Good morning, and welcome to the M Winkworth PLC interim results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. I would now like to hand you over to Dominic Agace, CEO. Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here to present our H1 2026 results. I am Dominic Agace, CEO of Winkworth, and this is Andrew Nicol, CFO. Good morning, everyone. It will be a pleasure to go through the slides now. We start with this slide for those who do not know us, just give a bit of background on the company, and where we have come from as to where we are today, and the model itself. Winkworth was established over 190 years ago, in 1835. It came to franchising in 1981, which was the first estate agency in the U.K. to franchise, starting in Central London and franchising out from there, which has given us today 105 offices in total, 102 franchise offices and 69 in London. London being, I suppose, the heartland from which we have grown and very much a USP versus other franchise organizations or real estate businesses that do not have that established network across London. The model effectively is to provide a platform for an independent business, independent estate agency, to operate under our name and compete in the top three in a local marketplace. We like to think of it as, that they may have been working for a wholly owned business, and they can come and set up their own business and take control of their destiny within our manuals and rules of the road, and have everything at the end of the phone that they're used to having as an employee. Hopefully for that enables them to compete better than they could do on their own. For that, basically, it's 8% royalty fee of gross revenues. There are some additional fees which if you put them all together in relation to training and websites, put those together, then it wraps it around just shy of 11% of the average office. The offices, the local franchisee takes the lease in their own name, and we take options on those premises should we need to step in. We have a very light fixed cost model. We bill centrally so that all the sales contracts are paid to us, and then we distribute, having deducted our franchise fee, which is obviously very good for our cash flow. Yes, that's a little bit about us as a background. With that, we'll go into the presentation. To start with some operational overview. H1 2026 traded broadly in line with management expectations. The underlying 2026 PBT expects to be slightly ahead, but reported PBT for full year materially below market expectations due to ongoing legal and advisory costs. We had a good sales performance, though, when compared to 2025 and H1 2026. Last year in the first half, we obviously had stamp duty changing, which kind of created another artificial surge of activity. To be so close to it in terms of sales performance was actually a fantastic result in the first half of 2026. We continued to grow lettings, which, in the face of changing legislation in that market in terms of the Renters' Rights Act, which came in in May, is a fantastic achievement as well and shows the strength of the network in terms of the advising they're giving their clients and the landlords they're managing to retain and convert to property management, as well as acquire new ones. We supported a franchisee to acquire four new offices, which is our largest assisted acquisition to date. It's in the Cotswolds, Notts Woods, Warwickshire area, and it created a whole new hub for us really. Alongside the others we've talked about previously, this is a new point of growth with a really good operator we've supported and some really good talent he's brought into the business. We consolidated our equity-owned offices businesses. We closed down the Development & Commercial Investment business. Really, we felt that there was risk attached to it. Was profitable last year, but risk in this market without the recurring revenue underneath it, and perhaps therefore wasn't suitable for us at this time to be involved in. The Crystal Palace, we sold on to a neighboring franchisee, which fits well with his geography and adds to his own network. Profits, we said, were impacted by exceptional legal costs relating to the board and shareholder matters. The board is in the process of resolving that. We are considering ways to strengthen the board and the company's wider governance to come out fitter and stronger from it all. Then finally, really, to say we retain the position of having no debt. We are highly cash generative with cash generated from operating activities up 39% in the first half versus the first half last year. In terms of the actual numbers themselves, network revenue was GBP 31.6 million, was down 1% on H1 2025. Within that, as Dom alluded to earlier, network sales revenue at GBP 16.1 million was 5% down on the same period last year, and lettings revenue at GBP 15.5 million was 3% up on the previous year. The lettings sales split had gone from 53 sales, 47 lettings in 2025 on the back of the stamp duty surge that Dominic alluded to 51/49. In terms of Winkworth's actual revenue, Dom alluded to the sale of Crystal Palace and the deconsolidation of the development and commercial business. So Winkworth revenue was down to GBP 4.7 million, 10% down on the last year. I'll be providing a bit more detail on that in a subsequent slide. Operating profit before exceptional items, the trading element of the business, was 9% up at GBP 0.84 million versus last year. But with the exceptional items, profit before tax was down 5% at GBP 0.78 million. The sale of Crystal Palace and wind down of DCI had an impact on the owned offices, so their revenue was down 30% and they were roughly break even, a loss of about GBP 10,000 at the half year. Cash was at GBP 3.73 million at the half year, and ordinary dividends declared were GBP 0.066 in the period. To give a bit more flavor, as I said, about the impact of the sale of Crystal Palace and the wind down of our development and commercial business, these charts are designed to give a bit of a flavor around that. So the left-hand blocks are the position as at H1 2025, and the blocks moving across show the movements to get to H1 2026. So on the revenue side, even though the 8% revenue from sales and lets was down slightly, GBP 50,000 or so down on H1 2025. Overall revenue was up. We had some small increases in our ancillary fees. We made more money from our CSD business in the first half, and the deconsolidation of Crystal Palace meant that GBP 47,000 of revenue, which would have been excluded in previous years, actually registered as revenue for this year. That's why that's up a wee bit. Pimlico was up 26% revenue half year on half year. Tooting was up 14% half year on half year. The downs, the decreases are the wind down of DCI and the closure of Crystal Palace, getting us from GBP 5.202 million to GBP 4.7 million. On the PBT side, the trading element of the franchising business was up by GBP 111,000 year-on-year PBT. That is basically driven by cost savings. We did not have the one-offs that we had in H1 2025. There was no investment in prime central London marketing, which had been GBP 100,000 this time last year, and we did not have an office move, which cost us GBP 70,000 or so in the first half of last year. There were some cost savings and some small cost increases. The net effect was a significant profit uptick. Pimlico's profitability was up by GBP 24,000. Tooting was down slightly, basically on the back of the appointment of a high-performing sales director in the business and the timing difference around their sales pipeline. The start of Q3, slightly frustratingly, has been phenomenally strong. It would have been good if that had started a month earlier, but hey, we are where we are. DCI was down year-on-year as we went through the final knockings of the pipeline. Crystal Palace is up because it actually lost money at the half year last year. The major element down on the far right is the exceptional legal fees of GBP 105,000. I am afraid we cannot talk much about that. Just to give you a flavor of the networks and movers and shakers, the different elements of the business and how they performed in the first half. I suppose in part this shows the mix of Winkworth and all the different areas and revenue streams and how they move to create a nice revenue that is supported by diverse income streams. When you look at this, I suppose some of it, I think sales is against the stamp duty and clearly central London is less affected. We have also seen a benefit from our investment in central London where larger deals helped support revenue growth in H1. So that has been positive. It is still a difficult market, but it has made a difference. Country markets we are growing in, so it is not still. That slightly offsets general market trends. Out of London, where we are very mature with well-established high market share businesses, was more affected by the different incentives that, well, the change in incentives, I should say, that stamp duty change last year created. On the letting side of things, you can see that, again, it is a bit of a change. Country where we are growing, so it was the highest increase of revenue. It is also a slightly different market for us where there is more growth in buy-to-let landlords still because the economics are different because the value of the property is cheaper and therefore, the business case for landlords stacks up to a greater degree. So both of those things were coming together to ensure greater growth in that part of the business. Out of London continues to perform very strongly. They are close to their landlords. They are communicating. They are getting new business from supporting our landlords and other landlords looking for advice through the change of the Renters' Rights Act, as well as you will see below, offsetting lettings reductions. So 3% down in lettings with increase of property management revenue, so 4% increase. So what we are seeing is that with greater legislation, our franchisees are able to provide more advice, add greater value, and be able to charge for that to their clients. That is definitely playing out as we have discussed previously. Central London slightly suffers from the malaise of the higher ticket lettings properties not being so popular at the moment. That has affected rentals income in central London. As well as the fact that actually it is the one part of the business where the monthly charges were more upfront and that had to change during the Renters' Rights Act. Therefore, there is a change in accounting for those offices of how they account for the lettings fees. So really further into the balance of the business, and again, this is a familiar slide, but we always put it up because it shows the ebb and flow, really, and one side picks up the slack from another, and that is the 50/50, it is not quite 50/50, split that we spent many years getting to. Now it is providing very useful to ensure the business continues to be incredibly resilient. The offices are well fitted out to meet both requirements. The sales market is busy, they can act quickly and put value there and equally in the lettings and they are underpinned by solid lettings revenue. So that hopefully shows it is moved a bit by slightly weaker sales market, which is directly fed through to the division. The revenue by area, again, this is the distinct areas we look at as we feel they have different dynamics. Often move at different times, really. Clearly, we have been talking about central London growing its share for a while, and there are still reasons why that is not. We are investing in areas like central London to ensure the quality of our business improves and therefore we are able to take advantage of uplifts. You can see the natural growth in the country where, as I say, we are growing the network. Again, this is really for market feedback. I think what you can see is the lettings is easier. Demand is improving. I think you saw rental prices overshoot, and therefore demand drop. Buyers, everyone stayed put as long as possible to avoid having to move to new rental properties and therefore applicants dropped off. We have seen that improve again. There is a shortening of supply, certainly in the face of the Renters' Rights Act as some landlords decided they did not want to be part of the post-regulatory environment in the rental market. But you are seeing fairly solid business increases in rent again, and more shortening of supply, particularly in London. In the sales sector, I think this is a reflection of supply. We saw last year, really big kick off of supplier properties to sell. That I think is a reflection of increased costs over the years. We've talked about in terms of mortgage rates going up, VAT on school fees, costs going up for building houses. Everything having gone up over a number of years, has meant that there's more movement as people readjust their lives to a different cost base in many cases. I think the numbers reducing to six and five per property is driven not really by, there was a drop in applicants of 3% or so, but really also an increase in supply. I think that's feeding through to weakness in pricing. We've seen that central line for a while, but we're still seeing that in the wider market, where there's a lot to choose from for a buyer and therefore whilst, there is not huge stress because the nature of the mortgage market and employment market, you are seeing gentle decline in prices. The dividend was maintained for H1 2026. Future dividend decisions will be made prudently, taking account of trading the group's cash requirements, investment opportunities, and clearly the costs arising from the ongoing matters. Just to reinforce, dividends are absolutely in our DNA. Drivers of growth, again, it's a familiar slide. As the four parts really as we see it. The new franchising element, it's very simple. Comes to us and open new locations or convert their existing estate agents to us. The assisted acquisition, which is the big story, is the acquisition of the Peter Clarke business in the Cotswolds. That's largest to date. Portfolio management, where we're trying to headhunt and collect the best talent in the industry to come and join Winkworth and deliver internal network growth. I think we haven't put it this time, but we'll talk in a little bit about how that's affecting market share. And owned businesses, which again, we will talk about in a little bit. This is a consistent slide, and it shows the ebb and flow of the offices over a period of time. Some of this is, I suppose, positioning. Our view really has always been that better to have a strong network and walk away from offices that may be struggling and therefore of no benefit to the franchisee or ourselves for the strength, for the reinforcement of a network and our proposition and our ability to evolve and invest in the newest things that need to be done to ensure we can compete in the top three. When you look at this year, obviously you've seen the acquisitions, assisted acquisitions, some fantastic new offices joining us. Sadly, several closing, in particular Dartmouth and Milford-on-Sea, I saw there was a question. And they are unfortunately being hit by, they're very low volume areas, I should say, but they had their buzzing time. But clearly, taxation against second homes and local council tax changes have meant that the holiday home market is very difficult, and there's a big readjustment going on in these areas. I think we're seeing that not only has the demand stopped, but the different type of buyers, so the buyers of the holiday homes in the center of these towns, it's not the same as a local buyer. So there's a big readjustment going on, and those offices, sadly, weren't viable. Paddington was disappointing. Suffered from prime central London difficulties and a multi-site operator, which we let consolidate into these two other offices and service it. Now currently from neighboring offices maintaining revenue. Going forward, I think there's, we have six offices in the pipeline. One new office, which hopefully one of our regional hubs, who is going forward with another new office to add to his localized network. Then some resales and some good opportunities to resell some important offices to some new talent that we think will boost them significantly and therefore make our network stronger and grow our 8%. So we started doing this as a sort of series, and these are some of the stars around the network. Jamie and Kylee are sort of the, our Norfolk network. They also have Southwold, but predominantly Norfolk, and are soon to be opening a new office. They are fantastic operators, ambitious, and are leading the charge with the Winkworth brand in the area and creating a fantastic reputation. They opened in 2018 and have done that, so it says 2019 for Burnham, and have done that since then with our backing. Burnham, Hellesdon, Eaton Southwold. The revenue last year was GBP 1.9 million. We continue to support people like Jamie and Kylee where they look to expand because we have our trust in them. So, owned offices. Yes, a bit of a change, and I think we sort of talked about it a little bit up front. We've consolidated it. There's less exposure to them as a venture within our business. We have Crystal Palace we sold on. It was a situation where we were set to lose the office due to a contractual dispute, and so we took it on. We put in a good manager. The manager didn't, in the end, wish to take it on himself, so we sold it to a neighboring franchisee who's a great operator, has a number of offices, and it slots in very neatly to his localized network. So, we kept the revenue stream from the area, actually boosted it many times over, I think in terms of for 8%, and now put it in a place where it can continue to deliver that for years to come. In terms of commercial investments, as I said, it's a very difficult market for that sector of the business. We felt that posed a risk to us in our sort of high dividend paying nature, and so better to sort of wind it down if we didn't have the recurring revenue under it to support it through a difficult time. So, again, sort of reduce our exposure. The Pimlico and Tooting are two examples of this strategy. Pimlico again, was something that the office would've been lost. We felt it was important to maintain it, so we stepped in and put in a good operator in there. Therefore, we continue to have the office, and it is growing its revenue. The Tooting business is something that we took our time to acquire. It has delivered lots of different value in different areas. It increases 8% from, well, gross revenue from GBP 200,000 to GBP 1.6 million or GBP 1.5 million. Got a great operator into the network. He went on actually to own two others, which are now doing fantastically well. Then we had a manager that didn't deliver as much as hoped, but we maintained his profitability, and we've now got another star player in there, and hopefully he'll go on to own more of it or all of it in due course. I suppose in the meantime, we'd be benefiting from the increased 8% and profit generation over the years. Operating performance, this really just gives you a nice flavor of the network and how it performs. A couple of stats we take from the industry data company, which is TwentyEA. They generally have the data for the industry and produce these statistics. First thing to say is it was good to have a number one. Number one property sold subject to contract across the area we operate in. That's fantastic, obviously. Then we put, and we will do it through the end of the year. We put it in a slide normally where it's started in a slide where we say how many more of offices we've got in the top three is showing, I suppose, to show the work that goes into improving the quality of our network and how we are improving, and therefore, continuing to move revenue forward. This is just to say, look, we've improved our market share in London, 24% in the last five years. That is another way, I suppose, of demonstrating that the existing network is going forward, perhaps on the back of portfolio management and the new talent we're bringing in, hopefully our efforts to improve our platform. Then just some other statistics, this is against the operating area. With us, you're more likely to agree a sale, you're more likely to exchange that property once you've agreed it, you're less likely to withdraw your property from our services, and you're less likely to have a sale fall through. Hopefully those all bode well for a healthy network. Then we have digital evolution. Really, we call Winkworth OS, and this is, I suppose to break it down, to make some clear, we look at it as lead generation. How can we ensure that our digital investment generates more leads for franchisees? Clearly, that's getting involved with ensuring that AIs can read our website and read our properties within it more easily. That is an investment in our website to ensure that can happen, and therefore we can get more searches and more inquiries as people move some of their searching or a lot of their searching through these AI language models, away from traditional routes. We can cover that off. We have invested and will continue to invest. We have done some of the work, and we have got more to come. We also will be off with the new website of a platform where we will be able to provide more options for clients to be able to do things themselves should they wish. Obviously, our whole purpose is we are a people business and they are front and board. They are front and center, so we want to do things that support our people and support them in communicating with their clients. Then there are obviously there are operating efficiencies, how we can communicate with our franchisee network, how we can use the data we have in our network. How, as I said, MyWinkworth can help clients manage or have transparency around their property transaction and their property dealings, and obviously franchisee economics. What can we look at that does not undermine our people-first business, but gives them savings, hopefully, and ensures them they are more efficient and that they can add value to their business. That is our thinking of how we do it. Obviously, there is a number of projects that are running. First and foremost is a new website platform which should be with us this year, which will be the first step, and other parts are following. Again, really a side relief, the website is the center of the network, really, and hopefully, we have always aspired to have a best-in-class website. We feel it is something that franchisees can hang their hat off and it can deliver a lot of value to our franchisees. This just really gives you the leads. What is interesting on the leads, visit sites, obviously, I think you can see the surges in the market in 2021 for a start. But also that it is stuck, which is worth noting. We have seen a significant pickup and part of that is AI-generated. More searches coming from AI, which has boosted our visits, significantly from its more recent trajectory. Then just to give you an idea, obviously looking at the charts on the left, valuation leads, around 6,000 to the network a year. That is quite a big engine of delivering business and hopefully shows the value we add to an individual business through this platform we have invested in to ensure it is best-in-class. Looking back and looking ahead, H1 broadly in line with management expectations. We continue with our plan of recruiting new talent to uplift our revenue and improve the network. We had a stream of new talent through the Peter Clarke business, joining our business, improving the mix of it. With our franchisees who have done really well and managed the Renters' Rights Act transition and managed to grow the lettings and management revenue through that uncertain time. We have deployed strongly increasing cash flow to do that assisted acquisition and support franchisees whilst maintaining the dividend in the first half. Going forward, some of these goals are always consistent goals. Being the first option for a client, aspiring to be the first option for a client wishing to set up their own business operating in prime markets, and continue to offer a platform allowing successful agents to rank in the top three in their area, so they are profitable in all markets, as we said. Manage the portfolio to grow the quality of the network, reputation, and income. Providing many options to ensure that we can attract the best operators out there to join the Winkworth network through one of those options. Continue to invest in our brand and digital platform to support our franchisees. Remain a people-led business backed by state-of-the-art technology. Obviously, we have talked launching our new website. Adapt to the new role AI is playing in property search, ensure that we are therefore adapted and providing value to our franchisees because of that adaptation. We have a strong balance sheet enabling us to invest in opportunities as they arise through the cycle. Finally, share owning strength with shareholders through regular dividend distributions. Thank you. That is the presentation. Let us move on to any questions. That is great, Dominic, Andrew, thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q&A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via our investor dashboard. Dominic, Andrew, if I may now hand back to you and take us through the Q&A session. Kindly ask you to read out the questions where appropriate to do so, and I will pick up from you both at the end. Thank you. We have a pre-submitted question. Investors are, of course, keen to hear the latest news on whether or not the current directors are likely to still be on the premises. Certainly interested to hear more about 34% shareholder, Irene Ho Kim Lee, the chair's wife, who was hitherto unknown, throwing her weight around. Cannot really talk about that at all, I am afraid. Meanwhile, back at the coalface, pleased to see the Leamington franchisee thriving and expanding. More concerning is the closure of the South Coast branches, Dartmouth and Milford. Maybe I can answer that. I think, yeah, we have got a really talented guy in Leamington and he is doing great things. We are really pleased that we have backed him and that is going really well, and it is a happy ship with great potential. That is fantastic. The Dartmouth and Milford, hopefully I explained a bit. There has been a big change to the second-hand market for holiday homes has really struggled due to recent steps, disincentive tax changes, I suppose. They sadly were not viable. What level sales transactions are expecting London market in 2026? Let me just see if I get this. There we go. Sorry. 2026 versus 2025. I think you are seeing it probably come in slightly below. I think it has been pretty resilient. Obviously, it started off with great hopes to move significantly ahead. As is the way with the property market of late, macro events have affected things. I think we will see it land within overall U.K. transactions, I think Xavier was saying 4% down. I think that seems reasonable. Question, of the 104 offices currently in the network, how many would you classify as mature? How much revenue growth is typically achievable from a mature franchise? Gosh, yeah. I do not know if we have categorized it that way. Basically, our London network is very mature. It is those 59. They have been there for a very long time, most of them, and have great market share. It does vary by area. Every area has got different transaction numbers and different property price points, which all feed in different commissions and therefore opportunities. I suppose we look at that and when we did, for example, Tooting, we looked at it and said, "Okay, well look, that has got a lot of transactions." It is young professionals, houses, flats, a lot of movement. It does not have perhaps the big gardens of some areas which means people stay there forever. So, had huge potential. We invested in it to make sure we realized that potential. That is not a direct answer, but it explains that we do look at it. But there is generally more potential in a London market because there's more movement than perhaps a country market where the people move less often. So question from Stephen B. With the equity-owned businesses now representing a smaller proportion of the group, should we expect the underlying margin profile to become more stable? Yes. There's a lower risk from the, well, especially in particular the fluctuations of DCI and was a good, let's say it's profitable. It was based on significant deals, so there was more risk. I think, yes. I think there's a slightly uncertain backdrop and we're taking cautious approach and it's one of the tools we use to improve our network revenue and bring quality people into it. As I say, we go back to initial Tooting story. The chap came on board wouldn't have bought it, didn't have the funds to buy it, owns two neighboring offices, which are sort of rapidly moving to the top 10 in Winkworth. So it brought in some really good talent and generated some money along the way. So it's one of the tools, but we're wary to not over-commit to it. What have been the key changes in the rentals market since the Renters' Rights Act came into being? I think it's that, from an agency point of view, there's been a movement from upfront charging because of the fixed terms, to charging monthly. Most of our franchisees have adapted to that, hence why there's been a fairly smooth transition. They spent the years before doing that, not all of them, and I think you saw that in Central London slide where they're slightly down. That's the main thing from an agency point of view. From a client consumer point of view, clearly the issue will be around rental increases and whether tenants dispute those increases and how the tribunal can cope. Basically, the overall message seems that it's in place and perhaps some of the fears that were being talked about haven't come to pass, and we will continue. It's just some of those landlords didn't wish to be under that regulatory environment. Do you expect to see any measures in the October budget which might have an impact on the sales market? Fingers crossed, not. I think he said he's not going to, hopefully, make the mistakes of budgets past, and that wasn't within the remit. So I'm hopeful and certainly what has been a great improvement is we haven't had the kite flying of last year, which started at the end of August, weighing on everyone. So I'm optimistic, and I don't think there's going to be a particular housing agenda in the coming budget. A question. Adam Stackhouse left in February, and development/investment closed with BTR Development, a huge driver and potential deliverer of letting instructions for franchisees. Why isn't he being replaced? I think it is just, I suppose at the moment we feel that there is probably a bit too much risk for the profile of business we have to be involved in what is a very difficult market in the current economy, I suppose, in terms of the cost involved with developers and investment and what is being done in that sector is it has been very much. Everyone has been struggling in it, and so perhaps now is not the time to be pushing forward on it. As we pay deference to being a high dividend paying, progressive dividend business. Not to say it may not be revisited in the future, but that is the current thinking. Can management confirm the status of Simon Agace, please? One, is he still non-executive chair? Yes, he is. Is he or a representative still attending board meetings? Yes, he is, and he is still on the company's payroll. A further question. Today's statement says, "Our cash position provides us with the capacity to continue to explore new opportunities as well as to absorb exceptional costs incurred in 2026." Does the cash position also provide the company with the capacity to maintain the dividend? The wording suggests the company will prioritize new dividends over paying the dividend if the legal fees really rack up. I alluded to the dividends when we went through the dividend slide, and we cannot really say more than that at the moment. Yeah, I think we are a dividend paying. We understand it is important to our shareholders, and we will be looking to pay them, as we always have done. That marks the end of the questions. That's great. If I may just jump back in there, and thank you for addressing those questions for investors today. Dominic, before I redirect investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to yourself and the company, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments? I think really it's just say that the company has proven again that it's a fantastically resilient business, and that's driven by some really high-quality people in the network, working very hard for themselves as business owners to succeed, and never more so than when market's uncertain do they succeed. I think we've seen that. We are in uncertain times, but that will always be true, which bodes very well for Winkworth's future. Dominic, Andrew, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors now to close this session? As you know, you will be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.