Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Morgan Advanced Materials Half Year Financial Results 2024. My name is Nadia, and I'll be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, Pete Raby, Chief Executive, to begin. Pete, please go ahead. Thanks very much. Good morning, everyone. I'm Pete Raby, the Chief Executive of Morgan Advanced Materials, and I'm joined on the call by Richard Armitage, our CFO. Welcome to our interim results call for 2024. I will start with a summary of the results. Richard will then take you through the financial position, and I will then cover the segmental drivers, non-financial metrics, and the outlook. Starting with the summary, in the first half of 2024, we delivered organic revenue growth of 8.2%, supported by 15% growth in our faster-growing segments and 6% growth in the core. Our operating profit margin was 12.5%, in line with our financial framework, with pricing and efficiency improvement continuing to more than offset inflation. Earnings per share of GBP 0.147 is 48% up on the prior year, largely reflecting the weaker comparative period in H1 2023, when we were impacted by the cyber incident, together with some underlying growth. Our capital investment program is progressing well as we invest in capacity for growth in our faster-growing markets and in our core. Our return on invested capital was robust at 19.7%. Our balance sheet remains strong, with a modest increase in leverage from the year-end to 1.3 times net debt to EBITDA, driven by our capacity investments. The interim dividend is increased by GBP 0.001 to GBP 0.054 per share. We've made further progress in reducing CO2 emissions, with Scope 1 and 2 down 11.6% over the prior period. Looking to second half, we are cautious about demand in a number of our markets, and we expect second half revenues to be in line with the first half, margin 12.5%. I now hand over to Richard to take you through the financial results. Thank you, Pete, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start with an overview of the financial results to the 13 June 2024. Revenue at GBP 572.6 million was 8.2% higher than prior year on an organic constant currency basis. This was driven by a pricing benefit of around 3% and volume growth of around 5%, underpinned by continued strong growth in our faster-growing markets. Group adjusted operating profit was GBP 71.3 million. Adjusted operating margin was 12.5%, in line with our financial framework, and return on invested capital was 19.7%. Cash generated from continuing operations was GBP 66.1 million, reflecting elevated capital expenditure of GBP 44.6 million as our capacity investment program gains momentum and a normal seasonal increase in working capital of GBP 22 million. Free cash flow was an outflow of GBP 7.9 million. Adjusted EPS was 14.7 pence per share, and we have increased the interim dividend by 2% to 5.4 pence. As usual, we have included in the appendix the financial information in a statutory format. Turning now to the profit bridge, we need firstly to note that the comparative periods had the cyber incident in it. We reported at the time that this had cost us GBP 23 million of profit, so we've shown the reversal of that here. We are continuing to see weakness in some of our industrial end markets, but nonetheless, we're able to achieve volume growth of around 5%, driven by growth in our faster-growing markets. Inflation has moderated this year to around 3.5% of cost of goods sold, driven by wage inflation of around 4.5% and has been offset by pricing. Our simplification program is on track, allowing us to deliver, in the first half, GBP 2.9 million of the GBP 7 million of savings targeted for this year. As previously reported, we have increased our investment in IT over the period from 2022 to 2024, with a GBP 6 million increase in the first half out of an increase of around GBP 8 million expected for the year, much of this driven by our accelerating ERP investment. The other notable item is the FX headwind, which reflects a US dollar rate of $1.27 to the pound and euro of EUR 1.17 for the half. Moving on to the cash flow, I would firstly note that the working capital cash outflow of GBP 22 million. This is entirely seasonal and is lower than we have experienced in the past, reflecting some underlying improvements in working capital management. As expected, our capital investment has started to accelerate as we progress our plans to increase capacity in support of our faster-growing markets. This totaled GBP 44.6 million in the first half, and our guidance for the full year remains at around GBP 120 million. Net interest payments totaled GBP 7.3 million. Tax paid was GBP 16 million, and lease payments and other items were GBP 7 million. Cash flows relating to exceptional items totaled GBP 3.6 million. Free cash flow before dividends was therefore an outflow of GBP 7.9 million. Acquisition expenditure related to the planned purchase of the minority share in our Korean joint venture. Then other items mainly comprise purchases of our own shares for share incentive schemes of GBP 3.3 million, and dividends to non-controlling interests of GBP 2.3 million. Net debt finished the half, that's GBP 222.3 million, excluding these liabilities, representing 1.3 times EBITDA. We've included our usual summary of our funding profile in the appendix. Simplification program is being implemented as announced earlier in the year. As a reminder, this has firstly allowed us to start managing the group through three distinct segments, which are Thermal Products, focused on opportunities in which heat resistance, fire protection, and insulation are principal product attributes. Performance Carbon, focused on opportunities for carbon-based components in semiconductor, rail, aerospace, power generation, and other markets. And Technical Ceramics, focused on the development of our advanced ceramic applications in semiconductor, healthcare, aerospace, and industrial equipment. In addition, as we noted in our recent capital markets event, we have closed a number of inefficient or poorly utilized sites over time, with 19 such sites closed between 2016 and 2023. 4 more sites are currently being closed, which along with some back office and other cost savings, will deliver GBP 7 million this year and a full run rate of GBP 10 million by next. Moving on to technical guidance, I would note firstly that our capital expenditure guidance for the next three years is unchanged, with around GBP 120 million for this year, then around GBP 100 million in each of the next two years. Our outlook for cash flow in 2024 is also unchanged, with a net cash outflow of around GBP 40 million-GBP 60 million for the year, with year-end net debt in the range of GBP 230 million-GBP 250 million. Our net finance charge remains in the GBP 17 million-GBP 19 million range, with GBP 15 million-GBP 16 million of debt interest and IAS 19 charge of GBP 0.5 million and GBP 2 million of lease interest. We expect our adjusted effective tax rate to continue at around 27%, and contributions to non-UK defined benefit pension schemes to be GBP 3-4 million. We have seen a further strengthening of sterling against the US dollar and euro this year, as well as versus several transactional currencies. Current assumed exchange rates for the major currencies are US dollar 1.27, euro 1.17. Our dividend policy remains for cover of around 2.5 times over the medium term. Thank you, and I will now hand back to Pete. Thank you, Richard. Slide 11 shows the organic performance in our major market sectors, split between our faster-growing segments and our core. The comparative period was impacted by the cyber incident, and that accounts for around 4% organic growth. Our faster-growing markets were up 15% in the first half, with strong growth in each of those markets. Semiconductors was up 14% on the prior year, a further very strong performance, reflecting continuing good momentum in the silicon carbide power electronics segment and in ion implantation. Healthcare was up 9%, driven by medical seals, implantables, and power tubes for medical scans. Clean energy and transportation was up 27%, with good momentum in wind and solar energy and in electrified rail. Moving to the core, transportation grew 19%, with aerospace again, the driver. Chemical and petrochemical sales were down 5%, with lower aftermarket seal and bearing volumes, in particular in China. Security and defense grew 18%, with the strong U.S. defense market the driver. Industrial and metals markets were flat, reflecting weak industrial market demand, particularly in Europe and China. Turning to our business segments. Thermal Products delivered revenues of GBP 221 million, with organic growth of 2.4%. Margins improved to 10.9%, with recovery from the cyber incident. Performance Carbon delivered revenues of GBP 179 million, with organic growth of 18.1%, driven by strong demand for semiconductor and aerospace products. Margins expanded to 17.5%, reflecting the cyber recovery and organic growth. Technical Ceramics delivered revenues of GBP 172 million, with organic growth of 6.7%, driven by healthcare, clean energy, and aerospace and defense. Margins expanded to 10.9%, reflecting recovery from the cyber incident. Turning to our non-financial performance, slide 13 shows our pr+ogress in reducing Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions since 2050. Our CO2 emissions in the first half were down 11.6% on the prior period. We've reduced our absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by over 50% since 2050. We are on track to meet our 2030 goal of a 50% reduction from 2050, despite significant business growth to come. Our water withdrawal reduced 8% during the year, with efficiency measures and some mixed effects driving the improvements. Water withdrawal in stressed areas reduced by 4%, driven by efficiency projects in our plants. We are on track to meet our 2030 water goals. Our safety performance improved significantly, with lost time accident rate of 0.13 compared to 0.19 for the prior full year. I'm delighted with the progress here, and I would like to thank our teams for their continued focus on safety... We're continuing to work hard on this, and we'll be making further improvements to our process safety and embedding our behavioral safety tools more fully in the balance of the year. From a diversity and inclusion perspective, our half year position is 34% of our senior leaders being female, a step up from the 30% position we had at the end of last year. I'm pleased to see this measure start to move, and it reflects the actions that we've been taking in recent years. We have leading differentiated market positions across our business, which we segment between faster-growing markets and our core. The share of our faster-growing markets has increased again and now represents 22% of our business. In our faster-growing segments, semiconductors, healthcare, clean energy, and clean transportation, we have a mix of emerging and more mature positions. These markets have good underlying long-term growth drivers, and we expect to grow more quickly than our core markets over the cycle. We also expect higher margins in these segments as our products are typically newer and more differentiated. As we announced last year, we're investing in new capacity for the semiconductor market, including to support customers making silicon carbide power electronics. We remain sold out with key consumable components for that market. We have additional capacity coming online in the second half. Healthcare demand is also high, and we're increasing capacity in North America to serve that market. Our core, representing 78% of the business, is the more mature markets where we typically enjoy a strong market position, leading or among the leaders. We have a strong brand, well-established and deep customer relationships, and a global position. We're continuing to invest in our core to maintain and win share and introduce the new technologies and products that our customers need to become more sustainable. For example, our new fiber capacity investment in India is on track, and I expect that to be operational in the first quarter of next year. Our new paper line in China was commissioned in the middle of July, and we're already making sales from that line. Slide 16 shows our financial framework. We updated this in the first quarter of this year to increase our expected growth rates, given the big organic opportunities we have across the group, in particular in semiconductors. The framework lays out our through-cycle financial targets from organic growth through margins, returns, and capital deployment, and this leads to our commitment to deliver enhanced EPS growth through the cycle. In the first half of 2024, we're in line with or ahead of our framework on every measure. Organic revenue growth of 8.2% is above our 4%-7% range. Operating margins of 12.5% are at the bottom of the range, and we expect those to expand as the business grows in the next three years. ROIC is towards the top of the range, and we expect to be around the top of the range as the business grows. And finally, leverage is within our 1-1.5 times range, excluding acquisitions. The framework is set up to reflect our potential to deliver attractive EPS growth, and we've delivered 48% EPS growth in the first half. Much of this reflects the weaker fiber impacted comparator, but underlying earnings are up on an organic basis from the prior year. Looking ahead to the full year, while we're seeing good momentum in our faster-growing markets and in aerospace and defense, we're cautious about demand in certain of our end markets, in particular, the industrial and metal segments. Our outlook for full-year organic revenue growth is towards the top end of our 4%-7% financial framework range, with H2 revenues in line with H1. We expect operating margins to remain at around 12.5%, with pricing and continuous improvement offsetting inflation. Capital expenditure will be around GBP 120 million, as previously guided, as we invest in capacity for growth in our faster-growing segments and in our core. So in summary, we've grown revenues 8.2%, with 15% growth in our faster-growing markets. Our margins at 12.5% are in line with our financial framework, supported by organic growth, the recovery from the cyber incident, and our restructuring program, offsetting a considerable increase in IT expenses. Our organic investment program is on track, and we expect this to deliver an acceleration of organic growth in the next four years. Our restructuring program is progressing well. While we're cautious about a number of our end markets, the group is increasingly well positioned. We have a strong balance sheet, enabling us to fund our organic investment and M&A capital returns to shareholders, and we expect to deliver attractive growth in earnings through the cycle. Thank you. That ends the formal presentation. I will now take questions, and I will hand back to the operator to coordinate that. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to remove your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. The first question goes to Scott Cagehin of Investec. Scott, please go ahead. Morning, chaps. Congratulations on a great set of results. So just two quick questions from me. First one being, Richard, how do you see the volume and pricing playing out in the second half? Like, the split between the two, if you can give any color there, that would be fantastic. And secondly, could you give a bit more detail on the phasing and the progress you're making on the increased investment in semiconductor? Thank you very much. ... morning, Scott. Thank you for your kind words. So yeah, second half, so the guidance we put out clearly implies revenue growth of about 2% in the second half. You can allow about a 3.5% for FX. So if you like, round about 5.5% underlying pricing should continue at about 3%, so it gives you about 2.5% volume. Lower than the first half, but clearly still in line with our financial framework. On the phasing of investment, we saw GBP 44 million of capital in the first half. Normal maintenance expenditure in a half would be, say, GBP 25 million. So let's say about GBP 20 million of the capital, of the capacity CapEx has gone in already. We would expect more than that in the second half, so something like another GBP 40 million or so in the second half, so roughly sort of one-third, two-thirds weighting. Does that help? Perfect, thanks. And when do you visit sort of revenues and possibility coming through on that investment? So, so as we communicated at the capital markets event, starting in 2026, in the main, there is some—there is a little bit coming through next year, but in the main, in 2026, with a close to full run rate by 2027. You, you recall, we signaled at the time, ultimately a full run rate revenue of GBP 85 million, and profit of GBP 25 million on, on that revenue. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next question goes to Jonathan Hurn of Barclays. Jonathan, please go ahead. Good morning, guys. Just a few questions for me. Just the first question, I just wondered if you could talk a little bit about what you're seeing from your EV exposure and your EV customers. Are you starting to see a little bit of change in terms of their order patterns? I take on board that you're fully sold out, but maybe sort of, you know, obviously, new capacities coming online. Is there any chance for what you expect to come in and fill that capacity, maybe sort of taking a little bit of a slower ramp, please? That was the first one. The second one was just on M&A. Obviously, I don't... I, you know, I might have missed it, but I don't think you mentioned that in the presentation. I think last time you had potentially some six targets, GBP 25 million-GBP 75 million. In terms of value, where are you on that? Has there any been any change? And then thirdly, maybe, just for Richard, just in terms of this looking to FY 2025 and the profit bridge, I wonder if you could just sort of talk us through the main moving parts. So obviously, we've got new capacity coming on. That will obviously deliver some profit. We've got some drop-through from the growth, and I think there's probably another incremental GBP 3 million savings. But in terms of the offsets, can you just sort of talk us through those as well? I mean, obviously, I think there's probably gonna be some more IT spend. So those are the three, please. Thank you. Sure. Morning, Jonathan. I'll pick up the first two and let Richard comment on the bridge. So on the EV piece, electric vehicle sort of demand, I suppose consumer demand, is slower than I think people anticipated, let's say, a year ago, and that is rippling down through the supply chain to us. So we have seen some of our customers, you know, sort of pushing out demand as a consequence. As I commented, you know, we are still sold out, so to some degree, you know, this is, the market is a bit less undersupplied than it was as a consequence of that. So we're not seeing that have an impact, particularly on the overall revenue position for this year. I think if we look forward, back to perhaps the capacity that Richard was referring to, I think it's reasonable to assume that the market demand will be a little, a bit lower in 2027 than perhaps, you know, sort of analysts were expecting, you know, last year. We were cautious in planning for our capacity investments, and we haven't seen anything that sort of changes our investment case at this point. So we're not expecting a different outlook in terms of our sort of investment rate. In terms of M&A, I think, you know, the pipeline is sort of vibrant. We're continuing to be disciplined. You know, we have sort of looked at and walked away from a couple of things in the last several months. We're working through the next range of prospects. I think some of those conversations will, you know, take a while, given the sort of privately held nature of those. So, it's probably, you know, not expecting anything imminent, but continuing to make good progress overall. Richard, on the bridge? Yes. So for 2025, Jonathan, I think first of all, you're right. Yes, GBP 3 million or so of benefits to simplification. We would expect pricing and continuous improvement to offset inflation. IT, probably not another material change. We are just looking at the timing of the ERP expenditure, maybe another GBP 1 million or 2 million, but in terms of the bulk of that increase, it's now in the numbers for 2024. So that does bring you back to revenue growth. I think we would be cautious in the outlook for the general industrial markets, but we do expect double-digit growth from faster-growing markets, some of which will be underpinned by capacity investment that we've already made. So we talked previously about the GBP 100 million associated with semiconductors and something like GBP 40 million associated with other markets. In that other category, there have been some investments that will start to bring forward capacity in 2025, and equally, in the case of semiconductor, the benefit of some investments we had made in prior years, underpinning capacity. So, summary would be revenue growth, cautious on industrial end markets, but with continued opportunities to utilize capacity for faster-growing markets. Great, guys. Thank you. Very clear. Thanks, John. Thank you. The next question goes to Harry Philips of Peel Hunt. Harry, please go ahead. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Two questions, please. Just on the caution comments for the second half, I'm just looking at your chart through the faster-growing markets and the other pieces, and just wanting to— Is it just solely primarily that industrials 27% piece? And then secondly, sort of specifically around healthcare and medical, where clearly different parts of the supply chain seem to be in different parts of destock and even starting to see some signs of recovery. So just obviously you've done well, so clearly you're at the front end of that. And then just looking to Jonathan's question about the bridge, if faster-growing markets are growing at 10% next year and 20% sales, even I can work out, that's 2% growth. So, would you hope that 2025 sees organic revenue growth inside your sort of 4-7 target range, please? Sure. Morning, Harry. So yeah, on terms of the markets that we're looking at, yeah, the driver of our caution is, industrial and metals markets, almost exclusively as you were signaling. So, you know, we've seen weak markets in Europe, during the first half, and we flagged that, you know, when we spoke in, in March. Similarly, sort of markets in China, have been weak throughout the first half and are, if anything, weakening further. I think probably the piece that's also shifting then is just the US, that we've seen a slowdown in order intake from that market over the last sort of five or six weeks, which sort of chimes with, to some degree, what we're seeing in the macro. So, we're expecting some softening in that market going into the second half of the year. So that's our just sort of note of caution for those industrial metals markets. That's probably sort of 40% of sales. Healthcare has been robust, as you pointed out. I think the biggest driver for us has been Implantables, so we're making sort of ceramic feed-throughs that are used for sort of cochlear implants, you know, neurostimulation, bladder management, these kinds of applications. Obviously, we-- you've got some, you know, favorable comparator from the cyber incident, so we got a bit behind last year because of some of the knock on from that. So obviously, that's caught up in the first half of this year, and then just good underlying market demand for that. I think then to your last point, so yes, we would expect to be growing within our organic revenue range for next year. So as you say, if it's a couple of% from faster-growing markets, you know, we've then got things like aerospace, defense, India, fire protection, that we would expect to be growing nicely into next year, and then, you know, probably some modest growth in other markets, so that should put us in the range. Excuse me, if I may just come also on to pricing. And pricing has always been a sort of positive virtue in Morgan over a long period of time. But as lead times normalize and everything else, are you sensing any additional pressure? I mean, just you referenced the sort of slowdown in North America. Does that slowdown come with pushback on pricing and people looking around at your peers around that particular aspect? Or are you pretty confident you can still match what Richard was outlining just a moment ago around that sort of, you know, pricing offsetting inflation? Or clearly you are, obviously you wouldn't say it, I guess, but just more elaboration would be helpful. Yeah, sure. So, so for this year, as Richard said, you know, we'll offset inflation. Pricing for this year is sort of done, right? Much of that is done in the first quarter or the first part of the year. So we, we sort of know what that's gonna look like. If we look ahead to next year, I mean, pricing is definitely moderating, right? You know, we, we've been seeing lower, labor inflation and lower materials and energy inflation, and as a consequence, you know, our need for pricing is lower. I think we'll be heading back towards sort of more normalized levels of 1.5%-2%, you know, depending on what happens with, with inflation rates. I think the only place where I'd say things are, you know, very demanding on pricing is China. So that is, you know, there are sort of deflationary input prices there, and so, you know, customers are reluctant to see price increases. We have still, you know, been making some, but it's tougher there. I think in other parts of the world, it is sort of steadier, but my expectation is that pricing comes down. And Harry, bear in mind that our objective is pricing and continuous improvement offsets inflation. You know, and as we go into next year, if pricing is coming down a little, as Peter's described, we can, to some degree, ramp up continuous improvement to make the formula work. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, and as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. The next question goes to Margaret Schooley of Redburn Atlantic. Maggie, please go ahead. Hi. Good morning. Morning, Richard. Morning, Pete. I guess I had just two quick, two questions, if you could. Going back to SiC, I think clearly you've outlined that the market's undersupplied and, and that you feel confident that you're sold out for this year. But as we move through the rest of the capital expenditure program, if what you find is that others are bringing on capacity quicker than you had thought and demand is weak, what flexibility do you have there in terms of your, your investments, and could this... What, what is your reaction if that, if that comes to fruition? And then the second question I had is, and just a little bit to understand what's going on there. Technical Ceramics margins didn't recover as much as perhaps I might have expected, perhaps I'm wrong, but is there anything in that drop-through that we should be thinking about or any dynamics there within Technical Ceramics? Yeah, sure, Margaret. So on the silicon carbide piece, yeah, so this year sold out. You know, our, our plans remain the same given the, the outlet we're seeing at the moment. The way we are executing that capital plan, it's a series of incremental adds into existing facilities. If we were to find ourselves in a position where, you know, demand had slowed to the point where that capacity wasn't needed, or indeed, you know, there was excess capacity in the market for some reason or another, we could slow down on individual elements as part of that capital plan. So we would choose to take a sort of, you know, a GBP 5 million or a GBP 10 million pound chunk of that, and we would delay it to line up capacity more closely to demand. That's not something we're seeing at the moment, but we have the ability to do that should we see any kind of you know meaningful shift in the supply-demand balance for that market. Okay. Thanks. And on Technical Ceramics, Maggie, there's a couple of things going on. So there has been an underlying increase in overheads, so some sales and R&D and manufacturing-related overheads in preparation for further growth. And then in terms of mix, you, you'll have seen that we've had a sharp growth in aerospace. In the industrial numbers, there has been some softness in one of our high margin businesses in Europe. So if you take those two things together, that causes a slight dilution from mix. So nothing individually particularly dramatic, but those have sort of come together to slightly depress margins. Okay. I guess, Margaret, if I think about the medium term, I think our view on the margin outlook for that business has changed, and that should still be a, you know, a sort of mid-teen margin business. Yeah, excellent. We think kind of by 2020, you know, demands aside, 2026, 2027, we should still be seeing that progression as we get operating leverage with growth coming back on that basis. Yeah, I think we'll start to see some of that progression in the second half, Maggie. You know, some of the investments will start to deliver. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. We have no further questions. This now concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines. Thanks very much.