Valerio Battista speaking. Let's start with the first half of 2021 highlights. Page three, key highlights of the first half. A very good recovery of the mark of the trend in telecom and energy business, thanks mostly to the fastest business, C&I, OEM, renewable, and automotive. On the other side, cost efficiency and price management to balance the raw material price increase that we have seen since the end of last year. Last, but not least, the order income in projects, that has been very wide, EUR 1.2 billion of new orders, to which we have to add the EUR 60 million we have announced today for the interarray projects with Ørsted, on the basis of contracts that we signed some time ago. Few time ago. Let's flip the page to page four. What about the EUR 1.2 billion of new orders in half one? The first one is the biggest single project ever awarded to Prysmian. Frankly speaking, there are other projects that have a similar size, but that is, at the end, the biggest. $900 million for the SOO Green. The interconnection in the U.S., along the railway that is going to connect the Midwest, where green power is generated, to Chicago area. 440 km of HVDC 525 kV, and that's a very good project because I believe that is one of the first interconnection projects in the USA. The second one is Sofia. Sorry, it was Sofia with 440 km of HVDC. Just in case, the SOO Green is a project that is going to be realized with the same cable of German corridors, the 525 kV DC extruded. Sofia, 440 km of HVDC submarine export cable, to connect a very big offshore wind farm to the main grid in the U.K. Turkish Crossing, the two submarine power link in connecting Europe to Asia, and the other one across the Izmit Gulf. Last but not least, the Ibiza-Formentera. Other than, as I said, the EUR 60 million awarded today to us, signed by us today, of interarray projects with Ørsted. Okay. Let's move to page five. The financial highlights of the first half. Sales at EUR 6 billion, with an organic growth of 10.5%. Notably, 15.5% has been the Telecom support. Telecom is confirmed to be able to come back, and is coming back. 10%, vice versa on E&I, driven by a very strong C&I, 38.5% in Q2. 9.3% Industrial Network Component, with a very good performance in term of organic growth. The adjusted EBITDA, EUR 470 million, is reasonably good, my opinion. Higher than the pre-COVID level for Energy Business. The margins at the end, if you look at the%, are slightly lower than the same period of last year, but you have to consider the effect of inflation coming from the copper metal increase. The turnover has grew. Has grew a lot, but net of the copper pricing, obviously, the increase, the growth has been, sorry, a little bit lower. Finally, the free cash flow, EUR 447 million, with a net debt of EUR 2,387,000. The last 12 months free cash flow has reached a very high amount. Obviously, is expected to scale down a little bit during the rest of the year, as usual. Let's flip to page six. Page six is showing the performance by segment. Projects. Projects is still the slow part of our activity. Why? The order income is rebounding now, and consequently, we are going to see the growth of the market for projects, the growth of the market, the growth of the results in the next quarters. Starting from Q3, I believe that the projects will deliver a higher result than the same quarter last year or the previous year. The recovery has started. The acceleration is expected in the second half, driven mostly by submarine and German corridors in particular. Just for you to know, tomorrow morning, if I'm not wrong, we are going to start the mass production of German corridors in our plants. We completed all the homologation and all the tests that we were planning to do in order to be comfortable with a mass production of thousands of km of this cable. We succeeded. Now we start. The energy side. The energy side grew 9.5% in term of organic growth, from EUR 3.58 billion to EUR 4.55 billions. Out of which, more or less, both E&I and industrial network components moved on the same direction with the same speed, 10% organic growth for E&I and 9.3% for industrial network component. The organic growth of T&I has been very strong. As usual, the T&I market is the fastest. Something is the first one to recover, is the first one to speed down. On the industrial network component, we have seen a very strong growth in OEM, automotive, and network components. On the E&I, as I said, the T&I mostly, whereas the PD has not been able to replicate the performance of the 2nd quarter last year. Why? In the U.S., last year, the incentives were pushing for a very strong volume growth that this year has not happened and was already planned not to happen. Telecom, finally. The Telecom Business has increased the sales with an organic growth of 15.5%. On the other side, the performance of the business that counts, the EBITDA, moved up from EUR 101 million to EUR 129 million. As you can see, the contribution of the share of net income, coming mostly from YOFC, has increased a little bit because of the carryover of the last quarter of the previous year. We see a reasonably good Telecom activity, especially in certain markets. Overall, the total sales of the group has accounted for EUR 6.034 billion versus the EUR 4.9 billion of the first half 2020, with an organic growth of 8.5%. Let's have a look of the following page, seven, about the volume recovery. The volume recovery has been pretty strong. Pretty strong. You can see that the energy volume has been, in June, higher than the June 2019. That's a very good indicator because means that in the second half, we hope that this trend will go ahead, will continue. By June, has reached a higher level than 2019. Not very much, but higher. On the telecom side, vice versa, the growth of the volume, fiber km are we talking here, has been good but not enough good to reach the 2019 record. 2019, as you may remember, has been a extremely good first half because of the shortage of fibers, and consequently, the volume were very high. Now we see a significant recovery of the volume, but not at the level of 2019. In the second half, we expect the telecom, in terms of volumes at least, to be able to surpass the 2019 volume of the second half of the year. Let's move to page eight. If you look at the white boxes, what we lost first half 2020 versus 2019 is the same that we recovered this first half versus 2020. - 10.6% for E&I, + 10% for E&I this year. The scale down of the volume of 2020 has been completely recovered in the first half of 2021. The same, more or less, even a little bit more, for industrial network component that moved to EUR 1.349 billion, coming from EUR 1.122 billion in the first half 2020. If we consider the first half of 2019, it was EUR 1.248 billion. Overall, the total energy scaled down almost 9.6% the first half last year, and this year has recovered exactly more or less the same. If we look at the profitability, or better, the EBITDA margin, is even more. Why? Because if you consider the value of the metals, that obviously do not contribute in terms of results, EUR 159, it was the EBITDA one year ago. Last year was EUR 147, and this year has closed at EUR 169. The EUR 169 is 5.5% of the sales, but in reality, if we utilize the CapEx of 2020, the same marginality would have been 6.9%, so higher than the two correspondent periods of 2019 and 2020. More or less similarly is the industrial network component. What does it mean? The CapEx price effect, the metal effect, has increased, inflated the sales, and the margins have been a little bit diluted by this effect. The total energy went up from EUR 3.58 billion in the first half of 2020. It has reduced 9.6% organically. The first half 2021 recovered in completely this level with an organic growth of 9.5%. More or less the same, even better, is at the level of EBITDA. Let's have a look of geographical trend. The geographical trend has something different. Whereas Europe, EMEA, let's say, has improved significantly, 11.3% organic growth from EUR 2.46 billion to EUR 2.584 billion, the EBITDA went up very good, very well, from EUR 99 million to EUR 150 million. In North America, unfortunately, it has been the train driving the game in the last three years. Unfortunately, due to the slowdown of the power distribution investments, we have seen a reduction of the EBITDA from EUR 199 million last year to EUR 166 million this year. Have to be noted, anyway, that the exchange rate affect the result of 2021 versus the 2020 by EUR 15 million. 50% of the decline comes from the exchange rate. Latin America and Asia Pacific have been able to rise the performance significantly. For Latin America, from EUR 25 million-EUR 46 million, with an organic growth of 32.5%, and Asia Pac from EUR 16 million-EUR 32 million with an organic growth of 11.3%. Overall, the total performance of the group moved from EUR 419 million-EUR 470 million, with an organic growth of 10.5%, despite projects did not contribute particularly in the first half. We expect projects is still the missing upside, coming into life in the second half. We are going to see in the second half, finally, the acceleration of the projects. The outlook. The outlook was EUR 870 million-EUR 940 million. We decided to raise this outlook to EUR 920 million-EUR 970 million. A significant upgrade of the guidance, reflecting more or less what the market we have seen and are we able to perform. The free cash flow we left untouched, and that may be something that sounds unusual because Technically, we should have increased the free cash flows. I understand perfect. Why we didn't do that? Later, Francesco will be more detailed, but basically because there are a number of projects and the related advanced payments going to come in the last quarter. It's pretty easy to see one or some of these projects shifting in terms of award and in terms of cash income, advanced payment cash income, from one year to the other. That's the reason why prudently, we took the decision to leave the guidance as it was. I'm quite sure that as usual, we are going to close on the upper side of the guidance. The last chart, page 11, is to explain you why we are pretty happy to be in all the segments and all the region of the cable market. Why? Have a look at the trend of the last five years. The trend of the last five years explains that whereas energy and projects, sorry, telecom and projects, have been not particularly exciting in terms of performance in the last three years, now are going to increase. In the last three years, has been energy that has helped us to keep the performance around about EUR 951 billion. Let's keep on the side the 2020, that is obviously the year touched heavily by the COVID. The same, in a certain sense, comes from the geography. The geography, as you can see, is Europe, is the ones that EMEA has scaled down in the last two years, now is going to increase. North America has been able to compensate this reduction, growing. Now that North America appears to be ready for a little reduction, Europe is recovering. Not only Europe, LATAM too, and APAC. Okay, APAC is so little, so thin that it doesn't change the destiny of the company. Overall, in these five years, we have seen the segments, the three segments, generating a significant cash. The cash is different because, as you can see, energy has a very high cash conversion, whereas projects and telecom, for two different reasons, are segments that need significant investments in order to keep the position in the market, continue to properly run. You see that the cash conversion of energy is 82% versus projects and telecom, 65%, 66%. Anyway, in five years, the overall free cash flow of the company has been EUR 1.3 billion. Sorry, in four years, EUR 1.338 billion with dividend for EUR 407 million to the shareholders. Thank you very much for your time, and now I'm going to leave the floor to Francesco Facchini for the details of the economics, the financials. Thank you, Valerio, and good evening to everybody. As usual, let me start with the profit and loss wrap up. As Valerio said, sales grew very significantly from the lows of 2020, stricken by COVID, of course. Total sales were driven up also by a very strong copper price effect. In six months 2021, compared to the six months 2020, the total effect of copper price was above EUR 800 million. This also explains the effect that Valerio was already mentioning in terms of margins dilution. Organic growth reached 8.5%, ex projects, 10.5%, with a very strong second quarter, almost 17% growth. I would say strong across all the segments, in particular in the Trade & Installers business, but also in industrial and OEM business, and of course, even more in the telecom business. The only business which scaled down a bit from the previous year is the overhead lines and the power distribution business, specifically in North America. Valerio already mentioned that last year in Q2, reached the peak in North America, very high peak, also thanks to the incentives in place. EBITDA is EUR 470 million + EUR 51 million from the previous year. A very solid Q2, an excellent base, in my opinion, to deliver on our new guidance. Despite a EUR 22 million currency effect in the first half, negative of course, which will become quite neutral in the second half. We expect due to the dynamics of Forex this year and last year, this EUR 22 million to remain pretty stable in the second half because the dollar had already weakened significantly in the second half last year. Margins, EBITDA margins reached 7.8%. It's important to say that restating sales for the above EUR 800 million copper effect that I was mentioning before, the 7.8% would exceed 9%, and that's a very high EBITDA margin in absolute terms. I think we are still capitalizing a lot on the excellent job on the costs, both fixed costs and the operations cost plans that we have done also last year under the pressure of the COVID impacted results and the COVID season. In the box top right, you see the dynamics quarter-by-quarter for each segment. You see how projects is starting to recover and actually posted a second quarter slightly above the previous year. That's just an anticipation to a much stronger recovery that we expect starting from Q3, based on the very strong order intake that we have commented. Energy is also accelerating, of course, compares to pretty low level in Q2 2020. It's also correct to mention that in Q2 2020, the power distribution business in North America was reaching a real peak. This plus EUR 20 million in the energy business EBITDA that we see in Q2 is particularly remarkable if we think of the negative impact that we had in this specific segment, EPB North America. Telecom is accelerating as well from Q1, plus EUR 12 million in Q2, specifically compared to the previous year, driven by very strong volumes across the board, across all the regions, and driven also by pretty resilient margins as a matter of fact. All in all, the EUR 257 million EBITDA of the second quarter, as I was saying, is an excellent base to deliver on the new guidance. Our net income improved also very significantly. EUR 162 million group net income in the first half, more than doubling compared to last year. Other than the operating result and EBITDA, it was also driven by very positive dynamics below the operating result line. Specifically, we had no impact coming from any impairment this year, differently from last year. We had a very low level of financial charges also thanks to a positive impact, which followed the issuance of a new convertible bond. We had an improved tax rate, 31%, despite a very negative impact coming from the U.K. tax rate increase due to a tax reform in the U.K. All this contributed to driving up our group net income very, very significantly to a very satisfactory level. Let me now move to the balance sheet, on the following page, to comment the strong and solid dynamic of the working capital, operative networking capital. Compared to the June 2020, the equivalent period last year, it went down by EUR 160 million, despite a huge negative impact coming from the metal effect, more than EUR 200 million, EUR 230 million to be exact. We were able to more than offset this huge effect thanks to a very strong trend of working capital, a downtrend of working capital in the project business, which generated a very significant cash flow over the last 12 months. It will change a bit in the second half, but for very positive reasons, because as we said, activities in projects is going to speed up significantly. German corridors, the executions of the newly taken orders in the submarine business. This, of course, will not allow the same level of positive dynamics of working capital as the one that we had last year. This explains why, as Valerio anticipated, the free cash flow for the full-year will move down from the current EUR 447 million last 12 months to a level that we think will be still consistent with the guidance, even if certainly the upper part of the guidance. The net debt, as a consequence, leverage down significantly, EUR 130 million compared to June 2020. We have to consider that within this decrease, we were absorbing EUR 130 million of dividends distribution, EUR 85 million of EHC acquisition, and also more than EUR 100 million of antitrust penalties and settlements. Of course, it's not as nice as the free cash flow, but we were also distributing cash to our shareholders and acquiring, even if it's not a huge acquisition, still not insignificant acquisition. And all this delivered with a debt reduction. Let me move to the final page before opening the Q&A. The cash flow, EUR 335 million last 12 months, which bridges with the EUR 447 if we consider the antitrust cash outs, penalties, and settlements for EUR 112 that you see highlighted in one of these box. The reason of the scale down on a full-year base to, let me say, EUR 300 million plus potentially in the highest part of the guidance, is the contribution of working capital, which was still positive, EUR 121 million, generating cash in the last 12 months as of June. Most likely will become pretty neutral for the full-year 2021. Losing this positive EUR 120 million, despite the growth, the improvement of the full-year EBITDA, in line with our guidance, will be difficult, of course, to stabilize a level of free cash flow above the EUR 400 million, like the one that we are seeing now as of June. Of course, we will try to deliver the best we can. On top, some, of course, uncertainty, which is always there regarding the order intake of projects and more than the order intake, I would say, the exact timing of the down payments related to the new potential orders, which may fall in December rather than in January, and it's very difficult to predict. Unfortunately or fortunately better, these amounts of down payments are very significant. Can move the cash flow of the single year very significantly with no real change, because what we do not cash in December, we will cash in January. I don't really see any meaningful difference for the company in that sense. I think I'm finished with my presentation. We can go ahead with the Q&A session. Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you find your question has already been answered, you can remove yourself by pressing the hash key. So again, that's star one for any questions. The first question today is from Max Yates from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Just my first question was on the SuedLink project, because we're hearing quite mixed messages on the permitting potential delays to the project. I just wanted to understand, firstly, could you give us an update on how the permitting process is going and conversations with the customer on the timeline? Also, obviously, if it's a EUR 1.8 billion combined project, it's about EUR 360 million per year over five years. I just wanted to understand if you think you'll be at that run rate of revenues in 2022, or because of these delays, it might take a bit longer to get to that kind of EUR 360 million run rate. That was my first question. Okay. Thank you, Max, for the question. Let me note only that the delay for German corridors, at least for the time being, but I don't see any other reason to change it, is only on the installation side. Consequently, that's the reason why we are going to start the mass production tomorrow morning. For more details, I leave the floor to Hakan, that is here with us, and can better detail the situation. Thank you, Valerio. Thank you for the question, Max. The SuedLink, or we can say all the three projects, have some delay yet. Definitely, the installation is the one that is affected by the delays because of the permits, as Valerio said. In our program, we see some reduction in our projections, that is going to affect our internal and also, let's say, internal projections. When we look to the EUR 360 million that you were mentioning, of course you can dilute that at the back end with the two years of expected delay on the two projects of the German corridors, because one of the projects has not yet announced a delay, but can happen. You know the reason is a positive reason, the delays of the permits, which is actually the customers, the TSOs, they want to have one permit for the second tranche of investments as well. The second German corridors, they want to have the permit together with the first at the same time, which the authorities have requested. We see that as a positive news, actually, to enable and open up for the second tranche of the investment. From that perspective, we are planning, and at the beginning of the speech, Valerio explained that we are industrializing and we have completed our industrialization. We are starting the production for one of the projects as foreseen. For this year, we are on track with our expectations on the production. Okay. Just so I understand that correctly, so it might be more prudent to spread out the EUR 1.8 billion over six or seven years, rather than over the five. Is that the right interpretation? Yeah. Yeah. What I would do, I would spread it to seven years, and I would spread the last, let's say, tranche, which is the installation to the additional two years, rather than to spread the whole project into seven years. Does it make sense? Yes. That makes sense. Just my second question was on the telecom business. It feels like as we've gone through the year, you've become more constructive on that business than when we started. I guess I just wanted to understand maybe from a high level, what had really changed. Is it that you've done better on your internal cost actions? Is it that the pricing discussions have maybe been less severe than we thought, or maybe from the initial or the most recent tenders on the ground in China, we've actually seen improvements there? I'd just love to hear a little bit about what's going better from your perspective. I leave the floor to Philippe Vanhille to give an answer to you. Hi, Max. I guess your question is about the margin more than the volume, because we expected that growth of volume, especially in North America. The answer is made of two things. First, the mix. We have a very strong growth in North America. That's one effect. You know North America has a different price pressure compared to Europe. That's one. The second element is that we were able to keep on maintaining some contracts longer than the others and longer than even we expected for a certain while, because the newcomers with low prices might need a little more time to get into it after qualification of their products, setting up the supply chain, et cetera. That was part of the possible time differences we could see, and that was part of the uncertainty. It went in the right direction for Q2, clearly. These are the two main explanations, high level, I would say. Okay. Maybe just a very final one on the same topic. Do you feel like the margins that are being generated now fully reflect the challenges in the market and the challenges with pricing? Do you have any concern that maybe we've kind of pushed some of the margin pressure sort of to the right, and that's something that still needs to feed through into the business? I just want to get an understanding of whether the margins today really reflect what you see outside in the market in terms of price competition. Yeah. I understand very well the question. The point is that we are going to see in the second half, the new prices more than in the first half. That's clear. For the contracts that we have recently signed, we have lower prices than before. When I say we had the positive kind of news that we were able to keep these prices longer, at some point, these prices will kick in. We will see them, and the price pressure will be there and is going to be there, in particular in Europe, as it is a market, as you know, where there are quite low prices, in particular, from Asian suppliers. I'm very confident about the volumes. On the margin, if you look at our Q1, a number that you have, and our Q2, excluding YOFC, you see between these two quarters, a difference of a few points of margin. Let's say from 13%-15%. Q1, the last Q1 was without YOFC, so somewhere in the range of 13 point something%. This Q2 is around 15%, and this is the range in which we play, because it depends. We have contracts with no fixed volume. Depending on how much of the volume our customers will ask us, it will change our mix. This is the range we are playing with. I'm not expecting anything dramatic. It can go slightly better, it can go slightly worse. This is the uncertainty of telecom that we have been describing for a while. What is clear is that the prices are not shrinking anymore. There is a stabilization of prices even in Europe now, which is something positive I want to mention, because it's what I see on the market. Great. Thank you very much, Philippe, for the answer. I'll go back in the queue. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Our next question is from Lucie Carrier from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my question. I have a few, and I will go one at a time. I wanted to come back to the contract awarding of SOO Green in the U.S. and Germany sitting. I was hoping you could discuss maybe with us, the prospects you are seeing in high voltage in the U.S. on the land side. Also, how does that compare in terms of investment that we are seeing on the offshore side? Because there's a lot of emphasis on offshore wind in the U.S. and maybe a bit less on the land side, but the SOO Green is obviously quite sizable. Just wanted to get your take on that. Okay. Hakan is going to give you the answer. First of all, the offshore wind is really departing in the U.S. We see the activities are significantly, let's say, increasing. Also the permitting process and the involvement of the local government is going into the right direction. We had already announced Vineyard Wind, as you know, that the permits are on the way and it will be at the last quarter, it will happen, the production and the installation. Of course, all these offshore wind, let's say, systems that are going to be put in place is not going to be able to survive on its own. Because when you change the source of energy generation, then you have to also build the backbone to transfer this energy into the right location. What is actually happening with the SOO Green. In the Midwest, as you know, there are lots of solar farms and also wind farms, which are onshore wind farms, and the energy is there, but you have to transfer the energy safely, which safety is becoming a bigger concern in the U.S., meaning underground cable. In that respect, SOO Green is going to be one of the first that is going to secure the energy transfer safely from the new technological energy generation, which is the renewable energy. The same is going to happen with the offshore wind park. You are going to carry the energy to the shore, but you need the infrastructure to deliver the cable, deliver the energy with the cable to the destination where the energy is needed. There are lots of activities that we are seeing, and planning is happening, but I think it will be the second step, after the investments are going to be solid on the offshore wind, the utilities, which are, let's say, going to complete their planning. As you know, the Biden administration is also supporting that, so it is in the plan. There are some plans that we are also part. There are some links and, let's say, connections in offshore, and also onshore. I think SOO Green is going to be the first one that is really significant as a milestone in the industry of transmissions. Just as a follow-up to that, maybe can you help us understand the position you have now with land high voltage in the U.S.? Historically, it is quite a small business for you, and also kind of the profitability profile, because we tend to see your North American business being more profitable than your businesses in the rest of the world. Sure. Our business so far is restricted to AC cables in the HV, high voltage arena in the U.S. As you know, we are about 30% of the market requirements is performed by our Abbeville facility and our team in the North American organization. What we are talking about is the DC technology, which is a differentiation to the AC for long distance energy transfer. From that perspective, the HV environment is changing. AC in the U.S. was only short distances and for critical areas. All the rest is the DC technology is overhead, as you know. Therefore this landscape is changing, and with the Abbeville investments, which we are also now planning to improve, to make it available for DC technology, which is going to support the SOO Green, is going to be, let's say, creating additional exposure because we have two vertical lines, as you know. We have two vertical lines and one line we were not using for the high voltage, which we are unlocking now to use for the high voltage. We are expecting that there is going to be a growth overall. Okay, thank you. My second question is also a little bit more long-term. We are getting increasingly a lot of investor question around the need to invest in power distribution, notably on the back of a faster penetration of electric vehicles. What is your take on that, and can you maybe highlight your position also in this area on a global basis, and maybe if it's a bit more relevant for Europe and North America? Lucie, Francesco speaking. Can I ask you to speak closer to your mic? Because we hardly hear you, frankly speaking. Yeah, sure. Can you hear me better now? To speak louder in some way. Can you hear me better? Not very much. Try again, maybe speaking a bit more slowly because the volume is very low. I don't know why. Can you hear me better now? Let's try. Let's try. Let's try. All right. What I was asking was about the need potentially for increased investment in power distribution to accommodate the increased penetration in electric vehicles. I was just curious to have your take on that, whether you see something accelerating there, and what is your offering to accommodate potentially, the increase in EV penetration? Lucie, I think that you have been able to catch your question, I will speak. The answer is yes, we are seeing a definitely strong demand of power distribution, even substituting, especially in California, the overhead lines with underground. We are investing, just in case today we have authorized a significant investment to increase the capacity for power distribution of America and the high voltage too, we believe that the market is continuing to grow. Did I answer to your question, Lucie? Yes. Maybe if I can ask one last question, which is a bit more short-term oriented, is around the metal prices and the dilution on profitability. Historically, you have been able to pass those raw materials impact relatively well. Are we just seeing now a bit of a delay, or you feel the market or industry structure are different now than what they used to be? The question comes. I think our margins, Lucie, and our results are clearly showing that passing to the market and managing price in regard of the raw material spike, of the raw material increase that we are seeing, has never been and is not a big issue. We had some maybe temporary impacts coming from raw material increases, but they quickly faded out in our profit and loss because we were able to quickly adjust our level of pricing. This for the non-metal raw materials. For the metal raw material from the copper, I would say that it is even less the case because we are proving to be able to fully pass the copper pricing request to the market, which has always been the case. In this case, of course, there can be some very short delays, not really affecting the big picture. Of course, when you are having one half in six months, almost EUR 900 million copper price effect on the sales, we have to be very careful to look at the percentage, to look at the EBITDA margin as a% on sales, because it really means nothing in the sense that it is very clear that our margins have improved. By the way, have improved even significantly. This happened in Energy business across more or less all the segments. It is pretty stable, the margin in the Telecom business, even if maybe in the 2nd half will suffer a little bit, but I believe will remain at a very good level. The scale of the projects, which is going to increase significantly from the 2nd half, will definitely deliver a margin improvement. I think that restating these margins with the last year of 2019 copper levels, will end up, already this year, with some of the highest margin that we have ever realized under the new perimeter, combining also General Cable. Thank you. Welcome. Our next question for today is from Akash Gupta from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi, good morning, everybody. I have a few questions as well. The first one is clarification to Lucie's question, because my understanding on raw materials, particularly copper, is that at the time when copper prices go up, your margins mechanically come down because your EBITDA or your value add will remain the same, but your revenues number will go up, which will mechanically reduce the margins. On the other way around, when copper price is going down, it will improve your margins because your sales figure will go down and value add will remain the same. Can you confirm if that is the case or my understanding is not correct? It's exactly, Akash, Francesco. It's exactly what I was trying to explain, that this year, specifically in the first six months, the sales have been inflated by EUR 870 million, if you want to have the exact number in terms of copper price, with very material effect in terms of EBITDA. The margins decreased very much. It's a fake decrease. It doesn't mean anything. As a matter of fact, if you calculate the margins at the stable copper price, you have a very material increase of the margins. It's very important that we give this message very clearly that our margins, also due to the very good job done last year, under the huge pressure of the volume drop of the COVID season, our margins have improved, and we are preserving now that level of margins. That's the reality. Thank you, Francesco. The next one I have is on this SOO Green project in the U.S. I believe this is not in your backlog, given your backlog is in both quarter-on-quarter. Maybe if you can clarify on that. The question I have is that, given on one side you have some delays in the SuedLink and particularly on installation side, we may have to take into consideration a couple of years of delays. Can we say that some of these delays on revenues may be offset by execution of SOO Green? If you can also say, when do you expect to start this project in terms of revenue recognition? Hakan speaking. Thank you for your question. Regarding the SOO Green in our backlog, it is not in our backlog, because we are waiting for the notice to proceed, as you know. We never take projects which has no NTP into our backlog. The second question was, the German corridors delay, is it going to be compensated by the SOO Green? No, they are two different projects running differently. We have not foreseen one or the two compensate each other. Therefore, we are investing into the capacity in the U.S. to be able to produce majority of SOO Green in the U.S. So, the delay in the German corridors, I would not be able to say more than what I told before. It is on the installation, which is going to dilute, let's say, the yearly sales and margins at the back end. In our projections, so far, we are fine, but I cannot say that everything is going to be certified with the permits, with this delay. There may be shortening or there may be also further delays, we will see in the future. Currently, we are starting the production, we will continue the production. Therefore, from that perspective, there is no, let's say, correlation or any compensation possibility with the SOO Green. It's an additional project on top of the existing capacity utilization we have, and it's a complete different path and unlocking capacity in the U.S. We were using that capacity for medium voltage. We were using that capacity for AC high voltage. As Valerio explained, we are investing. Today there was a decision to invest a little bit further, to unlock some of the high voltage capacity and also the medium voltage capacity that is going to be affected due to the SOO Green project. Just for you, Valerio speaking, Akash. Just for you to know, we have presented and debated with the board a number of investments, because we need to invest definitely for the growth of the market. The investments will touch North America, will touch Arco Felice, and will touch probably also Pikkala. We need to increase the capacity to follow the market and to increase our capacity following the demand of the market. After having seen that the market is really expected to grow, our estimation is that the submarine market is going to be 2.5x the previous Average five years consumption, we have decided to invest. Not to lose the trade. In the next two, three years, you will see not minor increase of the CapEx. Partly, obviously, we are going to try to reduce other CapEx in order to compensate. We expect our CapEx to ramp up around about EUR 300 million-EUR 350 million, instead of the EUR 250 million-EUR 300 million of today. That's why, because we need to increase the capacity of the high voltage to follow the medium voltage market in U.S., and the submarine especially. If the market asks, we are going to follow the market. That's it. Thank you. Maybe, Hakan, just to follow up, my question was more in regards to the total project revenues. I'm aware that for one project, you will produce cable in Europe and one you'll be producing in North America. When I look at the project segment revenues, if you have an impact from some push-out of German corridors in Europe, can you offset it to this project in the U.S. in terms of the revenues for the land high voltage segment? That is not going to be possible? That was the question really. Listen, Akash. First of all, the German corridors. I don't believe that the German corridors will be delayed significantly. There will be a partial delay, 1 or 2 years, of the installation only. Consequently, that will impact moderately our prospection of the sales. On the other side, there are many other projects, interconnectors on land and by sea, that are coming, that will more than compensate the potential delay of German corridors. Finito. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Your next question for today is from Vivek Midha from Citi. Please go ahead. Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I had a couple, one short-term, one longer term. Firstly, if I could follow up in terms of the monthly sequential trends you've been talking about. What have you seen so far in July, if you're able to share that? Secondly, another question on the SOO Green project. Could you maybe give us any color on what sort of competitive dynamics for bidding you're seeing on these kinds of contracts to the U.S., how it sort of compares to the bidding you see in the European market? Thank you. The trend in July for the business is pretty positive. The demand, especially for E&I, is still strong. No news, that's my opinion. Obviously, my colleagues may take other positions, if any. I believe that Massimo Battaini wants to give some color to your question. Yes. Hi, Vivek. I confirm that we've seen, not only in July, but the first six months, a strong surge of the T&I demand, which will definitely signal a stronger demand of our distribution. We will probably follow in second half of this year. We'll have the whole of E&I business very strong, volume-wise and performance-wise in 2021, relative to 2020, but also relative to 2019. T&I today is more performant than what it was in 2019 pre-COVID. We see also in the industrial segment, so special cables, a stronger demand, because all projects that were put on hold last year are gradually resuming pace. Order intake has started to ramp up quite significantly. I think this cover well the energy space. High voltage has been already commented by Hakan, We see similar trend. As you know, in this business, as T&I picks up with three, six months delay, all the other segments will follow through. PD and the others. In telecom, I think Philippe has already covered this. We've seen a stronger demand, relative to last year, in optical cables. We also in MMS. We see this trend continuing second half, and July is confirming this trend continuing second half. I don't know whether we answer the question or not, Vivek. Yes. Thank you very much. What? There is a second question that you asked, I think, Vivek, about the bidding process in the U.S. versus Europe. Is that correct? Do you want me to comment on this? Yes. That'd be great. Thank you. Okay. First of all, when it's high tech, like 525 kV, the bidding process is similar. The only distinction which comes from the bidding process is it a TSO or a developer? The developers are different, looking from a different perspective because of their financing agreement and financing requirements. A TSO, which is already financed partially by themselves, partially by the government. From that perspective, there are some particularities on both, but the high-tech investments like the 525 kV DC dictates the bid. I can say that even the process may be a little bit different, but the result is the same. If you are able to produce and develop a cable that is high-tech, then you have more, let's say, opportunities as we have seen, versus the German corridors and also SOO Green. Understood. Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question is from Miguel Borrega from Exane BNP. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got three, please. The first one on projects, and just coming back on what you said last quarter about more capacity in the market may be impacting pricing and margins. Can you comment on what you have seen over the last few orders in the first half in terms of the implied margin? Is that kind of higher than what you've had historically? Then I can just ask the other two. On free cash flow, your guidance basically implies around EUR 580 million in the second half. Can you walk us through what you're thinking about working capital? You mentioned a few down payments in Q4. Am I right in assuming that you're expecting a broadly neutral working capital position on your cash flow for the full-year, so reversing the EUR 500 million from the first half? If you could also quantify the impact from copper on your working capital. The last one on energy. You mentioned during the presentation that the cash conversion is 83%. Can you maybe break it down between infrastructure and industrial? Because I imagine there would be a significant difference there as well. Thank you. Thank you very much for all your questions. Let me start with the first one, the capacity increase. We need to increase the capacity, we have been the last to run for it, we were having already a bigger capacity than competitors. We see the capacity filled, we are thinking to follow the trend of the market not to miss opportunity for the customers. We have seen, not for the time being, a significant price pressure. The prices are almost stable, I believe that the demand, if it's true as it is, that is going to grow so much, probably there will not be opportunity to price reduction in the next quarters. I don't know if Hakan has a different vision. I agree completely, Valerio. The capacity had an effect. We spoke about last time that the pricing has come down, and we had pressure. As Valerio said, it has stabilized. We are seeing for the high-tech projects, let's say, the bigger projects, less pressure on the price. The smaller projects is always, depending on the competition level and the offering of multiple players, is always under pressure. We don't see that in the big ones. There was a second question I leave to Francesco. Yes. Thank you, Miguel. The free cash flow for the second half. Of course, as usual, due to seasonality, working capital will decrease in the second half, no doubt about that. The reality is that it will decrease a little bit less than it decreased last year. That's the point. Therefore, the EUR 450 million, say, free cash flow last 12 months that we see as of June, will decrease towards the level indicated in the guidance. Again, I'm pretty confident that we will manage to keep it above EUR 300 million and maybe also in the very high part of the guidance. We have one specific reason for that. The dynamic of working capital in the project business. Last year, due also to the lower level of activity and order intake in the previous quarters and previous years, we didn't have this very high level of activity in terms of project execution, I mean, in the second quarter. Therefore, the level of the working capital was dropping dramatically. In the positive sense, was improving, was decreasing very significantly. This year, I say this very positively, of course, with the start of the German corridors and with the execution of the submarine orders, which have been newly taken, like the Turkish Crossing, just to give you an example, or the Sofia, which are projects with a pretty much shorter time to market. Whose execution will already fall in the second half. Yes, maybe the working capital of the submarine will also decrease, not certainly in line with that. This explains again why the EUR 450 last 12 months free cash flow as of June will drop down to the level indicated in the guidance. The second point was related to the copper impact on working capital. I think I was mentioning this during my presentation is the total impact in the last 12 months as of June over EUR 230 million. It's huge. This impact will decrease a bit on a full-year base 2021 for the simple reason that the copper pricing crisis started already in 2020 in the fourth quarter, to be exact. I could estimate that it could go down from EUR 230 to EUR 180-EUR 190. I'm giving you rough estimations, but I think are pretty much correct. This is on a full-year base. I'm meaning from December 2020 to December 2021. Still, EUR 180 is still a huge effect that we are, of course, doing our best to offset in terms of free cash flow delivery, thanks to inventory management, overdue management, and the good work done by the project division in executing, reaching milestones, and collecting cash at the relevant milestones. The third question was on cash conversion. I would say that the cash conversion of the energy business is very similar in its different components. E&I, industrial business, I believe it's not very much different. Let me highlight and emphasize how important this cash conversion is to stabilize our cash generation in a period of time, and I believe Valerio was mentioning this, I mean, the next few years, when we will certainly go into a higher level of CapEx, specifically for the project business. This means if we take this cash conversion rates and we project them over the next two, three years, definitely the cash conversion rate on the project will drop even more, will not remain at 60%, will certainly drop. I say this once again positively, because we have very good investment opportunities. Whereas I believe that the level of cash conversion of energy will remain stable, and I hope that also the level of cash conversion in telecom may remain stable or even increase because the bulk of investments in telecom and in fiber, specifically, we have already done over the last few years. Telecom has always been a pretty good cash generative business. I think it will keep being a very good cash generation. This, once again, to explain the complementarity and the fit of our businesses, not only in terms of different cycles, some mega trends which needs to be stabilized by a more mature and stable business like the energy, but also in terms of financial balance, because a company only exposed to one of its business, say the project business, well, when the business change direction, it's not an easy company to sustain or to stabilize. We are very happy to be in this complementary framework. That's very clear. Thank you. Welcome. Our next question today is from Monica Bosio from Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. I hope you can hear me. There are just a few questions left. As for the U.S., on the back of the SOO Green project and of the statement from Hakan, I was wondering if it's too early to give us an idea of the potential size of the underground cable market in the United States, and when do you expect this market will ramp up? I can imagine it could ramp up along with the infrastructure plan of Biden, but just your color on this. From the financial side, I would like to ask Francesco, just housekeeping, a projection for the tax rate for the full-year and maybe an indication on the copper price on the net revenues over the full-year. I can imagine that the second part of the year will be definitely better in term of copper because there is a better comparison base. Thank you very much. Thank you, Monica, for your question. Valerio speaking. My opinion, obviously, I don't have the crystal ball, but there is not a transmission entity in U.S. SOO Green is one of the first interconnectors on land that is going to develop a transmission network between regions from Midwest t o the East Coast. It will not be the sole. Other will come, for sure. If U.S., the private companies, will trigger other projects, it's possible because SOO Green has told us that they have the license to connect via the railroad, whatever they want. It may be that the railroad right of way, will become or could become, if SOO Green is going to be successful at execution, and that's sure, a different way to realize a common infrastructure in the U.S. territory. That is an infrastructure that the U.S. is going to need because all the power generated on the two coasts within 10 years have to be distributed inside the country. That's not an option. It's something that has to come. I'm pretty optimistic on it, and that's the reason why today we approved a quite significant investment in our plant in Abbeville in USA. Okay. It is still too early to define the size of the potential market, we should see later. The size of the potential market, it may be big as you want. Billions. It's really difficult to predict. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Monica, taking over your additional questions. The tax rate, I believe, on a full-year basis will remain quite stable, around 30, 31%. Always remember that a quarterly tax rate is, by definition, the best estimate of the full-year tax rate. If our financial statements are correct, as they are, the 30%-31% should be an appropriate estimate of the full-year. Okay. It seems to me a little bit better. Go ahead. It seems to me a little bit better than initial anticipation. Maybe I'm wrong. No, no, you are right. It is better Okay because our results are better. Okay. Normally, when the profit before tax improves, specifically in some geographies which are more on the borderline. Some geographies with low profitability and which, in terms of profit before tax on net income, sometimes are at a loss, like it happened in 2020. When these get into positive black figures, of course, the tax rate tends to improve because when these are at a loss, you don't provide for deferred tax assets. Yes, for sure. Which is conservative, of course, it's prudential, but it is like this. It's very normal when the results improve, the tax rate tends to go down, and I believe that it can further go down a bit there, but over the next few years. The copper price and the sales. I'm happy to say that I hope that we may be able to exceed slightly the EUR 12 billion level in terms of sales on a full-year basis. Okay. Of course, this is very much pushed by the copper price, Valerio said this. Our forecast is actually going slightly above EUR 12 billion. Of course, this is based on the current level of copper price. If the copper moves significantly, the picture will change. The copper effect on a full-year basis is difficult to estimate. What I can say is that in the first half was EUR 864 million, just to give you the exact number. In the second half will be much lower than this because the copper started to rise in the last quarter. I tend to believe that it may be estimated approximately at 50% of that. Yeah. My best estimation would be a full-year copper price effect on sales for EUR 1.2 billion-EUR 1.3 billion. I can be right or wrong, ±EUR 100 million, easily. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Welcome. Our next question for today is from Renato Gargiulo from Stifel. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Well, the first one is about [inaudible], if you have any updates about the potential timing of the award of the project. The second one is a follow-up on CapEx. Can we assume already some higher CapEx, some steps up in the second half of this year compared to your previous plans? The third question is on submarine business. Considering also the recent orders, you were saying Turkish Crossing, Sofia, et cetera. Can you give us an indication about the expected utilization production capacity for the submarine in the second half of the year? Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Renato, for your question, while you're speaking. First question, what about EuroAsia? We have been talking probably too much about EuroAsia. We have started to talk about this project almost one year ago. We are still in the middle of the sea. That's my opinion. That's because the route is touching Cyprus, and Cyprus is a very sensitive location in the Mediterranean. That's the reason why there are also political problems to be overcome. I'm quite sure that sooner or later, those problems will be over solved. For the time being, it's a project that we have in our expectations, but not very quickly to be awarded. The last expectations is for an award in the second half of the year, but I'll not be surprised to see a further delay into the project. I don't know if Hakan wants to comment on it. Yeah. You explained it very well. One additional news that is already public, the European Fund has approved EUR 100 million to the project, so that makes this project more solid. That means the European community overall is expecting and putting that project as strategic. The important is, of course, the technical solution for Cyprus, and I'm not going to mention the political difficulties which Valerio has mentioned. We are following the customer's time schedule, and so far, they are sticking to the time schedule. That's what I can say. We see the EUR 100 million as a positive step forward for the project. If EuroAsia will be awarded, we expect to be part, at least, of the award. Second question about the CapEx. The CapEx for 2021 will not be touched seriously. Consequently, the previous guidance on CapEx stays the same. What we are going to be obliged to touch is the CapEx of 2022 and 2023, especially if we are going to apply for the new submarine plant in U.S. In that case, obviously, we have to dedicate a significant chunk of CapEx to this step up. I will give you the information when we are going to be sure to do it. The decision is already almost taken, having not yet the location defined, I tend to be prudent. The third question is about the submarine business. If it's expected, the utilization to grow. Frankly speaking, I've been talking to you telling that the utilization for the [inaudible] cable was not filled completely. Now, with the Turkish Crossing, Sofia The Sofia, the capacity is filled. On points. Starting from last quarter, if I'm not wrong, Hakan can correct me, and obviously the first half next year, the extruded capacity is filled, as well as the paper capacity. We are going to run at full capacity. That's also the reason for the increase of CapEx and the investment I told you we are going to authorize, or we have already authorized, for the increase of capacity for submarine. Okay, thank you. If I may, just a quick follow-up on telecom, just a confirmation. Based on your current visibility until year-end, can we say that the geographical mix may remain approximately the same than the first half, or you expect anything material? Anything to change? Yes, I would say yes. Philippe can be more detailed. Yeah. Yes, I confirm. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next question for today is from Alessandro Tortora. From Mediobanca. Please go ahead. Yes, thanks. I have two question left from my side. The first one is on the telecom. I know it's difficult, I would like to understand if you have any feeling or sentiment on, let's call it restocking or installation pace of your clients, and, if you have any feeling of level of stocks of your clients or from a distribution level. The second question is on the energy projects. Considering everything we discussed in this call, next year, starting with the margin, let's say you are assuming for this year. Is it a year balance between production installation if we also think about Viking or let's say all the discussion we had. Just to have an idea of what's your view on the overall margin for projects, let's say next year. Thanks. Okay. I leave the floor to Philippe for the first question about the stock power telephone cable. telephone cable. That is a very difficult question. Hello, Alessandro. Ciao, Philippe. From what we see after a stock building during the fiber shortage in 2018, essentially, we had a very slow de-stocking that took many quarters, and I would consider that the de-stocking must be more or less over now. I believe we are, from the stock perspective of customers, back to normal. Okay. If the demand grows, it will mean that there will be a growth for us. We still need just to say, because it's a very significant event for my business, we will see very soon, I think in August, the China Mobile tender. That is, as you know, very important, and that will set the scene for the balance between offer and demand in China, but given the importance of China in the world in general. We will have a better view on the demand after summer. As far as stock is concerned, I would say de-stocking is over now. Okay. If I understood well, you mentioned during the call that as of today, overall price is bottomed. Not bottomed out, but bottomed. Is this right? Yes. Let's say, we see a stabilization of prices in the new tenders. Okay. That's what we see. Okay. The second question was related to energy projects, and in that case, I leave the floor to Hakan. Regarding the project, can you define again, quickly I would like to be more specific to your question. Could you restate your question please, so that I can give more details? The margin expectation in 2022 in projects. 22 versus 21. This is the expectation. Okay. Let me answer in two ways. First of all, the effect of the capacity utilization. We are still working for the 2022 order backlog to be filled. As Valerio was saying, the first six months are booked, and we are still working on some projects to be acquired for the second half. Depending on the order book or orders we are going to receive, and if we are going to be able to fill, which we think that we are going to do, we are expecting an increase versus this year. How much this increase is going to be, we are going to make the decisions, and also based on our order book at the end of the year. The expectation is, as Valerio was saying at the very beginning, that we are seeing improvements in our results, and which we are going to solidify in the second half. We hope that this is going to transfer itself also into the full-year 2022 versus 2021. Okay, thanks. Our next question for today is from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Most of my things have been answered, but I would like to ask you, your competitors have talked increasingly a lot about a service business and repairs. Some of them even have specific divisions now for that. I was wondering if you could give some perspective on how big do you think the size of the market can be, given some of interconnectors are getting quite old and there's a lot of them, and whether that's something you also have actively pursuing, would be interested in perspectives there. Thank you. Okay. I assume that you're talking about the project business, service business. Of course. refrain myself to explain only on the project business. You're right, the service business is becoming a standard in our environment. We have two kinds of markets that we are exploring. One is majority of the new projects already foresee inside also a service agreement which we are taking part of. Therefore, when you are talking about a big project, the customer is already asking us to supply a service contract. The service contract is not comparable to the big contract. If you are comparing, we can say it's about 3%-5% of the total contract is a service contract, which you can then multiply with the years of useful lifetime. Then there is another part of service that is requested from some customers that have already installed the cable for a long time, and they are now asking ready crew in case something happens to the emergent way to go and to take care of the repair. That business is, I can say, is a little bit slow because the customers are not very decisive on the fixed fee that they have to pay to have a standby crew. Therefore, this market is currently slowly growing, I can say, very slowly. I cannot say that it's a significant market yet. The utilities and the TSOs have to make their minds around to do fixed fee agreements for the crews that are standby. Overall, I see a good trend, and the service business is a part of our business, and we are focusing on that. Our focus is majority is in two ways. We do ad hoc repairs that we are doing for the last 10 years. Whenever our customer has a breakdown, we have crews that are not based on a service agreement, but on an ad hoc basis. We do that on an order basis. The other one, which is now becoming as a standard, is the attachment of service agreement on top of a full turnkey project. This is happening. Thank you. Actually, if I may just follow up, I think you commented on EuroAsia specifically, but I might have missed it. What other large tenders are out there that we should be paying attention for the next 12 months? Yes. As I said before, we consider the project actually started a bit late. I mean other Apart from EuroAsia. Oh, yeah. Apart from EuroAsia. I'm sorry. There are big projects in the horizon. Yes. First of all, if you look to Terna's investment plan, one of the projects is the Tyrrhenian Link. That one is already announced by Terna into the market that this project is going to happen. It's a big project. There are some projects that we are following, which is in the Middle East, as you may know. The ADNOC project is also in the market, well commented by the investors and also contractors. Apart from that, we are seeing big projects of the wind farms in the U.S. that are in the tendering phase. When we talk about a tender of a wind farm is depending on DC or AC, but it ranges in the EUR 300 million level. There are multiple ones which are currently under tendering. I can say that we are seeing significant activity on the big tender, let's say, offerings. Thank you. Thank you. Our final question for today is from Gabriele Gambarova from Banca Akros. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. A single one is again on the U.S. and on interconnectors. I was wondering if the SOO Green and other possible opportunities, do you expect them to carry higher margins vis-a-vis the European projects? Do you believe they are in line with the European projects? Just a simple answer to you. We see the margins of the U.S. projects interconnectors land very similar to the Europeans one. Obviously, the informations to the market related to the German corridors are well spread all over the world consequently is already a reference. What I can tell you is that the margins in U.S. are not going to be lower than the German corridors one. Very strictly aligned.