At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Massimo Candela, CEO of F.I.L.A. Please go ahead, sir. Good afternoon, and welcome to this nine months presentations. No doubt, I am very satisfied about the results we are delivering. I am referring to sales. I am referring to the EBITDA. I am referring to cash generation and also net income. So what the EBITDA is concerned, the most important message is that we have regained the what we consider a consistent profitability between 17% and 18%. I think multiple times I have recalled in the meetings around the world that this target was our primary target, and in these nine months we are happy to show these results. In terms of net profit, I think the result is important in a year in which we have been forced to manage a very high cost of financing, and the fact that the company has been able to deliver a net profit growing versus last year, I think it's a very important message. Net bank debt is even more important. We have been able, in nine months, to generate also EUR 50 million free cash flow in advance of a possible extraordinary project that all of you are informed in India. So I think this is very important because after COVID period and after the acquisition in North America that has put the group in a leveraged situation we are clearly showing a very strong path towards the reduction the reduction of the debt. So these nine months show a very strong capability of generating cash and improving the working capital. In general terms we can say that we are having a very strong year almost everywhere in the world except for Europe. In Europe due probably to the weak economy and the high interest rate we are really seeing a very strong I would say beyond every logical expectation a very strong destocking process from our customers. So, this means that, for the coming quarters, the end of 2023 and the coming quarters in 2024, our expectations are for a better environment, also, also in Europe, but clearly in 2023, we have been able to record this kind of, this kind of trend. In United States, we are seeing a very healthy growth, and, with, with a very nice, profitability that we have been able to, to generate after, our, an Italian manager took over the responsibility in North America. In Mexico, we see a double-digit growth together with a strong increase of the Mexican peso, which will help us in the consolidated balance sheet. In India, as you all know, now it's almost two years that we experience a growth between 30% and 40% every year, that we can confirm also for the coming 2023. Considering these nine months and not significant variations during October and November, we can confirm what we said during last call in August, in which we had increased the targets of EBITDA beyond EUR 120 million threshold. We have confirmed that cash generation will be at the high end of the between 40 and 50, EUR 50 million. Now, I ask Cristian Nicoletti to explain in detail the results, and I will welcome your question later. Thank you. Thanks, Massimo. Good afternoon to everyone. You should have received the presentation, and please go to the first page. Revenue: Adjusted core business sales were EUR 614.2 million, +3.2% on nine months, 2022, +6.7% at comparable FX rates.... As Massimo said, Asia and Central South America saw significantly organic growth, +32.8% and +21.4%, respectively, thanks to the strong performance, particularly in the school and office segment in India and Mexico. I'd like to highlight, in particular, the performance in North America, +3.5% on the nine months, 2022. As you already know, since the beginning of January, F.I.L.A. Group management focus was moved to North America, with the aim to bring back the subsidiary to the historical level and profitability at a consistent growth. In Europe, the scenario is still complex and strongly influenced by the high cost of money, which has generated important destocking effects. Adjusted EBITDA in nine months 2023, excluding the IFRS 16, was EUR 180 million, +13.1% on nine months 2022, +13.3% at a like-for-like exchange rate. It led to a more than proportional growth in their revenue, thanks to positive performance, in particular, in North America and Asia. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 17.6%, with a significant increase of 150 basis points on the same period, thanks to the positive effect generated by price increases due to the efficiency of business in North America and to the results obtained from the various actions implemented on process and structural costs, as well as working capital management. Net profit. The total adjusted net profit, excluding IFRS 16 impact, was EUR 45.1 million, +4.9% on nine months, 2022, thanks to the strong operating performance, despite higher net financial expenses at EUR 23.4 million, compared to the one for the same period the previous year, of which EUR 21.5 million, mainly related to the increase in variable interest rates. Adjusted group net profit was EUR 39.1 million to the strong, to the growing contribution minority to EUR 6.1 million, significantly half to EUR 3.6 million in nine months 2022. The net bank debt over the last twelve months was EUR 367 million, EUR 450.6 million in nine months 2022, with a decrease into the last twelve months of EUR 48.6 million. Decrease of EUR 45.5 million, excluding the positive FX effect of approximately EUR 9.2 million, and the negative M&A effect of approximately EUR 8.2 million, related to the acquisition made by DOMS Industries Limited. Adjusted free cash flow to equity was + EUR 6.4 million, -EUR 24.1 million in nine months 2022, with an improvement of EUR +30.5 million on nine months 2022, mainly to the higher operational cash flow generation and lower working capital absorption of EUR 34.2 million. Following the release on inventory, in line with our expectation, mainly in North America, partially mitigated by higher CapEx for EUR 13.2 million, almost related to Asia, to support the growth and higher net financial expenses for EUR 3.57 million, mainly to the interest rate increase. Now we are ready for Q&A session. Thank you. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Niccolò Storer with Kepler. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is on India, if you can give us the latest on the IPO process, and what is the expected timetable to date? The second one, still related to Indian DOMS's IPO. If you can share with us how much of the extraordinary costs reported year to date are related to the IPO process? The last question is on Europe. I've made some calculations and in Q3, probably we were down organically 10%, so maybe if you can comment on what's behind this drop, if it's just fine arts dragging down the figure or if it's school? Maybe also if you have a view on how the sellout is doing, because we are talking about the stocking, but we do not know whether customers are buying products or not? Thank you. Good afternoon, Nicola, and thanks for your question. So concerning question number one, India IPO, everything is moving on time, and also, I can say in the best way possible. There is a huge interest in this IPO and in this company. We just finished the road show, and in this moment, we are simply waiting for the green light coming from the SEBI, which is the authority of the market. Once the green light will come, and it is expected in the next maximum, in the next 10 days, you have to retrocalculate 30 days from the green light to the day of the listing of the shares. So I would say, compared to the information we have shared with you in the last four to five months, no news, good news. And we do expect the listing happening before the end of the year. Concerning extraordinary costs in nine months results, Cristian, can you please answer and maybe give some detail on these extraordinary costs? Absolutely. Okay. Regarding the extraordinary cost on nine months 2023, we have no extraordinary cost related to IPO process. We take these costs when will happen, the IPO cost, the IPO process. The main part of extraordinary costs that we faced in nine months 2023 are related reorganization and restructuring cost in North America. We are facing the reorganization, and in past, we are working on to complete the closing of the Macon, Mexico, and Saudi. That process, the activity that we hope to finalize within one year, more or less. The reorganization in Brazil, due to the commercialization reorganization activity. And the other one is a closing activity, legal contentious in North America, also, that is a contentious that we have received from the past owner of Dixon, U.S. That they are the main extraordinary costs that we faced in nine months 2023. Okay, thank you. For what Europe is concerned, I have to ask Cristian if the figures that Nicola reported, so - 10% in the third quarter, is accurate, because I don't have it on top of my mind. Okay. We faced it in at the end of nine months 2023, and negative, more or less, 6%, in line the previous- How much? How much? Year, year end, nine months, - 6%. Nine months. Okay, and the single third quarter? Should be. Just a moment. Just a moment for you. Okay, so, while Cristian is double-checking the numbers for the third quarter, your question, Nicola, is whether it is divided between Fine Art and School. Yes, proportionally, the reduction is more or less the same. Why this weak performance? So first of all, I have analyzed the trend of the market, and F.I.L.A. performance is in line with the market reduction that is mainly due to a very weak rate of birth that is now affecting all Europe. And a weak economy since I would say in Europe, especially after June, we see very strong sign of recession in many businesses, and this has increased the trend of our customer to strongly destock. When I say strongly, I really mean strongly, and I outline this because our expectation for the quarters coming are proportionally improving as from our opinion, customers are overstocking, so they are targeting a very short-term result without considering the impact on service due to their priorities in cash generation. But this is not sustainable. So really, we think the performance of Europe in this moment is worse than the reality, but we have a clear measure during the course of 2024. We think that the sellout in terms of the product mix is coherent with our history. Of course, when you see that the number of kids that are attending schools, for example, in Italy and in Spain, in the last five, six years, have gone down 18%, despite F.I.L.A. is performing well or taking market share from the competition or from private label, there is clearly a limit in this improvement. Again, we need to understand the magnitude of the destocking to better evaluate what will happen in the fourth quarter. Cristian, do you have the number ready for Europe third quarter standalone? Yes, we confirm 10% net, negative. Correct. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe I have another question, but I keep it for later. Thank you. The next question is from Isacco Brambilla with Mediobanca. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon, everybody. A couple of quick questions from my side. First one is on net working capital. Probably the most pleasant surprise of the release would be sharp decrease in net working capital. Just wondering if you have any specific target in terms of net working capital on sales for the full year 2023 you should share with us. Second question is on North America. If I take the implicit performance of the third quarter, we should be in say flattish territory. Just wondering if there is any say helping force discontinuation of non-profitable sales driving this slowdown or if it is a market trend? So, concerning the first question, so the net working capital, as you could appreciate, we are quickly reaching our target. It was in the area of 40% on sales, if you recall. I think that we are quickly improving this ratio, and this should not be a surprise because we have SAP now working and efficient all around the world. Last but not least, there are much less frictions in the supply chain. You probably recall the last two to three years, how many problems we have in logistics, in shipping, and now the situation is more regular, so the level of safety stock we have been able to reduce. So all in all, I think the target, I remember, before COVID, we were targeting something around 38%-40% of working capital on sales, and we are quickly reaching this level, thus generating a very nice cash flow. Concerning North America, the sales, Cristian, maybe you can give us more precise numbers, but it's not flat, it's not flattish. I think we are growing in dollar-denominated, but you have to consider that the dollar has strongly lost value compared to September 2022. But on top of my mind, I, I think we are between 6% and 7% of lower dollar versus last year. So this clearly has an impact in euro-denominated top line. Yes, of course, the activity we have put in place have substantially worked also on profitable sales. I think we anticipated that we wanted to be much more efficient in North America, also to reach a satisfactory level of service, to improve the quality of the business that we are managing. Also, from an organizational point of view, so an internal organization, we have reorganized the company, we have reorganized the processes, we have implemented a price increase, and we have implemented a new product with better margin. The result, I think, is extremely positive. As you can see in page five, the adjusted EBITDA by geographical area is really a substantial big number. So we are talking of 45%-46% of EBITDA coming from North America, that I think is very important also because in North America, the trend of birth rate is more stable and not expected to go down in the coming years. Before finishing the answer, this morning, during the board meeting, I was recalling to the board member that in 2019, we made a substantial acquisition in North America, increasing the level of the debt. Unfortunately, then we fall into COVID period and inflation period. So really, in North America, we have never demonstrated how good was the acquisition we have made. Well, now I think the numbers speak themselves. I think the step we made in 2019 now put us in a much more comfortable position, safer position, that is telling us the company is profitable, and more than that, can generate very good cash. The next question is from Alessandro Cecchini with Equita. Please, go ahead. Hello, everybody, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one, it's about financial expenses. It's likely that this year, at the cash level, you are running at EUR 7 million each quarter to reach around EUR 30 million for this year, if I am not wrong. I would like to have your view about financial expenses for next year, including, I mean, the potential IPO process of the India subsidiary or even without it. So considering your step down in financial costs, lower gross debt. So just if you could elaborate a little bit more on this, of course, at current interest rates. My second question is instead still about Europe. Sorry about that, but it's important. So, third quarter was -10%, so very harsh. So if I understood correctly, you are seeing a better fourth quarter, so positive organic growth in Europe or is still too early to see a revamp of sales due to the end of the destocking? My third question is about... So basically, you are deconsolidating, so we hope that you will end the process in India, and then you will deconsolidate the India business that is fast growing, very nice and so on. So I was just wondering if you are trying to find a new potential emerging market with similar opportunities to grow there or to expand via M&A? Finally, my last question about North America, very, very nice improvement margins, we are talking 18.5% in nine months. You probably will reach 16%-17%, the target already this year. Just looking if there is more room to extract value there, or of course, you are already happy about this level of profitability. Thank you. Cristian, can you please answer the first question of Alessandro? Yes, of course. Alessandro, we confirm the expectation of the interest at the end of the year. In particular, I want to highlight that the scenarios of the interest, variable interest, is completely different what we have assumed at the beginning of the year. Because at the beginning of the year, we are roughly doing a Euribor at the value 2.2%, more or less, and SOFR, more or less, 3.5%. Today, we are on a Euribor that is roughly 3.8%, and on SOFR that is more or less 5.1%. Considering this variable interest increase, the group managed very well the impact of the interest rate, because taking into account that we have an agreement covered for 35%. The effect of 2022 is completely different. We are working to reduce this impact with cash pooling on cluster Europe, working to reduce as much as possible the external line in Mexico... where we have interest for 50%, and we obtain a decrease of fees in North America. This is the scenario that we are working on, and we can confirm that we reach our target, more or less between EUR 28 million-EUR 30 million. Related to scenario 2024, depend of the per, the release, the success that we'll have, we hope about IPO process. We consider on a saving without, well, saving, considering the success IPO for EUR 10 million next year. Considering India in our perimeter, the saving will be there. I can confirm this. So, thanks, Cristian. Concerning the second question, Europe in the fourth quarter. Yes, I think the situation will, in this moment, is slightly improving. In Europe, again, you have to consider that Europe has a very specific features in terms of distribution. It's an old type of distribution. It is characterized by thousands of small customers. So what happened in Europe, generally speaking, you can understand a little bit later in time. It's sure that this destocking has been massive. So in this moment, of course, customer has taken the opportunity to destock during back to school. Of course, as many of them are below the threshold, the reasonable threshold, yes, we see a more regular trend for the last fourth quarter. So, I would answer to this question: a slight improvement. Concerning India, but I think that India is a very unique country because is probably the country in the world with the youngest population. I think that it's not easy to find a country in which you have a rate of instruction that is quickly growing. So, it's probably a unique situation. Of course, we will enjoy this IPO. Probably as the IPO will touch the very high end of the range that we expect, probably F.I.L.A. will end up with a higher level of share participation, share interest, because we strongly believe in this country, so this is good news. There are areas of the world in which we definitely can do a better job, in South America and in Southeast of the world. I don't see any project of the magnitude of India, of course. I see extremely interesting opportunities coming from the old world, so from, mainly from Europe. This situation, when F.I.L.A. is commenting probably the best year of its history, in the same time, we see a balance sheet and economical situation of direct competitor extremely weak. The reason is because we are exposed to North America, to Mexico and India, while competition is more focused on Europe, and in Europe, the situation is complicated. I see in the three, four years coming, a strong aggregation of the business, and here we can enjoy great opportunities in the coming, in the coming years. Concerning U.S., U.S. has reached an extremely and higher than average profitability versus compared to F.I.L.A. balance sheet. Clearly, U.S. is a market in which you deal with very few customers. If you are able to manage properly the supply chain and the relationship, is a market in which number one, it's easier to do business when you deal with less customers. is a market that is more stable in terms of planning, so you have less impact from the stocking or from a very long chain of distribution. Still, in Europe, the biggest part of the business is made through wholesaler and small retailers. So the fact that after the deconsolidation of India, USA will represent more than 50% of our turnover, but we'll enjoy a super efficient supply chain because we have focused our resources in Mexico and in India, both countries enjoy almost no duty, Mexico, or very low duty to import in North America, makes F.I.L.A. extremely efficient to manage U.S. market and customers' expectations. So I think that we should enjoy this level of profitability, and in the coming 12-18 months, finally, we will finish the extraordinary cost, because we still pay lease for buildings and warehouses that we are not using, and these costs, in this moment, are falling into the extraordinary. Finally, these leases will end, and this will help us to increase the cash generation and substantially go towards zero with the extraordinary cost. So we are quite positive for what the U.S. market is concerned. Okay, thank you. Follow up on financial expenses, I didn't understand if it's EUR 10 million reduction including the IPO process or, I mean, excluding. So just if you could- Yes. Give more granularity on this. And you, you spoke about during the call about Europe outlook for 2024. So I was asking you if you have some specific actions on profitability, because, of course, you, you look at very good in the U.S., while of course, also due to top line margins in Europe were weak this year. Thank you. In Europe, we don't have the – or better, we have some specific commercial action. We are learning from what is happening this year, and we think we are going to be a little bit more aggressive. Again, we are not negative or slightly positive for next year. So, for Europe, we see a recovery for 2024. For what is the financial cost is concerned, we really at the situation where we are today, we do not consider any more the possibility that the IPO will not happen. We have advanced so much that we really think the IPO now is almost a reality, is a fact. The EUR 10 million less interest rate, which means EUR 2.5 million per quarter, we think now it's a fact starting from January 2024. Okay. Many thanks. The next question is from Pietro Nargi, Intermonte. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. The first one is about top line. If my calculation were correct, the year-on-year organic growth in the third quarter was above about 4.5%. So if you could provide a split between the pricing component and the volume. The second question is on profitability. Looking at the Asian market, it seems the Asian market is performing very well in terms of margins, with 20% margins in the third quarter, right below the first half results in terms of the margin. If you could provide the main drivers underlying this strong performance. And the last one is about CapEx. If you could provide with an update on the expectation for the full year 2023 on CapEx. Thanks. Okay. Excuse me, can you repeat what year for CapEx, 2024 or 2023? 2023. Thanks. Okay. So, for what sales is concerned, we have a quite negative impact from exchange rate. If you go back to page four, our sales are in the area of 3.2%, while if we consider the same or comparable exchange rate, our sales will grow around 7%. It's written in page four. Yes. So I was referring to the third quarter, not the first quarter. Third quarter standalone. That number- Yeah. I don't have in front of me. Sorry, especially because I'm not in the office today. So, Yeah. Cristian, can you please answer? Because I don't have this number in front of me, sorry. We confirm your assumption. We have an increase of EUR 31 million net of FX, 31 at the end of June and EUR 40 million net of FX, only one quarter. ... I was talking about 4.5% year-on-year organic growth in the third quarter. That is compensated by a reduction about 7.4% due to effects, meaning the year-on-year growth is negative by roughly 3%. So my point, my question is about the pricing component and the volume one. So if you could split the organic growth across these two components. No, I think we are not able, but anyway, I really have a hard time to understand the question because 93% of our sales or 70% of our sales are outside Europe, which means that you have to analyze by currency and by product mix, and by, also by price mix, because for example, in India, the unit price is much lower than than in Europe. So I think to talk about a single trend worldwide is really meaningless. So it's a, it's a kind of analysis that we do not, we do not perform. It makes sense by country. So unless Cristian is able to answer, I am not really in a position to answer how much is volume, how much is pricing, because, again, in India, unit price is much lower, and then you have to consider the exchange rate. While coming back to your question on margins, yes, in southeast of the world, margins are definitely growing, and I think I explained this in one of the recent call. There is definitely an improvement. There is number one, an operational leverage for, especially in India, when a company grow between 30% and 40%, of course, the overhead percentage tend to have a lower impact. Then the company now has reached a threshold which is recognized a leader in terms of innovation, in terms of image, and now it represents a bit of the rising star. So we have been able to increase prices versus competition. In the past, there was much more sensitivity on prices, especially in India, while now our consumers tend to ask for our product. Last, but not least, India has not suffered like Europe from the consequences of Ukraine war. The reason is very simple: there is a ban on Russian raw materials, while in India, there is no ban on Russian raw materials. So the inflation on raw material in India is much lower than the inflation we have in Europe. So clearly, this has helped a lot the improvement of our margins. For question number three, Cristian, maybe you can answer about CapEx, please. Okay. Yes, related to composition investments at the end of September 2023, the main parts are related to DOMS's development. You remember that we have EUR 25 million. We have roughly EUR 10 million to buy on a land, with the capability of the company. And our expectation for 2023 is to confirm our budget, that is roughly EUR 30 million, EUR 33 million, roughly. Very clear. Thanks. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from Sabrina Preda, Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead. Hello, good afternoon to everybody. I have a question on the pricing policy in the U.S. I know that you probably don't need to change any price mix there, but I was wondering if you are thinking to apply, sooner or later, the same mix as in Europe or an entry-level price products? Thank you. Sabrina, for your question. So if I understood, well, your question, is if we are going to increase further prices in United States? No, because we have increased prices last time, in January 2023. We are happy now with the new pricing structure, and we are, I think we are stabilized. There is a kind of pressure from customers for price reduction that we are not accepting for the simple reason that there is some pressure on salaries, some to compensate the recent inflation, so we don't see any logical ground to reduce prices, not considering also the impact of interest rate and so on. So we think that the level of profitability we have reached in North America is sustainable, and it's okay for us. For your question of product mix, whether to consider to launch product more in the entry-level section, if I understood well your question? Yes. Yes, thank you. Thank you. No, we are considering for Europe because we think that there is a growing demand due to the clear recession that is going on in Europe, and the fact that inflation has opened some space to the competition that we want to close. Please, let me highlight that this does not mean that we are going to reduce our average margin. We are going to launch probably new product in the entry-level section, but keeping our percentage margin stable. In United States, we don't need to do that because we are already in a level that is extremely competitive in North America, like in India, by the way. India and United States, for the distribution features, are already extremely competitive markets. If I could guess, the price positioning for the consumer in North America is almost half of Europe already today. Our competition is made by the private label. Private label in North America, historically, is very well distributed, has reached more or less 30% of the market share, while in Europe is still sitting around 18%, so much lower. But above 30%, private label has very hard time to find new market share or to gain market share. So there is a kind of stabilization. We face this competition now for almost 15-20 years. As I said, it's a very competitive market. So already for 15 years, we have been forced to position ourselves very competitive against private label. In India, just for your information, but it's important, the competition, the market is dominated by local manufacturer. Local manufacturer do not have the tradition to produce private label because there is no space for private label to compete against the local leader, as the market is so competitive that we enjoy very high volumes, but also a very minimal margin to guarantee the profitability. So in India, the pressure is historically very strong on prices, and it's probably the lowest price market in the world, even lower than North America. Thank you. Mr. Candela, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for the closing remarks. I thank all of you to have attended this call, and I think we're going to meet soon during the meetings. Thanks a lot.