Welcome, and thank you for joining Exor's half-year 2023 Results Conference Call. Please note that presentation materials and the related press release are available for download on Exor's website, www.exor.com, under the Investors and Media Financial Results section, and any forward-looking statements made during this call are covered by the safe harbor statement included in the presentation material. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, there will be a brief question and answer session. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Exor's Chief Financial Officer, Guido de Boer. Sir, you may now begin. Thank you, Nadia, and good afternoon, everyone, and good morning to who's listening in from the US. And thank you for joining today on this presentation of the first half results, which is our first conference call in quite a while, but we intend to make this a more regular feature. Let me maybe start by sharing the main financial highlights for this first half. Our NAV increased to EUR 34.2 billion at the end of June, from EUR 28.2 billion at the end of 2022, and the main driver has been the strong performance of our list of companies, as we'll see later on. Our net debt stood at a bit over EUR 100 million at the end of June, from a net cash position of about EUR 800 million at year-end 2022. Mainly because we redeployed cash into investments, which we'll detail in a bit later in the presentation. And finally, yesterday, we announced a new EUR 1 billion share buyback program, of which up to EUR 750 million will be executed through a tender offer. And the offer period starts today and will be open for 22 days, which we'll explain later on in this presentation. As you all know, our main financial objective is to grow NAV per share and to outperform the MSCI Index. And we did that in this first half. We increased our NAV per share by 22.8%, which was double of what the MSCI World Index delivered in the same period. And we don't intend to do this just over a shorter period. Our objective is to deliver long-term compounded results. So if you look at the track record since inception, since Exor started in 2009, our NAV per share has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of close to 19%, compared to 11% for the MSCI World Index. So performance, both short and long term, that we're quite pleased with. If we move to the drivers behind our performance in the first half, we grew our gross asset value by EUR 5.9 billion. And if we look at the components, our listed companies, which represent around 70% of our GAV, were the main drivers of this performance. Listed companies increased by EUR 3 billion in value, with the main contributors being Ferrari and Stellantis, but strong performance across the board. In investments, which includes Lingotto, our asset manager, as well as ventures, increased by half a billion, accounted for around EUR 400 million from additional cash deployed and the remainder for positive fair value adjustments in the Lingotto funds. The other category, which includes liquidity and other assets, decreased by EUR 400 million, mainly due to the cash outflows from our new investments, and partly offset by the dividends we received from our companies, and positive fair value adjustment of listed securities that we hold, as well as the recent vehicles that we received as part of the PartnerRe transaction. If we move to the net financial position, as I mentioned earlier, we had a net debt position of EUR 133 million from a cash position of EUR 795 million at the start of the year, and still with a loan-to-value ratio which is close to zero. The main driver of that change has been the circa EUR 1.3 billion deployed into companies and investment, with the most significant ones being the EUR 500 million invested for a stake just below 3% in Philips, which we, as you've all seen, increased to 15% in August, and the EUR 400 million we invested in the funds managed by Lingotto, the assets company that we founded earlier this year. Other key movements are the dividends received from our companies, which showed very, very good growth on the back of their performance for EUR 850 million. The regular dividend we paid out for around EUR 100 million, and the final tranches of the previous buyback program, where we spent EUR 246 million in the first half, and with that, completing the program ahead of time that we announced in 2022. Then moving on to our reinvestment of the PartnerRe proceeds, where we made good progress in the first half. In November 2022, we held our investor meeting and we indicated with you how we would allocate the EUR 6.5 billion that we had available for the coming periods. There we said we would allocate EUR 5 billion to companies, and till date, we've deployed a total of EUR 4 billion to acquire the 15% stake in Philips, to do the EUR 1 billion share buyback program, as well as to do the follow-on investment in EVEA, and the new partnership with Impala to develop tech energy, both that we announced earlier. This basically leaves us broadly around EUR 1 billion to still deploy into companies. And on the investment side, we've said we would allocate around EUR 1.5 billion to Lingotto and to ventures, of which we, in the first half, have allocated close to EUR 0.5 billion to both initiatives. Also, with EUR 1 billion left to deploy between Lingotto and ventures. Then moving on to the share buyback. I wanted to spend a bit of time to go into more details on the buyback, and that we announced yesterday. Given that it's significant in size, being around 12% of our free float and 5% of our market cap. We believe that the current value of Exor provides an attractive opportunity to invest in our own shares. Sorry, I should say, invest in our own companies through buying back our own shares, given the discount that we trade at. We plan to do this through a combination of a tender offer and on-market buyback. The tender offer we have chosen because it allows us to acquire a significant amount of shares in a short time frame, given that an on-market purchase for this amount would take probably around three years. The tender offer will be for up to EUR 750 million with the book building process with a price range between 3% discount and a 10% premium compared to the VWAP in the offer period, being capped at 10% of yesterday's closing price. Based on the order book, the appointed dealer manager banks will determine the lowest price at which the full EUR 750 million is allocated, or at the highest price standard, not exceeding the cap. Also, obviously, the price should not increase the AGM authorization and the limits that you see in the offering memorandum. We have Giovanni Agnelli B.V., our largest shareholder, providing an irrevocable commitment to participate for an amount of EUR 250 million at the reference VWAP, so not at a premium, but at the reference period reference VWAP during the price, in order to reduce its net debt position. As I said, the tender offer period will start today and run for 21 days. And after the tender offer, we'll plan to start the cancellation process of the purchase shares, as well as any treasury shares that we currently hold and not. Post the tender offer, we'll launch an on-market buyback for the remaining amounts, including any amounts which are not tendered as part of the 750 tender process. So with that, I conclude the formal comments that I wanted to make, and I'm pleased to open the Q&A session to address any questions that you may have. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star, then one and one on your touch phone, touch tone phone. Alternatively, you can submit your question via the webcast. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one and one on your telephone keypad. Please stand by, we will compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Now we're going to take our first question. The first question comes to the line of Joren Van Aken from Degroof Petercam. Your line is open. Please ask your question. Yes, good afternoon, and thank you for, for doing this call. First one, you have always stated that growing the NAV is the number one priority, and you mentioned it in the beginning as well. But basically, what you're saying now or what the board is saying, is that they find the discount too high with this tender offering. So my question is, has there anything really changed in the vision on the discount versus the, the NAV growth priorities? And maybe as an add-on on that one, will share buybacks therefore become something more structural, going forward, as long as the discount, is high? And then, if I may, a question on Philips. Seems to be somewhat of a peculiar investment for Exor, because in the past we've seen you partner up with entrepreneurial families, companies with strong pricing power, nice margins, and Philips is much more of a turnaround candidate, it seems. So could you maybe explain us a bit more of the rationale behind this investment? Did something in the discussions with management spark your attention that made you pull the trigger? Thank you. Thank you, Joren, for these questions, and let me take them one by one. On the choice for buyback, this is consistent with what we've said also in the past, where we said buybacks are part of a broader capital allocation decision, which we make on multiple factors. Firstly, how much opportunities do we have to invest in companies in Lingotto and in ventures? And what are the expected return on risk trade-offs that we see there? But we also take into account discount levels, we take into account the leverage that we have. And for considering a buyback, we should also take into account maintaining the right levels of liquidity in the stock, and volumes of trading in our shares. So I think it's a combination of these kind of things where we decide, does it make more sense to invest in a company in our investments or a buyback? So we'll make that trade on an ongoing basis, whenever we have funds to invest. So in that sense, I would say it's a continuation of how we operate. But I think also a very strong sign on the strength of our companies and the attractiveness of the price at which we can invest indirectly in our company through a buyback. Then maybe taking your question on Philips. We've invested in similar situations in the past, and we've been really impressed by Philips' transformation from an electronics device conglomerate into a world-leading health tech company. And we followed with interest the strategic plan they announced, and the actions that they prepare. And we really believe it's a good company on this path to greatness, at a sweet spot where healthcare and technology intersect, which are also fundamental industries where we believe, and we think their plans for the future are very exciting. And we believe that our presence as a stable shareholder, supportive of management, and believing in their plans, is helpful, especially with the role that we can play in providing constructive perspectives. We think that's attractive to Philips, and we believe that Philips can deliver attractive returns to us. Okay, very clear. Thank you. Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes to line of Martino Ambroggi from Equita. Your line is open, please ask your question. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. The first question is on your satisfaction after the Philips deal, if you are satisfied with the current weight of the healthcare business in your net asset value, and now you are maybe focusing more on luxury and tech. The second question, sorry, but the line, the line was noisy, and maybe you mentioned it, but what's the residual firepower in Exor excluding already signed commitments? And the third is just a confirmation. In case, in the optimistic case, your stock goes well above the cap of the buyback, the EUR 1 billion buyback and nobody tenders shares, the EUR 1 billion buyback will be executed on the market, entirely on the market by September 2024. And, last question, if you could elaborate a bit more on Institut Mérieux, Louboutin, and Lingotto performance in the first half. Thank you. Now, Martino, thanks for the questions. On our weight of healthcare in the overall portfolio, we said that this was a focus sector, and we've indeed shifted a lot of capital to healthcare. We continue to like that, so we continue to look at healthcare, at luxury, and technology. And within those, we look at which companies do we believe attractive for us to invest in. So if we would see more opportunities in healthcare, we see no concern of increasing that exposure further. So we're agnostic across the three sectors where to invest further. In terms of residual firepower, we said there's EUR 1 billion available to invest further into companies, and EUR 1 billion behind Lingotto and ventures, which is basically allocated to that. Where we have you know both investment opportunities is around the EUR 1 billion in companies. Your question, if the share price would move above the cap, then it all depends on how many people would tender, because you know the share price might be higher, but this provides an opportunity also for larger shareholders to in one go monetize a significant amount. So we can't really say how much commitments we'll get in the tender offer. But as a general statement, yes, anything that will be not taken up in the tender offer, we do in the on-market purchase. And we think it's, you know, it's the more we get in the tender offer, we think is good, because it provides an immediate increase to the net per share. But it's also a very strong vote of confidence if shareholders say, "No, we want to be along for the journey, and we don't tender." And then we do the buybacks in a more gradual process. So in the end, we would say it's both outcomes show good results in that sense. Commenting on some of the non-listed companies, as far as we can, you've seen in the Louboutin with a slight profit drop compared to 2022. Nothing concerning from our perspective, in terms of, you know. It's a company that has volatility in its business, and they had difficult comps, given the strong performance in 2022. In Institut Mérieux, yeah, I think there's not that much to comment that is non-public, given that the main driver of its performance is driven by how bioMérieux does, which is listed on the stock exchange. So nothing really further to comment on that from our side. Martin o, does that answer your questions? Yeah, thank you. Just a follow-up on the receivable firepower. If I understand correctly, there is not any more room for additional buyback if EUR 1 billion is reserved for investment in the companies following the finalization of this EUR 1 billion? No, but the EUR 1 billion will also take time, because even doing a EUR 250 million buyback will take the better part of a year. So, in that sense, in a year, we'll have again a good inflows from dividends from companies, et cetera. And at that time, we will review the best capital allocation for the cash inflows that we'll have over time. Okay. Thank you, Guido. Yep. Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question from the phone line. Just give us a moment. The next question comes to the line of David Vagman from ING Belgium. Your line is open. Please ask your question. Yes, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Just coming back, sorry, apologies. Coming back on the remaining firepower, so to be sure I understood correctly, so you have EUR 1 billion left available for companies and EUR 1 billion left for Lingotto, but for Lingotto venture, which is already kind of allocated or committed. Is that, is that how I should understand it? And, and then follow up on that, on the company side, could you tell us whether what you're looking at or envisaging is rather the same type of transaction that are more likely to be listed? You indicated previously that you, you had a preference given valuation level for listed investments. And could it, could it still be, let's say, done in one go, or let's say one, let's say, significant investment? So that's my first question. Then the second, coming back on the performance of the results, let's say, of unlisted investment, the Exor Ventures, can you also comment on the profit evolution for the Exor Ventures? You commented on Louboutin. And then last question, on how are you thinking about your loan-to-value ratio, given that the interest rates have increased? So if you are becoming more prudent, and should we be thinking that you will rather not like, more likely than not, not go to, let's say, 20%? I think that's your target, or let's say, something you can do, remain below 20%, sorry, maximum of below 20%, that you will be rather more prudent than you would have been, let's say, a year or two ago. Thank you. Good. Thanks, thanks, David. I would say on where to invest the remaining EUR 1 billion, that remains fully in line with what we said in November, where we said focus on healthcare, luxury, and technology. So those sectors are still where we aim to invest. Obviously, if we see an attractive opportunity somewhere else, we will be, we'll be nimble and free to do that. We said potentially one larger and three -five smaller acquisitions. The larger one we've done, and so given the amount available, this will be a smaller one. Prioritizing public, but not excluding private. So that still holds true. We believe that public markets still provide attractive opportunities to get a good stake in. So that is our first area to look at, but we're open. So we remain in line with what we said in November. Mm-hmm. On Exor Ventures, we've, you know, they invest in early stage venture capital, which has obviously not been the easiest place for the past year. We take a prudent approach. Last year, October, we took down the valuations of our portfolio proactively, and we continue on a half year basis to closely monitor the valuation of the companies, have they done recent rounds, et cetera, to make sure that we mark to market our portfolio accordingly. And on loan to value, very fair question. Basically, what we intend there is to go back to the same levels as we had before receiving the proceeds from partnering. I think the financing structure that we have now, of which many of the bonds are fixed for long-term, are at very attractive rates. Mm-hmm. So by virtue of investing the cash that we will have, we go back to those historical rates, and yeah, over time, we will refinance at the prevailing market rates. But for now, I think we're in a very attractive opportunity to have bonds at low rates outstanding, yeah, at a leverage ratio where we're very comfortable at. Thank you very much. Yeah. Pleasure. Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star, then one and one on your touch tone phone. Alternatively, you can submit questions via the webcast. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star, one and one on your touch tone. The speakers are now up for the questions over the phone. Yeah, good. We had two questions that we received online. One was regarding our dividend, that it's immaterial in the scheme of things, particularly in light of the opportunity to repurchase shares at a 40+ discount to NAV. What's the rationale for paying this small amount in light of the attractive allocation opportunities? I think that's exactly the reason why we have our dividend at this base level, where we've kept it stable in line with what we set out in our 2019 investor conference, that we would do EUR 100 million of dividends. And we believe buybacks are an attractive, flexible, and for many of our shareholders, tax-efficient way to distribute capital rather than through dividends. And it benefits also from delivering a NAV per share increase, given, given the higher discount. So that's why we, we stick with our commitment on dividends that we gave in 2019. And, like, today, if we see an opportunity to, to return capital to shareholders, we think a buyback, given the discount, is, is a very good, good way of doing it. Second question we received is whether we have any plans for a U.S. listing. And to be honest, it has been hard work to, to move the listing from, from Milan to, to Amsterdam. And we're very pleased with, with having the listing becoming part of the AEX index at the end of last year. So we have no rationale to look any further. If there's any further questions, please feel free to raise them in the app. The speakers are on for the questions over the phone. If you would like, you are welcome just to do some kind of closing remarks. Perfect. No, thank you very much. I hope this call was useful for you to get a bit further insights. And like I said, looking forward to speak again at the full year results, or on a one-on-one basis with all of you in the meantime. So thank you very much, and wishing you a good day. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now all disconnect.