Morning, and welcome to Polymetal Financial Results of the first half of 2023. This call will be led by Polymetal's Chief Executive Officer, Vitaly Nesis, and Chief Financial Officer, Maxim Nazimok. I will now hand over the floor to Mr. Nesis. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us on this call. We are pleased to report the financial results of the first half 2023. Now, myself and Maxim will walk you through the presentation on the results, and then we'll have the traditional Q&A session. Please bear in mind that we will use forward-looking statements in this presentation, which are subject to conditional disclaimers and cautionary statements. In terms of the corporate update, we would like to remind you that on the seventh of August, the company successfully completed its re-domiciliation to AIFC in Kazakhstan. Polymetal International is now domiciled in Kazakhstan. And as a result of this, trading in company stock has resumed on AIX. AIX is now the primary listing venue for Polymetal International. Now, clearly, the volumes so far have not been huge, but we are pleased that they are growing steadily, and share price performance in general has been on the positive trajectory. Delisting from the LSE was completed on the 29th of August, and on the nineteenth of September, about a week ago, trading in Polymetal shares resumed on the Moscow Exchange. A couple of words on key half-year figures. Operationally, we did well, despite tremendous sanctions pressure on the Russian business and overall challenging market conditions. We managed to increase gold equivalent production by 3% and more or less contain costs on AIC level at +1% year-over-year. This has led to a big jump in adjusted EBITDA, although, in all honesty, last year's first half was very weak due to the significant sales disruptions. The key metric at the end of the first half, net debt over adjusted EBITDA, is 2.25x. Clearly not a stellar number, but reasonably comfortable in terms of ensuring plentiful liquidity and adequate solvency for the company. We're also very pleased with our safety statistics for the first half. We had zero fatalities among our workforce and our contractors, and, importantly, this performance has been steady over the last three years now. In terms of lost time injury frequency rate, it was slightly above the results of the first half of last year, but slightly below the full year metric for last year. Again, the trends are generally positive. Turning to production, the performance in two countries has been different. The Kazakhstan business recorded a noticeable drop of roughly 13%. That was mostly due to the fact that the previous first half was an exceptionally strong period, and also due to significant logistical disruptions experienced by KAZ Minerals in the first half of the year. We hope that in the second half, we'll be able to pick up the majority of that slack and produce a much stronger set of results. Russian business production grew by roughly 10% on the back of new capacity coming on stream at Nezhda and Albazino. Overall, + 3% is again a very decent result. Now I'm turning over to Maxim for in-depth discussion of the financial results. Thank you. We'll look closer at the financial highlights for the period. I'll start with the macro environment here. We saw a relatively stable... Despite all of the volatility in various variables, we saw relatively stable performance of all macroeconomic inputs for the company, starting from gold price, which was up by only 3% on average year-over-year, and ending with the foreign currency exchange rates. Again, first half 2022, with all of this volatility, ended up with roughly the same exchange rate as first half 2023. The impacts of the recent devaluation of the Russian ruble, and more recently, but less strongly, the devaluation of the Kazakh tenge, are not yet seen in the numbers reported for the first half of the year. Yes, on the back of physical sales and related revenue growth, we saw a 31% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, mostly on the Russian side of the business, which had a very low base in the first half of 2022. Cash costs were mostly inflation-driven, so there was, as I said, no support from the devaluation yet in the first half of 2023, while inflation remained pretty high. The underlying net earnings were positive $0.55 per share, 28% growth compared to the first half of 2022. And we also saw a slightly more normalized cash flow performance. I have to remind that seasonally, Polymetal has historically weaker cash flows in the first half of the year. In this particular period, this was exacerbated a bit by the logistical challenges for Kyzyl, plus the impact of sanctions imposed on the Russian side of the business on the nineteenth of May in 2023, which led to some delays in the sales on the Russian side in the end of the period. Free cash flow was negative, although a significantly lower negative number compared to last year. And we saw, although a slight absolute growth in net debt, the relative leverage went down from 2.35 to 2.25 during those six months. The growth in revenue was almost exclusively driven by the growth on the Russian side, which saw significant de-stockpiling, especially in the first quarter of 2023. The growth in revenue is predominantly volume-driven. The gap between production and sales in Kazakhstan is starting to be eliminated and hope to eliminate it completely by this year end. Adjusted EBITDA in the end was mostly growing due to the growth in sales volumes. There was some impact from price movements as gold was slightly stronger, 3% stronger year-over-year. There was a slight offsetting impact with the growing total cash flows. The EBITDA breakdown between the jurisdictions again kind of normalized compared to 2022. As a reminder, in the first half of 2022, the company had to completely readjust its sales channels on the Russian side, which led to a significant amount of unsold inventory. Kazakhstan took 61% of adjusted EBITDA in 2022, whereas the 2023 split closely reflects the production patterns on both sides of the business. Turning to total cash costs, they grew 11%, although unevenly between jurisdictions. The key drivers behind this growth were the changes in average grade. These are the planned changes and the domestic inflation with no offsetting impact from the foreign exchange. Whereas in the second half of this year, we would expect the actual devaluation impacts to be fully visible. Yes, the inflation has not accelerated in response to this devaluation yet. Looking at cash cost dynamics at individual operations, the 13% increase at Kyzyl was mostly driven by the delays in sales, partially offset by a 6% grade increase. But still, Kyzyl remains one of the lowest cost operations within the company's portfolio. At Varvara, there was a planned grade decline, combined with a decrease in sales volumes, plus the general inflation pressure, because inflation in Kazakhstan certainly remains at double-digit levels. In the Russian operations, the growth in cash costs was very modest, just 2%, mainly driven by a huge increase in sales volumes compared to the first half of 2022. In terms of cash cost structure, it remains, you know, pretty much stable, period over period, with fuel representing approximately 20% of the cost base, foreign currency costs representing approximately 14%, and then ruble and tenge taking the rest. And here on this slide, you can see the sensitivities of the total cash costs, EBITDA and free cash flow to the plausible changes in macroeconomic variables. This information is provided mostly to give you an estimate of what could be the impact of the recent quite strong ruble devaluation in Russia. And we have also added the very rough estimate of the impact on the company's financials of the recently imposed export duties, which also cover precious metals as well. We expect $30 million-$40 million impacts until the rest of the year, and approximately $100 million-$130 million impact in 2024. The calculation is based on the assumption of RUB 90 per $1 and accordingly, 5.5% export duties. Turning over to all-in sustaining cash flow dynamics, again, uneven performance between different operations. Kyzyl, all-in sustaining cash flows performed pretty much in line with TCC. At Varvara, there was a 50% growth, which is actually explainable by the sizable sustaining CapEx, which includes, among other things, significant new investment into a tailing storage facility, into a second tailing storage facility, which is currently built at Varvara. At Russian operations, all-in sustaining cash flows actually decreased 3%, again, on the back of spreading the relatively stable sustaining CapEx over a larger amount of ounces sold, plus some decline in capitalized stripping. Turning over to net debt performance, it increased in absolute terms by approximately $200 million. Partially, this is, you know, negative free cash flow for the year, which was offset actually quite significantly by the decrease in value of ruble denominated debt on the Russian side. As a result, as of 30th of June, we had net debt of slightly short of $2.6 billion. However, that number has been consistently declining since then, on the back of drawing down unsold inventory and selling it into the market. In terms of the balance sheet, the current leverage level is somewhat lower than before, yet there is still room for improvement. We stand at 2.25 net debt to adjusted EBITDA. We had a very strong cash position of $400 million, which covered all of our short-term refinancing needs until the year end. In terms of split by currency, most of the new borrowing on the Russian side is being done in rubles, because no other currencies are available. Kazakhstan debt is all of it is dollar-denominated. The company maintains quite significant volumes of undrawn credit facilities, so we are comfortable about our ability to refinance debt as it falls due, including the pretty significant 2024 maturities. A couple of words on one of the normally less important elements of the financial statements, which in this period should draw your attention, as it indicates the magnitude of the inventory accumulation issue with Polymetal International. As you can see, we have more than $500 million in metals inventories at the end of the first half. A significant part of this is in a more or less ready cash bullion and ore, which can be monetized more or less immediately. And in terms of concentrate inventories, we normally do carry concentrate inventories at the mid-year point, but this amount is more than two times higher than what would be usual for this period. Please note that this is not the peak inventory level as in July, we continued to accumulate the inventories as the sales from the Russian segment really started in earnest in August. To make the long story short, we believe the unwinding of this inventories will provide a huge tailwind for the group's free cash flow, both on the Kazakhstan side and on the Russian side in the second half. Hence, our expectations of much stronger performance, both in terms of the free cash flow generation and in terms of cost structure. We complete our brief presentation with the update of the 2023 guidance. We are on track on all of the key elements, production, costs, CapEx. We're actually going to show a below-range estimates for costs, but given the position of the export tariff in Russia, we are now back on track, so to speak, despite significant devaluation of ruble. Overall, the first half results, I think, are quite solid. They demonstrate the viability of both sides of the company across the jurisdictional divide. We look forward to the second half to demonstrate a market improvement over the first half. With this, thank you very much. We are going to questions. In the situation with shareholders being locked on MOEX, can a dividend be paid and the appropriate allocation of funds placed in some form of escrow pending a resolution? In general, the dividend can be paid if we don't resolve the situation with MOEX shareholders. However, there will be no opportunity in this case to have an independent escrow. The monies which will need to be received by the shareholders at MOEX will be retained by Euroclear, and it will be Euroclear who will be responsible and who will make a decision to do something with this money. Have you considered a strip dividend? A strip dividend is not possible under the regulations of AIFC, so this is not a possibility. You recently talked about planning expansion into other countries. Which countries are currently being considered? How aggressive will expansion be? We're considering Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan being the prime targets. I don't think we're going to be aggressive. We're going to be reasonable. How much of the cash after getting rid of the Russian businesses plan to be used to pay dividends to shareholders? You know, there is a Russian saying that you don't divide the skin off the bear before you kill the bear, so I think it's too early to talk about this. Will you please split total cash costs and all-in sustained costs between Russia and Kazakhstan? I think there is a page in the presentation. You can go back there and look at the actual numbers. It's closer to the back end of the presentation. What is the probability that Russian citizens holding Poly shares in NSD will not receive dividend from the sale of the Russian business? Please describe in detail current progress re NSD, key challenge in your strategy and timeline. Well, I will start with the key challenge. The key challenge is that, in the current situation, there is no way dividends can reach shares in NSD, because the link between Euroclear and NSD is not operational. This is the key challenge. Our objective is to re-enfranchise those shareholders, but those shareholders will need to move away from NSD, from MOEX. We are currently discussing the potential options with regulators, both in Russia and in Kazakhstan. In December, it was reported that investors from unfriendly countries would have to sell at 50% of the value. Does the profile of the investor base of Polymetal mean that this discount will still apply to any Russia Polymetal sale? The rule actually has a carve-out for public companies. Since we are a public company, the 50% discount rule does not apply. Has your outlook on dividend payments changed since the second week of August? If so, in what ways and why? I would point to differences between what Mr. Nesis said during the Q2 production results webcast and what he was quoted as saying in a very recent Interfax article. Well, I think it all boils down to the pace of the sale. As we go along with the process, you know, we probably already see that our optimistic scenario yields more and more to the kind of more conservative scenario in terms of timing. And as such, the timing of the sale has shifted slightly into the future, particularly after the imposition of the export tariff. So we remain committed to dividend payment. But in terms of timing, you know, yes, I accept that we are more conservative right now, given the expected timing of the sale of the Russian business. In your interview, when you said six to nine months, when did the clock start? The clock started on the re-domiciliation time, so early August. I answered about the dividends. Is there an understanding of the price range at which your business in the Russian Federation moves so? Well, we had a certain expectation, but unfortunately, that expectation has been rudely reset on Friday, because as you can imagine, a 7% top-line tax at current ruble-dollar exchange rate will have a very meaningful impact on the valuation. And additionally, it demonstrates how uncertain the fiscal environment in Russia is. And, I'm afraid, for example, for non-Russian buyers, this imposition of the export duty sends a powerful negative signal. We haven't had a chance to circle back with our Chinese counterparties, but I'm afraid it will be quite, quite painful for them, quite unpleasant shock for them. The impact of the export duties on financials is listed on the page with sensitivities. With sensitivities. Yes. Definitely, the domestic gold prices have already moved to reflect the imposition of the export duty, as to be expected. By restricting options to sell the Russian assets in one piece, shareholder value destruction is enhanced because there will be fewer bidders for the following reasons. Well, yes, maybe there will be a few bidders, but we significantly simplify the transaction structure. We actually can control the timeline, and we reduce the counterparty risk because we deal only with the largest and most established partners. Also, you know, not to be discounted, we are selling the business, not the assets, and the business is more than the collection of assets, it's the people. By selling off assets on a piecemeal basis, we more or less destroy the value of the management company, and that value is very, very significant. Probably it's not apparent to some of the shareholders, some of the investors, but for all of the potential buyers, I assure you, the value of the team of Polymetal is very, very significant. The forecasts of the financial results are based on the current RUB 90 per $1. The impact of changing logistic routes on concentrate shipments is not really significant if you take into account rubles valuation. Well, not all of the disclosed inventory will be realized in the second half, but a substantial portion of it, probably more than half, significantly more than half. It looks more and more like you are taking the Russian assets and giving it away at the detriment of shareholders. Well, definitely, we will have to accept the value, which is significantly below the pre-war, pre-war value of the business. However, as I have explained multiple times, after the designation of the Russian business as SDN under the American sanctions, there is no other reasonable way. Otherwise, we are facing the prospect of the topco being designated with a complete loss of value to shareholders located in unfriendly jurisdictions. We already are operating in the area which provokes sometimes vocal criticisms from political and economic commenters in Kazakhstan. So I understand that this is painful. I can only commit to doing everything in management's powers to achieve a maximum valuation. But yes, I admit that the value we will realize will be a far cry from pre-war levels. Is the buyback option considered to paying dividends? You know, for now, we believe dividends are much easier from tax perspective, from regulatory perspective. But, the board always gives consideration to the buybacks when we consider dividends. So we'll, we'll look at this in due time. I already answered the question about more shareholders and dividend. Inventories, shares, debt level, you can find in the presentation. What's the current impact on sales channels for the Russian division? We don't know the details because Russian division now runs itself. It's completely ring-fenced, and Polymetal International has the information about the financial results, for example, but we do not participate in any managerial decisions. Judging by monthly management reports, the sales channels have been fully reestablished. Sales are going nicely, and I can presume that the vast majority of those sales are within Russia. The reinstatement of the dividend is certain in based on 2023 financial results. What is the value of all in Russia without factoring in sanctions? I think, you know, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, so you can just take the, you know, the expected EBITDA of the Russian business for the full year, which it will be north of $1 billion, and choose your multiple accordingly. That's really, you know, the question of taste. What benefit in dollar terms does the Kazakhstan business gain from free transport and POX usage? Well, transport is not free, and POX usage is free for now, is unpaid for now. But we are talking to regulators to find a way to actually pay for POX, because you can understand that it will be pretty difficult to find a partner who will take the facility which works for free, not least for a variety of tax and regulatory issues. We will be looking for the way to ensure that POX treatment capacity is available for Kazal, but it will be paid for on market terms. What would the tax implications be of any sale of the Russian assets of the parent company and with Russia? That will depend on the ultimate structure, and we actually, this is one of the key variables that we'll be discussing with potential buyers. Are you looking to expand the business in Kazakhstan through brown- and greenfield projects? We have a very substantial exploration program in Kazakhstan, spending something like $20 million this year. Definitely, expansion in Kazakhstan is one of the top strategic priorities for the company. How is the most recent depreciation of the U.S. dollar against tenge, yuan, and ruble impacting business? Well, tenge and yuan have not really depreciated against the U.S. dollar, and obviously, ruble's devaluation has been having a huge positive impact on profitability until the export tariff has been introduced, which will take away a significant chunk of the devaluation benefit. The dividend is contingent on the progress on the sale of the Russian business. I don't really know what discount we will have to give to sell Russian business, 'cause it's not clear what is the base level to which discount should apply. You know, conceptually, yes, we will not be able to procure full value, but what that full value is, is also a question. I've answered the questions about inventory, dividends. We reserve the right to compensate our employees as we see fit. That's it. Let's wait for one more minute to receive additional questions. With support for the Ukraine beginning to wane in Western countries in upcoming elections, that may result in a change in government policy, possibility of the removal of Western sanctions. Doesn't it make sense to postpone the sale of the Russian assets to a more favorable time? I will not comment on political matters, and this is more stuff for commenters in newspapers. However, in terms of the removal of Western sanctions, just, you know, a brief historical perspective. In the late 1970s, the United States has imposed certain trade sanctions on the Soviet Union for the refusal by the Soviets to let Soviet Jews emigrate to Israel, the so-called Jackson-Vanik Amendment. That amendment has been scrapped in 2002, more than 15 years after the immigration of Jews was allowed by the Soviet Union. That tells you something about the stickiness of the sanctions regime and the risks ignoring this situation poses to the company. Have the names of any serious buyers been put to OFAC for their acceptability? We actually plan to select the buyer and clear it with OFAC. We do not plan to clear the shortlist. We have our in-house and external legal counsel to opine on the acceptability of the counterparties. We don't want to burden the regulators with excessive analysis of potential eventualities. Can you provide a timetable from the sale of the Russian business to real listing of the GDRs? Well, I think we will be in a position to answer that question when we sell. Is it possible to change NSD to KZ depository for Russian citizens? Not directly. This is a structure we are currently working on. It's not going to be automatic in any way. There are certain complications because the AIX refuses to deal with NSD in any way due to the sanctions imposed on NSD and more else. That is the crux of the difficulty. We are looking for ways to circumvent that. Can you absolutely not sell the Russian business to a sanctioned entity? I'm not sure what absolutely means. Yes, we can, but that will be a blatant, flagrant contravention of the sanctions regime. Since I personally value the non-sanction status of Polymetal International, and me personally, I don't think that's a reasonable possibility. Is Polymetal in for a record trading profit in 2023? I don't even know what the previous record was. We are not driven by trying to set a record. Any serious, serious buyers being considered? Yes, we do have a preliminary shortlist, and I assure you only the potential buyers with proper reputations and certifiable financial resources are being considered seriously. Sanction status definitely is a major consideration. Do you consider the sale of the Russian assets will cover the debt on the Russian side? Well, definitely, we're not going to give away the assets for debt. We plan to generate substantial cash proceeds from the sale of the Russian business. Will there be consideration to paying a dividend at year-end or just on Russia's sale? Definitely there will be consideration given by the board to paying a dividend at the December board meeting. The ultimate decision will, among other things, be dependent on the progress of the sale of the Russian business. Not selling to Russian sanctioned entity, will that not upset Russian authorities? Well, there are plenty, you know, plenty established Russian businessmen still not sanctioned. Selling to someone outside of Russia may be an issue, but selling within Russia doesn't matter whether the buyer is sanctioned or unsanctioned. Liquidity in AIX, can anything be done to increase it seriously? So far we have hired one market maker, but I would expect liquidity to grow over time as more and more institutional investors will migrate, probably migrate their holdings from kind of inactive or passive formats to a more active trading position. This requires establishment of trading accounts with AIX-registered brokers, so it takes time. It's not going to happen overnight, but rather will look like a gradual process. We are investing a lot of time and effort in terms of, you know, enhancing AIX, you know, trading environment and ecosystem. Has the timeline for KAZ Minerals construction changed any further? No, we are still targeting mid-2028. Conceptually, the final investment decision by the board is expected late next year. Right now we have continued progress in terms of site preparation, permitting, and design. The current level of debt we will not disclose. We will disclose debt level at the end of the third quarter during the third quarter production results call. Do you expect tightening of capital controls to affect your potential deal in Russia? This is a risk. This is an uncertainty that we need to take into account. Again, this is a question of structure. It's not enough to get the money in Russia. It is important to get money to Kazakhstan where we can invest or pay them out as dividends. Good question, and we don't have a really 100% certain answer to that, but that's a risk. All right, we have about three more minutes to go. There are many U.S. shareholders that still have made requests for physical certificates prior to re-domiciliation, but still have not received them. They have also received no response from the AIX register. Please do contact our investor relations team. Physical certificates no longer make any sense because AIX doesn't support physical. They support a record in the register, which you can have in writing, but this is no longer a physical certificate. This is rather, you know, an extract from the register. If you are experiencing any trouble, please contact our investor relations team, and they will be ready to help to the maximum extent possible. The recent acquisition of mining licenses in Russia, will this increase value of assets? As far as I know, the Russian segment has not awarded a single license in a long time, so this doesn't apply. What is your prediction on the diesel cost for the rest of the year and its impact? Well, we've already baked in the diesel cost because we normally buy stuff in the first or early second quarter of the year. Do you personally, Vitaly, do you personally hold all the shares in NSD? Yes, I do. You answered my question in regards... Okay. Some of the questions I'm not answering on purpose because they relate to internal motivation schemes of Polymetal. But, Yunus, I get your question. We'll take care of the person you refer to. All right. Thank you very much for your active participation. I hope we managed to answer your questions. Please feel free to follow up either with the investor relations team or directly with the top management. I look forward to updating you further at the time of our third quarter production results call, which should happen late in October. Thank you very much, and have a very nice day.