Good morning, all, and welcome to our trading update for Galliford Try Holdings. I won't go through, I won't talk through the trading update as usual, everyone. I'll just take you through the highlights, and then we'll go to questions. So the highlights are, as you've read, we really pleased with our performance in the first half. We've got good, strong momentum, and on the back of that, trading at the head of our previous expectations and with good visibility over the second half, we are suggesting that margin and financial and revenue in the second half will be about 5% ahead of our previous expectations. I'll come back to strategy at the end, I think. On the balance sheet, average month-end cash was GBP 149 million versus 135 in the previous period, and with period-end cash at the end of December, GBP 209 million versus 196 the previous period. And just to remind you, of course, we have no pensions liabilities, no debt, and our PPP assets. And I think it's really important that the strong balance sheet, we always reiterate this, supports our ability to win work, to attract a high quality supply chain, and of course, to invest in the business. The order book is good at GBP 3.7 billion, up GBP 200 million on the previous period, and reflects a really robust pipeline of opportunities across our chosen sectors. On the board, of course, we've -- you all know that Andrew will leave the company later this year, and we're making progress in securing Andrew's replacement, which of course, we'll update you within the fullness of time. Going back to the strategy, we are, as we've discussed previously, starting to approach our 2026 targets. And on the back of that, of course, we expect to update our targets to 2030 later this year. So we'll touch on that in greater detail, of course, at the half year results in March. So overall, really pleased with our performance in the first half, confident in the full year and beyond. And I think on that note, we'll just go straight to questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. That's star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, star followed by two, and please also remember to unmute your microphone when it is your turn to speak. We'll now wait a couple of seconds to gather any questions. Our first question comes from Joe Brent from Liberum. Joe, your line is not, your line is now open. Good morning, Bill. Hi, Joe. Good morning. Two questions, if I may. Firstly, can you tell us about, in terms of targets, should we expect some revenue and margin targets like we've had in the past? And would it be reasonable to expect, you know, margin of perhaps 4% for the business? Well, certainly, certainly on the revenue front, you know, as I said, we're gonna be bumping up against our 2026 targets in the not too far distant futures, and hence the revenue target will go up. That's based, Joe, on a really good foundation of the order book and the markets as we see them, as well as our growth strategy and the, you know, increasing revenues coming through some of the acquired businesses. We've always said that our strategy is based on retaining and enhancing the core of our business, which is the big revenue generators, building infrastructure, and the D&B side of water, and enhancing those margins with higher tech, higher margin adjacent market businesses. Those acquisitions, of course, have been in that side of the equation. So, you know, I think what you've said that we do expect the margins to rise, as we go forward in that stated period. But we'll be able to give you a lot more detail on that, at the Capital Markets Day later this year. Thank you. And the second one was just on capital allocation. We're clear you've got a healthy average cash balance, and that should be building going forwards. You've completed your buyback program. Are we to assume that there won't be buybacks, we shouldn't assume buybacks for a year or so, and that actually there's investment opportunities you can make, both organically and acquisitively in the business? Yeah, shall I, shall I tee that up, Joe? I think, I think that's a, I mean, it's a reasonable summary. So we've always said strong balance sheet is really important. It helps us win work, it helps the operations of the business, it helps support the culture and the focus on risk awareness, and discipline, and contract selectivity. We've also always said that we use the balance sheet to invest in the business, so whether that be in adjacent markets, so in, in PRS, for example, whether that be in acquisitions and, you know, obviously we've done now four acquisitions in our environment division, the most recent one in November. You know, and, and we'll continue to look to invest organically and, you know, if the right opportunity comes up, look for acquisitions. So, so we'll continue to do that with the, with the balance sheet. We also are paying a good and sustainable dividend, you know, and then if there is additional excess cash in due course, then we'll look to return that, at the right time. But I think you're right, that in the first instance, there's opportunity to invest in growth as well. Yeah. Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Sheridan from Peel Hunt. Andrew, you may proceed with your question. Yeah, good morning, Bill and Andrew. A couple of questions from me as well. First of all, just sort of more market related, are you seeing any changes around the award of frameworks? I'm also mindful of some challenges, sort of smaller regional contractors and supply chain might be facing, and if there's any general observations, whether you can split that between sort of the public sector and commercial sector. And then second question is probably more for Andrew, just in terms of what we should be thinking, maybe in terms of first half, second half split, given obviously the momentum that you've highlighted within the business. Thank you. Thanks. Morning, Andrew. On the frameworks, we've not seen any change at all, to be honest. In the public sector frameworks, we, we've picked up a few last year, most of them are still running through for another few years before they renew. So we've not seen any terms or changes there. That's in the public sector. In the private sector, there's not that many frameworks in private sector, but again, I'd say the private sector pipeline in the, you know, with, with the type of, clients we work with anyway, has been pretty, consistent is the word I'd use. In terms of supply chain failure and so on, of course, we do a lot of work on due diligence with the supply chain we work with, and we've not had any material issues at all, so far, you know, through the supply chain. So we see a fairly steady state, Andrew, despite all the noise. Yeah, and the second question, Andrew, morning. In terms of H1, H2 split, I mean, that does ebb and flow a bit from year to year, as you know. I think that will be more balanced this year than it was in FY 2023. So I think the first half year has been very good, had a really good start to the year, so I think you'll have a more balanced split between H1 and H2 in this financial year. Got it. Great. Thank you. Our next question comes from Adrian Kearsey from Panmure. Adrian, your line's now open. Morning, guys. I'm gonna be greedy and ask three questions, if I may, rather than the sort of trend of two. In terms of the phasing of water activity, across the transition from AMP7 to AMP8, is there any sort of extra detail you can any detail you can provide in terms of how you think that phasing is gonna come up, come through, over that five-year period? And again, remaining with water, it would appear that the one of the big issues over the next five years is about managing capacity within the segment. There seems to be, would appear there's gonna be more demand than there is gonna be ability to deliver, and what are your thoughts on that? And then the third question, in the private sector, you enjoyed some notable wins, and Bill, you mentioned about the pipeline being consistent within that segment. Could you provide a sort of bit more sort of indication of what kind of projects are coming into that pipeline? Yeah. Morning, Adrian. Okay, so phasing of water. So the perennial issue with water is the sort of downturn in work between the AMPs. And we've been lobbying the water companies obviously in Ofwat for forever to try to mitigate that. And to be fair, they have listened, and it is improving with every AMP, I would say. And I'd expect this particular AMP, AMP7 to AMP8, to probably be the best in history in terms of the backlog, the amount of work that needs doing, and I think the willingness of the water companies and the regulator to get ahead of the game. So the water companies are already procuring the AMP eight supply chain. In quite a few cases, they intend to roll over, so some of the frameworks we have will roll over into AMP eight, which will be good. And there will be some to be bid, of course, as well. So my view is that, you know, there is likely to be a little bit of a blip, but that's probably the lowest one in history, if I was a betting man. With regard to capacity, you're quite right, there's a huge amount of work to do. I mean, for round figures, the amount of water work between AMP7 and AMP8 will pretty much double. So capacity will be an issue, and our view is very much be very selective. We're going for the frameworks and the clients that we work with best, of course, first, and once we have capacity, then we'll pull the handbrake on. We're not gonna bite off more than we can chew, and I think that's really important for any company. We're being very honest, by the way, with our clients that where their framework doesn't quite fit with where we are or what we wanna do, we've told them exactly that, and they appreciate the honesty. I think the key there is don't bite off more than you can chew, Adrian. Albeit, we intend to grow significantly into AMP8 with that comment. With regard to the pipeline, the private sector pipeline, I'd say is consistent is the word I'd use in the market that we operate in, which is offices, office refurbs, build to rent, et cetera, et cetera. And yeah, I'd say it's pretty consistent. The public sector pipeline is the same, and as you said before, with the election coming up sometime this year, November seems the favorite at the moment, you know, we don't... Our workload carries us through November and 18 months beyond, so we don't have any issue about the pipeline or any issues about further and things like that. So as usual, you know, you read a lot about all the doom and gloom, but what we see on the ground isn't the case. We see consistent pipeline coming through, and we still turn away a lot of work, you know, that doesn't quite fit the bill. Good stuff. Thank you. Okay. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. That's star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Alastair Stewart from Progressive Equity Research. Alastair, your line's open. Morning, Bill. Morning, Andrew. A couple of questions. First of all, It looks like the build to rent strategy is ticking along quite nicely. Can you give a sort of rough idea about, you know, the momentum there? There is two or three related projects in H1. Do you see that sort of level of two or three continuing, you know, half by half, or could that accelerate? And also, are you looking at any related sectors like purpose-built student accommodation and BTR for, say, housing associations, rather than institutional investors? So that's the first question. Second one is on in this capacity, and I'm quite interested just now in white collar and professions, you know, which would you say are hardest to attract and retain, you know, within architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, and so on? Okay. Morning, Alastair. On the PRS front for us, I mean, we do build to rent schemes for private clients, of course, repeat private clients, and we're doing PRS schemes for, you know, for co-development for off our own back. On that one, Guildford Crescent down in Cardiff is on the ground and underway. We're in the early planning process on a job in Nottingham. We are a bit more advanced in the planning process on a job in Milton Keynes, and we preferred bidder on another job in Milton Keynes and one in Leicester. Yeah. So those are the ones in the hot, Alastair. You remember that following the mini budgets in whenever it was, this whole sector ground to a halt for- Yeah. Well, it probably now, I'm guessing. So there's been a bit of a hiatus there, but, but we see momentum starting to pick up again, which is good. And, of course, the, the fire regulations and the whole issue around second staircases and things like that, put a lot of these schemes back to redesign, to, to redesign them for particularly for second staircases and things like that. Yeah. So we do see momentum there, and this is still a sector that we're very interested in and continue to work hard at, and expect to contribute well to the bottom line as time goes by. Student accommodation doesn't enter our sphere, so no. There are quite a few experts in that sort of sphere, and they can speak to that. And on affordable housing, as you know, we had the covenant that we had following the sale of the housebuilding business to Vistry, came off last year. We're busy looking at that market, and we'll update you on that at the half year. Sure. So the affordable housing market is a big and attractive market, and we'll have a look at it. And by the way, just for absolute clarity, everyone, when we talk about affordable housing, we're talking about mid and, you know, low and mid-rise blocks of flats. We're not talking about the houses per se. That, I think that's important to remember. With regard to people, white-collar people, are just as hard to come by as they always have been in this industry, Alastair. I don't see any particular change there. Two things that we do. We take on 150 young people every year, graduates, apprentices, and trainees every year. And so we focus a lot on growing our own, so to speak, and Andrew and I always go along and talk to those guys when they join, and girls, and it's a really good day. I'd say the only pinch point that I see in white collar at the moment is in design engineers, and we see that in our supply chain with the big design outfits. And you know, we've got about 250 of our own designers in-house. So that is, I think that is the only constraint we see there. But the point is, I think the important thing, Alastair, is to trade within your means and not, as I said, bite off more than you can chew. That's the cardinal sin. Sure. Great. Thanks very much. Thank you. Our next question comes from Joe Brent from Liberum. Joe, your line's now open. Hi. Thank you very much. It's not a question, but I'm not sure if you'll get another opportunity. I just wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank Andrew for his candor and accessibility over the years, and I'm sure that everyone joins me in wishing him every success for the future. Well, that's very kind, Joe, and I appreciate that. I think I'll be doing the May, the March the sixth half years, but I appreciate the comments, Joe. Thank you very much indeed. Good. We currently have no further questions, so I'd like to hand back to Bill for closing remarks. Over to you. Okay. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining. Just to reiterate, we're really pleased with our performance. We're in good shape. And we, as I said before, you know, we're very confident we'll continue through to the full year and well beyond. And on the back of that, we're gonna update our targets, and we decided that 2030 is a sensible future date rather than just updating the targets to 2026. And you can expect that strategy to be an evolution of our current one, you know, based on firm foundations of risk management and selectivity, good people, and that the core of the business remains the core. The big revenue generators and the smaller, higher margin businesses provide the growth in margin and revenue, probably. So that's where we're headed. And we'll tell you more about that at the half-year results on the sixth of March, at which stage we'll give you a date for a Capital Markets Day later on in the year. Thank you all very much for joining, and we'll see you in March. Take care. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.