Good evening, everyone, and welcome to McLaren's half year 2023 results call. I am today again joined by Stephen Humphreys, McLaren Group Treasurer, and Piers Scott, our Executive Director of PR. I will start by taking you through the results presentation. Starting on slide two, the overview. As seen in Q1, we have had strong wholesale volume growth of 52% year-on-year, which saw revenue growth of 8%, which is a reflection of the change in model mix between the two reporting periods. Consistent with this, we remain pleased with the ongoing demand for our vehicles. We've seen a positive response to the product range changes in our order book as we shift away from some of the models sold last year to the newer Artura and 750S. Our EBITDA in H1 was a loss of $75 million, compared to the loss of $25 million in H1 2022, reflecting a shift in our model mix, the level of volume seen, our investment in quality, and some uplift in operating costs. Consistent with EBITDA, we have seen a cash outflow in the current half as we continue to invest in our future product strategy. Our shareholders have continued to be highly supportive of the group, with $220 million of equity injected in H1, and a further $85 million early in Q3. This support is in the context of the ongoing recapitalization process, in which continued support from our shareholders is enabling us to drive forward our long-term business plan. With the benefit of the receipt of this funding, the group liquidity at the end of H1 stood at $114 million. Turning to the next page. Prioritizing quality across the business has been a key focus in H1 for the business, be it ensuring quality in design, quality of the cars off the production line, and quality of the vehicle when received by our customer. To ensure that we deliver this from end to end, all cars have been subjected to enhanced testing and quality control procedures before delivery. Having these procedures in place has slowed our delivery of cars to customers towards the end of the half, and we will see lower volumes through Q3. We consider that these additional processes are necessary to ensure our customers receive the highest quality experience, as we'd expect from the ownership of McLaren. We expect that production and wholesale volumes will start to increase again from these levels in the last part of the year. As part of this, we continue to stay close to our partners and suppliers. The economy obviously reflects a more challenging operating environment with high inflation, labor shortages, and rising interest rates. As you would expect, we're working extremely closely with our suppliers to ensure that we continue to get the parts we need, when we need them, and at the high quality we expect. As we talked about in the Q1 call, we re-revealed the 750S early in Q2, replacing the 720S, which had previously set the benchmark for its segment. Our engineers have taken the 720S, taken it to the next level by creating the lightest and most powerful series production McLaren yet. Demand for the 750S has been fantastic, with the order book continuing to grow, and it's sold out well into 2024. The Solus GT, being our limited bespoke commission vehicle, with a central single seat, closed cockpit design, and a sliding canopy with a 5.2 L V8 engine, has started deliveries in Q3. As part of our display at the Pebble Beach Car Show, the first Solus GT was handed over to a customer this month. The Solus GT is limited to only 25 vehicles. There'll be further deliveries in H2, and then into 2024. Our order book stood at 1,581 units at the end of June, which reflects different factors, being that Artura and GT reflect the core base of our volumes. The 765LT, 720S, and Elva are coming to the end of their life cycles, reducing the order book. Whilst the 750S is in the early stages of building orders, as just discussed, demand for this vehicle has been very strong, and we've continued to build orders since the end of June. Whilst the order book is slightly below Q1, this is a result of the models coming to the end of their life cycle, fulfillment of some of the early Artura orders, and the 750S still building into H2. Turning to slide four. As you know, McLaren is celebrating its 60th anniversary and the remarkable legacy of Bruce McLaren. As such, over the year, we've had a number of events to celebrate this milestone, which included the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which was held in July this year. At the festival, McLaren's Triple Crown of victories was showcased, comprising the Indianapolis 500, Monaco Grand Prix, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Spectators also had the opportunity to witness various McLaren customer racing cars, such as the P1 GTR, the 650S GT3, 570S GT4, and the 720S GT3X, recently triumphed at the 2021 Timed Shootout, as well as the new Artura Trophy race car. Also, looking to the future, the 750S and Solus GT models had their debut on the renowned Goodwood Hill Climb. The McLaren Solus GT was victorious in the Timed Shootout final, and secured our second Goodwood title in three years, following our triumph in 2021. On slide five, with details of our wholesale volumes. In H1 2023, wholesale volumes were up 52% to 1,229 units versus 2022, reflecting an increase in volumes driven by both Artura and GT, with reductions in the 765, 720S, and Elva, which are towards the end of their respective life cycles. The 750S is not due in market until towards the end of the year, does not form part of these H1 volumes. Volumes in 2022 were constrained by semiconductor shortages and other supply challenges, which impacted our production volumes in part in 2022. Illustrating this volume shift, over 50% of the volumes in 2023 were Artura and GT. Whilst in H1 last year, Artura was not yet being delivered, GT made up less than a third of the volumes. Turning to slide six, the previously announced recapitalization is ongoing between McLaren Group and its shareholders. The recapitalization is providing new funding to the group to support our long-term product investment plan. Our shareholders have continued to demonstrate strong support through the process, where they've provided a total of GBP 305 million year to date of new equity funding. The process aims to deliver a simplified capital structure, as well as streamline corporate governance and allow the business to execute on its future plans. As we've previously discussed, we're being supported by Lazard, and obviously we encourage you to speak to them if you have any further questions on this process. Turning now to the key metrics. Starting with volumes, you can see the quarter-on-quarter volume trends just discussed. Q1 and Q2 volumes in 2023 were well above the equivalent period in 2022. Q4 in 2022 benefited from easing of some of the supply challenges we'd been facing earlier in the year, which enabled us to clear an increased level of vehicles towards the end of the year before the ramp-up of Artura volumes in Q1. Revenue grew by 8% versus 2022, driven by the positive volume growth of 52%, but this was offset by the change in model mix discussed. Overall volumes primarily comprised Artura and GT in 2023, whilst in 2022, we had prioritized some of the higher end models, where practical, when we had restricted supply of semiconductors and other components early in 2022. The move to lower priced models in 2023 has reduced the average revenue per vehicle. The coming months will see a similar trend in average revenue per vehicle, as our model will continue to primarily comprise GT and Artura before the 750S deliveries commence later in the year. We have seen a higher EBITDA loss in 2023 compared to 2022, which largely comes through gross margin, reflecting the, the volume and, volumes and model mix alongside our investment quality. Alongside these gross margin trends, we've also seen some increase in operating costs. This reflects that last year's costs were constrained due to supply chain shortages, and likewise, this year has seen some uplift in light of product launches, our 60th anniversary, and some general cost inflation. Turning to the next page, CapEx spend in H1 is higher than last year, reflecting the funding from our shareholders being used to drive investment in our product plan. We have previously talked about an annual CapEx range of circa $150 million-$200 million, you'll know that we've been at the lower end of this range for the last couple of years. With the ongoing investment we've been receiving, we'd expect to be at the top end of this range in 2023 by the end of the year. Our gross debt has decreased since the start of the year due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar in light of our U.S. dollar denominated bonds, whilst the net debt has remained broadly flat. We had liquidity of $114 million at the end of H1, being $77 million of cash and $37 million of facility capacity. This was an increase on the $50 million of liquidity at H1 last year and $95 million at the end of Q1. This reflects the benefit of the money raised through the issuer of equity, alongside the free cash outflows we've experienced in 2023. Turning to the cash flow on slide 10, I, I covered a lot of this on the previous page. The EBITDA loss is high this period, largely reflecting the gross margin changes and some uplift in operating costs. Working capital has seen an outflow from higher inventories and debtors, with the higher volumes, albeit we, we do in part reflect, some of these do in part reflect a reversal of some of the movements in Q4 2022. We'll likely see some further working capital outflow in H2. CapEx is up as we invest in our upcoming products. From a financing perspective, we paid a little over GBP 20 million in interest and received GBP 220 million for the issue of new share capital. Interest in H2 will be similar to H1, with our bond interest payment paid in February and in August each year. Slide 11 covers net debt and liquidity. I think we've covered all those points on the previous pages. I think at that point, that concludes the presentation, and I'll turn to any questions that anyone has. As a reminder, if you'd like to register an audio question, please press Star followed by One on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press Star followed by Two, and please ensure you're unmuted when speaking. Again, we'd ask all participants to please limit themselves to one question with an additional follow-up. We have a question from Jemma Permalloo of JP Morgan. Gemma, the line is yours. Gemma, please go ahead. Again, for any questions, that's Star followed by One on your telephone keypad. We have a question from Tom Gibney of BNP Paribas. Tom, please go ahead. I just, you said that you were expecting some further working capital outflow in the second half, but I wonder if maybe you could just talk about kind of the shape of cash flow for the remainder of the year. I presume from the equity injection, that obviously there's gonna be another cash outflow in the third quarter. Would you expect, based on your current projections, to start to move into a more positive free cash flow point by the end of the year, i.e., in the fourth quarter? Thanks, Tom. Yeah, as, as you say, the, as I alluded to, we expect volumes in Q3 to be a bit lower. As we get towards the latter part of the year, we would expect volumes to start to increase, largely through Artura and with the 750S coming on board. I guess, as you step down the cash flow statement, we've obviously seen a negative EBITDA in H1 of $75 million. I would expect to continue to see a negative EBITDA in H2. We do have, as you said, we do expect to have a bit of working capital outflow in H2. I guess this reflects, A, that as we do start to increase volumes, our. We'd expect our debtors to increase. As we start to deliver some of our Solus GT, that will result in some of the deposits we've previously talked about being released. As I mentioned earlier, we'd expect our CapEx to tend towards the sort of upper end of our usual range of GBP 150 million-GBP 200 million. As I say, we've obviously already paid our bond interest in August of the circa GBP 20 million. Maybe I could just follow up on the CapEx point. With the, you've noted in the presentation that the CapEx has a focus on the development of future models. Has, has the, I understand that's sort of broadly in connection with the recapitalization, there was a project to define the kind of future CapEx plans for the group. Has it, have those been defined now for the group? You know, is, is the group, you know, already executing on a longer term CapEx plan? Yes, we, we do, we obviously do have a, a long-term business plan, which obviously takes into account the, you know, the vehicles that we are currently working on, for the future, that do make up our sort of, you know, product strategy for the future. I obviously can't really go into, I guess, exactly what the shape of that product plan, will look like going forward, because we'd obviously go into more detail as those, vehicles are, are revealed. Clearly that product plan, and the business plan attached to it, is a critical part of the recapitalization process, you know, in the way that, our shareholders think about the future strategy of the business. All right. Appreciate that. Thank you. Our next question comes from Jemma Permalloo of JP Morgan. Gemma, please go ahead. Got disconnected earlier. Apologies. I had one question. Hi, Jemma. on the funding that you've received so far. I think in the previous, previous headlines indicated that you were looking about, for about $500 million of potentially new support, at the start of the year. I guess I just wanna hear from you, given that you've had over $300 million coming in so far, do you think you're now done for the year and potential shareholder support, that will be more for the medium term? Or do you think, at this stage, given your guidance of an EBITDA loss in H2 and the working capital outflow, do you need further liquidity or are you done for this year? I think the company has never sort of specifically talked to an exact number that we're looking at in regards to the recapitalization process. Obviously, it is an ongoing process, but ultimately, we're seeking to, you know, ensure that the business has the support it needs to be able to deliver on its long-term business plan. I guess as we talk, you know, it is a process that is clearly ongoing. We've obviously seen funding come into the business to be able to support the cash needs of the business as we've been proceeding. You know, the process is still ongoing, we do expect that we will, you know, will receive, will need future cash funding, and I would expect some of that would be needed in H2. Thank you. Maybe just a, just a follow-up. When I look at your revenue per wholesale, that's been coming down from your end, I think you already mentioned in your comments, you know, the thinking about the volume and the price effect here. I'm wondering, how should we think about the H2, given the ASP coming down from, like, quarter-on-quarter and also from your end? Can you maybe provide some additional color on the mix and volume effect for the H2? Thank you. Yeah, of course. As I, as I just talked about, our product mix has changed year on year. If you think about last year, especially if you look at it in H1, we had limited supply of semiconductors and other components, and so we did prioritize some of our higher priced models. H1 definitely had a higher proportion of Elva being an ultimate, in the 765 and 720. As we've talked about, those products are effectively, so they're the end of production with only limited sales coming through now. H1 did largely comprise Artura and GT. I would expect that Q3 will likewise largely comprise Artura and GT. As we go into Q4, with the 750S coming on board, that is a higher price, you know, model, more akin to the 720S, obviously being the replacement to that. With that coming on, that will help it to increase the average revenue per car as we sort of get to the last part of the year. Thank you. I'm gonna drop back in, in the Q&A. Our next question comes from Ash Nadershahi of CreditSights. Ash, please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Thanks, thanks, for, for the call. Just had one, one question regarding the product mix, and other peers have been accelerating the amount of Ultimate Series, Special Series that they're doing, which are obviously generating, you know, good margin. Certainly in terms of other peers' profitability. Can you give a bit of clarity on what the product lineup looks for in terms of the Ultimate Series? Is there gonna be any more? What kind of things are you targeting for, for the second half of the year, or even announcing the second half of the year? Yeah, you'll appreciate, I probably won't give you any detail on any vehicles before before they're actually announced. I think if you look at our product lineup over the last few years, we previously had the Speedtail. We've had the Elva in our volumes, both last year and the year before, and as we've talked about, we've got the Solus GT delivery starting this half. The Solus is a, you know, limited run, bespoke commission, of which there's only sort of 25 units. The Ultimate obviously isn't one that sort of comes out each year. You would typically expect to be more in sort of a five-year cycle. You know, at this time, I couldn't really give any more detail on the exact models beyond that. Sure. Sure, no problem. I guess, also a little a follow-on question about that is, you know, other sort of peers have started to add in sort of SUVs into their product mix. Is there any... That could be done with the OEM partner, another OEM partner, for example. Is there any kind of thoughts of management regarding adding an SUV as part of the product, product mix? Yeah, I think we've, we've, we've sort of talked about that, you know, we are open to exploring the different possibilities that are there. You know, would, would we do that in with an OEM? You know, we, we, we obviously have considerable experience in composite technology and electrification, and we'd absolutely be open to working with another partner. It would obviously depend what the vehicle is, what attributes it has, and what, you know, both us and the partner could bring to the relationship. You know, I, I wouldn't expect to see any sort of vehicles such as that before, say, 2028. Okay, cool. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Uzair Alam of MFS. Uzair, please go ahead. Questions. The order book you talk about of the 1,581, when do you expect that to be fully into the numbers? Is that expected to be by the end of the year? Just a follow-up question on that, what's the sort of guidance you'd give for a full year wholesales? The second question I had was, if somebody were to kind of place an order, are the deposits, which are initially paid, are they refundable in the case that somebody changes their mind? Thank you. I think you've got a few different questions within there. The first one on the order book, so clearly that will depend on the model that is there. Say, for instance, there's a number of 750S within there, deliveries for that vehicle isn't expected until the end of the year. I said, you know, the orders on that book will take us into sort of well into 2024. As I say, it's, it's probably a difficult question to ask because the exact order book there won't marry up to, you know, the exact sequence of volumes as they're delivered. Sorry, you had a question on deposits. I think just to be clear on deposits, from, from our perspective, we really only take deposits on the Ultimate Series. What we're talking about here would be the Solus GT. We have- That, that was a limited run, 25, that was fully sold, sold out before it was revealed. You know, we have a long waiting list on that. Even if someone was to drop out, we'd sort of have a long list to be able to to sort of fill in behind that. I think your question on wholesale guidance for the year. We've obviously seen around 1,200, 1,300 units in H1. As I say, I would expect to see our units in Q3 drop down a bit with sort of just some of the quality enhancements we've got in place. Last year, we sort of delivered around 2,200 units. I think if you take that sort of, you know, number around that range. I think that would probably give you a, a reasonable steer for the full year. Perfect. Thank you. As a reminder for any further questions, that's star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from John Sykes of Nomura. John, please go ahead. Yeah, hi. good afternoon. Hi, John. My ques- yeah, sorry. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Yeah. Good. I, I really am just trying to get kind of a timeframe on when, even if you could just tell us when you think the recapitalization news will occur. Is it gonna be this year? Will it be next year? It's just. I mean, I get. You know, look, the whole, the shareholders have been great. They've supported the business. I'm sure everybody is appreciative of what they've been doing. It's just a bit of a black hole in terms of, you know, 'cause we gotta tell our people what's going on. They're asking, you know, well, what happens when they, if they decide not to support the business? I mean, it, it, it, I, I know there's a lot you can't talk about, but maybe just some sort of timeframe when we'll have a clearer picture of what this recap will be, would be helpful. Look, I, I, I think, thank, thanks for the question, John. I think, I, I would probably just sort of reiterate, look, the, you know, the process is ongoing. We have seen $305 million of new funds that have been injected into the business by our shareholders in the last few months, that have obviously supported the activities of the business. They obviously have provided us with sufficient liquidity for our operations and, you know, continued to enable us to invest in the product plan, as you can see, with, you know, with CapEx trending above last year, and, you know, where we expect to turn out for the full year. You know, I guess I'd highlight, too, that, that, you know, as you sort of talk about the $304.5 has come in as ordinary share capital, you know, and that hasn't had any subordination to the RCF or the bonds or anything like that. I don't think at this time I can, I can really give you any more information, but obviously, we will obviously keep you informed, you know, over the coming months as that, you know, as further information does become available. Okay. Okay. All right, thanks. Thanks, John. We have a follow-up question from Jemma Permalloo of JP Morgan. Gemma, the line is yours. Hi, thank you. Just, just to follow up on your electrification plans, I understand the Artura was, you know, the plug-in hybrid model that you're working on. We've increasingly seen an acceleration of the electrification shift at some of your peers, whether that's from a funding front or even partnership with other OEMs and so on. I think there was a question previously from someone else. I just wanted to hear from you, what are your thoughts, especially given this new funding coming in, on your electrification plans, and given the regulations, especially in Europe, that have been brought forward? Thank you. Thanks, Jemma. I, I think our starting point for this is we, we would expect that a McLaren EV vehicle needs to have, you know, attributes that are equal to or better than, so the ICE equivalent. From our perspective, we, we don't think EV technology is yet sufficiently mature to meet our brand DNA attributes, especially in some of the areas that we're best known for, such as light weighting. We do, I think, believe that this will clearly advance over time, and, you know, we are ideally placed to embrace electrification due to our strength in light weighting. You know, and I think that's evidenced in our history sort of around the hybrid model. We, we do regularly engage with a number of different potential technology partners or suppliers. You know, we are open to working with others, but again, only if the brand DNA fit is right, and, and we think that both sides can bring competencies to a relationship, that, that, you know, provide a strong technology synergy. look, I, I wouldn't want to sort of give beyond that, sort of, a running commentary, I think, on, you know, exactly where that process will go to from here. Thank you. We have no further questions on the phone line. Oh, we've just received a follow-up from Ash Nadershahi of CreditSights. Ash, please go ahead. Hi. Thanks. I just want to get a better idea about how many, how, how many cars are being paid through by finance, and how many are being paid for by cash? It, it will depend on the model, and it will depend on the region. I think typically, as you go higher up the higher up the model chain, so something like the Solus, that, that, there wouldn't be any finance on those. Then, as I say, kind of conversely, as you sort of go further down, you would expect to see more that are financed. Certain regions, such as the US, typically have slightly higher financing than others. You know, I think if you sort of talk percentages, some of those are lower. Like you said, a GTR, Artura, and somewhere like America, you might expect to be around 30%, 30%, 40% would be on finance. Perfect. That's great. Thank you. Our next question comes from Goncalo Silva of Goldman Sachs. Goncalo, please go ahead. Yeah, thanks for, for taking my question. I was just wondering, I'm aware of your commitment towards the long-term business plan, and that's reaffirmed in our CapEx guidance. But just looking in terms of operating cash flow, it's been negative, probably breakeven at times. We're just wondering if we could provide some guidance as to when we can expect operating cash flow to start growing more sustainably, thanks? Yeah, look, I think, given the sort of long-term business plan is a central part of the recapitalization process, we're not currently giving long-term guidance at, at this time, just with that process going on. However, what I would say is that, you know, I think 2023 was always going to be a year of change, as we start to move away from some of our previous models, such as 720S, 765LT, and the Elva. As we start to ramp up our sheer volumes, as we start to, as we look to start to deliveries of the 750S late this year. you know, as we have talked about, we clearly are investing sort of in our long-term product plan. You know, that obviously is a critical part of sort of, driving the, the future shape and profitability of the business over the coming years. Okay, thanks. We have no further questions on the line, so I'll hand back for any closing remarks. Great. Well, thank you very much everyone, for your time. Do appreciate that, and we look forward to talking to you at the Q3 call. Thank you.