Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everybody, and welcome to our interim results presentation for the period that ended in, March. In terms of format of the presentation, what we're gonna cover, I'll start with a quick overview of our results, from the period, a reminder of our business model and the strengths of our investment case. Sean's gonna provide, a run through the financials, including our M&A ambitions and criteria. I'll provide a bit of an overview. We'll dive into the, operational sectors. And this actually includes, in this period, a market update to highlight what we're putting into the growth opportunities in our Rail and Water segments. We summarize the progress that we're making on our ESG and sustainability, journey, and I will conclude the session by providing our view. We'll be sure to make time at the end of the session to take any questions that you have. For information and support purpose, in the appendix of the deck, you'll find some segmental analysis, a reminder of our key differentiators, and how we are collaborating as a group. So turning to slide two of the deck, we are delighted to be presenting yet another set of record interim results for the group. This is an excellent performance, that includes strong, organic growth, almost 70%, as well as good cash generation. This is further demonstration of the attributes in the model and the execution of our strategic priorities. We remain active in terms of our M&A ambitions. A nd we were delighted to confirm the recent complementary bolt-on acquisitions of both TIS in the period and just post-period end, the Route One Infrastructure. Both are integrating well and more on these shortly. Importantly, as you will see from the sector commentaries, we have significantly strengthened our framework positions in key sectors, more than Rail and Water. Our order book remains strong, yet conservatively reported and reflecting the confidence in our prospects, as well as the good momentum going into the second half of our year. We've increased the interim dividend by 5.5%, up to GBP 0.0633. On that page, you will see our 11 principal brands. Just remembering that TIS and Route One actually reported under the individual brands, respectively. On slide three, it's here that we describe our five sector blocks, where our engineering services brands have delivered incredible growth. A nd we've seen that added benefit of leveraging group synergies and collaborations. And again, there's an appendix slide that amplifies exactly what we're doing in that regard. Turning to slide four, well, it's here that we summarize the strengths of our investment case. These record results once again demonstrate the effectiveness of our differentiator. Our risk profile is much lower, given the nature of the services that we provide and our direct delivery model. We've consistently executed to the strategy, and this has delivered reliable and long-term earnings growth, which Sean will amplify shortly. Our markets have high barriers to new entrants and are underpinned by resilient dynamics. We have market-leading positions and are now deeply embedded in essential U.K. infrastructure programs. We continue to be committed to growing the business, both organically and inorganically, using our strong balance sheet. B ut as ever, with a very disciplined approach to risk. Sean? Good morning. Starting with the income statement, the first half of 2024 has seen record revenue of GBP 553 million, which is up by 17% on the prior year. Pleasingly, almost all of this growth is organic, with only a relatively small contribution from TIS, including in this figure. When we look at where this revenue growth is coming from, I'm pleased to say that it's across almost all of our engineering services segments, with the one exception of highways, which had a record year last year, which has sort of flattered out a bit this year. Our operating profit is up to GBP 33.1 million, which is 17% higher than the first half of last year, and our margin at 6% is consistent with our first half margins over the last few years. As typically happens, I expect this to increase in the second half, and I remain confident that the full-year margin will be around 6.5%, as previously guided. If you recall, for the last five years- six years now, we've consistently guided to a margin between sort of 6%-7% and typically closer to sort of 6.5%. A nd we're confident that, you know, as the business is currently constructed, it will continue to be within that range. Our focus, as always, is on our EPS growth, and I'm pleased to report a record first half EPS of GBP 0.313, which is up by 14.2% on the previous year. This is despite the increase in corporation tax to 25% from April 2023, which we're only getting the full impact of this year. And as Paul has already mentioned, we are going to pay an interim dividend of GBP 0.0633, which is up 5.5% on the previous year. Onto the balance sheet, we have a net cash position, which has improved to GBP 42.5 million on a pre-IFRS 16 basis, and it's GBP 22.7 million on an IFRS 16 basis. We continue to have support of banks, and more than adequate firepower under our RCF. And I'm also pleased to say that work is reaching conclusion on the true-up calculations of both pension schemes, which is required before we can move towards the full buyouts. Our current expectation is that the Amco scheme will require a top-up of approximately GBP 1.6 million later this year. But the good news is, is that we now no longer believe that the Lovell scheme will require any further contribution from the company. We'd previously expected to pay around GBP 3 million into the scheme. That process should conclude now in early 2026. And we continue to increase our provision against discontinued historic liabilities in Allenbuild. The provision now stands at GBP 8.8 million, which is up from GBP 7.5 million at the end of September. The main reason for the increase is because we have reached a settlement on one of the claims, and that will be paid out in the second half of the year, and there'll be a cash impact of GBP 1.5 million as a consequence of that. Looking at our return on capital, our first half return on capital of 25%, and I think this slide continues to demonstrate our operating model. The business continues to consistently deliver on high return on capital, with our ROCE average now at 27%. Onto the cash flow. The purpose of this slide is to bridge our opening net capital position on the 1st of October 2023, to our closing net capital position on the 31st of March 2024. The first bar of our EBITDA, which is the profit we've made during the year, we have a small working capital outflow this half, which represents the revenue growth in the period. Next is our net CapEx, which is our CapEx less sale of fixed assets. This is a little bit lower than we'd expected in the first half, but it should increase in the second half. Our dividend, which is last year's final dividend of GBP 0.12. A nd of course, the growing cash tax outflow represents the increasing profitability of the business and the fact that the tax rate has now increased to 25% this year, where we were at 22% last year. All of this brings us back to our period end net cash of GBP 42.5 million. On to our free cash flow conversion, we're slightly below the average this year as a result of the small working capital outflow we saw in the first half, which is a consequence of the strong revenue growth that we've seen. Our free cash flow was also impacted by the increased tax bill, and our ongoing investment in plants and machinery. The FY 2020 and FY 2021 numbers, as I've been saying for a number of years now, are a little bit anomalous, because of the impact of COVID and deferral of VAT. But obviously, as we move forward, they drop off the left-hand side of the chart and no longer be an issue. And having said all of that, you know, I'm really pleased with the free cash conversion of over 70%, and I think that really points to a business that is highly cash generative. Our adjusted EPS track record, this is our favorite slide because we think that really represents our long track record of value creation. As you can see, we've delivered an EPS compound annual growth rate to 17% over the last 12 years. We have a record first half EPS of GBP 0.313 again this year. A nd all of this has been achieved whilst keeping our net debt to EBITDA below 1x. Onto M&A. Despite having already completed three bolt-on acquisitions in this year, we continue to actively pursue M&A opportunities in both our existing sectors and in new target markets. We have a very strong pipeline of M&A opportunities, and we're very busy in this area. Our new M&A director that we appointed in January has settled in well, and is contributing to help us deliver on this M&A growth strategy. Now, across our markets, we see significant growth opportunities. A nd to that end, we are focused on ensuring we have the breadth of capability and the capacity to seize those opportunities as they arise. We have a good track record of acquiring those additional capabilities and capacity, as outlined at the bottom of this page, where we've set out some recent examples of bolt-ons that we've done over the last few years. Thanks, Sean. We're now going to take a little bit of a closer look at our operational highlights. I'm going to start with Rail on slide 14. Rail represents about 40%-45% of total group revenue, with operating margins in this segment at around 10%. As an opening comment, activity momentum has remained strong from a strong year last year, with ongoing demand across the entire national rail network. We've just transitioned into Network Rail's latest control period cycle, CP7, which commenced in April. And we move into this new five-year cycle in a much stronger position than the beginning of the previous. Collaboration between our three rail brands has been a feature of our success here, putting new framework plots within reach. Weather conditions continue to expose vulnerability across the rail network. We've responded on numerous occasions to emergencies on the network. P redominantly around embankment failures, and just remembering that there are 25,000 embankments that are vulnerable across the entire national rail network, deploying our services in the future. Turning to slide 15, well, here we provide a little bit more color and further amplify the growth opportunities that we see in CP7. The addressable market over the next five years will significantly increase, with GBP 32 billion of the GBP 45.4 billion total allocation allocated to renewing and maintaining the network. We're delighted with the success we've had with both renewing existing frameworks and winning new positions moving into this new control period cycle. The chart on the left illustrates the incredible growth that we've delivered in the previous two rail investment cycles, and we see no reason why that pattern cannot prevail. There are some factoids in the middle of that slide that indicate the true scale of the assets that require our attention across the entire network. The rail network chart on the right illustrates the key frameworks that we hold in each of the five national regions. In CP7, we have a much broader geographical reach and a wider range of framework lots to deliver. In summary, our Rail sector is in great shape, with significant growth opportunity in CP7 and beyond. Turning to Infrastructure on slide 16, Infrastructure represents about 20% of what we do. Operating margins typically in the range of 6%-7%. We continue to strengthen our position in highways and wireless telecommunications, with progress being made in aviation. In highways, we're in the final year of RIS2, the latest national highways control period cycle, where we have 10 months remaining. Just a reminder, however, that our frameworks are actually committed through to 2027. So we have continuity of contractual engagement over that period of time. And we're very much looking forward to the growth opportunities that we see as RIS3 commences in April 2025, where National Highways and the Department for Transport have all stated prioritization funding towards operating, renewing, and maintaining their strategic road networks, the area of the network where we operate. We are delighted to have broadened our offering in this sector with the acquisition of Route One Infrastructure at the beginning of April. Bridge deck services are increasingly in demand today and tomorrow across the entire network. In aviation, in the period, we were appointed to Leeds Bradford for an airside maintenance framework. Growing the client base is simply part of the strategy for our organically grown capabilities in that sector. In wireless telecom, demand and therefore momentum has remained strong off the back of a record year in 2023 for these services. We continue to support all four of the major network operators, and we continue to seek out and develop new routes to market, including private 5G and across the mast owner asset segment. Moving to Energy on slide 17, these represent about 10% of total group revenues. Operating margins, typically again, 6%. The scale of U.K. nuclear legacy is enormous. Long-term and reliable opportunities will emerge from it for our specialist services team. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority have increased the total capital and expenditure to around GBP 4 billion annually for the year 2024 and 2025. 2025. Historically, the runway was more closer to GBP 3 billion a year, such is the scale of the challenge. Out of the GBP 4 billion annual commitment, GBP 3 billion of that is committed towards Sellafield, and it's here that we remain predominantly focused. In the period, we strengthened our position on these 20-year PPP frameworks, the Programme and Project Partnership frameworks, that run for that length of time. The expansion of our nuclear manufacturing capabilities with the recent acquisition of TIS has been extremely well-timed indeed, with an increase in demand for those type of services. We believe the formation of Nuclear Restoration Services, that are gonna look after the Magnox stations, and Great British Nuclear, part of the energy fix program, really bode well for our long-term growth ambitions in the wider civil nuclear market. In our organically grown electric vehicle charging infrastructure segment, we continue to build foundations. It's the best way to describe where we are. We're building a reputation, but importantly, we're being very selective about our most optimum route to market. Building long-term partnerships with big charge point operators and large fleet operators, we believe is the best route to market for the services we provide. Due to point of interest, in the period, we installed the first U.K. charging point from street-side telecommunication, a green box working for BT. First of its type, that program is likely to grow in the years ahead. Moving to our fourth engineering sector, Environmental, on slide 18. 20% of what we do related to these activities. Operating margins, again, typically 6%. It moves around a little bit, but our largest contributor in this sector are our water activities. Demand and momentum for our services has remained extremely strong indeed, and we've remained operationally very busy across the networks as we move towards the end of AMP7, which runs until March 2025. We've made excellent progress with appointments, new and extensions to existing long-term networks in this sector, not unlike those we made in Rail. We therefore move towards a new control period cycle with expanded geography and a larger client base, really important foundations. We're now engaged by 10 of 12 national waste and water regions, and clearly an incredible growth opportunity ahead for Renew and now for water brands, who continue to successfully collaborate across, the Water sector to reach into a wider range of frameworks, particularly now that we have the MEICA capability to complement the civil engineering experience we've had for many years. In other environmental activities that are reported under this segment, we've been appointed to new, operating, maintaining, and response frameworks by the Environment Agency, who continue to commit an increasing budget to a wide range of climate resilience programs. Some very precisely targeted land remediation, conservation, and restoration programs complete a very healthy long-term growth prospect across this environmental sector. On slide 19, not unlike what we did in Rail, we've illustrated the scale of the water growth opportunity as we move into the new control period from April 2025. Our plans, the determination for these plans has not been finalized. These are anticipated in the months ahead, but certainly before our year is finalized. Draft budget determinations, however, that have been published by each of the water companies, indicate a significant increase in commitment over the next five years, 10 years, possibly 15 years. The specific growth drivers for Renew include extreme weather conditions, rising demand, populace increases, net zero, and regulatory compliance. And to counter these challenges, water companies are proposing an increasing focus on their CapEx up to 1.7 x that committed in 7, with importantly, with a focus on renewing and maintaining their network. This involves a specific GBP 25 billion pound commitment to environmental resilience. This was only GBP 5 billion pound commitment in the previous control period. So encouragingly, we're seeing an early commitment to these proposals with GBP 2.2 billion of commitment, for environmental resilience already committed and visible to us. As you can see from the National Water Asset Schedule, the scale of the assets that require our services are simply enormous. The U.K. water map on that chart serves to illustrate how we've strengthened our geographical reach. The dark blue colors are where we're now operational, and the excellent progress we've made in securing a broader range of frameworks, that will serve us well over the long term. Moving to slide 20, our specialist building activities. This sector remains non-core and will contribute less than 2.5% of group operating profit this year. Our strategy here is clear and consistent, to remain highly selective and disciplined about how we access and find routes to market. In line with our strategic priority, however, we've improved the balance of the order book pipeline across its three sub-sectors. A nd this includes a number of framework activities now in science, in particular, providing a much more reliable work practice for MEICA forward. After many years of attempting to break into some new bespoke specialist markets, we've finally been appointed to one of the royal estates, not for publication, but, you know, an important breakthrough into what will be a specialist sector for our early capability. Sean? Yes, so, on this slide 21, we summarize our ESG plan, which we call Ren ew Resilience Plan. As with previous years, we don't talk a lot about it at interims. We do much more at the full year. However, just as a reminder, we have four key commitments, which are to take climate action, to operate responsibly, to build social value, and to empower our people. A few years ago, we set out specific targets in relation to each of these commitments, and we report on our performance against these targets at the full year. Having said that, I'm pleased to say that we continue to make good progress across all of these areas, in the first six months. And then finally on this page, again, as a reminder, we continue to be the recipient of the London Stock Exchange Green Economy Mark, and that means that we derive more than 50% of our revenues from green activities. To conclude with an outlook, I'm on slide 23. Hopefully, we've been able to amplify that we continue to see compelling demand for our services and across our end markets, where government and opposition parties have reiterated a commitment to significant infrastructure investment. In truth, we remain ambivalent to the outcome of the forthcoming election, and our clients are feeling the same way, too. Our largest clients in Rail, Water, and Highways have all made clear declarations regarding an additional focus on maintaining and renewing their networks, the kind of things that we do. And of course, funding is also driven by climate action. We cannot ignore that, as I alluded to in the emergency we've been responding to. But clearly, regulatory and legal obligation compliance are equally levers that are being felt by our clients. Our strategy is to continue to organically and inorganically grow the group, albeit with a very disciplined approach to those plans. But we've made excellent progress in renewing and extending frameworks. The foundation of the company have strengthened again in the period, so the record results strengthen those foundations again, that bodes well for our future growth ambitions. We can report really positive momentum going into the second half of the year. A feature of our prelim results last year, we've included it in the deck. We're now leveraging those synergies, that collaborative potential across the company. Our 11 brands working closely together are really allowing us to penetrate our customer work plans, appealing to all the engineering framework blocks, a really important point, and a feature of our recent success and growth. We're very much looking forward to amplifying our journey, giving some more color to our market opportunities in our upcoming Capital Markets event. If you haven't been invited, please take the invitation. That's happening in June. It equally gives you access, not just to myself and Sean, but to the wider leadership group of Renew. And finally, we very much look forward to reporting to you again on further progress that we make with that good momentum coming in the second half of the year. Thank you for listening. We're now gonna open the session to any questions that you have. Thank you very much, guys, for bringing us through the presentation. I would like to remind any attendees that are joining us online to please submit questions in writing via the Q&A tab at the bottom of your screen. While we wait for a few of those to come in, I would like to open the floor to questions from those in the room. Okay, thanks. Morning, guys. James Beard. I've got a couple of questions. Firstly, on these sort of more market related questions. On rail, looking at CP7, how does that sort of GBP 32 billion spend commitment to renewal and maintenance over the course of that, over the course of CP7 compare to CP6? And I guess a sort of a follow-on question from that is, it would appear that at the moment you have roughly a sort of broadly mid-single digit market share of that addressable market within rail currently. Where, over the course of CP7, do you think that could potentially get to? And then my second question is on Water. Clearly, we are expecting a very significant increase in investments going into AMP8 in the next 12 months or so. What risk do you see that some of that spend get sort of deferred to further down the pipe, as we saw in the early period of AMP7, and how is the business positioned to respond to that, should that occur? And I guess, and another sort of follow-on question, do you have the capacity within the water business to meet what is likely to be a significant increase in demand from your customers? That's a lot of questions. Sorry, that is a lot of questions, isn't it? I think there was five questions in there actually. Yeah. Let's start with rail. So yeah, listen, the transition between CP6 and CP7 is interesting. I think at headline level, the emphasis is shifting towards renewing and maintaining. You can go and read the business plans. Department for Transport Network Rail published their business plans. I think the headline is that we can see the addressable market, as we refer to it, out of the GBP 45.4 billion, around GBP 32 billion of that, an enormous number, will be committed to operating, maintaining and renewing the network. That compared to last year, it's quite difficult to actually compare one to the other. They've moved geographies, they've moved framework auditing. It is not straightforward to do. We've spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to map it in some detail, and we've given up in the end because it didn't add value. I think the important thing to say, however, so that compares to around GBP 29 billion last year. You could argue with inflation, it hasn't necessarily kicked on a lot. B ut you've got to drill into the detail. You've got to get into the regions, the five regions, but more importantly, then the 14 routes within those regions to look at where their commitment is. And the reality is, our reading of that, whilst we can't see it in granular detail for five years, the demand for the kind of things that we do in that GBP 32 billion will increase. We see the visibility of that already. That's the, that's the important point about this. In terms of market share, it's not something we sweat about. We've grown, we've grown really well. Our, you know, our rail brands have taken market share without any question. I think broadening our range of capabilities, we really started this when we acquired Giffen. We were a civil engineering contractor. We acquired Giffen to give us mechanical and electrical capability. QTS accelerated our growth, going forward. Our REL was brought in to connect us into the overhead line capability. So when you think about, when I talk about geographical spread and a wider reach of group framework lot, if I take Wales and West, for example, we were operating in Wales and West previously. We now have the E&P lots in Wales and West, which has tremendous growth opportunity. As we come out of Paddington towards Bristol, all of the issues that created overhead line problems, we now have access to those frameworks. That is new to Renew, and it's a real offering, and it's because we've collaborated, and that opens up a whole new growth segment to us. North West and Central, we have a new suite of frameworks in North West and Central, formally appointed. We hadn't formally had those arrangements. Again, it's through a collaboration of our four rail brands working together. So James, it's very difficult to plot it in detail, other than to say the growth opportunity and the foundations we have in rail are much stronger. A nd it's tangible in terms of the growth, but to quantify it is quite difficult thing for us to do. I think the best thing we can do to illustrate what we've done in the past are those two previous five-year control period cycles. I said in my presentation in the last slide, but we see that as an opportunity. We see the AmcoGiffen that growth opportunity for them. We're in an excellent position in rail, more generally. In terms of Water, moving to AMP7 to AMP8, we're a little bit early in giving granular detail. We're still looking at draft determinations, as I said, but we fully anticipate all water companies to be presenting a case for much bigger budgets. The reality is, we're all going to have to pay more for our water services to support that. That's the harsh economics of the circumstance. There's excitement in Water, despite those disappointing headlines for you know, failure in compliance. The only way to fix those issues is to spend it on the kind of things that we do, and spend money from the reliability and resilience in your assets. I think the water growth that we've had has been tremendous. I think we go into a new control period, again, with wider geography. We've pushed into South West through organically pushing into that. We haven't acquired to get that geography. We've just made a business case to do it, and we've known we'll have five-year to 10-year framework in a new water region. If you remember, we were frozen out a bit in Northumbrian Water. We've now been reappointed into Northumbrian Water. So we're actually out of 10 of the 12 water companies that we have, we're in a much stronger position across Water more generally. Bigger budget is coming. We have to be a little bit patient for those determinations to land, but again, not unlike in rail, the focus will be on renewing and maintaining the infrastructure assets, playing straight to our strength. We actually believe, James, and we've seen a cyclical trend, sometimes a quiet start and a quiet end on short period cycles. I have to say, we've seen some improvement in the discipline around annualized commitment to the pipeline. That has been a feature, and I think it will improve again in AMP8. It's one of the obligations and regulatory improvement initiatives, just to be more consistent in the progress you make across the network. And we therefore believe that over the next five-year cycle that commences in April 2025, it will be more reliable in the way it presents itself to us. That's certainly emerging in the work patterns we're looking at. It's very nice to have the problem of the skill set, resource challenge. You can do a number of things in responding to growth. You can sit and whinge about it, or you can go and pinch people from your competitor, or what we've chosen to do is grow your own and be, get ahead of the game. We have 350 people in various training programs, 160 apprentices completing programs. The persuasion of where the skill sets are in our various training programs is probably a little bit biased towards our future water skill requirement. Part of our M&A, work that we're doing at the moment is not just to buy individual brands in Water, but to actually find, companies that have resources in water. We've made no secret of that, because to work on these water assets, whether it's on the clean or on the waste side of the water portfolio, the qualifications and skills to deploy people onto the network are extremely high. You can't just, qualify somebody overnight. So, you know, we're looking at this from a multi, a multifaceted solution to this, but growing our own is part of it. Succession, pushing through people through the business, developing people, and probably the kind of staff passionate about it. I test every business on that front, and putting enough resource into growing your own talent pool is absolutely crucial. I think we're doing better than most. Great. Hi, guys, James Bayliss here from Berenberg. Two questions, if I may. On the workforce and your employees, can you just give us an update on what the hiring landscape looks like and what you're seeing in terms of churn? I guess last time we spoke, you obviously seen the, you know, High Speed 2 was quite an attractive proposition for some of the guys in the space that's obviously dropped away. Have you seen any tailwinds as kind of guys look to come back and more stable work there? And then the second piece is on the cross-selling and the inter-group collaboration you mentioned. Is it at a point yet where we can quantify that in terms of, you know, how we should be thinking about that as a proportion of group revenues or just operating profit? Or is it still more about the strategic concept as opposed to the actual contribution? Okay, if I deal with the people piece, I'll let Sean explain where we're at on cross-selling. But, you know, out of our 5,000 people that we employ, James, as I said, I look at the data almost on a daily basis, really, what the movements are. I check that we are back to James's point, that we've got enough effort into building the talent pool for the future, and I think we've got that right. But clearly, as you point out, staff turnover rate is something that are pretty critical metric in certain circumstances, and I'm delighted to be able to say it has improved slightly since we last reported. We're now down to 14%. If you recall, pre-pandemic, I was extremely proud to consistently report 10% staff turnover rates in a sector that typically has somewhere between 20%-25% normal staff turnover levels. We've always been at around 10%. Things changed in the post-COVID society. We have early retirements that still plague the business. It's unfortunate, but that has softened a little bit. That's probably economic circumstances playing out. We were at 15%. We've tightened a little bit to 14%, which I still believe is probably in a good place, considering all of those other challenges. You know, we know with the interest of movements around, the U.K., particularly around capital projects, HS2, Northern leg of HS2, a blow to some, of course, but it did kind of free up the employment market a little bit. I think it's actually settled, in all honesty. I think we, we've had cost of living pressures across the workforce. We've dealt with those, properly and, and in the right manner. And again, that is reflected in the, strong staff turnover retention levels that we, that we have. So on the collaboration piece, I think we don't spend a lot of time trying to quantify it. It's still relatively small in the context of the group. But strategically it's very, very important, and increasingly so. I think, you know, the key thing that we see is that there are certain frameworks where in certain sectors where we have the skill set but not the experience of working in that sector. So we can take the skill set and add it, combine it with sector expertise, be able to win more lots than we previously did. A great example of that would be in highways, we've got Carnell and AmcoGiffen working together, collaborating on the barriers framework. Another great example would be, we've got QTS, which is a revegetation expert, working with Envolve, our business that works with Welsh Water on a revegetation lot, working for Welsh Water. Water. We've taken things like on the overhead line piece, taking the combined expertise in rail with QTS, REL, and AmcoGiffen, and tendered for the E&P framework that Paul mentioned earlier at Wales and West. So for us, it's all about strategically trying to get us into new markets or new subsectors of markets that we're not currently in, by combining the capability of the group's brands. In terms of quantum, as I said, it's not, it's not huge, but it's growing, and we expect it to continue to grow. Stephen Rawlinson from Applied Value. As you get bigger, are you finding you're coming up against more of the regular or the larger contractors, and then there's margin pressure coming from competitive circumstances? We've talked a little bit about margin pressures from labor costs. Is there something you can help us with a little bit about margin pressures as they might coming from the competitive environment, which, as you grow, you become more of a threat to them? And well, they might be trying to pick you off on certain contracts or the usual games that go on in this area. How best can you protect your margins? Possibly, I think you've already signaled 6.9% in engineering services is probably as good as it gets, 'cause that's the industry. And then there's only really Balfour Beatty, you're getting those sorts of margins, and they're quoted at the moment in the sorts of areas that you're in. So is there something you can add a little bit about how you protect those margins from competitive pressures as you get bigger and become more of a threat? That's a good question, Stephen. Yeah, look, we've guided for some time, margin rate of 6%-7%. We're fairly consistent about that. The big shift for the group was when we acquired QTS in 2018, which is a higher margin business. And there's been a little bit of margin accretion over the years as the proportion of building has got smaller, and we need more engineering services to getting close to that 6.9%. But, yeah, I've always been—even if, towards two years- three years ago, and we've been at 6.9%, I said at the time, "You know, that's unusual. It's a one-off. We're gonna get back to 6.5%. That's where this business is." So as the first part of the question, we don't see ourselves competing with those larger sort of tier ones and the ones that you're talking about. Whilst we're getting larger, we're still doing the same thing that we've always done, which is the smaller tasks, the lower value maintenance renewals activities. And the larger, particularly larger quota businesses that you're referencing, Stephen, are still focused on the larger enhancement loss, big capital programs, which is not our area, and we're not interested in entering into that area. So we're not seeing any competitive pressure in that sense. I guess, you know, looking ahead, you know, with the economy as it is, and funding as it is, there is always a bit of margin pressure coming from the clients who want you to do more for less. And it's up to us in those circumstances to work with the clients to, you know, to find ways to deliver operational efficiency, so that we can do more for less, but maintaining our margins at the same time. And I think where the customer is getting better and we're getting better is that, you know, a bit more strategic planning to understand what the work bank is gonna look like over the next two to three years. Working with the customers to understand that, what is the most operationally efficient way to deliver that work bank, so we can keep our margins, and they can get better value for money. We're seeing a lot of that going on now. Just something supplementary to that, because one of the factors within what you just talked about would be your IT systems and your methods of controlling your work. You don't talk about it very much, but obviously, you're in quite a number of different segments, each of which might require a different approach to IT. Is there something you can talk to us a little bit about how you intend to stay ahead in that area as well? Because managing a lot of the small projects in itself is low as a risk, and you can rebid, so it lowers actually your inflation risk. On the other hand, you've got to have great IT systems to manage them. Is there something you can talk to us a little bit about how you intend to expand those and improve those and so on? Yeah. We do an extraordinarily high volume of tasks. Just to give you a flavor of our, you know, circa GBP 500 million worth of rail activity, a maintenance task is still circa GBP 14,000-GBP 15,000 ticket size. Our renewals, our project world, on average, is somewhere in the order of still about GBP 1 million. You know, so you can imagine how many of those we actually do. So we create a lot of, we pull terabytes of data, as you can well imagine. In terms of how we control business functions, it is done at subsidiary level. What we do have at the center, however, are sector and business function responsibilities, group minimum standards that we impose on the brands. They all do it in their own fashion, because, as you said, they're all facing into their own prospective market areas. Some have access to client platforms. Cyber is our biggest risk, and we spend an extraordinary amount of effort and energy on just making sure that we are as resilient as we need to be in that regard. So we don't centralize our IT platform. It is driven by our independent businesses, but they have to satisfy the compliance of the way we set out the regime. We have a head of IT at the group, responsible for such matters. We have a central team at Renew, but the responsibility is at subsidiary level in that regard. I say the same against our commercial discipline, health, safety, environmental, sustainability. Have a people officer at the center of Renew, you know, it's managed in that fashion, and we can scale it up, Stephen. People say, "Do you get to the point where you can't manage it?" Well, we can. We just bolster, as we said, in the period, we've recruited an M&A director because that was a bit of bandwidth we needed. If we need more bandwidth in one of the areas, like IT, we'll continue to build it. It is a, the board take an interest in how resilient we are. It's on the risk schedule, as it is on every company's risk schedule. We spend an extraordinary amount of effort on IT, particularly around the cyber resilience of g roup, touch wood, we, we manage it particularly well. I think I'll mention one other point linked to probably your earlier question, the flexibility of the Renew model. You know, we can behave like an SME because customers quite like the idea of an SME type response on a specific lot in a specific region. Affinity Water, for example, on a drainage scheme, want the brand in that region. The beauty of the Renew model, we can form relationships between brands. We can use the Renew balance sheet, and that has been a feature of our success. So we can get behind our brands to have, you know, a deep drop density, but we can behave like SMEs, and that is something that our competitors cannot do, and we pull that lever frequently. It's definitely been part of our success. Thank you. Thank you very much. We've had a number of questions come in from online participants. The first one from Andrew Nussey. The question reads: In terms of M&A, is there any shift in expected multiples, and what is the shape of the opportunity in terms of target markets? Yeah, there probably is a slight shift in terms of multiples. I think the things that we are looking at, the multiples are higher than they have historically been. Some of that's driven by the specific markets that we're looking in. You've got to look at what other comparable transactions in those markets are going for in order to be competitive when you're bidding. So I think it's more, it's more. T he increase in multiples is probably more driven by slight change in the markets that we're looking at. On the M&A slide, you can see the target markets. So, you know, you can probably read across to that, where we're looking. And because of the growth opportunity in those markets, they then do tend to attract, and also slightly higher margins, typically, they do tend to attract, higher multiples. So what was the second part of the question? What is the shape of the opportunity in target markets? And then the first part was, in terms of M&A, is there any shift in expected multiples? Yeah. So in terms of the second part of that question, the target markets are very much as set out on our M&A slide. So we're looking at our existing sectors, and two new sectors, being electricity transmission and distribution, and renewables. We see those as both huge opportunities. We've talked about both markets for some time. So we're looking, you know, at that space at various things, and then we will continue on top of that to look at more bolt-ons, where we can add either capability or capacity to our existing brands. Thank you very much. A second question from Andrew: A greater feel for recruitment and retention, are there any areas of particular concern in this regard? It's linked to the point when I answered it for James. It's the availability of skilled, qualified, what we call SQEP resources. You can bleat about it, or you can do something about it. What we've chosen to do is put capacity into our training and development program. So I think we're addressing it, but it... We're acutely aware of it. Our graduate scheme, for example, we've decided to join that across the group. Sometimes we're better together on these matters. So actually, you can imagine the attribute of being able to bring a post-grad undergraduate into the organization and actually move them around the organization. That is a really powerful way to accelerate a young person's development in exposing them to a broader range of markets and business disciplines. So that's something we've introduced more recently. Apprenticeships are the next thing you can do, whether that's a technical apprenticeship. So apprenticeships, historically, were those craft. You would have a skill in a craft, but now across estates, a much broader range of technical apprenticeships now. So we have arrangements with educational facilities and faculties, joining our skills up. We have academies now. We've invested seriously in our rail academies. We're bringing our own COSS, Controller of Site Safety, through. So I think self-help has to be part of it, and I think we're doing probably more than most. And it's one of the things we're extremely proud of, building those resources for the future. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Olivia Reade. It reads: Were results in line or above management expectations? The results were, I guess, marginally ahead of expectations, in the end. So most of the analysts, the consensus numbers have moved by sort of 2%-3% before we end up. Thank you very much. I think just to add to that, it's not just the results. I think what has been pleasing to see is the foundations, growing the frameworks, as well as producing strong results. It's the fact that we've had such success in frameworks, broadening the geography and relationships across a wider range of frameworks, for me, is, you know, is equally a highlight to the results that we're presenting. Thank you very much. The final written question comes from Tom Frayne. It reads: Has there been a significant step up in collaboration between your businesses recently? How do you encourage the managers of these businesses to collaborate? Are there any financial incentives? I think we probably answered a large part of that question earlier, in the answer to Stephen's. But yeah, so there has been a step up over the last few years, and we continue to encourage our businesses to work together. We're not currently financially incentivizing the management teams to do it. I think our view has always been that they will collaborate because it's the right thing to do for the business, and it's the best way to access new markets and to grow their own businesses, and that it doesn't require additional financial incentive, and we're seeing the results of that play out anyway. Thank you very much. As there are no further questions online, I'd like to pass back for any closing remarks. In terms of closing remarks, I'll reiterate some of the things I said in my outlook. We've had a tremendously strong first half of the year, feeling good about momentum into the second half of the year, and continuing to build those foundations. I think we're very conscious of the macroeconomic circumstance. They seem to have settled a little bit. You know, the key metric of our people is something that we manage really well, making sure we have the capacity to respond to the growing opportunities ahead. But there is an excitement and energy around the business, despite all those macroeconomic challenges that are upon us, about the growth prospects ahead. You know, you take the headlines in the newspapers about what companies challenges ahead. The reality is that is added opportunity for Renew to help fix those issues that are giving us all problems. Our health, safety, environmental, welfare, sustainability—we don't spend a lot of time on it, because we work in regulated markets. We spend an extraordinary amount of time to make sure we are compliant in those regards. We're all now trained in sustainability. We took the leadership team through training programs last year. I personally lead the RISE, Renew Inspiring Successful Executives leadership program on purposeful leadership. So one of the tasks I have is looking at the leadership of tomorrow. Is it in the business today? And I'm delighted to say that it is. I can see that talent pool coming through. So, you know, it isn't just a set of results, it's the wider health of the business I would conclude with. I think we're in a pretty good place. Thank you very much, both, for bringing us through the presentation. That now brings this webinar to an end. I'd like to thank online attendees for joining us today, and I will now close the webinar. Thank you very much for joining. Thanks, everybody.