Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FL Entertainment Half Year 2023 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Alternatively, you may submit your question via the webcast. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Caroline Cohen. Please go ahead. Thank you, Sandra. Good evening, everyone. This is Caroline Cohen, Head of Investor Relations. Welcome to FL Entertainment's H1 2023 results webcast. Before we start, let me draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide 2. I also want to remind you that this presentation is available on the company's website, and a replay of this call will be accessible in the coming days. Your speakers today are François Riahi, CEO, and CFO, Sophie Kurinckx. First, François will go through our key financial highlights for the period, followed by a quick business update. Sophie will then cover the financial results in more detail before François provides some concluding remarks. Over to you, François. Thank you, Caroline. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for joining us on the second of August. I'm very happy to present to you very strong first half results that demonstrate once again, the strength of our differentiated and complementary business model. On the content production and distribution side, we enjoy a very positive momentum powered by our unmatched multi-format, global content production and distribution offer. The period also saw some exciting corporate activity with strategic expansion of our entertainment offer into the highly complementary arena of live events production. On the online sports betting and gaming side, double-digit revenue growth across all segments was driven by our ability to capitalize on an increase in the number of unique active players. When we move to the main figures of the first six months of the year, we are very pleased and proud of this strong financial results. Revenues were up 8%, a very positive outcome, given the impact of the post-COVID recovery on H1 2022, which gave us higher comparative figures for the first half of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was up 10%, while adjusted net income was up 24%. Importantly, we maintained our high level of cash conversion at 84%. Our financial leverage ratio was 3.3 times as of 30 June 2023, due to the seasonality of cash payments, primarily related to our dividend, and in part, the acquisitions we completed. It is expected to return to 3.1 times at year-end, pro forma, these acquisitions. If we take a closer look at Q2, we see it was a particularly strong quarter, with group revenue growing by over 14, one four,% versus the same quarter last year. Revenues grew by over 33% for online sports betting and gaming, and 9.1% for content production and distribution. It seems clear to us that both businesses outperformed their market. Let's zoom a little bit on content production and distribution. In a context of tougher operating conditions for our clients in terms of advertising revenues or subscriber numbers. Our positioning, our unrivaled geographic footprint and IP catalog allows us to be even more the premier partner for broadcasters and streamers. I'll focus on three areas to illustrate how our offer differentiates itself in its context, in this context. The first element is our iconic super brands. Our super brands are always in demand from both broadcasters and audiences. Big Brother, present in over 30 territories and still breaking new ground with a new version in Chile, in addition to a major return to U.K. screens. LEGO Masters expands into two new territories. Survivor is returning to Argentina, Deal or No Deal in Spain. You can see that in today's context, these super brands are still performing and expanding. This is linked to the fact that they are, I would say, clear audience drivers and they are even more looked for when you need to secure audiences. The second element is our ability to monetize our powerful IP by adapting successful formats for multiple markets. Here again, like for our super brands, in tougher times, broadcasters are more risk averse and are looking for guaranteed winners. A partner with a global offer like Banijay, that can bring hits from other markets, represents a compelling offer. We have a lot of examples here. I'll give a few of them. We are adapting Banijay Italia's game show, 100% Italia, in France for France 2. Star Academy, which has been a big success in France, and, and of course, will give place to a second season, has also been picked up by Reshet 13 in Israel. Good Luck Guys, another unscripted hit in France, is now being produced for Amazon Prime in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and the Netherlands. On the scripted side, an example also, the powerful French drama, Serial Lover, has been acquired by Spanish broadcaster, Atresmedia. The capacity to have a circulation of our IP is a strong differentiating factor in today's environment. The first driver is the increased demand from streaming platforms for our high quality programming. As you know, you know, one or two years ago, we were starting from a low base, when it comes to business with streamers, because it was not a perfect match between what they were requesting and what we could offer, and what we didn't want to do. What we see is a trend where we are doing more and more with streamers, and it fuels our growth. There are different elements, different parts in this rising demand from streaming. First, is the fact that streamers have more and more appetite for non-scripted programs. I'll give you two example of very successful non-scripted shows we are delivering for streamers. One is for Amazon Prime. I mentioned already LOL, last time, what-- that we are producing, with success in ma- in several, countries for Amazon Prime. Now, we will also produce Popstars, the world's first music reality competition, which was not on screen in France for more than 2 decades and is returning on, on, Prime, Amazon Prime. I think it's telling on how things are changing for streamers. Another example of, a non-scripted program, very successful on, on Netflix, is Deep Fake Love. But in addition to that, there's also a rising demand from streamers for non-English language scripted shows, and I'll mention two of them. Lidia Poët on, on Netflix, which has been a, a, a real success and is coming back. Culpa mía, on Prime Video. Culpa Mía is the platform's top traveling non-English local original, with more than 75% of its viewership coming from outside its country of origin. As the number 1 producer of scripted content in Europe, the ongoing writers and actors strikes in the U.S. creates further potential demand for our content. It is better said by our clients themselves. We collected in the recent public statements what they said to underline this evolution of the demand. Non-scripted content is now a key editorial pillar, both in terms of new and returning shows. It is recognized as cost-effective output that drives advertising sales and viewer retention, and as the leading creator of this content, we are the recognized partner. This is a great opportunity for us. It could also benefit from the strikes in the U.S. Netflix has also confirmed the growing popularity of non-English language titles, even in the US, which has not traditionally not been that receptive. We are totally agnostic when it comes to the content distribution channels, so what comes most is the demand for content by the audience, and we want to be well recognized as a go-to partner, both for broadcasters and streamers. Turning to online sports betting and gaming now, where our strong performance was driven by the successful execution of the group's growth strategy. It was a very dynamic first half of the year, including new strategic partnerships and enhancements to the platform. Unique active players is the most important metric for this industry and the main driver of sustainable growth. The football World Cup creates a peak in player numbers, so focus is then on retaining the players. Today's results show you that we were able to capitalize on the UAP, unique active players, we attracted during the World Cup, with an increase by 36% in the H2 2022 compared to H1. This cannot be achieved without a quality platform, and this performance also reflects greater gamification, as well as the implementation of new features, such as instant payments in France. These elements drove double-digit revenue growth across all activities, sports betting, casino, turf, poker. This performance is achieved while we are even stricter on responsible gaming. The proportion of revenue generated in locally regulated markets reached over 98%, actually 98.5% in H1, and we remain fully committed to ensuring the highest standards for responsible gaming everywhere we operate. This level of 98.5% is one of the highest in the industry. In July, we also signed two strategic football partnerships. Betclic was named as the official title, title sponsor of Portugal's top flight football league, Liga Portugal, which will be renamed until 2027 as Liga Portugal Betclic. Betclic has also signed a partnership with the Ruch Chorzów SA Football Club, sorry for the accent, in Poland, one of the largest and most engaged fan communities in this key market. This illustrates the diversity of our geographies, which has been a key element in our success on the first half of 2022. I'd like to move now to our M&A activities in the first half. In June, we created Banijay Events, a new offering that delivers on our wider strategy to become an integrated global entertainment leader. The rationale of this new development is threefold. 1, this sector has significant growth potential, having rapidly bounced back post-COVID to meet demand for in-person experiences. 2, the sector remains largely unconsolidated and aim to capitalize on our proven entrepreneurial approach. 3, live event production shares a lot of common DNA with Banijay, a decentralized model, a B2B focus in the creative space, a cost-plus pricing model, and high levels of cash generation. For these reasons, we think we can replicate Banijay's success in TV production, in live events productions. That's why we have founded Banijay Events, which will be led by François de Brugada, who has been instrumental in building Banijay since inception. To achieve this goal of value creation, we are proud to have been chosen by 2 fantastic companies with very good track record of growth and profitability that lead their respective segments. This gives us a very robust base to deliver growth, and I'll say a few words on each of them. Let's start with Balich Wonder Studio. Balich has delivered impressive organic growth over the past 10 years to become a prestige live event creator and service provider, tapping into a broad range of institutional ceremonies and brand experiences. Balich is the go-to for premium live entertainment events and organized Olympic Games, opening and closing ceremonies in Rio in 2016, Tokyo in 2020, and of course, Paris in 2024. Same for last football World Cup, where they have delivered opening and closing ceremonies. It also delivers large-scale events for brands and organizations, including for top brands such as Louis Vuitton, Formula One, Ferrari, Dolce & Gabbana, and Bulgari. Balich is a global business with operating offices in 20 markets across Europe and the Middle East, which is one of the fastest growing and most important regions for the high-end event management industry. It is already a sizable business with revenues around EUR 315 million in 2022. We are acquiring a majority share alongside founder, Marco Balich, and we have the option to progressively increase our holdings. The second development is the acquisition in June of a stake in The Independents, a global market leader in live events, branded content, and influence management. This is a highly profitable business with global, globally diversified revenues and strong cash flow generation. It is successfully integrating agencies all over the world that enrich their offer to luxury and fashion brands. These agencies, such as K2, which is headquartered in China, Bureau Betak, headquartered in Paris, Projects in the US, and The Qode in the Middle East, have an unparalleled reputation and recognized execution quality, and can deliver first category shows to luxury and fashion brands, including, of course, LVMH, Kering, Richemont, or Chanel. Hence, The Independents enjoy a strong position at the crossroads of two worlds, enjoying a sustained growth, live events, and luxury markets. We are investing alongside investment firm TowerBrook, and together we will support The Independents' ambition to more than double its size by 2025 via acquisitions and dynamic organic development. It comes with the option to become a majority shareholder in 2026. This investment further demonstrates our ability to source and capitalize on fast-growing segments of the global entertainment industry. That's all from me for now, and I'll leave the floor now to Sophie. Over to you. Thank you, François. Let's start with group revenue, up to 7.9% at constant FX rate, and 6.8% at current FX rate. This reflects a positive contribution from content production and distribution business, up 3%, even with the higher comparables across the period, as mentioned in the last call we had on Q1. A very strong online sports betting and gaming performance, with revenue up 23%. As François, as François mentioned earlier, this reflects higher unique active players numbers and our high-quality product offering. In Q2, group revenues were particularly strong, up 14.2% compared to last year. This positive performance was reflected in our adjusted EBITDA, which is up 10%. At a group level, external expense rose by almost 15%. This primarily reflects an increase in betting tax paid in online sports betting and gaming, in line with the increase in revenue in this business. Secondly, in content production and distribution business, we saw an increase in external expense due to a change in the allocation of costs related to external staff and freelancers. This reallocation is consequently reflected in the 6% decrease in personal expense in this slide. Looking next at our consolidated P&L. LTIP and employment-related earn-out and option expense are up. Why? We added new beneficiaries to our long-term incentive plans during the first half, and as you already know, our LTIPs have an accelerated phase at the start. For example, content production and distribution long-term incentive plans last eight years, but have an accelerated first phase lasting four years. That's why over the duration of each plan, this expense will average around 10% of annual adjusted EBITDA, as previously indicated. The increase in other finance costs is mainly explained by the change in fair value of financial instruments, instruments, including hedging and put and earn out debt. Cost of net debt increased due to one-off costs related to debt refinancing in Banijay in April. As a result of the above, adjusted net income, net income rose by 24% in the first half of the year compared to 2022. Looking next at results by business, starting with content production and distribution. First half revenue was up 3.5% at constant exchange rates. As you can see, we saw a very strong performance in Q2, with revenue up over 9%, outperforming the wider market. Even in tougher market conditions for linear broadcasters, rising demand from streamers and our high quality IP mean we can continue to take advantage of opportunities to gain market shares. Overall, the number of content catalog hours increased by 8% to around 172,000 hours compared to December 2022. In terms of content production and distribution earnings, we continue to see good levels of profitability. Adjusted EBITDA was up just over 1%, reflecting again the return to normal seasonality and the strong performance in Q2. The negative change in working cap is explained by the return to normal seasonality, as we already mentioned in the previous call, or relating to Q1 results, which means we are full speed on production during the summer months, which explains this negative change in working cap. As you can see, our free cash flow is consistent with previous years. Next, to Online Sports Betting and Gaming, where revenues were up over 23%. The performance reflected the successful execution of the group's growth strategy across all geographies, capitalizing on higher player numbers and cross-selling strategies across product lines. All activities recorded double-digit growth in H1 2023, with Sportsbook revenue up 21% and Online Casino, Poker, and Turf up 35%. As you can see, Q2 figures were even stronger. Looking now at Online Sports Betting and Gaming earnings. Adjusted EBITDA was up 26%, a strong performance, while the business delivered adjusted free cash flow conversion of 96%. Decrease in negative change in working cap is mainly explained by a better working capital management in 2023, as well as a negative impact on Betatome liquidation in 2022. The increase in income tax this year is due to higher prepayments of betting-related taxes due to better results. This is due to the significant increase in unique active players at the end of 2022, which has been retained throughout the first half of the year. Adjusted free cash flow reached EUR 274 million in H1 2023. This was driven by the earnings generated and supported by the tight control of cash expense and capital expenditure. This resulted in a cash conversion rate after CapEx and lease payments of 84%. Adjusted for changes in working capital, which reflects the return to normal seasonality for content production and distribution and in context pay, our adjusted operating free cash flow was EUR 151 million in H1 2023. The group's net debt rose versus the 2022 year-end figures, to almost EUR 2.3 billion. This was mainly due to accretive M&A and shareholder dividends balanced by solid cash generation. We have a strong cash position in addition to a significant undrawn secured credit line. As I highlighted at Q1, Banijay has refinanced and raised almost EUR 1.1 billion and extended the maturity of its EUR 170 million RCF by 3 years to September 2027. This demonstrates the group's financial strength and flexibility as a highly cash generative business. As mentioned by François, our leverage ratio increased to 3.3x due to the seasonality of cash payments, primarily related to our dividend, and in part, the acquisitions we carried out. Pro forma of announced M&A, this is expected to return to 3.1x this year. That's all from me. I will now hand back to François for some concluding remarks. Thank you, Sophie. In summary, it has been a strong first half of the year, with both businesses outperforming their markets. For content production and distribution, we will continue to capitalize on the strength and diversity of our geographic and IP offer. In an environment where some clients are experiencing tougher operating conditions, our strength in unscripted content and growing activity with streamers are sources of opportunities. Normal seasonality will continue in Q3, for the first time in 2023, we will have comparative 2022 figures that are unaffected by the post-COVID catch-up. For online sports betting and gaming, performance has been excellent, and we will continue to focus on retaining our high, unique, active player levels and driving growth across all activities. All in all, we are on track to continue to deliver profitable growth at scale. We therefore reconfirm our midterm objectives as well as 2023 guidance, which has been updated to reflect the impact of recent acquisitions. At all our full year results in March, we provided adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2023 in the region of EUR 710 million. Pro forma for the acquisition announced and on a 12-months basis, we increase this guidance to EUR 750 million. On the same basis, as mentioned already by Sophie, our leverage ratio is expected to drop to 3.1 times back to the level where it was at the end of 2022. To conclude, I want to reiterate our clear and ambitious vision of becoming the integrated global entertainment leader on growing and profitable segments of the industry, with leadership across content, gaming, and now also live events. We have a unique entrepreneurial culture, which is a clear differentiating factor in an industry where you need to attract and retain talents. We have a bold and agile approach that enable us to capture opportunities in the most attractive segments of the global entertainment industry. The result is a high margin and cash generative business, with a proven track record of delivering growth and generating returns. We are excited to continue the strong momentum we have achieved so far. Thank you, and back to you, Caroline. Thank you, François. It's now time for any questions. Please, can I just ask you to state your name and your company? Thank you. I now hand over to Sandra, the operator, to open the questions. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now take the first question. One moment, please. It comes from the line of Annick Maas from Société Générale. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon. My first question is, if you could just tell us a bit more about this actors' strike in the U.S. Is it impacting you positively, negatively? Is an acceleration of the trends that you've seen in Banijay, partially due to the fact that in the U.S. there's less business going on and therefore you benefit of it in Europe? That's my first question. The second one, and apologize, you might have said it in the start of the call, I was a little bit late, but can you tell us a bit more about the synergies that your new business line will be able to generate with the two existing business lines, please? Thank you, Annick, for this question. First, first question, the strikes in the U.S. so far, we don't see an impact in our figures. It cannot have a negative impact on us, as we are not present on scripted in the U.S., which is a choice, because we are not comfortable with the financial metrics of this business. We are present on the unscripted scope in the U.S. There have been other strikes before, and when it's the case, we have seen an increased demand for non-scripted. Which makes sense because the broadcasters or streamers need to fill their grid, their program grid. So far there's no impact. If there is an impact, we would expect it to, to, to be positive. I, I add to that, which is not something we can base on historical data, but which can be new. I mentioned in the presentation, is that we, we believe that there could also be a rising demand for scripted made in Europe. Because we see that, you know, unlike what was the case before, some scripted shows made in Europe can be successful in the US. You know, we expect that if there's an impact, it could be positive on unscripted and on scripted in Europe. We are, you know, a global leader on unscripted and leader in Europe on scripted. If it benefit to someone, it would benefit us, I think. The second question, on, on the synergies between, between live events and Banijay, you know, TV production. We, we believe they are real, and actually, it's also why these companies have been joining us. We are, we, we have not. It has not been a competitive process. It's really, you know, they chose to, to join us, because they think that, it's the best place for them to develop their activities. On, in this, in, in, in what, what we can mention as synergies, for example, there are more and more, live events, shows, which rely on, on, existing, IP. IP, from the, I would say, the audiovisual, world. Actually, today, we already have some of our IPs that are used by, you know, live event producers. We are just today getting some licenses, and we could internalize this and develop the usage of our IP in live events. The second element is that we have 21 countries within Banijay, with a strong footprint, strong, strong teams on the ground, and local teams with creative talents. The companies that are, that join us can leverage on these teams in countries where they are not present, to help them get some new markets and some new activity. That's two examples, and actually the François de Brugada will, will, will have to, to, to, to multiply these synergies. On both sides, on their side and on the Banijay side, we believe that there are good synergies to, to leverage on. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. We will now take the next question. From the line of Jamie Bath from Redburn, please go ahead. Yes, good evening, everyone. 3 questions from me, please. First one, if we go back to Q1 on production revenue, which was down over 5%, you said that you expected the tough production comps to continue into Q2, but you've posted a very strong growth result there. You've left your guidance unchanged. Does that imply that there's upside potential to your full year guidance, or that something has come down in H2? Second question, does your reiteration of the midterm guidance post the integration of Balich, imply that your organic growth assumptions for Balich are the same as for the rest of the production and distribution segment? Finally, probably one for Sophie. Could you just clarify how you'll be reporting Balich revenues once it's integrated? Will this be a separate line in the production and distribution segment? Thank you. I, I take the first one, and the two following for Sophie. Well, clearly, our first half results are very good. We want to remain cautious in the context of today. It doesn't mean that we expect, you know. We are a little bit conservative, but we want to over-deliver rather than to not to reach our guidance. Sophie? On the reiteration of the midterm guidance, yeah, for now, we consider that the growth of Balich, I mean, the organic growth of Balich, will be the same than for the content production and distribution business. As mentioned by François, this is a business that is currently consolidating, so we expect, of course, to do some bottom acquisitions on this specific area, as we did for Banijay. But as well, the guidance is only related to organic growth. We consider the same the same growth. On Balich, as a separate business unit, no, it will be, it will be, reported into, the content production and distribution business, as this is really part of this business, very complementary, and, making synergies with this business. Yeah. Sorry, just to clarify on that third one. As in at, at the moment, you have, like, a production line and a distribution line, would we expect another line between that and other revenues, or? In terms of- Will it just be integrated into them? In terms of revenue, we are currently working on it, but this is something that we, we could have in mind. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and one. There are no more questions on the telephone at this time. I would like to hand over to Caroline for any written questions. We, we don't have any, any written questions, so I think that we can end the call. Sorry, Caroline, we've got one more question on the phone, if that's okay? Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. Sorry about that. Just, popped up. Sorry about that. One moment. Questions. Next question from the line of Jean-Yves Guerber from Blue Bay Asset Management. Please go ahead. Hello, all, thank you very much. I've got a quick question with respect to the acquisition of Balich and The Independents. According to the press release, you indicate that the Balich Wonder Studio, Banijay itself will acquire a 52% stake in Balich Wonder Studio. I suspect that will be part that will be integrated into the Banijay restricted group. As far as The Independents are concerned, transaction of which has closed in Q2, it say that FL Entertainment has acquired a minority stake in The Independents. Just to understand, will The Independents be outside the Banijay group or unlike Balich Wonder Studio? If you can also share with us, in term of the, the cash consideration paid in Q2 and the one to be paid in, in, by H2 with for, for Balich, please. Thank you. Sorry, did you want to- No, on the first element, for, I would say, it was easier for us to have an acquisition from at FL Entertainment rather than Banijay for The Independents. Both will be managed the same way into Banijay worlds. Yes, the investment in The Independents is not in the Banijay perimeter in terms of debt. Okay. And- This has been funded out of FL Entertainment from Banijay in Q2. Yes. Balich will be funded out of Banijay resources? No, Balich is part of the restricted group, will be part-. Yeah of the restricted group, because we have not yet acquired Balich. Yeah. It is planned to be closed in H2 2023, and it will be paid thanks to the cash that is currently in Banijay Group balance sheet. So it will be funded out of Banijay. Could you disclose the cash consideration to be paid in by H2? No. Not yet. Okay, all right. Thank you very much. Thank you. There are no more questions on the telephone. Please continue. No, Sandra, I think it's fine. We, we had a question on the web regarding industry strikes, but François already answered to this question. I give the use of floor to end the call, François? Sure. Unless there are other questions. Again, thanks a lot for joining us on a, on a challenging date in the agenda. you know, talking next time for the, the next result, which will take place? In, so in November. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much and have a good, a good evening. Thank you. Bye. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank You for participating. You may now disconnect.