Welcome to the Banijay Group half-year 2024 results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Caroline Cohen, Head of Investor Relations. Caroline, please go ahead. Thank you, Aidan. Good evening and welcome to Banijay Group's 2024 H1 Results webcast. This is Caroline Cohen, head of investor relations. Before we start, let me draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide two. 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, our CEO, and CFO Sophie Kurinckx-Leclerc. First, François will present our key financial and business highlights for H1. Sophie will then cover the results in more detail before François provides some concluding remarks. Over to you, François. Thank you, Caroline. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report another strong quarter for the group with double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth. In online sports betting and gaming, we delivered an outstanding performance by leveraging a busy sports calendar to capture both market growth and market share gains across all our activities and geographies. Our content production and distribution performance is down in H1, but this decrease only reflects the anticipated and amplified seasonality effect we discussed last time, with major show deliveries coming towards the end of the year that will reverse this trend. We continue to see good commercial developments with our clients. We also delivered some of the most high-profile sporting and fashion live events in 2024 so far. Across all our activities, we are seeing visible outperformance versus our peers, but I think you will be able to see that for yourself. In this H1 of 2024, our markets were such that we were supported on the sports betting by the sports calendar and impacted in TV production by a demand skewed to the end of the year. But all in all, our performance is in line with our upgraded full-year guidance of low double-digit Adjusted EBITDA growth, and we expect stronger content production and distribution growth in H2 and continued, but most likely not quite as stellar, growth in sports betting and gaming. Let's start with our main figures for H1. Group revenue is almost EUR 2.1 billion, up 8.6% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA was up 11.7% to EUR 368 million, while adjusted net income was up 13.9% to EUR 191 million. In terms of financial structure, we maintain a high level of cash conversion at 77%, driven by the earnings generated during the period and supported by our consistent tight control of cash expenses and capital expenditure. Our leverage remains stable at 3.1 times as we pay the dividend in Q2. Let's move to business highlights now, starting with our content production business, where the seasonality effect must not hide very good commercial results. And I want to start with our streaming client activity. In our position as the leading provider to streamers worldwide, we continue to see strong momentum. Our business with streamers is here, illustrated by some great examples. First, our kids business, Totally Spies, is a long-running international hit cartoon owned by Banijay. The show originally ran for six seasons from 2001 on traditional networks, returning for a seventh season in May, following an 11-year break. The new series has once again proved a great hit with audiences and has been recommissioned for an eighth season, extending the life of its successful linear format. We are very excited to have signed with Amazon Prime the development of a live action version with Hollywood star Will Ferrell as executive producer. This is a fantastic opportunity to extend the value chain of this IP. Another great example of extending the value chain and life of existing IP is Peaky Blinders. This global phenomenon has reached 190 territories across traditional broadcast and on-demand services. The show now lives on Netflix, and we are very excited to be partnering with them on the production of a movie adaptation. Here, we are also capitalizing on our recent acquisition of Peaky Blinders' co-producer, CMP, a deal that gives us 100% of ownership and production rights to the show, which we previously shared. CMP has an extensive list of credits, and Banijay Entertainment now has a first-look development and producer agreement in place. Streamers are now major buyers of feature-length content, and Banijay Benelux has struck a deal with Prime Video to distribute their latest feature film, Full Moon. The film will be released in local cinemas in 2025, as well as on Prime Video. We move to the unscripted, which is, of course, a very important part of our business. We are also the preferred partner for unscripted expansion with streamers, particularly when it comes to reality and entertainment programming that was once the domain of the networks. It is true for existing formats created on linear channels, such as The 50, originally created in France and adapted for the U.S. Hispanic market, which is returning for a second season in Germany on Amazon Prime Video. It is also true for original formats, such as Building the Band, an exclusive non-scripted music competition format coming soon to Netflix. Clearly, this development with the streamers has been fueling our growth in recent years and will continue to do so in 2024 and beyond. We are also crafting creative new hits that are delivering record ratings for both linear broadcasters and streamers. Scripted drama Ripley was a global top 10 hit for Netflix and has been viewed for over 36 million hours and has now been nominated for 13 Emmys, which is, of course, a great achievement. Raising Voices, also on Netflix, coming from Spain, was the number one global non-English series for two weeks after its launch and was the number one series in 42 territories for the first week. Shardl ake on Disney+ was produced by The Forge, which we acquired last November and was the number one show for its premiere. While entertainment show Three Are The Champions on ATL in Germany was the number one show in its slot and has been renewed for a second season on ATL. Looking ahead, we have a strong pipeline of upcoming shows, including Headliners for ABC in Australia, Bergerac on UK TV, and in France, Rien Ne T'Efface on TF1, and Qui Restera dans la Lumière on France 2. Sophie will take a closer look at our content production and distribution financial performance, but I hope these two slides give you a sense of the diversity and the commercial activity of our business. Moving to live events now, where we specialize in ceremonies, brand events, destination experiences, and immersive shows. As you know, we have started to develop this business in 2023, but we are already delivering some of the shows that you have heard of in the first semester of 2024. In this first half of 2024, Balich Wonder Studios delivered over 50 shows and demonstrated its status as an established global player at the forefront of major sports events. The two major highlights came from the world of football. First, the UEFA Champions League Final Kickoff Show at Wembley Stadium in London in May, and second, the opening ceremony of UEFA Euro 2024 in Munich. These are major global events attracting a combined 170 million viewers, positioning Banijay as a leading player in the large-scale ceremonial market. The first half was also a great period for major live luxury and fashion events. Through The Independents, the global marketing and communication group where we hold a minority stake with an option to become the controlling shareholder in 2026, we are now beyond the highest-profile events for some of the most iconic global brands. This included the 18th anniversary celebration show for Jacquemus in Capri, Vogue World, the first-ever runway show held in the Place Vendôme for Anna Wintour, and the Dior Cruise fashion show in Scotland. This event generated massive social media traction with a combined 1.8 billion impressions on Instagram. The Independents also continued their consolidation momentum in the first half, acquiring two new specialist agencies focused on brand, cultural, and entertainment projects, Sunshine and Kennedy. This will create strong synergy opportunities with Banijay Entertainment, and they have other bolt-on acquisitions in the pipe. Sunshine, in particular, has played a key part in some of the most innovative projects in the entertainment industry over the last decade, including the recent revamp of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which was broadcasted on Amazon Prime Video. Now, moving to online sports betting and gaming, where an unmatched user experience is driving client growth and retention and great financial performance. First, I wanted to give you a sense of how our application has evolved in just 18 months between the World Cup 2022 and the Euro 2024. Euro 2024 was the largest sports betting event of the year so far, and it's useful to reflect on how far the business has come in recent years. Unique active players have doubled since UEFA Euro 2021. They have also strongly diversified across countries. In gaming, user experience is critical in terms of player retention and growth, and the improvements since the 2022 World Cup have been significant. Deposit times are 25% faster, bet payment times are twice as fast, and bank transfers now just take two minutes rather than three days. We have just launched the latest edition of the Betclic app, including a wide range of new features. It's just to give you a sense of the fact that we are constantly improving our technology, and to be at the edge of the technology is very crucial. When you look at our financial results, you can see the successful execution of our strategy. We have grown in online sports betting and gaming far faster than the market, resulting in the outstanding performance you can see in H1, with our revenues having increased 42% and a 37% increase in unique active players. So, as our competitors have not grown to the same extent, this means that we have been able to capture a larger share of the new players attracted by the events to play with us, taking benefit of Euro 2024 or Africa Cup of Nations to grab market shares, and it has been the case in all our geographies. We have also calculated that Euro 2024 generated 29% more revenue than World Cup 2022, with 20% less games. In sportsbook, an enhanced live betting experience and the development of our prop bets offering have been a key driver of performance, while the growth in online casino, poker, and turf demonstrates our capability to leverage cross-selling potential when regulation allows. Finally, we have continued to forge strategic partnerships, which is important as Betclic is always looking to position itself as the main partner of sport in the countries where we operate. In the last quarter, Betclic renewed its naming agreement with the French National Basketball League until 2029, as well as its partnership with the Professional Football League until 2025 for Football Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 in France. Betclic has also signed a new four-year sponsorship deal with the Polish Football Association. So, I hope this first part of the presentation gives you a good sense of the very strong activity and the success of Banijay Group in the first half. That's all from me for now. I'll be back at the end for some closing remarks on our outlook before we open the line for questions. Over to you, Sophie. Thank you, François. So, let's start with group revenue for H1, where we delivered 8.6% growth, even when factoring in the seasonality effect in content production and distribution. The period saw a solid contribution from Banijay Entertainment and Banijay Live, with revenue at EUR 1.4 billion, down 2.7% year-on-year. As François mentioned, Banijay Gaming had a standout performance, with revenue up 42% to just under EUR 700 million. This performance was reflected, of course, in our adjusted EBITDA, up 11.7% at constant exchange rates. This led to a 60 basis points improvement in our Adjusted EBITDA margin to 17.6%, mainly explained by a larger contribution from Banijay Gaming, which presents higher EBITDA margins. At the group level, total external and personal expenses rose by 7.9%, driven by higher sports betting taxes and marketing expenses, which created a positive seesaw effect compared to revenue growth. Looking next at our consolidated P&L, LTIP expenses were down slightly and will continue to decrease, in line with the group's trajectory that LTIP expenses will average around 10% of adjusted EBITDA. Cost of net debt increased, which reflects increased interest costs on renewed debt, specifically on the content production and distribution side. The other finance costs mainly include the change in the fair value of financial instruments, including hedging, but also put and earnout debt and currency losses and gains. As a result of the above, adjusted net income rose by 13.9% to EUR 190 million. Let's go now to results by business, starting with content production and distribution, where revenue was down 2.7% at constant exchange rates. Here, we are seeing ongoing firm demand across all formats, especially from streamers, which will be seen in Q4. As highlighted by François previously, the traditional seasonality pattern and bias towards H2 is amplified in 2024 due to a significant number of major scripted show deliveries expected in Q4. In terms of live experience, the jump in revenues reflects an H1 contribution from Balich Wonder Studios, as this company has been included in financial statements as of Q4 2023. Let's look at content production and distribution earnings and cash flow next. Adjusted EBITDA was down 2.2% at constant exchange rates due to the seasonality already mentioned. CapEx increased due to a rise in distribution advances, while income tax paid increased due to higher taxable results in Banijay Entertainment in 2023 compared to 2022, which means that our adjusted free cash flow conversion was now at 60%, which reflects an increase by 56.3% compared to last year. Next, let's look at sports betting and online gaming, where we had an outstanding performance across all activities. Revenue was up 42%, thanks to double-digit growth across all divisions. This growth was reinforced by our leading positions in all geographies, including in our newest market, Ivory Coast. Sportsbook revenue was up 41%, driven by strong growth in unique active players and an enhanced user experience, including a new version of the Betclic app. Online casino, poker, and turf revenues were up 46%, thanks to strong momentum in casino and poker, fueled by an enriched offer and the positive effect of cross-selling strategies. Banijay Gaming continues to demonstrate its profitability, and as you can see, Adjusted EBITDA was up 34% at constant exchange rates to EUR 176 million, and adjusted free cash flow conversion was 91%. Looking at cash flow generation now, adjusted free cash flow at group level reached EUR 285 million. CapEx expenditure increased to EUR 57.4 million in H1 2024 from EUR 30.9 million in H1 2023 due to higher IT costs capitalized in Banijay Gaming, linked to the last developments we made on the app, and increased distribution advances in the content and production business. This resulted in a cash conversion rate after CapEx and lease payments of 77%, in line with our guidance. The group's net debt stands at EUR 2.4 billion. The increase in net financial debt mainly reflects the seasonality of cash payments and the dividend payments made during the period. We have a strong cash position and a significant undrawn secured credit line. Our focus going forward is on balancing our free cash flow with our financing costs, continued strategic M&A activity, and our commitment to shareholder returns. That's all from me. I will now hand back to François for some concluding remarks. Thank you, Sophie. I will now talk about our outlook for 2024. Looking ahead to the second half, we have clear visibility of what will be a busy second half for Banijay Group. For online sports betting, major sports events include the Olympic Games, which are currently underway here in Paris. While not traditionally a betting event on the scale of Euro 2024, the Olympics happens at a time of year when other sporting events are limited, creating additional opportunities for players. Of course, the fact that it takes place in France, one of our major markets, is another positive to make the Olympics this year, I would say, more productive than last Olympics. For Banijay Live, through Balich Wonder Studios, we have Riyadh Season, a major annual state-funded entertainment and sports festival, and there is also an active fashion show calendar for The Independents. For Banijay Entertainment, as already mentioned, we are expecting major scripted show deliveries in the second half of the year, including the second seasons of audience and distribution winners like Marie Antoinette for Canal+, Carême for Apple TV+, SAS Rogue Heroes for the BBC, and The Rig for Amazon Prime, among many others. This underlines the importance of our powerful content catalog. Thanks to all these elements, we are well on track to meet our guidance for the full year of organic adjusted EBITDA growth in the low teens. As already mentioned, the growth profile between our activities will be different in H2 compared to H1, but all in all, it should be comparable at the group level. Looking at content production and distribution performance for the year as a whole, we expect net organic revenue growth, meaning without taking into account the consolidation effect of Banijay because, of course, this adds some revenue in 2024 compared to 2023. So, without this acquisition on an organic basis, our content production and distribution business would be up on the year. On the online sports betting and gaming side, we will leverage on our leading positions in growing markets and capitalize on the success of the updated Betclic app. To conclude, thanks to our truly differentiated business model, we are well positioned to continue capturing and consolidating profitable, fast-growing, and fragmented segments of the global entertainment industry. Our business profile and our combination of growth and profitability makes us unique in the entertainment industry in Europe. A final comment from me before we start the Q&A. As previously communicated, Banijay Group aims to expand its free float and stock liquidity so that all our shareholders can fully benefit from this continued strong performance. In this respect, we will continue to actively monitor market conditions in readiness for the right market opportunity. That's all from me. Thank you for your attention, and back to you, Caroline. Thank you, François. It's now time for questions. Can I please ask you to state your name and your company? Thank you, and I hand over to the operator, Heidi. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it in the box and click submit. We will take our first question. Your first question comes from the line of Annick Maas from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Annick Maas from Bernstein, your line is open. Please ask your question. As there seems to be no answer from that line, I will proceed with the next question. Please stand by. And the question comes from the line of Conor O'Shea from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Yes, thank you. Good evening, everybody. A few questions from my side. First question, just to be clear, François, on the guidance on the content business. So, you expect the - 7% or more to be made up in the second half of the year. So, underlying growth for the full year in the content business, just to be clear on that. And maybe you could just elaborate a little bit on the seasonality of Balich's business in terms of events. It seems like quite a few high-profile events in the first half. So, if you could just give a sense of the weightings H1, H2. And then maybe for Sophie, could we just have a sense of the CapEx for the full year, the guidance, or we should extrapolate the increase in the first half? And then final question, just on if you have any update on shareholder exits or not at this stage. Thank you. Thank you, Conor. So, I'll take the first question, and Sophie will take the second as you wish. So, on the guidance, yes, you understood correctly. So, my point is that despite the fact that we are 8% down in H1 on content production and distribution only, if I remove the live and others, which includes the consolidation of Balich, we'll be up and we'll have some growth in 2024. Yeah, it would be made up, more than made up, both on revenues and EBITDA, of course. So, that's the point. We have a good, we see a good traction, a good commercial activity, and the seasonality effect is very strong. But we have good visibility. That's why we can say that. Sophie, on the CapEx, you want to? And I'll take the last one. Yes, as we mentioned here, so we will be a little bit higher by the end of the year than we have been previous year, around maybe 20%-25% more due to the fact that we capitalized more IT costs on the Betclic side because we developed new features on the application. And on Banijay's side, well, on content production side, we invested a little bit more on the distribution advances to third-party producers. And on your third question, no, we have no news, but it's still on top of our priorities. As I said before, we continue to monitor closely the market conditions. Okay, great. Just if I could follow up just on the Balich Wonder Studios seasonality. And also, within the context of that, given the strong results on the sports betting and the catch-up, and also on the live side and the catch-up expected in content, were you not tempted to raise the full-year guidance at this stage? We haven't, so I cannot really answer this question. Okay. But it's clear that we are very comfortable with this first half. On Balich, on the seasonality, I would say that by nature, Balich's business is difficult to predict quarter-on-quarter. Of course, there can be some lumpy revenues when you do a very, very large show, etc. So, that's something we need to accept with an activity like Balich, which is relatively small compared to the size of the group. So, and for example, it's not the same for the Independents and would not be the same for other type of live business. But we have no reason to underline a seasonality of Balich, which would be special between H1 and H2. Okay, very clear. Thank you. Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of Alistair Johnson from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I also wanted to ask a bit about seasonality, but this time in relation to the betting and gaming business. You've obviously had another very strong quarter at Q2 after what you'd already described as a very strong quarter at Q1. So, I guess I just wanted to see if you could give us any color on, firstly, the kind of normalized revenue growth rate you're expecting, so excluding the Euros football tournament, which I'm guessing had quite a meaningful impact on win margins. And then secondly, how would you think about the EBITDA margin profile of that business? Because, again, obviously, EBITDA margin is slightly down in Q2, but you've pointed to higher sports betting taxes and a marketing investment. Is it fair to assume that the sports betting taxes remain at whatever level they are now, but that the marketing investment perhaps tails off as we go into the second half of the year in 2025? Thank you. Sorry, I didn't get your second question completely. Can you repeat the second question? Yeah, it was just on the EBITDA margin profile of the betting and gaming business because obviously, it's come down slightly in Q2. And just how to think about that going forward. Okay, okay. On the seasonality for sports betting, of course, it's not yeah, it's sports betting when you have a Euro or the World Cup, of course, does an impact on the seasonality. But what is important also to understand when it comes to these events is the question of conquest of clients. Because when you have a Euro or a World Cup, what is really important is that the new players that are going to join the market, because that are very crucial events attracting new players. So, for the new players coming to the market, it's to be able to attract them more than our competitors. And then if the clients join Betclic and are happy with Betclic, they will stay and they will play for the Champions League, for the National League in Poland or in Portugal or in France or whatever. And so, it's not just the revenues that we are generating on the spot, but it's the new clients that we are embarking. And I think that's what is very important to look at in this first half because the difference of, we have a 37% increase in our unique active players. It's far above our competitors. It means that we have been able to attract a large part of the new players with us in this first half, and this is very good. It's not just on first half, we have more revenues. It's positive for the rest of the year, and it's positive for the years to come. So, we are very happy with this achievement, but we expect our second half to be quite good. Sophie, maybe on the second question? Yeah. So, in fact, during the first half of the year 2024, we made specific marketing campaigns due to the Africa Nation Cup and also due to the Euro 2024, of course. And regarding the Euro 2024, we have not all the benefits from this championship in our results at the end of June, as it was still ongoing also in the beginning of July. So, we have all the marketing costs, but not all the benefits. And we don't expect to have such marketing costs in the H2 2024, of course. So, that's why we expect clearly the EBITDA margin coming back to the normal level by the end of this year. Thank you. Thank you. We will take our next question. Your next question comes from the line of Aaron Watts from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Hi, thanks for having me on. Two questions, if I may. First, one clarifier on your comment around increasing the float. Would any actions you're considering bring cash proceeds into the company? And if so, if you could remind us what the priorities might be for that cash, such as investments, debt paydown, etc. And then secondly, there was some press here in the U.S. a couple of weeks ago citing a permitting group in Los Angeles. The group was claiming that filming of reality TV shows in L.A. was down more than 50% year-over-year in the most recent quarter. I know sometimes these reports from industry groups don't translate perfectly as we think about your business, but hoping you can comment on whether you're feeling that slowdown here in the U.S., at least, or even anywhere else in the world. And then also your confidence level in the pipeline holding up, especially given the weighting of the fourth quarter and achieving growth for the full year overall. On your first question, so just to repeat your question to make sure I understood properly, if we were getting new cash in the company, what are our priorities of usage of the cash flow, right? Correct. Yep. Okay. So, actually, our track record is to balance the usage of our cash flows between delivering dividends and payment of what we have to pay. But I think that we are committed to deleverage. We will lower our leverage in the next year below three times, for sure. And we are always looking at M&A, but always with a strong financial discipline only if it's value-creative. But clearly, so we don't expect to change the sense of what we do, and we will continue to balance our cash flow between dividends. Dividend, Dividend, we are not going to increase. We are already paying a dividend, which is significantly above our guidance. But for the rest, we can deleverage it because we will have it would allow us to reduce the cost of our debt, and we could find good opportunities on M&A to create value. But it means finding attractive companies at an attractive price. On your second question, clearly, the U.S. is a market where there's a slowdown. It's a fact. But your question was specifically on reality TV, I think, and the big strength of Banijay is really the diversity of what we do and the agnosticism about our clients. So, we see less demand on unscripted from linear channels in the U.S., but we have more demand of unscripted with global streamers. So, we find ways to follow the market, and our super brands resist well in the marketplace. So, it's not so bad. Not so bad. We see also some good positive elements in the U.S. Have I answered all your questions? Otherwise, maybe a third question I missed. No, that's very helpful. It sounds like you still have a high level of confidence in your pipeline for the remainder of the year. Is that a fair statement? Yes, so far. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. We will take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Annick Maas from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, Annick Maas. You can be heard. Great. So, thank you for taking the questions. My first one is on your midterm guidance for content. You've suggested that midterm, you expect content to grow mid-single digit organically. Now, I understand that the improvement in the second half at this time is mostly driven by scripted content. And considering your core, I would say, is more non-scripted and peers have had a relatively downbeat tone regarding production as a whole. My question is, are you still comfortable with that midterm guidance beyond 2024 and really just focus on production x events? My second one is, if you could just. Yes. Yes? Great. That's good news. The second one is on the EBITDA guidance for the full year. So, you reiterated. Can you give us a bit more of an indication? Is that only coming from gaming, or is it also coming from content production? And then you've mentioned earlier that you're still working on improving the float. Do you have any indication of timeline? Yeah, sure. So, on your first question, so the short answer is yes, yes. That's what we are expecting. And I think if you take a step back, what we see today is the fact that we have a strong growth coming from streamers. Last year, 2023, revenue done with streamers was 19% of our revenues, of content production and distribution revenues. And the streamers are spending between 25%30% of the total spending of the industry. So, in fact, we have still some catch-up in having our natural size in the purchase of streamers. And that's what we are, I would say, getting, and the spending of streamers continues to increase. So, that's fueling our growth. About your second question, as I mentioned, the increase in the EBITDA is coming from all our businesses, not only from gaming, but we are not giving the split. Just to be clear, our guidance is on the pro forma EBITDA of 2023, including full year by each. So, I think it was EUR 756, maybe, or something like that, EUR 756. So, that's on this basis that our guidance is starting. And EUR 756, yes. And the increase is coming from all our businesses. On your first question, no, we have no timeline. Two things. We have no emergency. We don't have some urgent needs of cash. So, we have no pressure. But of course, we would like our stock to be liquid as early as possible. But of course, we have to continue to monitor the market for that. Got it. Thank you very much. Thank you.