Good morning. A warm welcome to Barloworld's interim results for the 6 months ended 31 March 2023. Today, we will present starting with our group CEO, Mr. Dominic Sewela, with the group highlights and overview. We'll move to Ms. Leila, our FD, for the financial overview. After that, she will be followed by the business unit heads, starting with Mr. Emmy Leeka from Equipment southern Africa, Mr. Quinton McGeer, Equipment Eurasia, followed by Chris for our Consumer Industries vertical, presenting Ingrain's results. Thereafter, we'll have our CEO take you through our strategy update and outlook. Thereafter, we'll take questions from you online, over the telephone, on LinkedIn, for those watching in LinkedIn. Yeah, we'll close off after that. I'll now hand you over to our CEO, Mr. Dominic Sewela. Stay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Nobisa has said, welcome, you know, to Barloworld's interim results. You know, as per usual, it's always important that we start with ESG. We at Barloworld, you know, have been in the habit of ensuring that we can integrate ESG as part of our business. You know, some of our key focus areas in ESG is financial inclusion. Because we operate in emerging markets, you know, and in these markets, there are societies that are impacted negatively. One of our main tasks is to ensure that our communities are included, and we have Mbewu and Siyakhula that is, you know, is used as a vehicle to do so. I mean, it is known that we're leading in the areas of diversity and inclusion, you know. To that extent, we've also issued, you know, bonds that speaks to inclusion and gender as well as sustainability, you know. Of importance as well, you know, is that our board, you know, focuses on governance, you know. It is important that, you know, we continue to have a balanced board that is got a keen, you know, interest and attention to what shareholders require, you know. Also importantly is that from a people point of view, you know, we look at people and the planet that we live in, because in many ways it's our behavior as human beings to impact the planet. Therefore, you know, from Barloworld point of view, we ensure that our employees are aligned, you know, in ensuring that, you know, we can reduce our footprint onto the planet. You know, when you look at what we do as a business, we try and focus and saying, you know, whatever we focus on, you know, it's got to be part of the business. You know, when you look at the gender-linked bond, when you look at the targets that we've set, it is already what we're doing, but trying to entrench that and saying, "Let's set targets that are in line with what we're doing." You know, diversity and inclusion is what we do well, and there are many other instances where I can show you, but I think what's notable is that we've been recognized, you know, and given an award on that ESG, you know, gender-linked bond. Prior to that, we had issued a sustainability-linked bond, you know. Key focus area in the, you know, in that it was to reduce our footprint on, you know, the environment, and we're using it to roll out solar, you know, PVs to reduce our reliance, you know, on coal-fired power stations or drawing electricity. More importantly is actually making sure that our employees are able to go home safely to their families as they come to work. That is a focus, and I think, you know, come the year-end, we'll be able to give you even more numbers in terms of our targets and how we're progressing there. I think, you know, another highlight for us, I mean, notwithstanding, you know, the challenges we have in our various jurisdiction, it doesn't matter where we are. You know, we've got, even here in South Africa, a lot of challenges. Notwithstanding that, our strategies that we embarked on, you know, five years ago, which was focused on saying, you know, we need to fix, optimize our business, and then get into growth. You know, it has really been a strategy in action. It has delivered, you know, the results that you're seeing here. I mean, we've been able to exit businesses that, you know, were dragging us down in terms of returns, in terms of earnings, you know. Now that we've simplified the portfolio, and in the meantime also make acquisitions that are very accretive, whether you look at Mongolia and Ingrain, those businesses are very accretive, you know, to our business at all levels. You know, you can see that we've basically generated a revenue about 12.9% increase, you know, on a continuing operations. You know, notwithstanding the challenges we have in a jurisdiction like Russia, you know, if you were to exclude it, you know, just for demonstration purposes, the revenue is still strong at 34.5%. Very strong, you know, right up to, you know, operating profit. I think you can see, you know, ZAR 2.1 billion compared to ZAR 1.8 billion of operating profit. You know, similarly, when you look at the HEPS, 29% HEPS growth for continuing operations, very strong, you know, in this environment that we operate in. Operating margins, I'm very pleased that, you know, we are now in the double digits operating margin at the group. As you'll see from the divisions, they will be able to demonstrate where it is all coming from. I'm also pleased that from a capital allocation, you know, framework that the board uses, you know, the board has declared, you know, a dividend of ZAR 2.00, which is about 20.2%, 21.2% up on last year. You know, we are actually living up to making sure that, you know, we remain very accretive to our stakeholders and this for me is a major step towards that. I think we continue to focus on cash conversion. I think when you look at our EBITDA in the first half, you know, a significantly up to ZAR 2.7 billion, you know, compared to ZAR 2.4 billion, even having taken Avis off, which is very good. Let me hand you over to Ms. Leela to take us through the numbers in detail. Thanks, Ms. Leela. Thank you, Mr. Sewela, welcome all to Barloworld's 2023 interim results. My task is pleasant today as I present exceptional strong results for the group, thank you to Team Barloworld. As Mr. Sewela has mentioned, we have successfully exited our automotive pillar. Avis was unbundled on the 13th of December, 2022. Logistics disposed of on the 31st of March, 2023. What remains within the group now is our two core businesses being the pillar Consumer Industries as well as Industrial Equipment and Services. I'm delighted to present the financial highlights. Stellar performance coming through our revenue, EBITDA, operating profit and core trading activities, as well as headline earnings per share. Our gearing has remained within our targets, and as expected, with the net asset value per share, the number would have decreased because we did unbundle Zeda during this period. I move on to the income statement, and there you can see the strong performance coming through in the revenue, where we've delivered ZAR 20.8 billion in revenue, which is a significant 12.9% up compared to the prior financially period. On the operating profit side, reporting at ZAR 2.1 billion is 16.5% ahead of the previous year. The finance costs have increased, and we all know and have experienced the increase in interest rates. We were also impacted by that as well as increasing our investment in working capital. When we look at discontinued operations, as I've indicated, we've seen great delivery coming through from discontinued operation, which gave us ZAR 243 million in terms of performance. On this slide, we show the performance of Barloworld, excluding the Russian operation. What is outstanding for me to note is a remarkable resilience of the group displaying the power of geographic diversification. I move on to segment numbers, and I start with Equipment Southern Africa, which performed exceptionally well with a 38.4% increase compared to the previous financial year. This increase was as a result of the increase in machine sales, as well as the increase in the sale of parts. The mining also saw increase in activities which the business did certainly benefit from. The opening of the Chinese borders have certainly contributed favorably to the performance of Mongolia, and it's clear with the increase in performance of 73.2%. Also contributing to that good performance was the prime product sales in the business. Also with Ingrain, at 15.3%, was an improvement compared to the previous year, and this one was as a result of the commodity price increase, as well as the increase in volumes from export sales. A lot of the unpacking of these numbers, the CEOs will talk to them as they deliver their part of their presentations. Mongolia has delivered exceptional operating profit at 164.3%. This improvement is also driven by the margins, margin improvement. This year, they delivered a 16.1% margin compared to the 10.6% in the previous year. Equipment southern Africa has delivered a 31.5% operating profit, and this is really as a result of the change in product mix. They had increased on the sales, machine sales side. The machine sales side would generally attract a lower margin than other categories. The positive of this is we expect an improvement in the after-sales in the future years. Ingrain is behind, marginally there, and this is as a result of the increase in maintenance cost as well as the overhead costs. Taxation as a percentage of operating profit before tax is impacted by the devaluation of the ruble, as well as the Zambian kwacha against the US dollar functional currency. In the prior period, you will note that we did report an impairment. That was as a result of the impairment of our Russian business at that point in time. Great performance coming through from our joint ventures and associates. Bartrac delivering a very dignified 48.5% performance. On the NMI side, its profit was impacted by the increase in interest rates, which has also equally impacted their margins. What is important to note when one looks at the numbers delivered by NMI is that the revenue top line has improved by 14.1% compared to the previous financial period. We delivered sustainable earnings from our core business, reflected there through the increase in our HEPS at ZAR 5.78 from ZAR 4.47 per share in the previous financial period. Our income statement shows a reduction in total assets as well as equity, and this is expected considering the fact that we have unbundled Zeda during the period. You will also observe the reduction in cash, and this is as a result of the dividend that we did pay last year, and you may recall that as well as work increase in working capital. Also on the trade and other receivables. There we reflect also the loan that we had given to Zeda. It was initially ZAR 1.5 billion when we unbundled in December, but they have paid off a substantial amount of the debt, and what remains now in our accounts is ZAR 825 million. The free cash flow outflow of ZAR 3.3 billion demonstrates the increasing working capital which I had spoken about earlier. What is comforting with this number is that it is expected to unwind in the second half of the financial year. Our net debt has reduced. It's currently at ZAR 1.1 billion from ZAR 1.3 billion in the previous financial year. This number includes the ZAR 825 million that I spoke about earlier to Zeda. If one excludes that 825 being the amount owed by Zeda, the true debt of Barloworld at this point in time is ZAR 6.3 billion. When one looks forward into the next few months, as I've indicated, we expect the unwinding of the working capital coming through in the second half. Therefore, one would expect a lower net debt at the end of the financial year-end. The group remains well below its covenants, affirming the strong financial health of Barloworld as a group. Impressive performance of the group resulted in both ROE as well as ROIC being ahead of prior year and also ahead of our targets. In conclusion, as our chief, Mr. Dominic Malentsha Sewela, had mentioned, the board has declared a dividend of ZAR 2.00 per share. This is achieving a 2.9 times cover, which is very much in line with our policy and capital allocation framework. I must also indicate and mention that this ZAR 2.00 per share is 21.2% higher than what we declared in the previous year. It's quite an outstanding amount. Quite an outstanding from a growth year-to-year. You may recall we had declared ZAR 1.65 prior year. For me, this demonstrates the commitment that we have in delivering value for our shareholders, and we'll continue to do our best in ensuring that we declare dividends. With that, I'd like to hand over to Mr. Emmy Leeka. Thank you, Nopasika. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The division delivered strong results with revenue up 38.4%, headlined by a 60% growth in the prime product and a 28.4% growth in our parts sales. Also with a 11.3% growth in our rental business. Operating profit was up 31.5%, but also pleasing, as indicated by Nopasika, is the positive results that we are getting from our joint venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I will unpack that later. Overall returns at 19.7%. Turning to the new equipment sales by segment, significant growth in new equipment sales across all customer segments. Up at about 65%, mainly driven by our mining houses. If you look at the bottom of the left graph, the mining contribution in terms of new equipment sales were up 203%. If you combine both contract mining as well as mining, the overall contribution to the new equipment sales, we saw an improvement of about 67%. That contribution overall, despite the fact that we've seen a significant growth compared to prior year, remain at 70% overall contribution. Now turning to commodity mix. Just to mention prior, as we delivered machines to the Greenfield project in Botswana, we've seen significant contribution then, but it's pleasing to see that that continued in terms of the mining sector, in terms of the machine replacement, mostly brownfields contribution for iron ore, copper, and as well as the PGMs and coal maintaining their contribution. Nopasika did highlight the impact of the sales mix. If you look at the first half, given the fact that we had a very strong aftermarket and as well as equipment sales, the product support or the aftermarket contribution compared to prior year moved from 56% to a 51%. Given that growth as well... With the sales mix changes as well as the dilution in terms of our parts margin, but continuous focus in terms of delivering on our digital transformation resulted in our op margin moving from 10.3% to that 9%. Positive results indeed from the joint venture in the DRC, where the share of profits moved from ZAR 52 million to ZAR 77 million, which is a 49% uplift. On the back of improved trading activity, as we've mentioned, the turnaround plans that we're focusing on as well in terms of the cost-based restructuring and the diversification strategy. For the second half, we have a positive outlook with activity levels expected to be sustained. We have achieved great strides in executing our divisional strategy with a laser focus in making sure that we focus on the growth agenda, services growth, double-digit growth, population growth in seeding machines, but also making sure that we improve our turnaround time as well as you have seen, that we've increased our inventory so that we can improve our customer experience. On the digital transformation front, we have increased e-commerce penetration for our retail customers and also focusing on digitizing our processes. We continue to embed the execution culture through BBS that will help us to drive operational excellence. In conclusion, we remain cautiously optimistic for the remainder of the year. A strong order book at ZAR 5.7 billion, but also with the growth trajectory expected on the aftermarket for the second half. We'll continue to focus on unwinding the prime product inventory to continue to optimize our profit margins as we generate positive cash. With that, I would like to thank you and hand over to Mr. McGeer who will share the Equipment Eurasia. Thank you, Emmy, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very pleased to announce the Eurasia division's results for the half-year 2023 on the back of a strong trading result that has been supported by a good turnaround in Mongolia. Mongolia contributed 34% of the revenue of the Eurasia division, up from 14% prior year. Margin realization was good in both countries, in both segments, both in aftermarket as well as in prime product. This supported the operating profit growth of 2.3% in ZAR terms, and it was back down in 10.5% in USD. The division continues to generate excellent ROIC. And from a division perspective, a ROIC of 30.4% was generated. In dollar terms, if one were to reverse the impairment that was booked last year, the ROIC would still have been 22.6%, well above the group threshold of 14%. If we analyze the new equipment sales, it's still dominated by mining, with 52% of prime products sold to this segment, significantly down from a 70% compared to the prior year. Aftermarket remains the backbone from the profitability perspective. 57% of the revenue were generated from the segment. We look at the commodity exposure from the division, one can see the impact of the Chinese borders opening in Mongolia, with 60% of sales to this to the coal segment. 92% of this coal that was exported was coking coal, the good coal that was exported to China. From a Russian perspective, a very similar picture compared to prior year, with a well-diversified mining mix, albeit in a lot smaller numbers from a real term perspective. In terms of the outlook, I think, the firm order book is self-explanatory in terms of what's happened in Russia. What is very pleasing to see is the recovery of Mongolia. We do expect this strong recovery to continue in the second half. Also pleasing is that the results that we've delivered in the first half already exceeds, is ahead of expectations against the business case that was tabled to the board in 2020. From a Russian perspective, the environment remains fluid, and we will continue to align our business on a constant basis based on the opportunities that is in front of us. I think our focus areas remains our employees first and foremost, the safety as well as the wellbeing of all our employees. Compliance is an important factor in our division, and that gets a very high priority. We will continue to focus on what we can control. Our cost containment, looking after our customers, cost preservation, working capital management and focusing on continuing the Mongolia recovery. With that, I would like to say thank you and hand over to Chris Wierenga from Ingrain. Thank you, Quinton. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to announce the results for Ingrain for the 6 months. I think despite some of the operating challenges we've had, the business remains really well-positioned and performing well ahead of our investment thesis into the business. If we un-unpack those results a little bit, our top line has grown nicely, 15% in the period. That has been supported by strong commodity prices last year and those contracts running through into this year. We expect that to continue for the remainder of this particular year and into next. We've improved cash generation in the business during the 6 months and are very pleased with the 65% increase in cash flow on 6 months on 6 months in the division. As I indicated, we did have some operating challenges and our efficiency losses and some lower volumes delivered out of our Germiston mill have impacted both EBITDA and operating profits slightly. We're seeing some recovery in that post the half year results. If we quickly look through the revenue for the business, our domestic sales have been supported by stable volumes across most of the sectors. We've seen good growth in the export market where the weaker rand has certainly supported demand for the product, and that's also in line with our overall strategy to utilize some of that excess capacity to take advantage of a favored position that we're in in the business at the moment. On the agri side, our products remain in high demand, with more demand than what we've got capacity in the plant at the moment, which bodes well. We have seen, you know, the lower grind rates coming through, impacting the revenue potential in that particular segment. If we turn our attention then to the sales, which are the biggest driver for this business, the domestic market was relatively flat, 6 months on 6 months. We've done well in the confectionery sector, where we've got actively gone out to try and displace imports coming into this particular segment. We have seen, you know, some strong growth in the alcoholic beverages sector in real terms. Coffee creamers continue to come off slightly, and we're continuing to see that decline, you know, post-COVID come through and you know, requiring us to divert that capacity into some of the other into the other channels available to us. I think overall, you know, the business is well-positioned with a diverse customer base and also a diverse offtake into various segments. If we look overall, you know, we're very pleased about the export sales growth that I spoke about earlier. You know, 7.9% growth in that segment in the six months is certainly very welcome across the business. If we look at the operations, I think, you know, very pleasing is we've continued to unlock plant capacity through BBS. You can see, Kliprivier, Mat and Vaalville have all seen, you know, volume growth in the sector. That has been supported by, you know, the capital replacement that we've put into the business and the ongoing commitment that we've got as a business to reinvest into these facilities. Germiston was plagued by some outages and some end-of-life plant, which was replaced just after the half year, and we're seeing that improve with Germiston back on stream now in the month of May and performing, you know, at its historic levels. We're quite pleased with the progress that we've made, across, you know, across the operations generally. If we look at the focus for the division, I mean, we need to do a lot more work on safety, and we're implementing some safety initiatives and some technology to support to support our safety journey in the business. We're seeing, you know, BBS really deliver efficiencies in our operations and also driving the culture change that is much needed in the business. Overall, you know, our product portfolio, we're looking at how we optimize that, looking at products that make sense for us to make, and the streamlining of our operations to meet demand and also, you know, yield the capacity that we've got for better margin realization, and then using our supply chain efficiencies, you know, through our new central DC to better serve customers and also import certain products which we think would be more attractive for us to import than to manufacture in low volumes locally. A range of issues underway to try and strengthen the division and then also support our overall capital investment program in the business. If we look at the outlook for the business, I think things remain quite positive despite the challenging macros that we sit with in South Africa. I think the weaker rand will continue to support our export drive, and we see good volume growth coming through in that sector. In the domestic market, we should see a recovery now that we're back up to the right level of production across the business, and our investment in capital projects will continue to accelerate over the remaining months in line with our stated capital allocation approach for the business. On the growth side, I've spoken about the opportunities to leverage our, you know, our DC and our supply chain capabilities to find new growth markets for us and, you know, see what we can do to expand our presence in the food and ingredient market. We think that that growth will certainly offset some of the higher commodity price or let's call it the higher utility costs that we're just gonna be seeing coming through in the business. With softening maize prices coming through, I think we'll be able to hold prices and that will bode well for domestic demand as well. I think all in all, we're looking forward to a better 6 months than the first 6 months this year. Thank you very much. I'd like to hand back to Dominic, please. Thanks, Chris. I think, you know, I'd like to start with a slide, you know, because, I mean, you know, when you think about strategy, you know, strategy is easy to articulate it, you know, but, you know, you can articulate a great strategy, but if you don't execute on your strategy and ensure that you're able to measure that in quantifiable terms, it's, you know, you're not gonna be able to get anywhere. I think, you know, six years ago, when I started with the process of being transparent in terms of where we are, you know, the metrics that we've decided, you know, are set, I'll continually be able to flag this for us to be able to reflect the journey that we've traveled thus far in terms of rolling out the strategy. I think, you know, if you think about what's fixing, you know, I said, you know, in the beginning, we've basically exited those businesses that, you know, we said we couldn't fix, you know, starting with Iberia, you know, and lastly with logistics, you know, that we've just, you know, sold out. When you look at optimize, you know, I think the deployment of Barloworld Business System in the equipment division has definitely yielded the results, you know, that we intended. You know, you can actually see, you know, albeit it interim, albeit rolling twelve, but, you know, to achieve a 19.7% after having had 18.1%, you know, return on invested capital, you know, that's, you know, sustainable. I think, like Quinton just demonstrated that even if you took out impairment of this business, remember we impaired in 2020, this business still it will achieve returns above a high rate of 14%, which we, which we've since adjusted from about 13 to 14. I think Quinton spoke largely to Eurasia, you can actually see that our Russian business has delivered. We've been in Russia for 25 years. Under Quinton's leadership, there's been clear focus on making sure that the things that you can control, you're able to continue to focus on them. What's pleasing is that when we bought Mongolia, you know, we deployed BBS, we've used the leverage of contiguous territory, and, you know, if you look at on ZAR terms, because I think Quinton spoke about USD terms, you know, Mongolia achieved about 16% return on invested capital. You know, that's a credible result for a business that we bought, which is ahead of what we estimated at acquisition. Similarly, when you look at Ingrain, you know, which is one of those businesses that we bought in 2020, which we said it's gonna be defensive and, you know, relatively asset light and cash generative, and as you saw with Chris' results, at 9.8%, which is better than, you know, last year, this time. I think when you look at 11.3% of the previous year of 2020, it was because, you know, of a once off from tax benefits. I think, you know, I'm very comfortable that, you know, we're still ahead in terms of our estimates when we acquired this business. You know, from a group point of view, you know, you should be seeing the group number being closer to about the equipment business. I guess when you look at some of non-productive debt that still sits on our books because we've basically capitalized Avis pre-unbundling. We've also funded the losses of our logistics, relatively speaking, as we allocate capital, you'll see that return come through from invested capital point of view. If you look at return on equity, a similar trend line, this is where you see the benefit of allocating capital in a disciplined way. When the market gives you the gift of mispricing the valuation of the business, it's always best to deploy that capital in buying back your shares. We've been consistently buying back the shares. You can actually see that benefit that's come through in terms of returns and as well as our, you know, our HEPS. A 19.3% in return on equity is a very convincing, credible result. Similarly, if you look at it on a yearly basis, I gave you the numbers in 2022, this is a historic achievement for Barloworld, and that is also show that our strategy didn't focus on bigger, but really saying, you can have a small business that gives you quality earnings and return. This is what the Barloworld business is. Having pivoted out of those business, we are now having a very simple business that is easy to evaluate and see, you know, how accretive it is. These numbers speaks for themselves. Just to put, you know, that history in perspective, you know, as you look at, you know, our review over from 2017, you know, when we exited Iberia, we took the capital, allocated it to acquire Mongolia. We also took some of the capital to de-risk the pension fund, because where we're currently sitting, you know, it would have been a very volatile environment. I'm pleased to say we've now since, you know, de-risked, you know, the capital fund. We've also acquired a business, like I said, you know, being Consumer Industries and basically, you know, the pivoting out of the business has been punctuated by the unbundling and separate listing of Zeda and the disposal of our logistics business. What lies ahead, obviously, we operate in very tough jurisdictions, you know, and notwithstanding, we operate within the context of inflationary pressures that are driving higher interest rates, you know. As we see various you know, Feds or ECB and even our own Reserve Bank trying to, you know, wrestle, you know, the scourge of inflation, you know, from a business point of view, we see that persist, you know, over a couple of years. You know, in South Africa, I think, you know, we'll see the MPC meet, you know, this week, and one is expecting that there will be, you know, a move upward, you know, given, you know, the events over the last two weeks, you know, in South Africa, where you saw that, you know, the rand depreciates, you know, very steeply against other currencies. Therefore, from a capital allocation, you know, because we as, you know, leaders in business, we say we need to control what we can control. We can't really determine what politicians do or what reserve bank governors do. From a capital allocation point of view, we'll be prioritizing making sure that we keep our debt in check. We'll make sure that from an efficiency point of view, that our costs continue to give us flexibility to be able to move fast if we need to move fast, should the things change, you know, quickly. We also have a growth agenda, and the growth agenda is around organic growth, you know, first and foremost. As you can see, you know, in Equipment southern Africa, the organic growth has been very strong, you know, but it requires working capital to be able to finance that working growth. As Ms. Stila said, the second half, you'll see the unwind of that capital utilization in the first half as per usual. Also, you know, given these two platforms of business in industrial services as well as, you know, equipment distribution, you know, where opportunities present themselves, we'll look at programmatic action in allocating capital that way, because, you know, we are mindful of the fact that we've got this discipline going of ensuring that we allocate capital where it is accretive. We shy away from just doing things by pure instinct, you know. If it's gonna detract us from our objective of delivering value to all our key stakeholders. On that note, you know, I'd like to pause here, but before I take question, this is the right time to acknowledge the good work that Quinton has been doing over the last 31 years. Quinton, I salute you. I mean, you're retiring, you know, 31 years later. Quentin started in our business in automotive, you know, did about a decade in that automotive business and then he saw the light and he came into Equipment. You know, so his blood is infused in yellow. Quentin, you could really be proud of your track record. You know, your track record speaks for itself, you know, and you were in a tough environment, you know, in Russia. You know, I deployed you in Spain. You had to deal with the Spanish. At no point you complained. You just kept on it. You know, we acquired Mongolia in a very difficult time. We literally, I say, you know, we bought a business during COVID that it took me 2 years to go and see what I bought. I was very pleasantly surprised when I got to Mongolia to look at the quality of the business. I really wish you well, and I hope you'll have more time to play golf, you know. Don't be surprised when I call you and ask you a question on what did you do in some of those territories. Thanks, Quentin, for that. Really, really appreciate it, you know. I'd also would like to acknowledge, Imi, who's got. He was wearing, you know, similar shoes, but I don't know whether it was it, Timberland or Cat, but I think it's more Cat boots that you're wearing. I don't know what size Quinton was wearing, but I wish you well, Imi, as you take over Equipment Eurasia in this interesting time. I think you've shown the mettle of running Equipment southern Africa over the years, I wish you all the best as you do so. I'd also like to acknowledge and congratulate Andronicca Masemola, who was the FD of Equipment southern Africa, who's in the strap to be able to now lead this division, Equipment southern Africa. Imi has passed on a baton in a business that's solid. I don't wanna forecast what type of returns you need to achieve, I wish you the best of luck. This, ladies and gentlemen, speaks to the strength of our intellectual capital review, you know, that we focus on in making sure that from a succession point of view, it's seamless and I'm pleased that, you know, we're able to also replace people internally. You know, I'm gonna pause here and start taking questions online. Thank you, Dominic. I start with the questions on the webcast. We've got a question from Paul Stegers, and he wants to know. He wants us to talk to the average cost of debt in the first half and what we think it will be for 2023 financial year. Yeah, Ms. Lila. Thank you. Thanks, Paul, for the question. Yes, our interest financing cost is sitting at about ZAR 583. But just to mention, with the makeup of the finance cost and what has contributed, over and above what you would have seen as an interest rate, we have the floor plans, interest on, from the floor plans, which have increased as a result of our increase in working capital, as I had indicated earlier. This is going to reduce in the second half. Just by way of a number, that number is ZAR 85 million being the floor plan contribution towards interest. We also have an amount of ZAR 25 million, which is a pure exchange rate number, which relates then also to the interest. If you had to compare ongoing and into the long term, I would say, the number for interest would have been around ZAR 470. But in terms of% themselves, we had projected or, In fact, let me start by saying last year the interest rate was ZAR 586, but with the increase in interest rates, we are sitting at about 7.9% for the half year, and that would be a good number to use and to measure the borrowed interest rates for the first half year. You're talking about basis points, 700 basis points. Well, 700 basis points. Okay. 19. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I stay with you, Effie? Assuming an average gross debt position of around ZAR 10 billion for the period, the average interest expense was 14.5% for the 6 months. Please elaborate or explain, or could you guide us to second half finance costs? Yes. Would you say that's- I think it's very much similar to what I said. Yeah. To clarify, the difference is the floor plan, which you don't see in the debt, but you will see in our accounts payable, because that's where then the actual debt on the floor plan will be. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's also important to point out that, you know, largely because of the order book of equipment, you know, for the first half, you know, if you exclude, you know, Avis... Mm-hmm. all those, you know, your, you know, you look at the movement in cash flow, about ZAR 400- Mm-hmm. ZAR 4 billion of that has been working capital in there. Right. When you know, reverse that or you claw back on it, you know, your gross debt. Mm-hmm. Is gonna be significantly low. Yeah. So, um- Certainly. I think that guidance is very important that we highlight. Yeah. Thanks, Dominic. Can I just ask one more question from ATAN, which is, please could you elaborate on the impact to group profits from the current rand weakness? Will we see operational leverage in Southern Africa Equipment and Ingrain, as in higher margins in the second half? Yeah, I guess, you know, Emmy and, you know. If I look at South Africa in terms of the weakening of the ZAR to the top line, that contributed about 10% in terms of the uplift. Mm-hmm. Okay. Anica, you wanted to add something? Yes. There's a mic. Thanks. Yeah. top-line impact, 10%, but we also have costs that are dollar denominated, so that will have an impact on our cost base. To the question around the margin improvement, we have always been open about what is our definition of winning on margins being minimum 10%, and in the second half, we'll continue to work towards achieving that. Okay. Thanks. Please keep the mic on, Anica, because I've got another question from Vilash Maharajh at Standard Bank. Congrats on the good performance overall. What is the long-term view of Congo Equipment and the tough operating environment it faces, and the impact its cash flow constraints have or will have on Bartrac? Yeah. Thanks for that question. You know, we have a 50-year JV agreement with Tractafric. At this moment, we're not planning to exit Congo Equipment. Our focus is really on optimizing performance and improving profitability. The question around cash outflow in the DRC, similar to Southern Africa, you know, they had to bulk up on the inventory to respond to longer lead times. The second element that impacted the cash position there is that one of the very key customers stopped exporting commodities, and that had a ripple effect in that some of the equipment that was ordered for contract miners leaving that site, you know, the conversion had to be delayed. The issue has been resolved. The stoppage was as a result of an issue that they needed to address with the government. That has been resolved. We expect the delivery of the equipment to start taking effect. Thanks. Thank you very much. Can we move to the Eurasia division? I'll read two questions for you, Quinton. One is, please elaborate on the Mongolian margin at 16%. Why so high, and how sustainable is this? Okay. Thanks, Mabisa. I think maybe just starting at the margin. A good operating margin one will find for a Cat dealer is anything between 10%-12%. That's an excellent result. From a Mongolian perspective, quite a few things impacted the operating margin in the first quarter. One is the fact that we had age inventory, which we managed to dispose of during the first quarter. Secondly, the impact of the borders opening up meant that product came in, and customers were looking to buy product, and we were able to capitalize on a higher margin realization. Another factor was the fact that Caterpillar announced quite a big price increase last year, which, with the stock in country already, we also were able to capitalize on a higher operating gross margin from a parts perspective. That all supported quite a very good operating margin for the first half. In terms of going forward, I think definitely it's going to be repeated in the second half, without a doubt. And I think long term, you know, medium to long term, you know, we would be ecstatic if we can be in the region of 12% on an operating margin level. Thank you. Just for Tinashe, while you're on Mongolia, just, you know, he was worried about the small or low order book in Mongolia specifically, stating that at $15 million, he sees it as low. Would you just like to give us? Yes. So the Mongolian business environment is slightly different to our Russian business environment. The mining industry is a lot smaller, and with the long lead times to Mongolia, you know, we tend to order the smaller mining equipment without having necessarily the signed contracts. And then as the products, you know, then we've got about 9 months to sign the contracts with the customers. So I think Mongolia will always operate with a smaller firm order book with the smaller mining equipment being sold as they arrive in Mongolia, as what we've seen in the first half. Okay. Thank you. Just staying with you a little bit, Quinton. Melusi is just wanting to know, the reduced order book in the Russian business as well. What is your outlook for the Russian order book, and are we likely to see break-even problems as he states? I think from a firm order book, obviously, you know, with the mining industry no longer in play, There is already a significant reduction, as one can see. We still do have access to the SEM product. That product we also basically sell, you know, basically from inventory. I think going forward, the Russian business for the foreseeable future will not really operate on a firm order book. Aftermarket remains very robust, and we are still able to support our customers, which at this point in time, taking the current conditions into account, is contributing significantly to the profitability of the business. Based on current situation, you know, the second half should mirror the first half. Thank you very much. Mr. Wierenga, can I move over to you? As it relates to the Ingrain business, what is driving the efficiency losses for the business? That's from Akole Majola at Ashburton. I think as we guided in the trading update at the end of March, we had some unplanned plant breakdowns at the Germiston mill. I think that impacted our ability to deliver product. Now, if you have a look at what we'd experienced, as we typically go out and we cost to a standard costing. When the plants are not running efficiently, we do have production losses. I think in the period that we spoke to now, we had about a ZAR 50 million loss in inefficiencies across the period. I think that impacted us in this particular period. I just wanna stress again, you know, we've addressed that through the capital that we've put into the business. You know, we're returning back to let's call it a more normalized operating environment in that plant. I think those issues are largely behind us at Germiston as we sit here today. Thank you, Chris. There's a lot of questions on load shedding, and I'll just maybe summarize them in general by saying the impact of load shedding on manufacturing operations. Have you secured any sufficient amount of diesel, given the likely increasing strain on diesel supply chain through winter? What is the cost of diesel impact on EBITDA? Thanks, Mabisa, and I think to all on the line, I mean, we've said this consistently. You know, Ingrain is part of the large energy user group at this point, so we are not subjected to load shedding on our reef mills. At our mill down in Bellville, we do, we do get load curtailed from time to time within our previous sort of 3 days, you know, rolling average of demand, and have about a 30% reduction in available capacity to us. Currently, we are not reliant on diesel to operate our plants. I think I also just want to stress, you know, that we do not have any diesel costs baked in into our operating costs of any significance. It would also not be possible for us to run our plants on diesel gensets, you know, for an extended period of time, and we would have some capacity to, you know, to finish up certain runs, et cetera. Certainly, you know, nothing longer than a 12-hour run on the plants. I think the power demands are too large. I think as things stand, you know, we're not necessarily directly impacted. Some of our customers, you know, are impacted, and we are seeing variations in offtake coming through. Largely that demand remains intact. I think one of the issues that we have highlighted as well is some of the water supply issues that have come up from time to time because of extended periods of load shedding, particularly in that East Rand manufacturing base, where we've seen some of our customers, you know, have, some short-term impact, because of that. I think overall, you know, our results are largely unaffected by load shedding. Thank you very much, Chris. Very clear. Can I move on to Mr. Leeka? There are a few questions on the growing prime sales in South Africa. Are those just replacement fleets or are market share gains being seen? We have slightly seen a level of market gain. When you look at some of the mines, when they're doing pushbacks, they need additional equipment, but other areas it was just pure replacement cycle. Yeah. Thank you. An indication of how the lead times have changed with Caterpillar over the years, over the year? Yeah. Yeah, we've seen a significant improvement, if I compare to three years ago to where we are sitting now in terms of the lead times. If you look at some product groups, they've actually improved significantly, but there are still others that are still battling. Also overall logistic challenges, depending on where you source your equipment. Overall, we can say we try to mitigate that as well by making sure that we have inventory on the ground. Yeah. On that, just to follow up on higher working capital use, particularly, the inventory holding costs. Maybe it's an overall finance one as well. Please explain the expected seasonality. Look, we normally bulk up first half with anticipation to reduce our working capital in the second half as indicated before. We will see it actually coming down by the end of this financial year. Thank you very much. For you, Dominic, there are some questions on M&A opportunities. Are you seeing increased M&A opportunities as a result of the tough economy locally? Yeah. I guess we get approached from time to time, you know, by people who, you know, are either experiencing financial stress, you know, that presents, you know, what they regard as opportunities. Fortunately, we are very disciplined in our approach, you know. Because we've confined our strategy to the two verticals, you know, we're not seeing a lot of things that interest us, you know, in the local market, you know. Hence I emphasize that, you know, in that vein, we will be focusing on our organic growth both in Consumer Industries as well as in, you know, Industrial Equipment and Services, you know. My view is that, you know, as the interest rates continue to bite, you're likely to see private equity, you know, that would have taken advantage of low capital, you know, letting go, you know, of asset. That could interest us, you know, and where the valuations could also be interesting for us, you know, to start looking in the, in the horizon. I can't be specific because, you know, Nando continue to see, you know, a deal flow. It goes through, you know, our guardrails a bit. Our guardrails are quite, you know, rigid in terms of how we look at things. I said, you know, it's really about, you know, cash generating, generation, you know, the profit pool, the size of the profit pools. We look at those things, and also it's got to be within, you know, what we operate in. I wish I can buy more Caterpillar dealerships if they could come my way, but those are closely held. What adjacent businesses could there be to actually improve our services on our equipment business is gonna be really the key issue. For me, I want Chris to really focus on actually making sure that, you know, the thesis that we bought this business could be unlocked. To an extent that we find something interesting in that area at an attractive value, for me, it is key that I talk about value. If you look at the share price of Barloworld, it's very attractive at this level. You know, it's trading way below intrinsic. I should be focusing on, say, between paying debt and buying back shares, you know, for me is a no-brainer. Thank you very much. We've reached 12 noon, and that is the last of our questions. Thank you. Over to you for closing. Thanks, everybody.