Good afternoon, this is the Chorus Call Conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the OVS first half, 2024 financial 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. Stefano Beraldo, Chief Executive Officer of OVS. Please go ahead, sir. Good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for being with us for this six-month result of OVS. As you have seen from the press release, we had, I would say, a more than decent quarter and a good six months. And the quarter has been still again, so I would say once more, penalized by negative weather, and this means that weather is something that cannot be missed when we comment our results. The month of May has been similarly to last year, very rainy and cold compared to normal. The month of June has been much worse in terms of rain and temperature compared to even last year, where it was much worse than normal. At least we have in front of us, sooner or later, a weather normalization in spring, that, sooner or later will benefit our result. In spite of it, July has been, neutral in terms of weather. In spite of this very negative weather conditions, we have been able to generate, a positive growth, almost entirely generated by like-for-like, and only in a small part, by new openings. First half ending up the full six months, with a very solid, like-for-like growth. And this growth has been, achieved across all segments. Once again, this growth has, overcome the market, because the market performance has not been, of this size. Market has been, basically flat or slightly negative. Worthwhile spending a few words about UPIM, which is our second brand. After years of fine-tuning, I feel that today UPIM is closer to achieve run rate, let's call the profitability level. Still, some improvement can be made in terms of gross margin, but sales has been up by 7%, which means that the format, the idea of proximity store, a small price department store, almost entirely driven by house brand, is working, offering to the mid and lower socioeconomic part of the population in terms of spending power, a good opportunity to have regular spend in the neighborhood. Margin of UPIM has been up, so similarly to OVS, UPIM benefited from a better intake this year compared to last year. Global gross margin for the group are up almost to 200 basis points, means that the group has achieved, in my opinion, a very good level of gross margin that is solid and subject to remain in place also next year, when we will be benefited from a weaker dollar that we are buying today, a better condition compared to the condition of 1.20 2024. There will be a slight decrease in the second half because of dollar compared to last year, but the decrease will be related to the 200 basis points increase. So we expect in the second half to generate still a gross margin increase compared to the second half of last year, generating for the total 2024, a solid gross margin growth. A couple of words about cost. In the first half, the great improvement in gross margin has not been entirely reflected in term of EBITDA, simply because we had two element to keep into consideration. One is that EUR 2 million of marketing cost, and for those of you who are Italian, maybe you might have seen Mare Fuori, which is a very successful TV series, where we invested with our product placement, and also in term of TV advertising for about EUR 2 million, so there is a phasing of marketing cost, mostly in the first half compared to last year, so you will see a benefit in the second half here. This marketing cost, I think, is more than justified by the great performance of B. Angel, which is growing at double digit growth compared to last year. The second reason for some cost discontinuity is that last year we benefited from certain contribution related to labor, which was supposed to be maintained also for year 2024, but the law changed, and this contribution has not been confirmed. But good news, we are obtaining a similar amount of contribution in term of CapEx contribution that will be visible next year for a similar amount. So once we adjust the figure for these two aspect, the like- for- like with that growth would be about 10% compared to last year. Last, some comment on sales and weather. Finally, in favor, after many, many quarters, where we are forced to explain to you that results, even if positive, has been penalized by weather, finally, now we can tell that weather is a tailwind. Starting from seven, eight days ago, with the change of temperature in Europe and Italy, our sales are booming. So if in the last seven days last year, we had on average -20% to -30%. This year, in the last 10 days, we have +80% to +70%, which is driving today's like-for-like for the group year to date at already more than 5%. Crossing fingers, we feel that even looking at the weather forecast, temperature will remain in the range where they are today, and we expect to continue with posting great sales increase. Interesting noticing that this sales increase is first of all generated by kids, which is the most weather sensitive in all the segment compared to the other segment, but also great double-digit growth we are assisting on men, women and all the categories, perfumery, et cetera. An excellent start of the second half, a month which is very important in terms of sales, because in absolute terms is one of the most important month of the year, and in terms of margin, because it is a month where we do not have markdown. So basically, good news for us, and good also the result that all the collections are generating. We have many new stories in the stores, so if you go in the store, you will see new stories like B. Angel Man, like Piombo High Tech, Piombo Tech, and also a new fitness collection that was not present last year. So I invited the one of you that are also OVS client to see our store now, because you will see interesting number of new initiatives that are already contributing to the good result of the starting of the season. So thank you for now, and I hand the word to Francesco Leoncini. Thank you, Stefano. So I will drive you through the pages of the document that has been put on our website, starting with page number five, with a synthesis of the H1 income statement. Most of the items have been already commented by Stefano in depth. So, net sales, in absolute value, above EUR 760 million. Gross margin above EUR 450 million with this close to 60% gross margin percentage. EBITDA at EUR 89 million, growing versus last year, and with a percentage again close to 12%. We remember also that, by seasonality, the first semester is slightly weaker than the second one, that has even higher percentages in terms of the EBITDA margin. Net income is also growing at close to EUR 35 million. I move to page number 6 that provides some more details about the sales breakdown by channel. Franchising is growing less than the OVS, mostly due to phasing of arriving goods for winter 2024 due to the continuing issues at the Suez Canal, but basically, the two channels are growing at the same path over a long period of time. EBITDA, as said, is growing 3% in total. Moving to the view by brand, I said UPIM that is has more growth potential, especially on men and kids, compared to OVS, is doing great with a 7% growth. OVS, more linked to the kids and already also with an higher role in the market, is growing by 2.5%, and is basically flattish on the EBITDA results, discounted the higher marketing investments. While UPIM benefits of the growth in sales to transform, thanks to an operating leverage, this into a +26% EBITDA growth. I move to page number seven, to the financial side of the semester which in total sees an improvement versus last year, despite the growth in sales, so we are able to reduce the working capital by EUR 11 million. On trade receivable, we increased the DSO, and this is a policy of OVS to support our partners during the difficult sell-out months, as they experienced as us in May and June due to the weather. But now we are quickly recovering, thanks to the sales season and the good start of September. This of course has a long-term value in strengthening the partnership with our franchisees. On inventory side, we see an increase, which is partially due to the normal growth of the business, but more in the detail is linked to the fact that we need to account for a longer transit time between Far East and Europe due to the Suez crisis. This will revert, of course, as soon as the situation will normalize, even if we still don't know when it will take place, but the quality of inventory is even slightly improving net of this stock in transit. Stock in transit that as of thirty-first of July is still to be paid, and this accounts for the EUR 30 million increase on trade payables together, let me say, with the normal growth of the business. Move to page number 8, on capital expenditures. As commented many time OVS during these couple of years, 2023, 2024, is under a period of particular investments, both to renew the stores and to automate the logistics. This drove to an increase in the investments to EUR 46 million, which is, let me say, high for the first semester in absolute terms. The comparison with 2023, instead, is mainly driven by seasonality in store refurbishing. There are stores like in Milan, that fits more to be refurbished in August, when the city is empty. Other stores that maybe are in Naples or in seaside location, that of course fits more to be refurbished in February month. This year was the turn of location more suitable for the February month, and so we see this increase in the refurbishment in the first semester, while in the full year, the numbers should be slightly above, but basically in line with last year. I move to page number nine to comment the cash flow, which is driven by the normal seasonality of OVS, with an absorption in the first semester. The absorption is slightly higher than last year, but as said, mostly due to this CapEx effect. Also, we are discounting the normalization of tax payment after that. Until two thousand twenty-three, we still benefited from the carry forward of the losses related to COVID. An important element is that we then used our credit lines to finance dividends and buyback payments that accounted for over EUR 60 million in the semester, and over EUR 80 million in the last twelve-month period. Overall, the flow was negative, but most of it was due to actions towards the shareholders in terms of distribution of cash. I move to page 10, on which we see the results in term of net financial position, which is 20 million worse than last year, but as said, after the fact that in the twelve months, we distributed 80 million euros to the shareholders. Remaining, let me say, under 1.5 leverage ratio, that means that we are full under investment grade and with no tension at all. It needs to be commented, the fact that in the meantime, we accumulated over 50 million of shares in our wallet. Accounting for them, then the ratio would decline to 1.09. So, again, a number that is fully positive. Going to the last page, page 12, on the current trading and outlook, connecting again with the introduction of Stefano. August marked a 7% increase in a market that was basically flat this year. OVS is recovering, is becoming also a destination for people that during the month of August are looking for sales. And this is the element of having become more attractive for the customers that during the month of the sale is not looking just for brands, but also for OVS and UPIM. September benefited from, for people that lives in Italy, it's quite obvious looking outside the window, but from these turning changing weather conditions towards autumn that had a huge benefit in these last couple of weeks. And all of that brings us to be optimistic for sure in a growth in the results of this quarter, and also of course in a growth on the full year results. I think that we can leave now time for the Q&A session, and we are ready to answer. Thank you, everybody. 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 Andrea Bonfà, Banca Akros. Please go ahead. Hello, good afternoon to everybody. I got three questions essentially. One is, I would like to understand if I understood correctly, Stefano, you mentioned that the last few days were up 78% like-for-like, and double digits for the whole month of September. But if I do the average of 7% growth in August and let's say double digit in September, I will get more than the 5% like-for-like growth that you mentioned, if I understood correctly. If you can just repeat those number, please. And there's two other question. One is related with the treasury shares, if your intention is to cancel them sooner or later. And the third one, an update on Goldenpoint, if you may. Thank you very much. 7, 7%. Was on mute. Ah, sorry, sorry, sorry. We had the microphone on mute. Sorry, we had a mistake. I was about to tell that if August has been 7%, I think, like-for-like, the beginning of September, the first few days has been still positive at a modest level. Then once weather changed, we started experiencing on the last six, seven, eight, I don't remember, days, figure like plus 80%, plus 70%, et cetera. So I don't have the complete mathematics now, but probably you are right, we are more than 5% like-for-like today. This is the first answer. I hope I have been clear. Yeah, that's clear, Stefano, yeah. On treasury share, we are thinking about what to do. We have a material amount of treasury share. We have also an important capital gain on this share. If we make the mark-to-market of this share compared to the average price that we paid for them, we don't foresee big need for disposal of those share in term of exchange of paper against paper, paper against company. So we are thinking also about what you mentioned. So this is a topic that we are discussing internally and with our board in this weeks. On Goldenpoint, basically I have no news because still we are in a preliminary phase. The only good, I would say very good news is that based on our... You might remember that the business plan of Goldenpoint was based on three main pillar. One was cost synergy on the cost of goods sold. Two was increase of like-for-like performance thanks to the new merchandising introduced by us, like accessories, like makeup, like bags, like flip-flop, et cetera, like pajamas. But this cannot be demonstrated because still we are in before the season where we will start introducing those new categories in the store. And the third was expansion of network. On the first aspect, I can say that because the sourcing is being made during this month, I can tell that the amount of intake which will be commanded will be sourced through our merchandising channel through our supplier base which represent in this moment a portion of the total that could represent about 50% of the total cost of goods sold of Goldenp oint is already achieving the expected synergies in terms of cost reduction or even more. So on the cost side, synergy side, in terms of cost of sold, we are very happy about what is happening. On the like-for-like performance, I already mentioned it's impossible now to make any comment. On the third pillar, which is the store expansion, we have already identified more than thirty new locations that our franchisee already committed to open in the first months of next year. The plan for the year, if I am not wrong, was about seventy store. We have found already almost 50% of this amount just right now, and we are still discussing with our franchisee, which are looking for other locations. So we are very, very happy being in line with our expectation in terms of new opening for next year, Goldenpoint. Thank you, Stefano. Thank you. The next question is from Daniele Alibrandi, Stifel. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I have three. The first one, if you can give us an idea of the gross margin trends for H2. Maybe you mentioned something at the beginning of the call, but I was curious to know, given the strong current trends, and the, say, savings on the cost side, that you can achieve, what can be in the cards for H2, and maybe if you can comment also on the EBITDA, given that you have mentioned some, let's say, unwinding of headwind that you had in H1. And the second question is on an update on your network, store network. If you can give us an update, basically, on what are the plans for store openings by adding some granularity to the OVS and franchise for this year and next year. I remember that you commented last year in May quite extensively, so just an update on where we are. And final question, yeah, it's just a boring question, but just to understand the tax, maybe if you can give us a guidance for the tax rates for this year. Thank you. Okay. Gross margin, second half, there will be a mix of aspect. All in all, we expect that if in the first half we had a gross margin increase of almost 200 basis points, we expect for the second half another margin increase compared to second half of last year, a bit lower, but still a gross margin increase. Why a bit lower? One reason is the percentage of the beauty items, perfumery, makeup, et cetera, in the second half is higher compared to the first half due to the fact that the peak season for this segment comes in November and December. Because the gross margin in perfumery is lower compared to apparel, this will generate an impact on the gross margin, which will be negative. There will be a positive effect on the EBITDA because typically the perfumery generates twice or even more sales density compared to apparel. A lower gross margin, maybe 50%, 52%, 53%, compared to 60% or 62%, on a much higher sales density, generates a higher EBITDA per square meter. The first effect is positive, even if apparently it's negative. Negative on the gross margin, positive on the EBITDA margin. The second negative aspect is the dollar. The dollar strengthening caused the sourcing of second half to be a bit less competitive compared to last year. And third, we have a positive effect on the gross margin, which is represented by the lower markdown that we expect to make in the second half. Also, on the ground of the very good performance of August, where we had lower markdown and the initial, I might say, explosion of sales in September, with much higher sell- through than expected, will cause us to have less markdown during the end of the season, basically. So three effect, but the only negative one, which is the dollar, will transform into a positive one for next year because next year gross margin will benefit from a weaker dollar. Today, the dollar level is better than even last year and much better than this year average dollar that we utilized for our sourcing. I would say all in all, good, good news, I think. In terms of network expansion, we have another 10, more or less 10 stores, OVS, and even next year. UPIM, more or less 10, and I think next year, on the ground, on the basis of the good result, makes me more comfortable for looking more locations for UPIM. In principle, UPIM has identified another more than 100 locations where we have an interest to open an UPIM store in Italy. OVS franchising, there will be another 20-30 stores this year and probably also next year, and same for UPIM. So we might end up this year with another 50, let's say, stores, and next year, hopefully even more, thanks to the increase of opening rate in UPIM. That makes me more comfortable than ever in having found a kind of a ideal balance in this formula. Tax rate, Nicola, I hand the word to Nicola, the CFO. What happened with the tax rate? Tax rate for the full year 2024 will be on a range similar to last year, on a range of 26%. There has been a peak in the first half, and will be completely recovered in the second half, and the projection for the full year is 25%-26%. Very clear. Thank you. The next question is from Domenico Ghilotti, Equita. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. A follow-up on the organic performance. If you can give us a sense of what is the price mix contribution on one side and the volume on the other side in the first half, and how do you see the trend going forward in the second half? And just a clarification on the cost side. So you were mentioning EUR 2 million higher marketing cost. I wanted to check with you the first half, and how are you planning for the second half? If I'm not wrong, rents were about mid-single-digit% up, so is this something that you are seeing moving in the same direction? On the personnel, trying to elaborate on how much was really the one-off in order to understand what is the underlying trend, and maybe if you have, say, the per capita, or what is the per capita growth and what is on the other end, the increase in full-time equivalent, if any? As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Okay. Organic performance, Domenico, mostly is volume, because I would say more than entirely is volume, because prices has been remained more or less flat in the adults, and we decided to reduce by about 2% in kids, which has been positively accepted by the customer. So all the growth is volume. On cost, on rent, I have nothing particular to say. On labor, the size of this one-off effect of last year has been about EUR 4 million, and the expectation for the second half in term of a cost of personnel increase is +6%. On marketing, this EUR 2 million of TV, which has been made in the first half, and will not be repeated in the second half, generated the expectation for the year to remain in line with our budget. If I'm not wrong, the budget was about one million more than last year, more or less. So basically, the total marketing cost will be slightly higher than last year and in line with our expectation. Mm-hmm. I think it's all... I don't remember if you made other question. Rent. I already answered. You have already answered. Okay. No, it's been... Okay, fine. Thank you. Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Mr. Beraldo, there are no more questions at this time. [Foreign language] Thank you to everyone, and have a good weekend. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.