Good morning, this is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero first half 2023 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing Star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir. Hi, good morning, everybody. Before I pass the word to Raffaella and Matteo, I would like to spend with you a couple of minutes to comment our results. First of all, of course, it's a pleasure to comment this kind of results. I have no doubt they are really outstanding, outperforming, but my intention is here to draw your attention about how they've been built on a couple of points. Considering the mix distribution and shipping, as you probably can notice, the distribution part is almost the double of last year's six months result, and this is built on a few reasons. First of all, the mix of products that our company is dealing with is year- by- year improving in terms of value added. Of course, with the boost also of the new acquisition in France, this is going to, of course, have a positive impact on our margin. Second, there is a point which is this year, finally, it seems that the banana business has found a kind of balance between supply and demand, as a consequence the margin are more satisfactory for the industry and for us as well. That it's another point. I think, as far as concerns the shipping, we have a satisfactory situation for the time being, with a bit of going down on the dry cargo. But the overall results are, I would say, at no low profile, almost perfect. And now, I would like to have the honor to pass the word to Raffaella. Thank you. Thank you, Paolo. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. I endorse Paolo's perfect synthesis, and I will try to add something. But first, let me say that we are very proud, and I want to express personally my gratitude to all the, to all the, to all our people who made this possible. All financial KPI have seen a significant improvement, combined with an excellent cash generation. But particularly, we are pleased with the strong performance of distribution. Distribution results are due to a several concomitant factors, not only one. The work done in the last year on high value product mix, significant volume growth in some specific campaign, better Banana business due to a lower volume pressure from origin, a stable dollar exchange rate and of course, the M&A effect. But, please, would you note that even like for like, the results are very excellent. On the two new French companies, we can say that they are integrating perfectly and on their specific results, there have been no extraordinary events. They are only confirming the business plan on which they are committed with us. About shipping is still performing well, maintains a very good profitability despite the gradual normalization, especially on dry cargo, that we expect more marked in the second half. Obviously, with this result, we have revised upward the guidance. Taking into account, however, some factor that could worsen the second half compared to the first one. I mentioned just a few as lack of significant campaigns in terms of volume in the last quarter, further fall in consumption due to inflation, as already mentioned, a worse second half of shipping compared to last year. Now, I will turn the call to Matteo to talk more in detail the financial results. Thank you, Raffaella. Thank you, Paolo, and good morning, everybody. I will go more in detail, looking at the PowerPoint presentation we uploaded on our website yesterday night. In terms of corporate event, actually, the group is continuing to execute the strategy, responding flexibly to the macroeconomic challenges and uncertainties and exploiting possible opportunities, thanks to the business model, that as a reminder, is multi-source and extensive for the range, pushing on added volume, added value products, diversified geographical scope, and diversified channel mix, really well balanced between retailers and wholesale channel. It's almost 50/50 as a whole. And obviously, the strategy continues to be vertically integrating banana and pineapple logistics, that allows us to gather very good quality fruit and to have an efficient logistic and obviously a profitable business on banana and pineapple filière. In terms of Capexo, we are in line with planned investment. Actually, the first half have been slightly lower than our expectation, and possibly the second half of the year, we'll see a higher amount of CapEx. But as a whole, we maintain our view and our guidance between EUR 14 million-16 million for this year, 2023. And as always, all the CapEx are related to the business, so we are actively enlarging our and upgrading our distribution footprint, and we are continuing to execute the ESG strategic plan. The main investment we are performing now are the renovation of the oranges warehouse in France, the retooling of the Alverca site in Portugal, and a new enlargement of the Verona facility that will allow us to be more efficient and to grow on added value products. So all the investment we're performing are related to the to add capacity to our added value gamma in terms of product mix. Operating cash conversion is really good due to the profitability that is really really high and a record. And we are continuing to effectively work on working capital management, and that allows us to maintain a balanced working capital situation facing a relevant growth in terms of sales. As a reminder, but you probably all know that, at the beginning of the year, we performed the two acquisitions, Groupe Blampin and Capexo. We will go deep in details later on. But actually, the two new groups companies that we that we bought at the beginning of the year are performing really well, both in terms of figures, sales, and profitability, and we are really satisfied by the way the people are starting to work together, commercially speaking. As a reminder, the total outlay paid for the two acquisitions is not paid, but considered in the net financial position and invested capital is EUR 91.2 million. That is including as well, all the earn-out that we will have, hopefully to pay, based on the, on the future results of the next 3-4 years, and is considering as well, the put and call related to the last 13% of Blampin that we are committed to buy in 5 years. Interest rate situation, actually, as you all know, all the world face a strong, increase in Euribor or LIBOR, depending on the, on the country. But this is just partially affecting the group average cost of debt, thanks to the fact that our debt structure, is really well structured for the situation because, the gross debt, considering the gross debt, 80%, it has, 2.5+ year duration, and over 60% is resulting in fixed rate. The last, let's say, relevant financing pool was signed in July 2022. So actually, we were lucky and able to catch the very last moment to obtain a decent swap between variable and fixed rate. So actually, sure, we see in our P&L an increase in terms of cost of debt, but we were able to contain the impact of that. And actually, we are trying to be efficient using our liquidity within the group, so moving the liquidity within the group, avoiding to use financing line on short- terms. So we actually were not actually using just a little few million EUR in terms of short-term financing line. So just to give you a picture on that, that is actually something relevant for the economy at the moment. We paid the dividend in May, EUR 6 million or 0.35 EUR per share. And given the results of the 2023 first half, we decided to review and upward the guidance for the full- year, and we will see in details later on. Business wise, the market context is pretty hard in terms that there's a here and there slowdown in consumption, downturn of economy condition, as we know, inflationary pressure is continuing, and fresh produce is affected, both because the demand is not really booming because of the inflation situation, inflationary situation. It's all the climatic events are touching the capability to source the product from the production. In this context, actually, we are really satisfied because, given to the, thanks to the structure of the group in terms of sourcing, multi-sourcing, multi-geography, both domestic, European, overseas, and the diversity we have in our supplier portfolio, we were able to manage and to the situation and to improve both volumes and selling prices. Obviously, the growth on sales is mainly driven by the selling prices, but we have a couple points up in volume as a whole, and this is probably the best news we can give you, business-wise. The Distribution segment, like- for- like, see a 10% growth versus H1, 2022. All the rest of the growth is related to the new acquisition, CapEx, but like for like indicator, it's really relevant for us. And, the reason why we have this performance is related to the fact that we have a very good mix between the historical, let's say, commodity product line. That, for example, for Banana, are giving us good satisfaction, both in terms of sales and margin, and we are continuing to grow in added value product. In terms of adjusted EBITDA, we're touching really record points. The profitability of the whole group is really consistent with our strategy, and obviously, the Capexo added something relevant to the group profitability, because as you remember, the two company are well above the average profitability of the rest of the group, and this is always part of our growth strategy in the M&A. Actually, we have a good news as well in the operations because the energy costs, as you remember, last year, were booming beginning from May, June, and then July, August, and September. Actually, still the cost of energy is higher related to the Ukraine conflict situation, but it's slowing down, and we are able to manage it and to contain the cost and to benefit our P&L. Shipping business unit, actually, it has slightly lower volumes, which reflect the production trend, and that's even why, on the other end, on the Banana supply demand, we are well balanced, and so the result is finally coming after a few years of pressure. And it is resulting in slightly lower revenues, but the context we are seeing for the fruit freight rate, it's stability. In these very weeks, we are seeing the booking and the loading factor really, really good. So, on the, let's say, trunk haul activity, everything is continuing really good, and, we didn't see, even in the first half, a major changing. Obviously, the profitability is slowing down a bit because of weaker euro versus USD situation, and, the fact that the backhaul cargo, so the dry cargo is slowing down in terms of market. But as a whole, still we see a very good situation and profitability outcome from the shipping business unit. Going on the main figures of the consolidated main figures, so we have net sales touching EUR 763.4 million, or +32.5% versus last year overall, including the two acquisition. Shipping almost unchanged, I would say. Adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA comes in at almost EUR 60 million, up EUR 19 million or 47% compared with last year, with a margin on sales of 7.8%. And this is thanks to mainly the distribution effect, because shipping is all in all stable. All the results go down, excluding depreciation and amortization to the earnings before interest and taxes, that moves upward to EUR 42.8 million, or 64% to almost 65% versus last year. And the adjusted net profit spikes 57%, up twelve million euros to EUR 33.4 million versus EUR 21.3 million last year. The reported is slightly lower because we have some adjustment that we will see later on. Total equity is touching EUR 230 million, as a direct consequence of the net profit, and minus the dividend paid. Net financial position, excluding IFRS 16, is EUR 87.5 million at best, including a upfront cash out for the acquisition of EUR 65.7 million, non-interest bearing debt for a total of EUR 25.5 million, as I said before, related to earn-out, and put and call liabilities, you know, for the 13.3% of Blampin. And then obviously, as we said, a strong operating cash flow generation in H1. The net financial position, including IFRS 16, so the reported one, is EUR 136 million, including almost EUR 50 million IFRS 16 liability, of which EUR 2.7 million related to the second year charter agreement of the fifth reefer vessels. I anticipate on that point that by the end of the year, the value of the IFRS 16 will increase up to probably EUR 60 million, because we will have to recharter back the fifth ship for two more years, and so we will have to reload, let's say, the effect on the IFRS 16. So then we will explain it better on the guidance. I think that now the last figures we would comment is the effect a bit of detail on the adjusted net profit by variance. So we start from an adjusted net profit, H1 2022, at EUR 21.3 million, going to 33.4 of H1 2023. The main effect is the adjusted EBITDA, that is accounting for EUR 19 million. We have EUR 2.1 million higher D&A and provision. This is mainly the effect of the new acquisition consolidation. Financial share of profit is impacted with -EUR 2.3, and this is totally related to the interest rate bearing on the new debt and the increase in the overall cost of debt, as we commented before. And obviously, a tax effect that is not really high because we were able to be really efficient on the tax impact of EUR 2.2 million that is related to the fact that the Distribution is performing way better than last year, and the two new acquisition are obviously performing very, very well. The adjustment of H1 2023 is net EUR 1 million. That is basically related to provision for employees' profit sharing in Mexico and France for EUR 400,000. The accrual for top management incentive of EUR 280,000 related to the LTI matured between 2020 and 2022, but accounting-wise is split on the vesting period. So, including this year, we have an accrual on that. And then there's almost EUR 500,000 net, net of impact of final settlement agreement with the customs agency for litigation that were lasting for 20 years, and we were able to close by the end of the first half. I think that's all for the figures. Last few words on the financial guidance, 2023. So we feel confident in upgrading our guidance on sales. The first one was between EUR 1.44 billion and EUR 1.51 billion, and we passed through a bracket between EUR 1.47 billion and EUR 1.52 billion. So we slightly increased the guidance on sales. We added 10 million on the EBITDA, so the new guidance is between EUR 92 million and EUR 97 million, compared with the last one that was between EUR 82 million and EUR 87 million. Adjusted net profit between EUR 44 million and EUR 48 million, the last one was EUR 38 million and EUR 42 million. Net financial position, including IFRS 16, is between EUR 138 million and EUR 132 million, compared with the last version that was EUR 148 million and EUR 140 million. CapEx, we confirm the guidance between EUR 14 million and EUR 16 million. The adjusted EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, has the same effect compared with the one including the IFRS 16. On the net financial position, we have an effect related to the IFRS 16 effect because, as I said before, on the net financial position, excluding the accounting effect, we upgraded the guidance, starting from EUR 87 million to EUR 82 million, and now going to EUR 80 million- EUR 75 million. But when we go to the reported one, we must include as well, the effects of the renewal of the charter of the fifth ship that we're gonna be performing by the end of the year. I think that's all for the figure, and I will leave the rest of the time for the Q&A session. 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. We will pause for a moment as participants are joining the queue. The first question is from Andrea Bonfà, from Banca Akros. Please go ahead. Hello, good morning to everybody. My name-- but first of all, congratulations for the results, they're definitely outstanding. I was reading your press release, and Mr. Orsero mentioned this several strategic organic growth projects. If you can elaborate on those, that would be interesting. The second one is a detail on the financial charges, how much should we expect by year-end? And if you can, let's say, break down between core interest charges and accounting items, this is the second question, in case I come back to the queue. Thank you very much. Okay. Andrea, good morning. I will try to go on both points. Starting from the strategic project that we are talking about in the press release. This is really connected with the investment that I was explaining before within our facilities. Actually, the idea, apart from continuing our scouting on M&A to look for opportunities, we really think that the correct strategy for us is to continue to push and to leverage our distribution capacity in order to add added value, added value products. But sometimes, to do that, in a really, let's say, correct way, strategic wise, you must dedicate spaces, you must dedicate people, and you must dedicate effort on the specific new product line, because most of the time, those product lines are a specialized one, so you must really invest, focus, and hire people to follow that. So I cannot disclose which are the projects, but we have a couple that we're working on. And actually, by the end of this year or beginning of next year, we will be able to disclose something more. But it's really a part of our strategy to continue to invest in to create, let's say, business line within our portfolio mix, that are able to create growth and value. This is basically our aim. We did that with the fresh cut, we are doing that with the smoothies, we are doing that with the exotic fruits, and we were trying to push on other products like this. Just to be clear, the EBITDA results that we are seeing since 2-3 years, because the performance are really good since many years, it's really related to the fact that our average price and value mix is higher compared with 2 years ago. And this is what we want to do in the future, apart from M&A and other strategic plan, but internally, we want to go there. Going to the financial charges, actually, when you see the synthetic reporting that we include in the financial charges, a few things. So if you see the figure of the first half, you have EUR 5.6 million, but EUR 3 million is real financial charges, the interest one that we pay. Then we have EUR 1.2 million related to the IFRS 16 and put and call cost, that is, IFRS 16 consideration within the interest rate. And we have EUR 700 thousand related to exchange rate effects. So what we see is that we think we're gonna arrive by the end of the year, around EUR 8 million, EUR 8 million something of total, let's say, but just EUR 6 million will be more or less related to financial expenses. Okay. And if I may, since you mentioned M&A and acquisition, what is the state of the art on that, on that front? What you are looking at, in which, let's say, product category, which markets, if you can elaborate on that? It's something that we actually always scout in the distribution, and we are scouting in Europe, not outside Europe. Actually, we are even looking at potentially something that is adding value to our overall distribution. But it's not the time to talk about that. But the only information I can give it to you is that we continue to maintain a focus on the M&A, but really selective one. And what we want to do through M&A is to add value to the whole Orsero that we have, trying to maintain a profile that is really to what we're able to do. So, it's not really different from what we were doing before. Actually, we were thinking about a different year in 2023, a good one, but not that good, so as you can imagine by our guidance. So now given the fact that we have a decent liquidity within our portfolio, we are potentially able to perform deals, but we will do that just if we find the right condition, the right people, the right company. So always really selective on the target, even because, as you perfectly know, the cost of that is something that is not negligible at the time, at the moment. Okay, thank you again. And if I may, the very last one, can you remind us what's the seasonality of the French acquisition? Because if I'm c\orrect, the last quarter of the year should be an important one. Actually, Capexo, yes. For Cape- Not for Blanxpert. You wanna go? No, no, not for Blampin. There is no- Not for- seasonality. Okay. Now, the Blampin is the- We would say market. Mm. Okay. So, yeah, we don't see major seasonality. The only one is Capexo that obviously has potentially a strong campaign December because of the super exotic gamma, and that's it. Okay, thank you again. The next question is from Gianluca Mozzali, from CFO SIM. Please go ahead. Good morning to everybody, and thank you for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. The first is about the distribution business unit, and I would like to know if the a bigger margin excess of 5%, reported in the H1 2023, is something sustainable in the future? And I mean, also, a little bit possible to improve it, or is something that we could expect stable and on the back of the higher value of the products mix? And the second question is about the shipping business unit, and if you can elaborate on the second part of the year, and if you expect, I think, I mean, a decrease in freight rates, and so a decrease in turnover, and indeed in the second part of the year, as expected by the consensus, or the situation is more stable compared to the expectation of a couple of months ago. Thank you very much. Good morning, Gianluca. Starting from the Distribution business unit, I make a joke. This question arrived when we were around 3, then 3.5, then 4, then 4.5, and each time, the question is, are you able to maintain it, or to stabilize it? Our goal is to increase the profitability of distribution, each quarter, each half, and each year. But it's something that moves slow because you must evaluate our business, at least on one or two-year time, because it's based on campaign, so it's not always related to the cutting period. Sometimes you have something that goes faster, goes slower, and it is the nature that is ruling here, it is not really the closing date. But in general terms, what is happening? Our portfolio, as I said many times, is continuing to increase in terms of value. Our average price is continuing to increase in terms of value, and this is the key of having, with the same investment, the same space, so the same facilities, the same organization, a better profitability in terms of EUR per kilo. But, the other thing that is actually helping the company, the group, the business to be more profitable is finally the Banana business, because we have more than EUR 200 million banana sales in our books, that historically speaking, we're not performing any profits or really poor ones. So finally, beginning from the, let's say, last quarter of 2022, and this situation is continuing, finally, the banana business found a balance between supply and demand, and this allows all the—not only Orsero, but all the business to maintain, let's say, a decent profitability that was not there before. So if we maintain our strategy on the added value product, and we continue to maintain to consider a stability in the banana business, the profitability cannot only get better results. Our view on that, on bananas, is that the market is supposed to remain balanced for the next year. It's pretty difficult to analyze the worldwide banana supply, but the key is the fact that after COVID, what happened over the past in three, four years, actually the production in some countries in Central America, specifically Ecuador, is slowing down. And once the market, the final market see less pressure on the volume, at the end of the day, the prices will increase and increase. So this is basically our view. So difficult in this business to say 5, 4.5, or what it's going to be, but for sure, our strategy and the figures are testifying these not really us is the fact that our strategy is delivering a path of growth in the profitability of the business unit. On the second question, shipping business unit, we expect in the second half a decrease in the profitability that is related to something that is already existing, that is the backhaul cargo that is slowing down. The front haul, so the fruit business, the main business that we run, is gonna be stable. Loading factor is supposed to be really good, and trade will be stable based on contract and based on the actual situation. The dry cargo is something different. It's considered on spot basis every week, and beginning from, let's say, March, April, started to cool down compared with the, with last year in the first quarter. And so, obviously, it has a lower impact compare with the, with the Fruit business, but obviously, it will be changing in the second half because the situation is cooling down and normalizing. So this is what we expect. We expect stability on the front haul, that is the main part of our business, and a reduction of profitability on the back haul. There is a residual business for us that used to be really hard, driven by the container lines, so the supply chain and all the things that you read on the newspaper for two years. Thanks. Thank you very much. All very clear. Thank you. Thank Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press Star and one on your telephone. The next question is from Gabriele Berti, from Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead. Ciao. Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for your presentation, and congratulations for the results. I would like to come back to the questions made by Gianluca. So my first one is on Banana once again, because they implied a bit the margin at the upper end of your guidance is 6.4% versus the 7.8 in the first half. So I would like to understand if the decrease is entirely due to the shipping business, or if you did you incorporate in the guidance any deterioration in the trading condition for bananas? Or did you assume a stable level? So where is the difference? So the second one is on capital allocation. In light of the stronger cash generation you made and the resulting reduction in your net financial position, I would like to understand what are your priorities there. Are you only looking at the new M&A, or are you also considering to implement, for example, a buyback plan or increasing the payout ratio? And very last question, once again, on shipping. You gave your outlook on the second half of the year. I would like also to have some color on what are your expectation regarding rates for reefer in 2024. So what are you looking now on the spot rate versus your freight rates, so where the market is going and your opinion for 2024? Thank you, Gabriele, for joining, and thanks for your questions. I will try to be as precise as I can. On the, let's say, the first question is related more on the fact that you feel that our guidance for the second half is probably prudent. Somehow I can confirm it, but it's a mix of effect, because Banana business was really, really good in the first half. So, we can even expect to maintain the same performance in the second one, but it's a bit bullish, so we decided to maintain a prudent... Even if we have a good view on the Banana business, surprises are always here and there, and we supply banana in many countries with enormous volume, so a little change in the supply-demand, even for 3-4 weeks, could affect the average price. But so we consider a bit of prudence there, but it's necessary. For sure, there's the shipping fraction on the backhaul cargo that we largely talked about before. The third point is that, for sure, the autumn market always after summer, in a macroeconomic situation like this, September started with in a good way, but normally October, November, and till Christmas is always a slowing down because people are coming back from the holidays. In the country where we play, most of the people take holidays during summer, so they are coming back from the holidays, they are saving money. We don't have in our product gamma, let's say, really seasonal products, strong product line in autumn. So some years we face a couple of months of slowing down, and then we push- we put our fishes on the Christmas campaign. That is always a season Christmas campaign. You can have a very good one, or a very poor one, depending on the mood of the people. So let's say, as a whole, we have some business consideration to slow down our second half, and we have some, let's say, contingencies or prudencies that we consider in our guidance. Then, if we will see that the third quarter will be as good as the first two, then we will have the chance to review again our guidance. It will be the case, but we always try to maintain a, let's say, a reasonable approach when we talk about future results and market communication. Going to the second question, M&A, buyback, or dividend. We always did the three of those over the past two years, four years, and we want to maintain in philosophy, let's say, the same approach, because we know that to grow, we must continue to invest organically. We must continue to scout M&A, because the mix of the two is the winning point. Being financially healthy is key to invest, because otherwise it's always a problem to gather money, to find the deal and to have the trust of the sellers, because we always try to commit them with their notes, with the fruit of future fruit and co. So if you are not healthy, you're not trustful. So at the end of the day, if we find a good M&A deal over the next month, we will probably continue to put money on this activity, because the aim is to grow. But if we don't have such a good opportunity, for sure, we will be more active on a remuneration for the shareholder, because it's even correct as an approach. So none of the three is excluding the other two. It's really depending on the situation. If we don't find any M&A deal, for sure we will give back something more to the shareholder, because the liquidity of the group and the financial situation is really top. Third question, shipping 2024. This is the question, like the EBITDA margin of distribution is coming every year, this stage. We—I can only confirm what we are saying since few months. So, we know that, for many reasons, let's say, the shipping... Worldwide, the shipping activity started to normalize in Q1 2023. And, our view is really related, with what is happening at the moment. We are in a trade where we compete in the front haul with the fruit, transportation, with many giants, many operator, little and big ones. We were able to maintain the freight rate of 2022. That actually was a very good result for us. But, the first time, if you are out of the market, is that your loading factor start to go down, and because, obviously, if my transportation cost doesn't allow the grower or the importer- to have profit in the market, and they result in losses. At the end of the day, they start to move a portion of the volume to other lines, and actually, it's really visible. So what is happening at the moment is that we have no complaints about by the clients, and we continue to be fully loaded. We have a loading factor around 95, 94, 96, depending on the week. So on the front haul, so far so good, and we don't see any crack for next year. We will see with the new negotiation by the end of the year, but we maintain a positive view. Obviously, the reality, we will see the reality within the guidance 2024, because in that moment, we have the concrete result of the negotiation of the contract with all the clients. For sure, what we're doing is to, and I think I commented it before, we are trying to increase our captive use, because when the market is booming, it's better to leverage the market. When the market is cooling down, it's better to leverage your own fruit. So we are doing some industrial moves to decrease, let's say, the risk of a cooling down of the freight rates, but as a whole, on the fruit, we maintain a positive view. For sure, on the backhaul, we are seeing a normalization, and still the rate that we are able to get paid by the clients on a spot basis are way higher compared to the one we had before the pandemic and before the supply chain crisis, but for sure, are not at the same level compared with last year and the first 2-3 months of this year. So this is the maximum color I can give you on 2024. Thank you very much, and congratulations again for the results. Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press Star and One on your telephone. For any further questions, please press Star and One on your telephone. Mr. Prudenziati, gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. Okay. Thank you, everybody, and see you in a while for the next quarter results. Thanks, everybody. Bye. Thank you to everybody. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye.