share. The private equity portfolio returned EUR 35 million in distributions to AGA in the first six months of the year, and this is mainly from three full exits, which were achieved at an average uplift of 24%. To strengthen AGA's balance sheet and drawing on the Apax team's sector knowledge, AGA also has a portfolio of debt investments, as you know. This portfolio performed strongly in the first half of the year, achieving a total return of 5.3%. For those of you who are already familiar with AGA, you will know that the company has a policy to pay out 5% of NAV per annum, and the board has declared a dividend of £5.70 per share for the first six months of 2023. Before I move on to the next page, which provides a snapshot overview of AGA's current portfolio, I also wanted to highlight that AGA has entered into a new RCF, a revolving credit facility, of EUR 250 million on the fifth of September. This new facility is provided by SMBC Bank and JP Morgan and replaces the existing RCF held with Credit Suisse. The new RCF has a 2.5-year term with extension options to further contribute to the strength of AGA's balance sheet and liquidity position. What is shown on this page is AGA's invested portfolio at 30th of June, 2023. The pie chart on the left-hand side of the slide shows a breakdown of AGA's portfolio by asset class as well as sectors. At 30th of June, AGA was 93% invested, split 71% in private equity, 28% in debt investment, with the remaining 1% invested across 3 remaining derived equity positions. The sector breakdown here is for the private equity portfolio only, with the largest exposure in this portfolio being to tech and digital, followed by services, internet, consumer, and healthcare. As a reminder, within these sectors, Apax focuses on a small set of sub-sectors with strong economic motors, and there is limited exposure to highly cyclical in both industries and companies. The pie chart here shows AGA's exposure to the 10 largest private equity holdings, which is indicative of the portfolio diversification it's achieving. Also of note in relation to diversification, of the 79 private equity portfolio companies, 8 were invested before 2017, 30 in the 2017-2019 period, and 41 investments are from 2020 and later. Hence, companies across the portfolio are at different stages of their investment cycle, and therefore, the fund is well diversified by investment vintage as well. By the way, a list of the top 30 holdings can be found in the appendix, and we will provide a more detailed update on the portfolio and the investment strategy over the next couple of slides, and Salim will start with the private equity portfolio. Thank you, Ralf. Some of you will have seen this slide before, but it provides a good overview of Apax's investment strategy. I should start off by saying that AGA's performance is testament to the strengths of that investment strategy. Apax has been around for 50 years now, having celebrated our fiftieth anniversary last year. Today, we have a team of about 180 investment professionals in 7 offices around the world. We have a group of 28 functional experts, our Operational Excellence Practice or OEP, which we have mentioned in previous calls, that work with portfolio companies and deal teams to further help that operational transfer, transformation. Over our 50-year history, Apax has navigated a range of extraordinary periods: the first Gulf War, the dot-com bubble and bust, the global financial crisis, and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. It's this depth of experience that gives us the confidence that the funds and their portfolio companies can thrive also in the current uncertain environment. As you can see on the page here, our strategy has delivered strong returns, and even in the tough environment in the last six months, private equity exits have delivered a 2.2x realized gross return on capital. Now, while no strategy can be totally immune in the current environment, the Apax Funds investment strategy is an all-weather strategy, focused on generating alpha through operational impact, and does not rely on tailwinds from financial markets. We refer to this strategy as mining the hidden gems. Apax is a sector-focused specialist private equity firm, and by focusing on the coveted categories within our four key sectors, tech and digital, business services, healthcare, and internet consumer, we are able to identify opportunities for the funds to invest in what we call a hidden gem. A hidden gem for us is an unpolished company that is fundamentally a good company with strong tailwinds, but that perhaps isn't yet the final product, and where business improvement can help create a company that is inherently more valuable at exit than at the point of investment. Once the funds have invested in that business, the hard work of value creation starts. This is not just done by hoping that market tailwinds will support the business, but is also focused on operational improvement. Let me show you on the next page how that focus on business improvement in good companies is driving value in the portfolio companies. The bridge here shows the total value created from exits from the buyout funds in AGA's private equity portfolio. The 100% on the right-hand side is the total equity value created by the buyout investments during the respective funds' ownership period. If you focus on the red box, you see that the vast majority of value creation comes from operational improvement as opposed to market multiples rising. The biggest driver is EBITDA growth, followed by re-rating of valuations, which is called Alpha Multiple on the page, and operational cash generation. Let me elaborate on the Alpha Multiple. The Alpha Multiple describes the relative multiple re-rating of the portfolio company between deal entry and deal exit when compared to its peers. So it strips out market beta, which is outside the box here. By doing so, Alpha Multiple is a relative measure to the peer group and indicates that because the portfolio company has become an inherently better business during the fund's ownership, markets are valuing it more highly when compared to its peers at exit than when the investment was made. This is important because nobody controls what happens in the market, the market beta, outside of the red box, but you can try and control what does happen in the red box. This strategy means that even if markets stay flat, we're able to create value, and even if markets were to contract and go down, the Apax Funds investment strategy is set up for value creation that can offset that market, market multiple decline to a certain extent. Give you a number here, the Apax Funds have a built-in buffer against declining valuations by virtue of having invested at an average discount of 24% versus peers on entry multiples in the last three flagship funds. Against a continued uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, let me also give you an update on the financing environment and how this impacts the current private equity funds portfolio. Moving on to slide 7, first, let me set the scene. Interest rate increases have continued into 2023 as central banks look to control inflation. In fact, the Fed's latest increase took benchmark borrowing costs to the highest level in more than 22 years. While headline inflation has eased, indications from central banks suggest borrowing costs will remain high for some time, with the timing of the pivot to reduce rates unclear. So what does this mean for the Apax Funds portfolio? While the cost of borrowing has increased, the Apax Funds had relatively low levels of leverage at 4.4 times net debt to EBITDA on average as of 30th June 2023, which means that increases in the cost of debt and refinancing are less of a risk than more levered portfolios or other PE funds. Our in-house capital markets team sought to actively refinance portfolio companies when the cost of debt was cheap, and 83% of the portfolio companies have maturities extending beyond 2027, with roughly three-quarters of the debt outstanding held at a fixed rate or with interest rates swapped to a fixed rate as of today, and about half of that through to the beginning of January 2025. This means that the portfolio is more insulated from short-term movements in credit markets. Now, that isn't obviously the same for new investments, which do have to contend with higher costs of debt. But I would stress that there continues to be alternative sources of capital available to finance new investments. As you may recall from the Capital Markets Day, the majority of placements of Apax debt transactions in the last year were privately placed. There has not been a transaction to date, which we have not been able to pursue because of lack of financing availability. On the subject of deal flow, let me give you an update on transaction activity on the next page. Against an uncertain market backdrop, the Apax funds continue to take a more cautious approach to new investments. On a look-through basis, AGA deployed EUR 11.4 million across three new investments in the first six months of 2023, including the first standalone investment for the Global Impact Fund, to which AGA has committed $60 million. In a bilateral deal, Apax Global Impact acquired a minority stake in Swing Education, a pioneering online marketplace that connects schools and substitute teachers in the United States. The company's mission aligns closely with the Apax Global Impact's objective, to expand access to quality education for all, and falls into AGI's social and economic mobility impact theme. The team was attracted by the organic opportunity in both existing and new U.S. markets, and in the near term, there are multiple levers of growth that can be used to make Swing into a scaled, high-quality platform. In January, Apax Digital Fund II agreed to acquire Magaya, a leading digital freight software platform that automates critical workflows for logistics providers. In March, the Apax Mid-Market Israel Opportunities Fund II, to which AGA has committed $40 million, made its first investments in Zoo Eretz, Israel's leading pet products wholesaler and retailer. Now, looking ahead, the pipeline of new investments is healthy, and in May and July, Apax XI signed its first two investments. In IBS Software, a provider of modern software solutions to the global travel and logistics industry, and Palex, a distributor of medical technology, equipment, and solutions in Southern Europe. Turning to exits, in what is generally a difficult exit environment, the Apax Funds realized three investments at an average uplift of 24% to the previous unaffected valuations, at an average gross return on capital of 2.2x in the first six months of 2023. In the second quarter, the AMI Opportunities Fund sold its remaining stake in Global-e, a leading provider of cross-border e-commerce solutions. The transaction delivered a gross MOIC of 35.6x and a gross IRR of 172%. AMI first invested $20.5 million in Global-e in mid-2018 and partnered with the operational excellence team to help management accelerate growth and improve its internal operational processes. Apax VIII also sold its remaining position in Shriram Finance, a leading non-bank finance company focused on the micro-enterprise segment in India, delivering a gross MOIC of 0.8x. While this was a disappointing result, mainly due to unforeseen regulatory changes in the Indian government's demonetization effort, it does demonstrate our discipline on exiting positions. Finally, while we have mentioned this before for completeness, earlier this year, Vista acquired Duck Creek Technologies from Apax VIII. This deal closed in March 2023 and delivered a total return of 5.2x gross invested capital and 38% gross IRR. The business was originally carved out from Accenture, upgraded and transformed, listed on Nasdaq, and then taken private by Vista. So in summary, AGA received total distributions of EUR 35 million in a six-month period, primarily from these three exits, even in these difficult exit markets. Now, to put this into context, in the last five years, AGA has received total distributions from the Apax funds of EUR 998 million, compared to calls of EUR 651 million. I'll now hand back to Ralf. Thanks, Salim. Most of you are probably familiar with this bridge by now that you're seeing on this chart, but for those who are not, it breaks down the total return achieved in private equity into its main drivers. Due to the nature of private equity, where investments are held over longer periods, this bridge shows performance over a 12-month period, and this is why the return here shows a -4% rather than the 1.9% total NAV return achieved in the first six months of the year. Turning back to the bridge and starting from the left and building on what Salim said about the focus on operating performance across the portfolio, earnings growth was a key driver of performance. While there was some slowdown in earnings growth in Q2 2023, reflecting ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, average EBITDA growth across the private equity portfolio in the last 12 months remained robust, 14.6%.... But to preempt the question on the slowdown in earnings growth in Q2, I would like to make a couple of points. One, this doesn't come as a surprise to us, and for those of you who have been following our prior calls, you might remember that we said growth might slow down in the current environment, and we are preparing the private equity portfolio for that. The second, the primary reason for the slowdown in EBITDA growth is mainly macro-driven. For example, you know, reduced budgets or project delays in tech services, muted consumer demand for some of our consumer portfolio, or timing delays to pass on inflationary cost increases in some areas of healthcare services. I have to point out, the current environment is not affecting each company equally. Some companies continue to show very robust growth, while others have been more macro impacted. And again, to put this in a portfolio context, EBITDA growth is still at a comfortable mid-teens level on a year-on-year portfolio basis, which is very robust. Now, moving on to valuation multiples. Over the last 12 months, valuation multiples came down from 17.9x to 16.3x. And when compared to year-end 2022, there was also a slight reduction from 17.2x to 16.3x at the end of June. The decline in H1, the first six months, is because of a mix of factors, among them being multiple compression from Paycor and Thoughtworks, which are two publicly listed holdings that the Apax Funds IPO'd in 2021. Let me turn to the next slide now, which shows how the portfolio is valued. Obviously, valuations are always important, but in tougher times, the market perhaps puts NAV on the greatest scrutiny. Let me give you some more color around the methodology used when valuing the portfolio. As you can see, the largest part of the portfolio is valued using earnings or cash flow multiples. To derive a value, comparable company multiples or transaction multiples are being used, and we favor this approach over other valuation methodologies because of its objectivity and transparency. The second pillar represents the part of the private equity portfolio that is valued using public share price. The reason for having public shares in the private equity portfolio is mostly because of portfolio companies that have previously IPO'd. At the end of June, about 7% of AGA's adjusted NAV is valued using a public share price. The public share price used for valuation purposes is always the last available price at period end, so there can be some volatility, but it's a direct market reference. Thirdly, there is a small group of portfolio companies in the portfolio that are valued based on revenue multiples or using other approaches. These companies are often companies that are investing in growth, and therefore earnings multiples are less relevant, or where the funds have invested in more structured investments. In debt, broker quotes are either directly available or can be used to derive a valuation. So again, it's a transparent mark-to-market-driven approach. And in addition to cash and carried interest reserves, the adjusted NAV also deducts accrual to make for any performance payable on the derived investments and outstanding capital call facility balances. The adjusted NAV is therefore a fully loaded number. Of course, the proof of the robustness of valuations happens on exit, and as you've heard from Salim, the weighted average uplift on exits for the six months to June was 24%. Before I give you an update on the debt portfolio, I thought it would be helpful to give you an overview of AGA's capital life cycle to show how money flows through AGA. Hopefully, this will also help explain how the company thinks about capital allocations across the portfolio. AGA primarily invests as a limited partner in the Apax private equity funds, and in simple terms, when the funds make an investment, AGA contributes cash to these private equity funds to fund its portion of the underlying acquisition cost. On the flip side, when the private equity fund sells portfolio companies, AGA receives distributions from these private equity funds, net of fees and carried interest. As the patterns of calls and distributions into and from the private equity funds does not always match and to reserve capital for commitments made to the private equity funds, AGA holds excess capital and cash on its balance sheet. This excess cash and capital is mostly invested by AGA into a portfolio of direct debt investments, thereby limiting cash drag and producing additional returns. AGA also receives income from its debt portfolio, which is an additional source of funding towards the dividend payments. The debt portfolio therefore enhances the robustness of AGA's balance sheet, providing comfort in assessing new commitments, provides source of additional returns and alpha, and the income can be used towards the regular dividend payments. The revolving capital facility is not used to create structural leverage at the level of AGA, but it can be used to manage short-term cash flow movements and provides an additional source of capital in years. So let me talk on the next slide about the debt portfolio performance. The debt portfolio performed strongly in the first six months of 2023, achieving a total return of 5.3%.... In fact, over the last five years, the debt portfolio has achieved a 46.8% cumulative constant currency total return, and this represents an outperformance amount compared to the S&P LSTA Leveraged Loan Index, which delivered 22.4% for the same five-year period. This performance is thus equivalent to an alpha of 4.9% per annum. The debt portfolio leverages the insights gained from private equity investments in the sectors that Apax focuses on, and as such, the portfolio primarily comprises of investments in companies and sectors where Apax has experience. Investments are primarily in first lien loans, which tend to be more readily tradable when compared to debt investments that are more junior in the capital structure. We believe the current proportion of first lien loans held is appropriate in the context of the private equity commitments made by AGA. At the thirtieth of June, the debt portfolio had an average yield to maturity of 13%. 99% of debt investments are in floating rate loans, and the portfolio generated an income yield of just over 11%. Not on this page, but worth highlighting for those that have followed AGA for a long time, the derived equity portfolio now only consists of 3 positions and represents 1% of the total invested portfolio. Before we go into Q&A, let me summarize a couple of key takeaways. Private equity portfolio companies continue to experience good operating performance, and AGA and Apax's investment strategy is well suited to continue to deliver in the current environment. Portfolio has a compelling track record of uplifts and exits, evidencing the effectiveness of the strategy. AGA's investment strategy is underpinned by a disciplined approach to balance sheet management, with the debt portfolio generating additional returns for AGA. Despite the volatile markets, the pipeline of new investments is healthy, offering shareholders the opportunity to participate in future value creation. Finally, AGA has a track record of consistent long-term growth in public markets. Over the last five years, AGA has delivered a total annualized return of 12% and returned nearly EUR 300 million in dividends to shareholders. With that, Salim and I are now happy to answer any questions, and I hand it back to you, operator. Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question today, you may do so by pressing star, followed by one on your telephone keypad. To revoke your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing for your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Alternatively, if you have joined via the web, you may submit a written question using the Q&A box on your screen. We have our first text question from Yusif Samad, which reads: Can you please comment on any waivers of convenience, extensions of debt, and areas of interest, payments, or impairment in the debt portfolio? What are the maturities of debt in the next 12 months? Yeah, I can take that. I mean, first of all, we use a mark-to-market approach to value the portfolio. We haven't seen any, you know, interest arrears or, you know, structural impairments of the portfolio company positions. If there are more detailed questions around the debt portfolio, you know, happy to follow up on those, you know, with additional details. Our next text question comes from Florian Harb, from Carta Ltd. Florian asks: Would you consider buying back shares given that they are now trading at a 26%+ discount to NAV? Yeah, maybe I can take that. I can take that, that question. Making a couple of comments here. I mean, first of all, you know, the, you know, buybacks is a, is a decision, is a decision by, by the board, and not of us, the, the investment, advisor. I mean, the board recognizes the, the importance of returning cash to shareholders, and for that reason, at IPO, you know, AGA implemented a dividend policy to distribute 5% of NAV every year to shareholders. From the dialogue that, that we are having with shareholders, we understand that the majority of shareholders find this policy very, very attractive. Now, if you look at this policy, you know, since IPO, you know, a significant amount of cash was returned to shareholders. I mentioned the EUR 300 million returned over the last years. You know, since IPO, it's been more. You know, whilst the board believes that returning cash to shareholders is important, they are also of the view that, you know, there is no evidence, really, that share buybacks, you know, sustainably reduce discount of investment trusts. You know, discounts are affecting the entire listed trust market, and the board remains very focused on closing the discount and, you know, has a regular dialogue, you know, with us and the broker. But unfortunately, I don't think there is a silver bullet. Thank you. Our next text question comes from Mark Thompson from Hardman & Co. Mark asks: Can you give more color on the speed of the second quarter EBITDA slowdown? If annualized, would it still be double-digit growth, or is the slowdown more marked? The gearing fell markedly second quarter on first quarter, despite the slowing growth of 4.4 vs 4.7 EBITDA. Was this part of what you were saying in terms of preparing the business for slow growth environment? Yeah, sorry, I was on mute. Look, on the slowdown, and as I've discussed before, it's a portfolio of 80 companies, and therefore, you know, it's seeing different effects across different parts of the portfolio. Again, you know, what I want to highlight is that there are a number of portfolio companies in the portfolio, you know, that continue to show very robust growth. You know, the ones that are more affected. Again, it's a range of different reasons. I've highlighted a couple of, you know, a couple of them, you know, which are clearly linked to the macroeconomic environment, which is, you know, reduced customer budgets, project delays, you know, some muted consumer demand. Or if you think about the cost side, you know, just some timing delays to pass on in inflationary pressures. I mean, giving this diversity of factors, I'm not sure, you know, run rating or extrapolating, like, the first six months numbers is a very... It's the analysis, frankly, that I would do. I think the question on the movement in gearing, I think the takeaway for me here is that, you know, average leverage levels across the portfolio remains very modest. I would not read too much into, like, a movement of 4.4, you know, versus this 4.7 that we had before. Thank you. Our next text question comes from Andrew Lister from abrdn. Andrew asks: Leveraged loans have had an incredible five years of performance, benefiting significantly from higher rates. Is there an environment in which your view of the asset class turns negative, and you might consider reducing what seems to be a now strategic 25%-30% allocation? Yeah, I'd like, I'd like to start with, with the second, the second point on, you know, the... So the way I understand this question is, it implies that the 25%-30% is a, is a strategic allocation by, by AGA. You know, it's coming back to how, how the board and the fund, you know, the board thinks about capital allocation and how the fund is managed. You know, the, the primary focus of AGA is to provide exposure to private equity, and, and essentially the, the, the allocation into debt is, you know, think about as a more a residual of, of capital, which is not invested in private equity at any time. And the size of that portfolio is mainly driven by two things. The one is investments and exits from the private equity portfolio, and therefore, the residual cash, you know, from timing mismatches here. And then second, the amount of reserve that the board believes the fund should have when assessing new commitments. So it's not a strategic allocation managed to a certain threshold. It's driven by the primary objective of the fund, which is to make these private equity commitments, the cash flows from that, and then a reserve for future commitments. Thank you. Our next question comes from John Genevieve from Cheverton House Financial Planning. John asks: What is your assessment of the relative value between debt and private equity when deploying new cash, bearing in mind higher costs across the board for businesses, which is impacting margins, and on the flip side, the very attractive yields available on debt? Do you envisage the weighting to debt may increase from here, given it is currently low relative to the historical average for the company? Yeah, thanks for that question. I think that question builds a bit on what I've just said on the prior question. And, you know, primarily the fund focuses on making private equity investments, the debt portfolio being, or the allocation to debt being, a residual of these commitments that have been made. The size of the debt portfolio is therefore, again, you know, a function of the development of the private equity portfolio. There is no intention to increase the size of the debt portfolio with a view to reduce private equity exposure. Thank you. Our next written question comes from Conor Finn from Barclays. Connor asks: How much do you expect in capital calls over the period to the end of 2024? And I think the easiest way to think about this is, you know, we use or the fund use capital call facilities. And, you know, and obviously, most importantly, also the global buyout funds and the global buyout funds. There is disclosure in the presentation showing, you know, how much is drawn by the underlying capital call facilities as calls are bridged, usually for a period of up to 12 months. That's a good indication in terms of, you know, the expected calls, the minimum expected calls. I think your other question is— Yeah, I think that was the question, was it? Sorry, Connor. Just double-checking that that answers your question. Yes. Thank you. I'd just like to remind the participants, if you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. To revoke your question, please press star followed by two. Alternatively, if you have joined via the web, you may submit a written question using the Q&A box on your screen. Our next question comes from Sam Choi from Hudson Investment Advisors. Sam asks: Do you see a more challenging environment to exit in the half year of 2023? Maybe I'll take that, Sam. So, I think the first thing to note is that, during the good times, we really used the attractive exit markets to exit positions. And so, as I'd mentioned previously, AGA received total distributions of EUR 998 million in the last five years versus capital calls of EUR 651 million. So it gives you an idea of just our discipline in selling, when times were good. If I look at the current exit environment, I would say it's not dead, but it is slower certainly than 2021. And, we will look to exit positions opportunistically and also be disciplined with our public positions as well. So, expect some exits, but not a tsunami of exits. Thank you. Our next written question comes from Hippolyte Abrial from UBP. Hippolyte Abrial asks: Is there any leverage in AGA at the moment, sorry? What if a fund calls capital and there is no available cash? Yeah, I can take this. So AGA doesn't have structural leverage at the fund level. So there is. I mean, first of all, on capital calls, one, because of the operation of these capital call facilities at the level of the underlying private equity funds, we have very good visibility in terms of upcoming capital calls, as we've just discussed. And second, I think for you know, for AGA, there's obviously a number of means on how these capital calls can be funded. I mean, first, you know, there's cash. You know, second, the debt portfolio positions in the debt portfolio can be realized and sold to fund capital calls. Third, you know, there is a revolving credit facility of EUR 250 million that can be drawn. And, you know, last but not least, let's don't forget, you know, there is significant and a mature private equity portfolio. And while Salim has just commented, we are seeing, you know, less transaction activity, you know, we obviously do expect exits from that portfolio over the years to come. Thank you. We have our next question from Bernard Moody, from abrdn. Bernard asks: What is the interest coverage in the debt portfolio? How is it trending? Any concerns about the ability to service debt? On the interest coverage in the debt portfolio, most of these loans or the majority of these loans are to sponsored transactions. You know, sponsors have taken different approaches in terms of their hedging policies. You know, with increasing base rates, you know, we've generally obviously seen an increase in interest cost and you know, therefore, reduction in interest coverage. I don't have, like, an average number here at hand, but be assured it's obviously something you know, which we are very closely monitoring. And liquidity of the underlying portfolio companies in debt is very high up on the list, you know, both for the team and the investment committee. Thank you. Our next question comes from Christopher Weber, from City of London Investment Management... Christopher asks, "Given the current environment, are there any sectors that you are avoiding, and any particular areas you are focusing on and looking to increase? Well, we don't apply a very top-down macro assessment to asset selection when at the beginning of the year or anything. So we look at each investment on a bottoms-up basis. I will say, as we think about investments now, there are those that are more cyclical and those that will probably grow more structurally through the next few years. Of course, the opportunities might well come from those that are more cyclical because you can buy cheap potentially. So I wouldn't say we are avoiding those, but you have to be compensated for with valuation. So if I look at tech services as an example, that's an area which has proven to be more macro impacted than, say, our digital marketplace businesses. And what we are finding is valuations are dropping, and so there might be some opportunities to pick those up, but you have to be compensated for the risk. So the answer to your question is, it's not that we are avoiding any specific sectors, it's every decision is bottom up, and we have to look at it on a risk-return basis. Geographically, while the European macro is a bit softer than the US macro, interestingly, I would say we're seeing a little bit more in Europe right now that has that attractive risk-return profile than we perhaps have done over the last few years. Thank you. Our next written question comes from Bernard Moody, from abrdn. Bernard asks, "How are you feeling about the exit environment? Are you seeing signs of green shoots, like some headlines are suggesting? I think we commented on that before. I think what we're seeing is, the exit markets are not dead, but there are some exits in the pipeline and will continue to be disciplined with our public portfolio. Do I see a radical change versus the last few months? No, but it's probably getting slightly better. Thank you. Our next written question comes from Bernard Moody, from abrdn. Bernard asks, "Are there any current private equity investments that are not performing on plan or giving you cause for concern? I mean, in a portfolio of this size, you're always going to have some that are not performing. I think, relatively, those numbers are small. I don't think we comment on individual positions. Thank you. We have no further questions, so I'll now hand back to your host, Ralf Gruss, for final remarks. Well, thank you for all these questions, and the discussion, and dialing into the call today. Appreciate you taking the time, and wish you all a good day.