Good afternoon, and welcome to Sphera Franchise Group Preliminary 2023 Results call. My name is Susana Kurek, and I'm an investor relations officer at Sphera Franchise Group, and I will moderate today's call. Today morning, we've published our preliminary 2023 results, which you can find on our website in Investor Relations section, as well as on BVB website, Sphera Franchise Group profile. Before we begin, I would like to mention that this call is being recorded and that the recording of the call will be updated on our website tomorrow, the latest. As stated on the call invite, by joining the video conference, you automatically and implicitly consent to being recorded. If you do not consent to being recorded, please leave the call. In terms of organizational aspects, we will follow our standard call setup, which means the management will deliver a presentation outlining the preliminary results, and later we will have a Q&A session. Please note that all of the participants are on mute. If you would like to ask a question, please type it in the chat box. Feel free to do it during the call, and we'll answer all the questions in chronological order as soon as the presentation of the management is over. Last but not least, as always, I would like to mention that we might be making forward-looking statements today during this call regarding the future performance of Sphera Franchise Group, and that actual results may differ materially. We encourage you to review the disclaimer that we have included in the presentation, which is available right now on the screen. You can also find it on our website in the latest investor relations presentation. The disclaimer applies equally to all the statements made in today's call. Let's kick off the call. I would like to introduce the management that is here with me today and will present you the preliminary 2023 results. I am joined today by Călin Ionescu, Chief Executive Officer, Valentin Budeș, Chief Financial Officer, and Monica Eftimie, Chief Marketing Officer. I will now pass the floor to our CEO, Mr. Călin Ionescu, who will share with you some insights about our performance last year. Călin, the floor is yours. Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for attending this call. I find myself once again in front of you, proud that I can share remarkable results. And the pleasure is even greater because 2024, it's a very special year for us. We celebrate 30 years since we opened our first restaurant, a lifetime, 30 years of expansion, development, loyal customers, colleagues who were here at the beginning and are still with us. It has been an amazing journey so far, and I am confident it is just the infancy period for Sphera. So we start the anniversary year with very good news. We have ended 2023 with double-digit growth, both in terms of top line and bottom line, while the profitability returned to the pre-pandemic level of 2019. We reached RON 1.47 billion in sales, in sales. Our normalized net profit increased by 80%, and the EBITDA margin stands at 10.1%, and it has not been an easy year. While we did not encounter major events such as the pandemic or the crisis in the supply chains, like in 2020 and up to 2022, we had to navigate modern affairs, but equally challenging. Inflation remained high throughout the year, putting pressure on our customers' budget, which compelled us to carefully calibrate our pricing strategy, balancing their, their ability and willingness to spend with our objective to protect our margin. This already present consumption behavior was amplified by continued uncertainty with the conflict in the Middle East, confirming the VUCA environment we are experiencing in, at this moment. On a local level, unpredictability took the form of legislative changes, namely, increase in the minimum wage and in the tax burden resulting from the higher VAT rates, which we did not forecast and thus budgeted at the beginning of the year, and which we had to incorporate. Labor market remains tight, with the scarcity of workers for all positions across the country, hindering our recruitment efforts and putting pressure on our team. However, we once again managed to find solution to continue our growth trend, become more efficient, and improve our profitability. For our clients, a mix of value offers, innovation in the menu and smart marketing drove sales. In our relationship with the suppliers, we optimized delivery routes to become more efficient. Keeping close to them, we are able to negotiate even lower price for some inputs. I would also mention another important stakeholder, yourselves, our shareholders. In 2023, we distributed the largest amount since listing in dividends, RON 65 million. We remain constant in our policy with dividend distribution each year, even through the rough times of the pandemic. At the moment, we still have RON 28 million available from the past year's profit, plus the profitability of 2023. Equally important for our activity last year, we started an ample reorganization of the restaurant network for Pizza Hut. We have now completed this process, and we are confident we will start seeing the positive effects of this activity streamlining in the near future... All the while, we have continued to embed the sustainability principles in our activities, and I cannot share with you information that is not yet public, but it should soon be available on the Bucharest Stock Exchange Research Hub. Sphera continues to be ranked in the low-risk category in terms of ESG, which shows our long-term approach to how we conduct our business. I will say that all of this effort paid off, looking at the evolution of Sphera shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, an 83.6% increase at the end of 2023, and I am extremely proud of the confidence with which investors have credited us. Looking to the year ahead, we are moderately optimistic. We believe in strong fundamentals of our company, but we are aware that the geopolitical and macroeconomic context are still highly volatile. We have election rounds in half of the globe, with the US and Euro parliamentary ones with the higher stakes. Inflation lingers, and economic growth is low, both on international and local level, and of course, locally, we have the electoral year, where traditionally it's a more predictable period. The pressure of the budget deficit might bring unexpected legislative changes. However, for us, it's nothing new or unseen before in the 30 years since we are leading the food service industry. We are prepared for the year to come, and we will soon share our budget targets for 2024. That will be present in the next General Assembly of Shareholders. Until then, I leave you with Valentin and Monica to present you the detailed performance of the last year and how we achieved it. Vali? Thank you, Călin. Hello, everybody, and welcome on my behalf as well. Călin has already stolen the spotlight by giving you some of the key achievements of 2023, but luckily, we have so many outstanding figures when it comes to the last year, that I have my own share of good news to bring in front of you. Aside from the historical sales of RON 1.47 billion, which consolidates Sphera's positions as leader in the food service industry, we have registered double and even triple-digit growth for most of the indicators and brands. It is the result of a superior performance throughout 2023, as you have learned from the reporting in the previous quarters, and you will see today, following an outstanding quarter four, especially in terms of profitability. These results are the fruit of consistent strategy, which we have meticulously followed through, revolving around efficiency, tight cost control management, and smart pricing. Of course, rooted in our core strengths, from products to professional teams, and seasoned with thorough retailer marketing strategy. All this effectively planned and scrupulously implemented, paid off, and we have achieved in 2023 the profitability we have promised, the historical level of 10.1%. This is based on, this is based on some amazing figures: a 45.7 increase in restaurant profit, a 44.1 increase in normalized EBITDA, and as Călin mentioned, an extraordinary 80.3 increase in the net normalized profit for the year. I am extremely proud of these figures, above all, because I knew the tremendous work that stood behind them. Now, please allow me to walk you through the detailed results. The record high of RON 1.47 million in restaurant sales represent an increase of 11% versus 2022, quite a consistent rate given the scale of the business. Moreover, all the brands recorded double-digit growth in 2023, except for Pizza Hut, and I will come back later with details about this. However, I will note the exceptional evolution of KFC Moldova, which goes on to deliver impressively, the two restaurants in Moldova continuing to increase their sales with the remarkable 18%+ in 2023 versus the previous year. Taco Bell is also notable, this young brand achieving the consolidated position on the market where it operates, with 22% hike in sales, which is indicative of its growing popularity. Moving on the next slide, this is an overview of all the reason that we are so proud today. First of all, we have managed to do a terrific job handling the expense versus driving profitability. We contained the pressure on the expenses at all levels, and I will shortly talk about this. On the other hand, resulting from well-stepped measures, from pricing to cost controls, Sphera reached in 2023 a restaurant operating profit RON 45.7 higher year-over-year. And moving to the real good news, on the right side of the slide, the normalized EBITDA is 44.1% higher in 2023 compared with the previous year. Let us see in the next couple of slides, the breakdown, the breakdown of these figures. I will start with the results for quarter four of 2023. As you may know, historically, the last quarter of the year is the best. However, this is an understatement if you are speaking about Q4 2023, because it's the best quarter in our history in terms of sales, EBITDA, and net profit. Restaurant expenses grew slower than the revenue. The food and material costs rose significantly below the inflation rate, while the G&A expenses decreased. I will walk you through them one by one. So we have another quarter of historical sales for Sphera. We have reached RON 394.4 million, which is up 6.8% year-on-year, a more moderate growth, but indicative of the group consolidations across markets and management focus on profit margins. A notable achievement is in terms of restaurant expenses, where the increase is modest of only 3.3% year-on-year. The largest contribution to this were the food and material costs, but they stabilized, surging by only 1.6% year-on-year, which is significantly below the inflation rate. The tight labor market continues to be challenging. Q4 incorporated also an increase in the minimum wage. As such, payroll and employee benefits grew by only 10.1% year-on-year. And it's a reflection of the group's effort to motivate and secure its employees base and remain relevant in the job market. Moving on the restaurant operating profit line, we closed the last quarter of 2023 at RON 59 million, which is a 32.1% year-on-year increase. As previously mentioned, we managed to decrease the G&A expense in Q4 by 1.7% year-on-year, and as such, the weight in the total sales declined by 0.4 percentage points. As a result, we registered an exceptional increase in the operating profit of 52.1% year-on-year. We are very proud of our double-digit growth rate in terms of bottom line. The normalized EBITDA, which excludes the impact of the one-offs, stands at RON 53.2 million, up by almost 20%. The normalized net profit is RON 36.9 million, a 28.6% increase. Let's see now how this adds up for the 2023 results overall. Top-line growth rate indicates the consolidation of the group's network, with the main focus on profit margin. We have a double-digit growth, but as activities get back to the pre-pandemic normal and the scale of the business expands, the rate is expected to continue to decelerate. One notable achievement in 2023 is in terms of expenses. Last year, inflation continued to put pressure on our budgets, coupled with the tight labor market and the increase in the minimum wage, which added extra financial needs to what we had budgeted, if we are thinking to the beginning of the year and the approved budget. However, we have managed to contain the rising expenses around inflation at only about eight percentage points. Breaking down these figures, the restaurant expenses increased at a slower pace than sales, namely 7.8% year-on-year, and reduced their weight in sales with almost 3 percentage points to 89.1% in 2023 versus 2022. All cost categories saw a small to moderate year-on-year increase with food and material expense increases increasing 4.9%, lower than the inflation rate for food products registered at the national level. As a result, the weight of this category cost in total sales decreased as well, and we see here 2 percentage points year-on-year, down to 32.6%, as weight in revenue. However, due to an effective pricing strategy, very tight internal cost control measures, and higher sales volumes, Sphera reached in 2023 a restaurant operating profit of 45.7%, higher compared with 2022. Managing to maintain the same weight in sales for the G&A as in the previous year, i.e., 4.3 percentage points, this being the minimum sector level, the operating profit for the period has recorded an 82.3% year-on-year increase. So all in all, we have attained impressive growth in terms of EBITDA, 44.1%, as mentioned before. We exclude here the impact of one-off due to the primarily related to store closing that I will mention later. Four out of five group companies generated positive net results, proving the effectiveness of our strategy to consolidate the presence of KFC Romania and Moldova, while turning KFC Italy and Taco Bell to profit this year. Pizza Hut network reorganization program formally began in Q3 with the aim to optimize the cost, increase the agility of the brand, and improve profitability indicators, therefore, having a moderate impact on 2023 top line evolution. To conclude, in a very positive term, we ended 2023 with a net profit of RON 79.8 million, an outstanding 80.3% increase year-on-year. Now, before giving the floor to Monica to present the evolution per brand and marketing updates, just a few more details on the fourth quarter and last year in general. We continue our strategy network, expenses and expansion, and in Q4, we opened three new KFC restaurants, two drive-through, one in Buzău and another one in Slobozia, and one food court unit in Craiova. We are focusing on developing mainly drive-throughs, as they are the most comprehensive format in terms of sales channels, covering also dine-in, takeaway, delivery, and obviously, the drive lines. At the same time, in Q4, we proceeded with the reorganization process for Pizza Hut, mentioned before, that we had announced, and as a result, we closed six restaurants. The process of streamlining the restaurant network continued in 2024, with five additional closing in January. So, that's why we are confident that this firm decision to close this number of restaurants will show fruit in the near future, with a turnaround of the business by the end of this year. Now, please allow me one more slide before I wrap up my presentation. It will come very soon on the screen, and this is related to capital market. Călin already mentioned, Sphera shares had undisputedly surpassed the evolution of the BET Index. If we're looking to the all the benefits, the increase in total was 95.5% in share price, and that's why we are very proud of, I dare saying that the investors are happy as well with these results, as we have received some rewards based on the votes of the institutional investors, as you can see in the picture. On this high note, I will pass the floor to my colleague, Monica. Thank you, Vali, and good afternoon to everyone. We wrap up a year with very strong results for all the brands, and a particularly remarkable fourth quarter. Throughout the year, we ran significant and extensive campaigns with innovation at the forefront, while continuing to build the brands and the value perception to drive transactions and sales. From introducing the shawarma in our KFC menu through a witty and creative campaign, to presenting consumers with a different type of pizza, the Mexican one at Taco Bell, and diversifying the Pizza Hut's offer with a new product, Melts. We restated our commitment to surprise our clients with the novelties they crave, while providing attractive, budget-friendly offers. The results of the brands and of the group tell the story in numbers and profitability. But before going into details of the financial performance, allow me to tell you about our marketing in the last quarter of this past year. I will start with KFC, where the focus is to driving frequency and maximizing relevance. Building on the winter campaign, the almost Christmas meal, KFC launched a special bucket, which strengthened sales and targeted specific moments and placements in order to tap into the holiday spirit and to promote sharing. As a secondary campaign, KFC successfully launched the surprising Crispy Shawarma, with the objective of attracting both light and regular users. The product combined the best of both worlds: a beloved format among QSR consumers, the shawarma, and the finger-licking good, done the right way, KFC chicken. The result, an impressive increase in both store visits and brand love. Winning on taste is a strategic pillar for KFC, so we launched a campaign to reinforce that fresh chicken, sourced from local producers, is cooked by hand daily in our stores. We launched a miniseries called Exchanging Cooks, where we invited local influencer with a passion for cooking to come and cook in our KFC kitchens, and we sent our KFC cook to their kitchens. Even though nobody figured out our secret recipe, our brand health metrics improved. The last KFC campaign I will mention is Crave Line. It's Crave Line. "So what is so special about the Bucharest subway lines?" You might ask. One of the lines is shaped like a drumstick, but no one ever noticed until now. One of our team members pointed that out, so we decided to flood the subway maps with KFC drumsticks. And since our ambition is to build KFC as a digital brand, by scanning these drumsticks, consumers were able to enjoy a discount in our stores only by using their phone. Moving on, value and innovation are our keywords for Pizza Hut. We launched family deals, a campaign aimed at improving transaction levels by offering any medium pizza at an affordable price, which increased trial. For the winter campaign, we introduced an innovation, Melts, to attract both new and lapsed users. The novelty product brought distinctiveness in our menu and assure consumers that, unlike any other pizza, ours is too good to share. Disruptive values through Kids Eat for Free and Everyday Value through the relaunch of MyBox are two initiatives which attracted price-conscious consumers without cannibalizing sales. At Taco Bell, we continue to focus on driving trial and building brands. To increase consideration, we concentrated on value for core products. As such, we launched Little Crunchwrap, based on one of our most popular products among consumers, and communicated the Must Menu, an affordable option for beginners. To increase trial, we focused our communication in Q4 on product innovation by launching Mexican Pizza, a fan favorite across the world, that now arrives in our market. All campaigns in Q4 resulted in double-digit same-store sales and transaction growth. At Taco Bell, as part of our digital journey, the brand focused on communicating its mobile app with a rewards program on top, thus making our digital assets so ownable that consumers can only come to us for certain exclusive features and offers. The extensive marketing campaigns translate directly into exceptional financial results for the year. We'll start with KFC. The most significant contribution to the financial results achieved by Sphera Group last year was from KFC Romania, which exceeded RON 1 billion sales in 2023, an increase of 12.5% compared to 2022, with an excellent fourth quarter in 2023 that generated an EBITDA of 15.7%. The group's flagship brand ended the year with a net profit of RON 86.8 million, a 26.5% increase. KFC Italy also had an outstanding performance in 2023, when it turned a net profit of RON 3 million, with an extraordinary EBITDA increase of 436%. It's difficult to read the triple digit growth. The margin is now a secure 9.4%. KFC Moldova, with two restaurants in Chișinău, once again had an excellent annual performance, with a net profit of RON 2.8 million, a 42.6% increase compared to last year. The fourth quarter of 2023 was outstanding here as well, with the EBITDA at 20.2%. Pizza Hut intensified its streamlining in the last quarter of the year by reconfiguring the network, which aims to eliminate overlaps resulting from the alignment of the Pizza Hut and Pizza Hut Delivery brands. The closure of some units had a short-term impact, and the company ended 2023 with a loss, but it is expected that in the medium term, the positive effects of the streamlining will be reflected in the financial results. Taco Bell is another brand with a continued outstanding performance. The brand broke even and ended 2023 with a profit, driven by an increase of 22% in sales and triple digit increase in restaurant operating profit, up by 148%, and EBITDA up by 139%. The last quarter of 2023 was exceptional for Taco Bell as well, with an EBITDA of 11.7%. At the group level, 18% of all sales come from delivery. In Q4 2023, delivery sales were up two percentage points compared to the previous quarter, reflecting the cyclical preferences of consumers, who are more inclined to order delivery during the winter. The total value of delivery sales in Q4 2023 was RON 70.3 million, up by 3.6% compared to Q4 2022. To optimize costs, we decided to gradually outsource our own delivery operations to existing partners, but we sustained the sales and remained in close contact with customers. In Q4 2023, 8.3% of delivery sales were made using Sphera's own capacity, compared to 13% in Q4 of 2022. It is just one of the measures we have taken, but it adds to the multitude of actions that have produced tangible results and an outstanding performance, of which we presented today only a small part of it. We will now open the floor for your questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Monica. This concludes the presentation of the preliminary results for 2023. If you would like to... We will now open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please type the question in the chat box, and we will read them out loud and address, and the management will address them. One practical aspect, we have one announcement. As Călin mentioned, the budget for 2024 will be published a month prior to our General Meeting of Shareholders, which will take place on April 26th. Therefore, we will not be answering any questions related to our 2024 budgets or annual targets. Consequently, we kindly ask you to refrain from putting such questions forward during this call, as the management will not be providing any specific guidance. Thank you for understanding. Prior to answering the questions from the chat, we would like to give you some time to type your questions, but in the meantime, we received some questions on email from one of our analysts. And I will go ahead and start reading them out. ... The first question is: what is the net number of new restaurants by brand that you hope to open in 2024 and subsequent years? So, in 2024, we are looking for around 6 new openings for KFC in Romania. For Pizza Hut, obviously there will be no opening. We speak about the 5 closures we have mentioned in January, so it will be a minus 5 in terms of number of restaurants. As a result, we will end 2024 with 30 restaurants for Pizza Hut. For Taco Bell, depending on the opportunity, we may have one opening during 2024. In Italy, similar, so we just want to cherry-pick the best location, so we may speak about one opening. And the same applicable for Moldova. So all in all, 6 KFC Romania, minus 5 Pizza Hut Romania, maybe plus 1 Taco Bell, maybe plus 1 Italy, and maybe plus 1 Moldova. Thank you. Going forward to the next question, Pizza Hut. In addition to the restructuring costs booked for 2023, will further costs be incurred in 2024? And if so, how much do you estimate this to be? So, the costs are already reflecting the financial statements of 2023, including the ones that we have closed in 2024, as we have provision for them. We expect a marginal difference between the level of the provision for the closures of 2024 and the real cost. So we may conclude here that there is no impact in 2024 related to the restructuring of the Pizza Hut. Thank you. The next question: When do you think you will finish restructuring the network, and how many Pizza Hut restaurants would you like to have in the end? As I mentioned in my statement, the process of the reorganization of Pizza Hut network is almost done, and from now on, we work to turn around the business. So basically, as mentioned by me as well, we see the network of Pizza Hut at the level of 30 restaurants for 2024, and the first effects to be visible in the financials of 2024. Thank you. The next question: what EBITDA margin, including IFRS 16, are you aiming for in the short, and long term? Short term after Pizza Hut reorganization. So, this will be very clear and officially visible once the budget for 2024, it will be published. But as a main target, we are looking for at least 1 percentage points improvement in the profitability. So this is applicable, obviously, for both with and without IFRS 16 EBITDA margin. And on long term, definitely, we are working hard to add at least a similar level year-on-year. Definitely, there is a cap to this, so a maximum level we foresee in this moment of around 14 and maybe close to 15% percentage points EBITDA margin without IFRS 16 on long term. One more question: Can you tell us a few words about how you see 2024? Maybe Valentin, if you want to give some color without numbers. Sure, sure. It's a very good start of the year. We are very happy and optimistic about what we can see in the beginning of the year. Yeah, this, it's already creates good expectations for 2024 overall. Thank you, Valentin. Now we move to the questions that we have received on the chat. I kindly invite all of you, if you have questions for the management, to type them in the chat box, and we will be answering them now, one by one. The first question: Congratulations for your results. Given the good performances of KFC in Moldova and Taco Bell in Romania, do you consider to open more of these outlets? I will answer. Yes, we, we consider to open in Moldova. We'll wait a little bit to see what's happened within the new, new light of what's happened with the declaration from Tiraspol. And after that, we'll decide if we open this, this year or next year. Taco Bell, of course, is in our focus. As Vali mentioned, once we will find the right location, I am sure that we will open. Thank you, Călin. The next question: Congrats on the results. Regarding the same store, same store sales performance of KFC Italy in Q4 2023, I see the like-for-like growth was 0.6%. Can you please explain this low figure? So, first of all, we are very happy with Italy. For us, the performance we have managed to achieve there, it's a very pleasant surprise. As you can see, from an EBITDA point of view, it reached a very solid level. We hope to maintain it because it's in line with our expectation there, close to our maximum expectations. So now it depends on, you know, on the base effect of this. But, if we manage to keep whatever is happening in Italy now for the foreseeable future, it will be quite big achievement. Thank you, Valentin. We have the last question available on chat. What is the estimated impact regarding the first half of 2024, bottom from Pizza Hut closing process? Now, I may say, and I will start to answer this question, it is too early to speculate on the figures. First of all, because this will be very clear once the budget will be published. Our target is to be very visible in the full year financial performance of the Pizza Hut, whatever we are implementing. The first step was the haircuts of the network and the alignment of the two brands in only one market proposition. Now we are working to the details, the internal things that are implemented. It's very fishy to have a very clear separation in time of the effects, but for sure, in 2024, it will be visible, the result of all these sections. For Pizza Hut, do you expect to break even in 2024? If it's not the break-even, we will be close to the break-even. Thank you, Călin. Can you elaborate about the same store sales and context of transactions and price increases? What would drive sales this year? Meaning, do you see room to increase the prices? I will start with some details of 2023, because this creates the base of 2024. In 2023, we have a big benefit of volume effect. All in all, we have one third coming from the volume and two thirds coming from the pricing. We still have an effect of same stores sales increase, as Monica mentioned as well. 2024 has also some milestone of pricing, but we'll very carefully analyze them depending on the market conditions. Basically, it will be just a continuation of the smart pricing strategy that we already had implemented during 2023. As you can see also from the start of the year, it's still room for organic growth, so we still count on some same-store sales increase based, driven by volume, to a certain extent. Thank you very much. I see we do not have any further questions. We will give you 1 to 2 more minutes if you would like to put any other questions for the management. In the meantime, I would like to let you know that, as mentioned earlier, we're gonna have the general meeting of the shareholders on 26th of April. The information related to the general meeting of shareholders, including the budget for 2024, the audited financial statement, as well as the annual report, will be available on our website one month, so 30 days prior to the GSM. So you can expect it at the end of March 2024. We will do, as usual, the announcement to the market, regarding the budget, so that you can immediately see, via current report, what are... What we are proposing for this year. The next time we are gonna hear each other at the results call is going to be on fifteenth of May, when we are going to present the Q1 results for 2024. I see there are no further questions. Therefore, we are going to wrap up this call here. Thank you all very much for being with us, for being with us on this, especially last year, when we had during those extraordinary results. We are looking forward to having you with us also throughout this year. As always, you can reach out to us at investor.relations@spheragroup.com, and we'll be happy to provide you any further information you might need. Thank you very much. Thank you, and-