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Michael Büchsner: Thank you very much, and welcome to our Full Year 2025 Call. My name is Michael Buchsner. I'm the CEO of the Stabilus Group. And today, you have, as always, with me, Andreas Schroder, Investor Relations, but this time around, first time also in the discussion, Andreas Jaeger, our new CFO. I'll introduce him at a later stage, and then he for sure, will also take part actively of the discussion. He will lead us through the financial portion, so the details by region, business unit and other factors he'll talk about a bit. And then, he will also talk about a little bit CapEx, expenditures we did, net working capital. So, all the finance-related points he'll touch upon. And I'm really happy to have him as part of the Stabilus Group now. But before we go that route, let me confirm the 2025 preliminary results. We all know it's a very challenging environment we are in. And we did release our preliminary results already on November 10. And here as we confirm all these numbers, we've been in a very stable process to close the year and also in a very, very stable financial position as a group, because in a very challenging environment, we achieved EUR 1.3 billion in terms of sales and an adjusted EBIT margin of 11%, which is outstanding given the market circumstances and it leaves us with free cash flow of EUR 119 million for the year, and that leads to a net leverage ratio of around about 3 to 2.96, which we've been talking before about and which is actually spot on with our prognosis we gave in August. Yes. Also the overarching topic for us, and we saw it in the last call and talked about it also in numerous meetings is our transformation program. Throughout the session, I will also give an update on the transformation program, which greatly reduces personnel and operating costs to make us long-term sustainable as a group. So, on the next page, we actually -- I would like to again welcome our new CFO, Andreas Jaeger. Born in 1972 in Switzerland. So, he's a Swiss citizen. And in terms of a professional background, it's very important to us, not only that he has a broad background in terms of financial, but he also has a very profound background in terms of industry business around the globe, global businesses like Forbo, he used to be a CFO there and then also the CEO interim wise. Geberit, also a very well-known company dedicated on different areas on the planet and also very focused on industrial business and sales channel, sales channel management, selling businesses to very challenging markets as well. And this actually helps us as a group because, as you know, our big aim and target is to expand our industrial business. And, Andreas Jaeger, therefore, is actually the perfect fit to our organization to basically strive with us for this target, enriching our industrial business, taking the most out of our industrial footprint, our sales teams aside of the well-positioned automotive business, we are anyways as an organization, taking well care of. So, in terms of the professional part and education, Bachelor degree in Business Administration. And this is basically along with his broad experience as Executive Master in European and International Law, a profound education to basically backfill also the needs of the Stabilus Group in terms of the technical knowledge of this position. So, I'd like again to welcome Andreas. Welcome aboard. We're really happy to have you with us. And as I said, he will lead us through the financial portion then later on. And for sure, he will jump in right away in our Q&A session. So welcome. Good. So we go ahead, and I would like to talk about the main points of our business as we stand and the things we currently work on to continuously improve our business to where it is and where we want to be at 2030. Then, the organizational transformation is going on. We actually are basically about halfway through, I would say. We took all the necessary decisions in terms of how to streamline down the organization, where to streamline it down. We've been talking to our people and are in the rollout phase. Half of the people basically at the end of the day have been talked with. Half of them agreed already to all the actions we are taking. We're taking personnel-related measures, because we know -- we all of us know that this is a good time basically to streamline down the organization. As you all know, we started 2 years already ahead again ago with streamlining down our operations, predominantly focusing on the area of co-brands with next step in terms of Automation, a next step in terms of getting more efficient on the operational side. And with these measures we are taking now, and we've been announcing them a couple of months ago, we are taking out 6% of the global workforce also on the overhead side, because we need to streamline down the organization to become more effective, basically to focus on the right things in business to rightsize our overhead structure with a given circumstances. And for sure, with that, we confirm our STAR 2030 strategy and are striving for EBIT margin targets and this initiative greatly helps us with that. So, we also talk about the different locations. You know that the discussions in terms of streamlining down our footprint are things which we always have on the radar. Just to mention, we do consolidate some German footprint here in the U.S. We moved the Singapore operations and sales offices into Thailand. Just as a few example on how we work on a daily basis to optimize our organization. So, on the next page, some more details on that. And I just want to repeat things, because it's very important to know-how on the financial side, we are performing in terms of our streamlining program, our efficiency program, our restructuring and reorganization program. As you know, we started it in September. We announced late September that we will accrue some money. We did accrue EUR 18 million. So that means the effect on the net profit is already in the numbers in the financial year 2025. In '26, we will for sure see a cash outflow along the line as we basically pay severance payments. However, the big chunk of net profits or the net profit number was already basically stated by end of September with this impact of the EUR 18 million. So, the payback is less than a year. We start this ramp-up phase as we speak. So the first 5-6 months of the year, as I said, we are halfway through with our reorganization, reshaping, restructuring activities. The activities go over the past of the first 5, 6 months of the year. Then we see the effect for the second half of the year. So, we should see that back-end loaded in the year and then a full effect of EUR 19 million cost savings in 2027. Starting 2028, there will be EUR 32 million recurring annual cost savings, because that's when we backfill also all the savings out of the operational activities we've been doing alongside. So, to make the long story short, again, the net profitability numbers was already stated as of September. So the profits are backed in the old year's numbers. The cash outflow will be this year, because we accrued that severance money for the 450 employees and the payback is less than a year, which will materialize in the second half of the year 2026 for us. So, on the next page, I would also like to highlight in technical terms some initial and additional activities we are doing. You know we are a technical company. We are very proud as the Stabilus Group that we invest even in challenging times in the future. So, we invest in new products, we invest in new processes and we invest in capacity, because many of these businesses, predominantly on the Automotive side are already booked. And this is what we take care of with our CapEx number. Andreas will talk about that at a later stage in this presentation. And I would like to highlight, first of all, a technical product, and then I will also go a little bit into the sales channel management in this presentation to tell you also what's new on that area. So, first of all, we introduced a new e-Gripper family. Why is this important? You know in the industry trend, we see that the companies are moving away from pneumatics towards electrification. Electrification is all over the place, because it's more reliable, it's less energy consuming. And also it gives a feedback and is needed for smart production, because it tells you the position of the grippers, it tells you the force you're gripping with, it tells you the distances and measures how to process, which is important for quality measures. That's why our customers, they're also very keen on getting a new product like that, the electric gripper. We developed that over the course of the last 12 months, and it's now pushed into the market with three different sizes even. So it's a perfect tool for robotics. And robotics is all over the place. It's not only in industry areas, it's also in consumer goods production and wherever in the terms of logistics. There are logistics providers who are big customers of ours with this new gripper series. And I wanted to highlight that because it's groundbreaking in terms of new products for our growth in the future. How do we sell this whole thing? We'll talk about it. Next page, please. Because at the end of the day, we started also a Stabilus for Automation initiative. You know that years back, we did harmonize our sales teams around the globe. We also did the same thing over the course of the last 12 months with Destaco. And now, we are in a very good stage of harmonizing our sales teams and bringing both companies even closer together also in terms of selling the different brands. So, we have the right products on hand. We did develop the right products to begin with. And we started the initiative Stabilus for Automation, which basically leverage our combined strengths. The expertise in motion control, the good brand portfolio and the multi-industry portfolio in -- at the end of the day, bringing together the best of both. So, the positioning and handling, which now both companies sell and do, world-class automation and clamping, which we combine the forces of Stabilus and Destaco to begin with and with a stronger market position now in the U.S. So combining and harmonizing these two initiatives, Stabilus into Stabilus 4 Automation brings us a step forward in terms of how we appeal the customer, how we sell products, for example, the e-Gripper. But also many other products in the automation space. So if we now jump ahead on page, I would like to go into the financial numbers. So in a nutshell, just to summarize what we've been talking about on the first pages is strong result of the last year in a very challenging business environment, as we all know. We're actually hitting the right steps in terms of technology and sales management to boost sales. And then also, we have a strong financial performance to begin with, with our initiatives for sales and pushing our products into the different market segments. Yes, in terms of our financial position, and here, you see the quarter 4 numbers. I'd like to highlight a couple of points. You see us performing with EUR 316 million sales in the last quarter of the year. EBIT margin was basically in the range of the company's margin for the whole year in the range of 11%. And the profitability was at this point impacted in the fourth quarter by this accrual we did of EUR 18 million for our reorganization restructuring measures. This is why you see here this negative impact. So, as I said before, we did accrue this money last year. So, it was profit relevant in terms of cash. We'll see the impact this year as we basically pay severance payments. Last year's cash performance was very good with a free cash flow in the quarter of almost EUR 60 million. We basically got to a full year number of EUR 119 million, which we see on the next page. So, the full year numbers basically, as stated at the beginning, show EUR 1.3 billion in terms of sales, adjusted EBIT margin of 11%. As I said, profitability was impacted predominantly by the transformation money we did accrue. And then the cash position is in terms of free cash flow, EUR 119 million. And for sure, Andreas will go into deeper detail in a second on these numbers. But in the given circumstances, in the given market, this is a very stable result. And also, it did allow us to pay back some debt on top of the very successful refinancing we did to further stabilize and build the right foundation for our company to start with. So, this is in terms of quarterly number and full year number. On the next page, you also see that visualize. There are two more pages coming from my side before I hand over to Andreas. So, you see the business development in the fourth quarter. You see us being impacted in Americas by lower sales, but predominantly in Asia Pacific. So, what happened there? I mean, in numerous meetings, we talked about that. The bigger point in Asia Pacific was that exactly in the fourth quarter of the Stabilus business year, the Trump administration announced a 100% tariff at the meanwhile they found an agreement, but this was a shock to the Asia Pacific, predominantly China organization for sure, which did cause that products like automation equipment, but also general industry equipment, which was kind of prior to that announcement, sourced in China and shipped to the U.S. basically came to an end instantly, because of these high tariffs, because all the manufacturing equipment transfers have been burdened with 100% impact on tariffs to the U.S. So that's why U.S. companies stopped basically or deferred ordering. I want to highlight it's deferred ordering. There was no cancellation. So, now things are coming up a bit again, but there is some cautiousness in predominantly China, because of this unstable geopolitical situation and also the unrest in terms of tariff situation. So, in the full year, that means we saw this impact in Asia Pacific, which is all driven by China, with 12% year-over-year decline, as I said, predominantly driven by that all the exports out of China of equipment to the U.S. came to a stall. But also, there was a secondary impact because, a lot of the consumers in China were basically, yes, left with uncertainty. And so, the consumer indices also went down, as you all know. And this had an impact on our business to begin with. One more point, which you also see in the numbers when it comes to the EBIT margin, but also Andreas will talk a bit about this, is we had a transfer pricing adjustment, which was driven by a Destaco-related move of some of the profits from the Americas to EMEA. And this is something which impacted us in the fourth quarter. But at the end of the day, for the complete year, I'd say Americas and EMEA, solid, stable with a slight upwards trend. Asia Pacific impacted by the tariff situation to begin with. And with that, Andreas, I will hand over to you. First meeting for you. Welcome again, and I leave it with you to talk about the regions a little more in depth. Andreas Jaeger: Thank you, Michael, and to all participants, also a very warm welcome from my side. Following the introduction on group level, I will now go deeper into the region, the market segments. And then I round up my part of the presentation with some more information on the investments before I then hand back to Michael for the outlook. So, starting with the Americas. In Americas, we saw a growth of 2.5% in the top line in the revenue. We had two major impacts in there. On one hand, we had the first full year consolidation of Destaco. And you remember in 2024, Destaco was included as of April 1. So, we had 6 months of the results of Destaco in our accounts, whereas in 2025, Destaco is included for the whole financial year. On the other hand, we had a significant negative impact from foreign exchange. The U.S. dollar weakened and we present our accounts in euro. So there, we saw an impact of minus 7%, which is more than EUR 30 million only in 2025. In Americas, Destaco grew, so they contributed positively to the minus 1.2%. The major negative impact we saw came from Automotive and in Automotive from Powerise. In a competitive environment in Americas, we had to adjust our prices. So, the bigger impact came from prices more than from the volumes. If we then look at the EBIT, we also have two major impacts on the EBIT of the period. On one hand, we included Destaco, as I mentioned before, adding 21.2%. But on the other hand, we have this harmonization of the transfer pricing policy following the consolidation of Destaco. There, we added almost EUR 8 million of cost into the region. Important to note, this has a significant impact on Americas, but on group level, this is neutral. And also looking then on the margin, we had in last year a margin of 10.2% in the EBIT. This year, 7.9%. About half of it came from the change in the transfer pricing. Moving then on to Europe. In Europe, we saw a growth of 3.2%. And also here, we had the first consolidation of Destaco that added about 5% to the whole revenue. In Europe, the FX impact was minor and most of the operations are in euro. So, this was a lesser extent. When we look at the segment where this minus 1.4% came from, it's mainly of the negative impact from Automotive Gas Spring. Positive signs we saw from Automotive Powerise and Industrial components, the whole pricing was a less issue in Europe. Looking then on the EBIT, we saw a plus of 20.6%. Here, you see now the positive impact. So, the back swing from the harmonization of the transfer pricing policy. Here, it added EUR 9.6 million. And on the other hand, the big impact -- positive impact came from the first consolidation of Destaco with plus 9.1%. In Asia Pacific, the top line was reduced by 12.4%. Here, we had a minor impact from the first consolidation of Destaco that was positive. On the other hand, we had a minor negative impact from the FX rates in Asia Pacific. Almost all of the minus 12.4% are driven by China. In China, we really see a reduction on one hand on the volume, but also pricing-wise in the competitive pricing environment, we have to adjust our prices. We still grew in the industrial components that we saw an organic growth. The major negative impact was China. And in China, it was Automotive and within Automotive, more from Powerise than from our Gas Springs. Moving on to the EBIT. The EBIT went down with 29.3%. This was obviously heavily impacted by the lower volume and the lower prices. But if you then look at the margin, and we had a margin of 17.5% last year and this year, 14.1%. So you see even with the decline organically of 13.6% in the top line, we could maintain a solid EBIT margin of 14.1%, and that demonstrates our ability to adjust or to flexibilize our fixed cost in order to maintain a profitable business. On the next two slides, I would like to go into the details on the development by market segment. Here, just to highlight the two most important drivers in here, that's only Q4, basically Automotive, minus 10%. Please also note here, we also had a negative currency impact and then where you see a solid growth of 9% is our third biggest segment is the distributor and the independent aftermarket. The full year by market segment, I just would highlight the first two lines, Automotive, similar picture as in the quarter with minus 10%. Also here, this line clearly impacted by the negative currency exchange impact. Industry Machinery & Automation, where Destaco plays the major part of it, it was positive with 61%. This is the first consolidation, but in the footnote, you also see that Destaco as a business had an organic growth of 5.8% year-over-year. Our net leverage situation, you can see on the following slide. We did reduce our net financial debt by EUR 36 million. So here, you see a positive development. The net leverage went slightly up. And the reason being is the result, the EBITDA, but our goal remains and we are committed to bring down our net leverage ratio in the next 3 years down to below the 2%. Our long-term target also remains unchanged. We target a net leverage ratio of 1%. Looking at the net working capital position, and also the net working capital position, we could reduce by EUR 23 million, and we introduced the new ABS factoring. And also going forward, the net working capital and the development of the net working capital will be a priority on my desk. We want to further roll out the ABS program, and we also want to optimize our net working capital in general and particularly the inventory level. Our investment pattern you can see on the next page. This year, we invested EUR 88.5 million in our company. And I think this is a clear demonstration that we are committed to our long-term growth path. Also in a challenging environment, we maintain our strategic investments and we invest in our company. On the next slide, you see then the split. I think that's the even more interesting part, a significant part, EUR 30.8 million or 35% of our investment goes into R&D. We need to develop innovative products in order to secure our long-term profitable growth. That's then also the second biggest portion of our CapEx that goes into growth CapEx is 34%. And then it's maintenance. We need to maintain and keep our plants and machinery in order to have an efficient production process and then this part, CHF 13.5 million goes into optimization. Yes, with this, I hand back to Michael for the outlook. Michael Büchsner: Thank you very much, Andreas. And yes, over the course of the next four pages, we'll talk a little bit more about financial numbers for next year before I summarize them and we'll have a Q&A session. So, in terms of where we stand, we all know it's EUR 1.3 billion, 11% EBIT margin and a fantastic cash flow of EUR 119 million. For next year, our forecast range is between EUR 1.1 billion and EUR 1.3 billion sales, an EBIT margin of 10% to 12% EBIT margin on the adjusted side and EUR 80 million to EUR 110 million in terms of free cash flow. So, that are basically our numbers which we see for next year in terms of the forecast. And on the next couple of pages, I'd like to talk a little bit about the details which are behind that plan, because I think this really matters and should allow you also to feed your charts and simulate and make your assumptions as well. So, you all know that our numbers are to begin with based on GDP growth and light vehicle production. GDP growth should be positive 3% next year in '26 over '25. And this is something which we take as a baseline for sure, with some cautiousness because nobody knows how the geopolitical unrest and also the tariff situation at the end of the day for the next year impacts our numbers in the same way than the economy. And you saw there were some quite significant impacts in the year 2025 to begin with. Yes. On the light vehicle production growth, we assume 91 million produced vehicles, which is slightly less than this year, up 2% to 3%. And this is something which we also see for next year, pretty stable Europe and North America, but also on the lower side with negative 2% and in America -- in Asia, probably down 3%. So, that's the numbers in terms of GDP and light vehicle production. These two numbers impact our business the most, because GDP is on the Industrial side are major and light vehicle production for sure, with whatever is automated -- automotive-related on the component side. Yes, cost inflation at the end of the day, material expenses, we see kind of stable, right? We are wrestling every day with our suppliers also to get some savings out of our supply base. However, in uncertain times with quite stable sales, their abilities are also reaching a floor. So it means we see no inflation big scale, but also no deflation. So, we see a slight decrease of our material rates for next year, but in a ballpark number of 0.5 percentage point. Labor cost inflation, it's in the -- end of the day, it's in the range of 6%, right? Western world, a little less, but we still see, for example, in Romania, but also in Mexico and China, predominantly in the lower cost areas, an inflation, which is above average, we would assume in the Western world. So, we've been calculating with about 6% year-over-year next year. Important is also the FX rates for sure, USD 1.2 to the euro and CNY 8.5 to euro. So that's what we plan for. On the next page, we see that coming down to the regions. And I've been touching on that a little beforehand. The yellow circle, you see the complete year, complete company, the Stabilus Group. So then followed by Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Americas, we see EUR 400 million to EUR 460 million. We see basically 9% to 11% EBIT margin in that range. Similar scale in EMEA, EUR 500 million to EUR 570 million and 10% to 11.5% EBIT margins. So these two regions fairly stable at the end of the day. And as I said, this is why Destaco also was a great move for us, not only that we are stronger in the Industrial side, we also put more focus on the Americas side, which you know these days is a good thing to do. It delivers stability and it makes sure that we have good stakes in both Americas and EMEA region to begin with. Asia Pacific for us, for sure, that's predominantly China, EUR 200 million to EUR 270 million in terms of sales, 12% to 14.5% EBIT margin. That's the target for next year. And as I said, and you see that on the bottom line, GDP growth is in America, 2%; EMEA, 1.5%; China, 4% growth. So, there should be some growth coming on the GDP side. Light vehicle production, however, there are clouds on the sky still, right? Uncertain electro-mobility, tariff situation, consumer sentiment low. And this is why actually GDP. So S&P numbers show Americas and EMEA down 2% and Asia Pacific down 3%. So these are the fundament of our basis planning also for the region in EMEA and Asia Pacific to begin with. We still see some pricing pressures. We always see in the Automotive side. This year, we can deal with majority of it. You know that we saw last year some price deteriorations in China and in Americas, because of high competitive pressure. This basically this year, we still see some of it, but we can overcompensate that or compensate that with the activities we do on the technical side and on the purchasing side and efficiency side. High inflation, Romania and Mexico, I mentioned here, but that's what we also see for China. But in China, it depends on pretty much how also the general business development is because we all know when the general business development is rather soft, then you also -- it's easier to negotiate with labor representatives, the tariff increases in the different regions. And this is something where we think China is -- could be okay. Romania and Mexico is more difficult to discuss with where we see still a labor cost inflation. So on the next page, also some more numbers, right? The PPA, EUR 30 million for '26, EUR 16 million out of that is Destaco PPA. This is reduced EUR 29 million to EUR 26 million. Thereof, EUR 16 million Destaco. CapEx, important to know, Andreas talked about it. We invest majorly in the development of new products and processes and equipment to produce. This is mainly concentrating also on the Automotive side, on the areas of door actuation where we see good growth in the years coming. We've got really fantastic awards. We are market leader in that segment. And the market leader with currently 40% market share on the door actuation, there we have very firm contracts for the years to come. They'll kick in starting end of next year. And then, we also invest, for sure, on the Industrial side in electrification, smartification of products. Andreas mentioned that, and this is, for sure, the biggest bucket of our investments. It's probably 2/3 of the investments. For sure, we do some base maintenance, but it should write things off the table like -- there were some questions we always got underinvestment of Destaco. That's not the case. Destaco, it's where we invested -- it's we invest and this is why we also wanted to highlight that a lot in new technologies and also a lot in operational capacities for years to come. And less in maintenance, we invest in maintenance, what we need in maintenance to do, but it's not overly excessive in that area. So that's why I think the pie chart is very good. Transformation program, to keep it short, we talked about it, EUR 18 million. We did accrue EUR 19 million is a full year cash benefit to us or full year cost benefit in 2027, going up to EUR 30 million during '28 even. Net working capital, I think it's really a good number to be between 17% and 20%. That's something which we saw on the graph. I think that's a good rate. The group tax rate will be anywhere between 25% and 30%. Currently, we're in the range of 27% rather in the mid part of it. And yes, dividend -- and you saw that in the note we distributed, we also stick to our commitments we gave to our investors. We know some of the investors are less interested, others are way more, I tell you, in terms of dividend, because some of our membership, they finance their activities, their offices with dividends. We did cut it down to a lower dividend than in the years before, still being in the range of 40%. So this time around, it's EUR 0.35, which we suggest for the AGM. And I think that's a good number. And on one hand side, it should show our membership who take care of dividend policy that even in difficult times, we let people participate on the net profits the company makes. And on the other hand side, there is good cash still remaining to do other activities for capital allocation like we discussed them beforehand. Yes. And with that, I would like to summarize for you 2025, for sure, we've been impacted like everybody else in the industry out there, but we did do a very fantastic job in terms of EBIT margin and cash generation to begin with. And the AGM '26, we proposed EUR 0.35 per share, total dividend of close to EUR 9 million, which is coming, yes, 37%, closer to 40% of our net profit as we always promised. And then for sure, given the current circumstances and difficulties in the market, we see this as a transitional year being in the range of EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion sales with an EBIT margin of 11% to 12% -- 10% to 12%, sorry, and a free cash flow of EUR 80 million to EUR 110 million. For sure, with whatever we do, and you saw that with the investments we do in the long run, right, 2/3 of the capital expenditures we do is in new technologies and capacities for contracts we won for the next 2 to 5 years. We invest in the right things and very committed to our STAR 2030 strategy, and we will give full push to reach our numbers. And with that, I would like to open the Q&A session. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And the first question is from Akshat Kacker, JPMorgan. Akshat Kacker: Welcome, Andreas. Akshat from JPMorgan. I have three questions, please. The first one around the full year 2026 outlook. Obviously, a cautious guide at this point of the year, and the range is definitely wider than what we have seen in your previous outlooks. So, could you just give us more details and I think starting with business divisions and then going into different geographies. So, if you could just talk about overall business development expectations across Powerise, Industrial Components and Industrial Automation, those three segments going into next year? What are the key growth drivers? Or where do you see risks across those business divisions? And the second part, as I said, on the regional outlook, you are clearly expecting sharp declines of 10% to 15% at the midpoint of the guide, specifically in APAC and Americas. So could you just give us more details on what exactly is going on in those geographies? The second question is on the transformation program. And I see that you're talking about $32 million of gross savings by 2028, but you're also talking about higher-than-expected cost inflation in Mexico and Romania, along with other moving parts that you mentioned, materials and energy. So could you just help us put all of that in context and talk about the expectations around net savings, if possible, by 2027 and '28? How do you expect overall inflation elements to balance out on the P&L, please? And the last one is probably some kind of guidance on the first quarter to help us put this guide for the full year into perspective. If you could just share some more details on how the first quarter of FY '26 has been progressing on a sales or an adjusted EBIT level? Michael Büchsner: Absolutely. Thank you very much, Akshat. So, I will begin with answering these in essence, four questions you're having. And then for sure, I will also turn it over to Andreas if there is any further comment from his side. But to begin with, you said '26 is a cautious guidance, wider range than in the years before. What are the growth drivers by region? That is in essence your first question. And for the year 2026, it's our aim to have a robust guidance. So, this is what we wanted to start with, right? So that means, if you remember back in last year, the range was basically similar in terms of EBIT margin, for example, at that time, we've been between 11% and 13%, so a bandwidth of 2%. And this time around, it's also a bandwidth of 2%. So that means, our target is always, we build up a plan on the financial basis of S&P and GDP. So how we -- how it works is, we take the GDP numbers, which next year show a positive of 3% and we take the S&P number, which show anywhere between 2% and 3% a decline for next year. And then we put that into the relation of, we have 55% Automotive business, 45% Industry business. And then this is how the fundamentals come together for our business plan. So what does this mean in terms of growth drivers? We took this 3% of GDP growth for the Industrial sector and basically did plan that straight through to our numbers. There's some upsides and downside. There's always also on the Industrial side, some pricing pressure, which we think we can overcompensate with some initiatives we do to increase our cost position. So, on the Industrial side, that's straightforward. On the Industrial side, there's also another impacting factor, which is the tariff situation, a couple of percentage points focusing on the North American business in terms of headwinds, which we also think that to 90% around about we can push towards our customers. So that's basically when it comes for growth drivers, the business of Industry business. How does the growth drivers of the Industry business materialize over the regions? Europe and North America, basically stable growth there of this 3% and probably a little better growth in China, but there is the big question mark for sure of how the region in Asia Pacific in a primary and secondary impact deal with the geopolitical unrest predominantly also the pressure of uncertainty of tariffs. This is what we saw this year. There was basically a roller coaster, and that's why we saw a downward trend also on the Industrial side in China. So when it comes then to the Automotive business, we also took the numbers of S&P. We've been taking the numbers which show a decline of 2% in the area of Europe and North America and a decline of 3% in China. We took that across the board for all Gas Springs and Powerise systems. Then we added back some relief, because of door actuation, which should kick in starting next June. Because next June, July, there is the ramp-up of MI -- Xiaomi Auto, which is adding back for a full year effect, EUR 15 million sales on door actuation, but this starts in June. And then we saw -- we see towards August, September, so after the summer shutdown that for the model all X series of BMW, the sales of door actuation kick in for BMW. So that means we took on GDP side what we have on hand from GDP. And on the light vehicle production, we took the light vehicle production baked it into all Powerise and Gas Springs and then added back volumes on the door actuation starting June, July, August with MI Auto and also with the business of Model X of BMW. So -- and this is with our firm contracts, and that's why we invested in the past year in the CapEx side, predominantly in developing these products alongside with capacities to build these vehicles. So this is how, in a nutshell, the growth drivers are performing. In the same way, you asked about the regional split, Americas and Asia Pacific, how do sales develop here. In Americas, we see some cautiousness in terms of vehicle for build, minus 2%. But on the other hand, 3% GDP growth on the Industrial side. Yes, there is some pricing pressure, but we think we can offset this pricing pressure in America with technical changes. There is some pressure left in Asia Pacific. There is a very strong local competition there with predominantly engine. This is something where there might be a gap of 1% or 2%. But also here, we try to close this gap of price deterioration. So, in terms of price deterioration in general terms, we did bake into the numbers, 0.5% price inflation for Gas Springs in the range of 2 to 3% of standard Powerise systems in China, we think that the price inflation will be in the range of 5%. We will offset majority of this, but there is still more pressure in Asia than in other regions. But we think the vast majority next year, we will offset this pricing pressure. Then you said transformation, EUR 32 million, and sorry for the long answer, because you basically asked for basically a complete P&L with your questions. But in the transformation part, right? There is EUR 32 million 2028, that's absolutely right. There is still some inflation on the Mexican and Romanian side, which is more than average inflation you'd see. But this is something which we learn to deal with. Mexico and Romania, there will be in the range of 6% to 7% inflation, but they also bring to the table in measures and we counterbalance them with automation. So, we drive and continue to drive automation in Mexico and Romania to offset this 6% to 7% labor inflation in that region to begin with. So -- and then in terms of guidance, quarter 1, basically, it's too early to state, because we now are in the closing phase of November. So, I would say out of the fourth quarter, we see some year-end effects, typically, the fourth quarter is very strong for us. So July, August and September with EUR 316 million. There, you're missing probably half a month in December to begin with in terms of sales. So this is something to acknowledge so that there is only half a month in December, which actually basically brings us to a slightly softer quarter than in the fourth quarter per definition, because you are suffering this half of month in December. And then something also to consider is, for sure, the ongoing uncertainty in the market and the unrest in terms of tariff situation. In terms of regional development, we see in average the regions developing like we saw them over the course of the last 3 to 6 months. So, Europe and North America rather stable. Asia Pacific, still a roller coaster driven by the tariff situation and some unstable basically outlook for the economy there, which is coming back to that point. You saw that in Automotive industry will be down according to S&P numbers in China next year, 3%. There might be or is the positive level on GDP. But in general terms, the Chinese people, they see this uncertainty, and this is also something which we see in the numbers. So, I hope that I answered your questions. There were plenty of them touching our complete P&L and forecasting principle, but I hope that answers the question. Akshat Kacker: I'm sorry for the long questions. Just a very quick follow-up. So, when I think about the first question and your outlook, when I'm understanding what you're saying in terms of overall market development on GDP and LVP, your expectations around outperformance, your expectations around offsetting pricing pressure, it sounds to me like you are comfortable between the mid- to high end of the revenue guide as of now when you're thinking about the overall business. Because the lower end of the guide basically talks about 10% to 15% decline. Michael Büchsner: Yes. In a nutshell, I know we always have this discussion guidance and midpoint and where we see it. Over the course of the last 2 years, we saw a lot of things driving in, right, through and alongside the year. So, we always start in the first quarter with October, November, December. And then typically, like this year, the election of Trump and his first couple of months being the President, it was really a shaky situation through the complete economy, right? So that means, there is a lot of things which we're dealing with starting this February, right, with the new administration. Then remember back when 3 years ago, the Ukraine war kicked in along with massive inflation. This also was always early in the year. So, we have, basically we are bringing out a guidance towards the end of the calendar year, not knowing what happens in January and February. This is a slight disadvantage for us. So yes, you could reformulate that and say they rather would like to, yes, be on the -- between the midpoint and the upper point of the guidance. However, the uncertainty is really what we need to consider also in our business, because we also get feedback. Hey, guys, we want you to have a realistic but matchable and achievable guidance for the year. And we, for sure, don't know what we don't know starting next January, which things pop up, right, on the global scale. And I think there are many things like war, tariff situation, inflation, also things about geopolitics in the flow and nobody really knows how that turns out. And this is also something which you shaped in your first question saying the guidance is rather wide. We have an EBIT margin range of this year, 10% to 12%. It's in the similar range, sizable range like we gave before. But yes, the issue is we don't know what happens in the start of the new year. And this is something which we try to formulate in the guidance. And this is why, yes, we have a certain range of the guidance. And yes, if you look on to the activities we are doing in terms of shaping our profits throughout the year, this will be a back-end loaded year, because we start with all the efforts on the restructuring and this kicks in, in the second half of the year. That's also something to basically reflect. And then, it remains that we all are strong in terms of believing that some of these positive signs we see in the economy really materialize, and then we should see that in the second half of the year. I hope that helps. Operator: At the moment, there seem to be no further questions. [Operator Instructions] Michael Büchsner: So many people were scared because it took us now quite some time to answer the first question. If there are any further questions, really happy to answer that. As a side note, you also, for sure, see the full pack of the numbers, including the details of last year in our -- on our homepage. And we value you as our investors for sure. So that means we also can have one-on-ones afterwards and happy to answer your questions then. Operator: We have now another question from Yasmin Steilen, Berenberg. Yasmin Steilen: I have two follow-ups, if I may. The one is on the guidance. So have you already received some indications by your customer in China that price erosion is slowing down to the level of 5%, which you have indicated? Or is it kind of this part of the guidance, which is still kind of uncertain? Any indications on this would be very helpful. And the next question, you also mentioned that you're currently still leading on door actuation systems based on the RFQs. Can you share your view on the competitive landscape? Is there any risk engine that might also take an aggressive approach on pricing here again to gain market share? Michael Büchsner: So thank you very much, Yasmin, for your questions. The first one in terms of guidance when it comes to price erosions in China. From our perspective, the price erosion is way softer this year than it used to be last year. Just as a reminder, last year, we had in the range of 8% to 9% price deterioration on some of the Powerise products. And however, we saw, and this is the main competitor engine also now as they materialize the first products and projects that they see that kind of things are apparently more difficult than they thought. So this basically leads to the point that the price war basically on that end comes or become softer. This is why we think it's in the range of 5%, 6% maybe. And this is something we can deal with to an extent of 4%. So there might be 1% or 2% left, which we basically, at the end of the day, can deal with and we reflected that in the guidance. So the China market is a very dynamic one in both directions. So that means, in many cases, it's more dynamic than in North America and Europe. So that means, also pricing requests typically come up then with basically a heads up of only 3 to 6 months. And this is basically what we fight with. And again, this is something we see that the competitor landscape is, however, stable. And we also have first victories. Right? The engine business is very strong in a spoiler business. So at the end of the car on the tail side, there are some spoilers for sports cars. It's apparently a good market in China. We are pushing in now with our first product to counterbalance. And this is where we are a challenger of engine now. And this is something where we won first businesses, and this is something where we also are counterbalancing and fight this local competition successfully. And by the way, just to point that out again, there's also in China, the main competitors are still Brose, Edscha and Magna. At the end of the day, they are winning or having more difficulties as we speak. So, we are the one which is the real competitor to engine, and we can match their prices. We don't want to do that at all [ Lanxess. ] We don't want to do that with all businesses, because we don't want to kill our pricing for sure and jeopardize our profits. So, we always go only to the extent that we keep some business, then yes, we might give some business to the competitors, gaining back some. Now we're challenging them on the spoiler business. So this is a constant battle we are driving to keep our profitability on a maximum, and that's apparently the outcome. So, bring it to a nutshell, 5% to 6% this year, I think with majority of that we can deal with in China. And then the second question was in terms of door actuator. Door actuator, it's the known competitor landscape. It's Brose, Edscha, [indiscernible] Magna as a Western world competitors. And then, yes, there will be Chinese competition. At this point in time, engine developed a new product. They were not successful in the market. So, we have some positive momentum there in gaining further business, but it would be an illusion to think that the Chinese would be on the long run, not capable to deal with this technology. Now it's about using this head lengths. We are ahead of the competition to secure business, to stable and foster our position and to make it a success. And that's what we are in the midst with because not only that we won business with Xiaomi, with Mi Auto, but also we won good business with Geely, Great Wall, they will come further. I was talking about those who launch next year. There will be in the outer years more business coming. As I said, we have a market share of 40% currently. And this is why we invested so much in the past years to develop this new technology to begin with on the R&D side and also to push the equipment into our plants. We have now in all three main regions, our door actuation lines sitting. They are not generating sales yet, because in the Automotive industry, you need to be ready 6 to 9 months before SOP for the first dry runs with the new products. That's just a given in the market, as you all know, this, for sure, is a little challenge, this ramp-up curve in the Automotive industry, but it's basically a given, and it should secure and it will secure a good business position on the door actuation side. So I hope this answers your question, Yasmin. Operator: And the last question is from Klaus Ringel, ODDO BHF. Klaus Ringel: I actually have two, and I would like to take them one by one. Well the first one being, yes, your view on the pathway of your net debt-to-EBITDA leverage in the next quarters. There's some areas a big attention on this multiple. And the question would be, if we will go south from this 2.96 at year-end or due to this cash out for restructuring and maybe also payment of the dividend, we could see it going up a bit still before it will go down. So very -- would be very interested to hear your thoughts here. That's the first question. Michael Büchsner: So in terms of the first question, yes, we are below 3, below 3 was our target. It's also something which is extremely relevant for us to pay back our debt. We were very successful last year to refinance, which gives stability and also in the same way with refinancing, we've been opening up our covenant to 4, as you know, and now we are at 3. So we have enough headroom to be successful. We think that the net leverage will go up slightly above 3 in the next 2 quarters and then coming down and towards the end of the year, that will be below 3. This is basically our current planning. Klaus Ringel: Okay. And the second one would be a clarification on the impact of this transfer pricing on the margins. That's a one-off? Or will we see a continuous impact in the next couple of quarters? Michael Büchsner: This is a shift of 1% between the region of Europe and North America out of the transfer pricing, which is baked in our forecast numbers by region. And basically, it's something which was basically corrected in terms of transfer prices driven by allocations. And this is something which materializes 1% less in North America, 1% higher in Europe, and this will basically continue to be the new baseline. Operator: And as this was the last question, I would like to hand the floor back over to Dr. Buchsner for closing remarks. Michael Büchsner: Yes. Thank you very much again for your trust, and thank you very much for being part of the presentation today. Again, I think we are very strong set up with our current stable financial results from last year. I think we're doing absolutely the right steps in terms of growing our business with new technologies and invest where it really matters to solidify the numbers for the next year and also continue our path to success with new technologies. And with that, I would like to thank you. And as we probably for most of you don't have the time to talk about -- talk this year, I wish you a happy year ending and all the best for the year 2026. Thank you very much, and have a great day and week.
Artur Wiza: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, at this conference where we will discuss Asseco's results for the 9 months of 2025. As always, we will present the activity of the group, and we will tell you more about the finances. In the end, we will make sure that all the questions are answered. So in the meantime, feel free to send questions to us. Again, we would like to welcome Rzonca-Bajorek, CFO; and Marek Panek who is in charge of group's development. Now Marek, I'm sure, will begin with the introduction. He's smiling. So probably he has some good news to share. So Marek, over to you. Tell us how we've been doing in the last 3 quarters. Marek Panek: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Well, it should have been my show, but still, yes, we have some positive news. We are summing up a very positive -- another subsequent positive period in Asseco's activity. So now I will tell you more what were the highlights in the first 3 quarters. Let me start by summing up. You see here some key figures that I would like to communicate. First, results. As you can see, we've observed a very dynamic growth amounting to 11% compared to last year, amounting to PLN 12.3 billion. Our profit -- operating profit was growing even faster, the non-IFRS 1, up by 18% to PLN 1.4 billion. And non-IFRS net profit went up by 29% to as much as PLN 516 million. Now the profitability also improved. The non-IFRS 1 is close to 12%. So taking all this into account, we have reasons to be happy. And indeed, the first 3 quarters, we believe we're very satisfying. These results are driven by the fact that we've consistently been pursuing our strategy, the strategy that was kind of 30 years ago is based on our own products, our own software and on diversification in terms of sectors and geographies where we operate. We are getting stronger in our core areas, finance, public administration and ERP. At the same time, we've seen some promising areas looming, we've been talking about them many times, cloud, cybersecurity, defence and recently AI. In all these areas, we are more or less advanced. We take a close look at the market, and we want to make sure that we are present in all of them. And this is kind of an untypical slide because I'd like to mention one such event, which is we signed at Formula Systems, the agreement for the sales of a majority stake in Sapiens International. So this contributes to our results even though this transaction has not been consumed yet. So in August this year, an agreement was signed to sell the stake in Sapiens by Formula. With that, they will retain 18%. As a result, we are losing control over Sapiens. And that was reflected in financial results. Sapiens as a result was excluded from consolidated revenues and costs as well as income tax. So the data are no longer part of the consolidated revenues. It is now classified as discontinued operations. The net result of Sapiens is included in the profit and loss statement under net profit from discounted operations. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the end of Q4 or beginning of Q1 next year. And we already announced that previously that it will have a significant positive impact on the result of the whole group. We will tell you more about this at the next conference. Now coming back to the traditional part of my presentation, I will start with a short summary of activities in individual geographies and segments. I suggest that we focus on the graph that you can see now on the right-hand side. It's the sales revenues broken down by segments. Starting from the upper part, it's Asseco Poland. This segment was marked by the highest growth of as much as 14% period-to-period, followed by Asseco International, plus 12%. Here, we are close to the amount of PLN 3.3 billion. And the largest part is Formula Systems that observed 11% growth and achieved PLN 7.3 billion. Remember that Sapiens is excluded. So in a nutshell, I would say the following, no big highlights for the Polish segment. We look at the public one. We have a strong position there, and it grew very dynamically. Also, we would like to stress that we have a strong position in the finance segment. It's mainly banks in Poland. For Asseco International, I'd like to point out ERP solutions and solutions dedicated to banking, especially Eastern Europe, Central Eastern Europe. And then Formula Systems segment. Here, I'd like to mention record revenues of Matrix IT and some satisfactory growth of this new part, which is Michpal Group. Here, you can see the revenues broken down by product groups. Again, please focus on the graph on the right hand. Let's start from the upper part, plus 8%. It's solutions for finance. And really, it's one of the largest segments with respect to software in our group. The finance one brought us as much as 23% and the largest software based is the public administration segment. It grew at the most dynamic pace. Exactly, it was plus 16%. So we are very close to the amount of PLN 3 billion. And it's about 25% of the revenue of the whole group solutions for banking institutions. Now ERP solutions, here, we observed an almost 10% rate of growth. And looking at the remaining less software-based IT solutions, it's categorized as other IT solutions. It's plus 12%. I will then remind you what it includes and infrastructure and third-party solutions. It still generates a considerable part of our revenues, but it contributes to less -- to lower margin rates. Still, we were able to generate 10% of growth here. I'd like to underline once again our diversification. The share of the 10 top customers in our case, is 12% and 2.5% is the share of the largest customer in the group's revenues. Moving on, let's have a look now at those individual solution groups in detail. I will start with the finance one. As you can see, we have almost PLN 2.8 billion in terms of the revenues. plus 8%. That's the change. And the greatest contributor is no longer formula systems as it used to be the case. Probably now Sapiens is excluded. So right now, #1 is Asseco International. There, we have almost PLN 1.2 billion revenues and a 6% growth rate. Just to remind you, it involves Asseco Eastern Central Europe solutions for banks and payment solutions. Additionally, it's Asseco Central Europe and Asseco PST. That is the activity in Portuguese-speaking countries. In all those segments, we observed growth. So 6% is the growth of the revenues. Formula Systems takes the second place in terms of the contribution. PLN 1.1 billion is the worth of the sale, 11% growth. And excluding Sapiens, this is now Matrix. That's the main player. They have a lot of banking projects in Israel and Magic Software. Now Asseco Poland that makes us very proud for many years because we believe that our business of banks in Poland is very mature and very sound. It's a great stream of recurring revenues for the company. So here, we almost have PLN 500 million in revenues and the growth rate is 10%. Please be aware that we not only serve banks, but also brokers, houses and leasing companies. So all of that together generates almost PLN 500 million. Now solutions for public institutions. As I said before, that part grew at the most dynamic pace. So we have 16% worth of growth. We are close to PLN 3 billion in revenues. The greatest contributor here is Formula Systems. Again, Matrix IT is the main player. It's the largest IT company in Israel. And at the same time, they have a large share in the supply of solutions to the public sector. Many Israeli public institutions utilize Matrix solutions. Matrix is followed by Asseco Poland in terms of the size, PLN 900 million revenues, again, a very dynamic growth, 21%. In Poland, as you know, we cooperate with many big public institutions. I'm not going to quote them. I'm sure you know what I mean. We also have solutions for local governments, smaller clients and for the health care sector, where we are an important entity offering solutions. That dynamic growth makes us very happy, obviously. And finally, Asseco International. Here, we welcome an almost 30% growth of revenues, mainly driven by Asseco Central Europe. We were able to restore our position. That makes us very happy. You may recall some fluctuations in Czechia and in Slovakia. Some projects were put on hold in the public sector due to the geopolitical situation. Now we are happy to see a return to these projects. Also, I'd like to mention Asseco Southeastern Europe. It is coping very well in -- in this area as well as Asseco Lietuva, our Lithuanian company. Now ERP solutions. Here, we have a lot of revenues. You can see that on the screen and the revenue CAGR plus 8.6%. Asseco International here is the most important one. Remember, we consolidate here Asseco Enterprise Solutions. That operates mainly in the ERP sector. And it's observed 4% growth and generated revenues over PLN 700 million. Number two is Formula Systems segment with 14% of growth. We are close to PLN 450 million. This is mainly the contribution of Michpal. It's a new group, HR and payroll, that's their core activity. And we treat these solutions as part of ERP. Hence, that revenue is classified as this segment. Also Matrix should be emphasized here, a company that also has ERP -- a proprietary ERP system and some third-party companies and Asseco Poland here, it's only PLN 50 million. So you might think it's quite negligible. But still, it makes us very happy because they have a good growth rate of 22%. It's mainly DahliaMatic. And by the way, DahliaMatic in September was moved to Asseco Enterprise Solutions Group so that all ERP solutions are offered as a one-stop shop. And now this will be moved out to a different table. And now Other IT solutions, let me remind you what this is made up of. So first, these are the solutions that do not -- are not classified in the others. So this is our trusted services and our software related to trusted services produced by Asseco Data Systems. And this is also about resources outsourcing. This mainly comprises Magic Software in the U.S. and Israel and also platforms for software development that are supplied by Magic and dedicated solutions for different types of companies supplied by Matrix. So other solutions offered by our company over PLN 2.2 billion and a 12% growth for the whole group. Let me also mention that it also covers our ITC solutions for Poland. So this is a project for the Cyfrowy Polsat Group. In Poland, it's over PLN 150 million revenue, and this group of solutions accounts for an 8% drop in this case in Poland, but don't worry about it. This is because of some seasonal aspect of this project carried out by Cyfrowy Polsat. Now acquisitions. We are continuing the activity here and 9 new companies have joined us. So 2, both in Poland, 1 in Slovakia, 1 in Czechia, 3 in the Israeli market, 1 in Spain, 1 in Egypt. And we will continue acquiring companies. And in Q4, there will be some new companies joining us in the group. And as you know, this is part of our growth strategy, and we take it very seriously. So much from me. Now over to Karolina. Thank you. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: I will discuss the P&L. Marek has mentioned the revenues, and I would like to add a few points because revenue on software and on proprietary services is growing at a fast rate. And I will also discuss the backlog at the end of the presentation. EBITDA over PLN 1.8 billion and CAGR 8% and EBIT 1.4 plus 7% and the net profit is PLN 516 million, and this amounts to 8% of the CAGR. Now period-to-period. We can see that there is a negative effect of the currency rate. It's the negative effect is PLN 135 million. And if you have a look at the growth rate, it's around 2 point difference between the currency rates and now the organic revenue has been growing by over PLN 1 billion and the acquisition at PLN 355 million. As a result, we have the result of PLN 12.255 billion, the revenue. And then let me also mention what Marek has been discussing that this does not include Sapiens, which is recognized in a different place. Now Non-IFRS operating profit, PLN 16 million negative. This is the foreign exchange rate. We have the topic of real property sale, which was positive. This year, it's negative. And this is non-IFRS. Let me remind you -- so some one-offs have been already cleared. They were included in the results of this quarter. PLN 215 million. This is the of organic results and PLN 33 million. This is the effect of the acquisitions. Now the net profit one-offs, PLN 11 million. This is the real property sale and PLN 128 million. This is the organic result of our companies. Now let's break it down into different segments, non-IFRS net results. For some time, the trend has been quite steady. So Asseco Poland has been the largest contributor here and PLN 4 million Asseco is Formula Systems and PLN 26 million is accounted -- is contributed by Asseco International. And if you have a look at the revenues and operating profit, we have already mentioned that the growth rate amounts to 11% total services, proprietary services, 12%. And you can see the dynamics on the right, excluding the FX rate effect, and this is the change, 13% if you freeze the currency rate exchanges. 3 quarters, there is 15% and 15.1%. And now Q3 to Q3, there's a drop in profitability, but I wouldn't worry about it because this is the effect of the adjustment because of the activity in India and the acquisition that was taken away from the results of this year. And without this acquisition, profitability wouldn't be lower. And if you look at it segment by segment, you will see in a moment that there are segments where the profitability is improving. Now the revenue from operating profit, 18%. This is the growth rate. It would be 19% if it weren't for the FX rate. So profitability Q3 to 3 quarters to 3 quarters improves, and there is a significant effect of one-offs because of the M&As. And as a consequence, the growth rate is a bit lower. It's 16% after the 3 quarters. And interest results are quite similar and foreign currency transactions have a bit lower effect. There's a hyperinflation and other adjustments. We have received many questions about the effective tax rate. And as you can see, period-to-period, it goes down by 0.8 percent points. And there is also a significant impact of Asseco Poland. This is a positive tax effect and it's largely due to a one-off. This is because the whole loan time, we couldn't recognize the interest of the loan taken to buy our own shares. And there was no revenue there where we could match the cost and use it effectively in the tax declaration. But once the transaction took place and we knew that we would be selling our own shares, this option appeared -- and we could use this tax loss in this item. And this is the most important effect here in this quarter. And we've been filing requests with the tax office for interpretation to settle the taxes in the most logical way possible. And we have also obtained a positive interpretation from the tax office, which is actually contradictory to another one we received a few years ago. So we have already made some adjustments to the tax settlements for the previous years, and we will continue to make adjustments, but this takes time. Hence, the impact on the effective tax rate. Now in Q3 last year, there was a positive effect because some overstating of the TSG investment at the level of Formula Systems. It was a one-off -- there is no such effect now. That's why this time, it's smaller than what we've been used to because of the one-off last year, which was quite important. Net profit attributable to shareholders, it's PLN 453 million. You can see that the dynamic here is larger because the largest dynamics is always where we are consolidating the highest percent, which is effectively in Poland, Asseco International and lastly Formula. And this is precisely what I've been talking about. Have a look at the parent company, Asseco Poland, you can see the growth rate of the revenue and the operating profit. Here, we can see a huge improvement period-to-period, PLN 272 million compared to PLN 201 million period-to-period. So we are very proud of our parent company and its results. Now Asseco Data Systems has improved significantly as well. So if you have a look at operating profit, it's PLN 442 million. And now other companies that are recognized together in a single line. There were companies that were struggling last year like DahliaMatic. And this year, they have recovered their position and the result is positive. Therefore, this line has improved significantly. Now Formula Systems. So another record quarter for Matrix IT. We've been telling you this every quarter, but this is actually the case that every quarter, they've been improving their results, and we are very happy with the dynamics because profitability is also being maintained or improved. Magic is flat. Let me remind you that we'll have the merger of the company soon. So, once we lose control over Sapiens, it will be different, but Sapiens will be kept as associates and a single line in the P&L and Matrix and Magic will be recognized as a single group. And we think -- we hope that after the merger, there will be some operating benefits in Magic for Magic. And Michpal has had its debut on the stock exchange in Tel Aviv. And I think that this group can be expected to grow because now it's growing at a nice rate, its effectiveness is growing, and it's going to continue. Now the Asseco International segment, Central European market, Marek has mentioned the fact that the ERP group is the driver of growth here. But the core area is also a good contributor of Slovakia and Czechia. This is a huge part of the Central European market. Now South Eastern European market, an organic improvement in banking. Payment would have been better, but a write-off has been recognized here for India. Now the Western European market, as we have already told you, the result is very decent Asseco PSP. Now let's move on. This is cash generated LTM. We are very happy here. Asseco Poland, it's as you can see here, an international 107 -- 114%, Asseco Poland and Formula 104%. Now liquidity situation has been stable. Still, it's negative in 2 segments. But at the same time, I'd like to point out that the debt in 2 segments went down. For Asseco Poland, we are still paying back in accordance to the schedule, a credit facility, investment credit facility. When it comes to Formula Systems, we are also paying back. So the debt is ever smaller. The cost of debt servicing are also expected to go down considerably. For some time now, we've been presenting to you also proportional recognition. So informing you what our results would be according to the ownership logic if the percentage rates were consolidated in an effective way without -- so non-IFRS results. This is proportional revenues for 2024. The foreign exchange impact is here not as considerable. It's minus PLN 40 million and at the same time, PLN 560 million, that's the positive impact of organic results. PLN 67 million was generated by acquisitions. And looking at the operating profit, minus PLN 4 million, that's foreign exchange rates, minus PLN 14 million one-offs, PLN 155 million organic results and minus 2 acquisitions. And again, proportional recognition of the revenues and operating profit. Here, the dynamics changes and efficiency are higher, where the percentage rate is higher, the results show better dynamics and better profitability. So look at proprietary software and services. Here, we generated plus 12% and EBITDA profitability 1.1%. So you can see here in quarter 3, an improvement in terms of profitability. And the same applies to operating profit in an accumulative manner. So accrually, 0.5 percentage points. That's the profitability of the operating profit. Now let's have a look at the balance sheet in the proportional methodology. As you can see, the debt is not as consolidated in formula. And for Asseco Poland, it's close to 100%. So it seems we are on the safe side. Still, we are looking at the working capital in more detail to make sure that we use it as efficiently as possible. Now cash flows, proportional recognition. Cash generated, again, a very satisfying picture, much better than in the consolidated recognition, 112%. That's the cash conversion ratio for Asseco Group. Asseco Poland segment accounts for 115%. Let's have a look at the backlog, order backlog. At the proprietary software and services level, we can see the backlog amounts to over PLN 12 billion in fixed foreign exchange rates, 13% is the growth at the level of the group, plus 14% is the segment Asseco Poland. And the backlog has been growing mainly for the parent company, but it's also the case for Asseco Systems, Asseco International, again, 14% growth. In all of the companies mentioned here, we see great growth rates. Formula Systems, it's plus 12% -- and that's it for me, actually. Artur Wiza: Thank you very much, Karolina. And thank you very much, Marek, for presenting our highlights and the most important events. And now we will move on to the questions that you've kindly sent to us. We will hope to answer them all. The first one is how you're going to manage the money that you get from Sapiens transaction and the other one that was mentioned, which of the settlement will be made next year? Higher dividends? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: For the first part, TSS, so we already have the money. It actually already came to us. And so now we are trying to allocate the money in such a way that we have a good deposit rate in the interim perspective. But ultimately, we want the money to be allocated to pay out dividends in 2 batches probably. Of course, it's the shareholders' meeting that will take the ultimate decision, but that's our original intention. So the money will be translated into dividends. Now when it comes to the other transaction, which is the sales of Sapiens, probably the deal will be made at the beginning of December -- sorry, at the end of December or beginning of January. And then the money will be settled -- the money will be paid to Formula Group. And there, a decision will be taken how it will be managed and allocated, whether it will be used for new acquisitions or some alternative forms of capital acquisition or dividends. At this point, we don't know this yet. We don't know how the money will be allocated. That remains to be seen. But as soon as we know, we will let you know. Artur Wiza: Thank you very much. Next question, how much money Asseco will get from the sales of Sapiens? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Actually, it's a question that I've been trying to explain already in the previous one. So the recognition of result is a different story than the ultimate money. The ultimate value will be allocated between shareholders in the form of a dividend. So as I said, once the decision is taken, we will let you know. And again, the loss of control of Sapiens is something that will also impact our results, and we will tell you what money we are exactly talking about as soon as this is calculated. However, let's remember that it will be driven. Well, we know the worth of the transaction. But remember about the costs that have to be covered and as well as net assets. So these calculations will also be driven by taxes, by foreign exchange rates. So the result will be positive, but its ultimate value is -- remains to be checked, to be calculated. Artur Wiza: Thank you very much. What are expectations when it comes to EF or electronic invoice implementation in the next quarter? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Well, it's hard to expect. It's hard to estimate that at this point. CEF is part of a bigger project. For sure, it's something that should increase the demand for our products and services. So I guess in all of the sectors where the implementation of CEF will be an obligation, we will definitely see the result. I guess the most natural area would be companies that supply ERP and ERP-related solutions, such as Asseco Business Solutions. But I can't give you any exact rates at this point. Artur Wiza: Now improved profitability of the parent company, what is it driven by? And is it driven by AI? And I guess it means artificial intelligence and not Asseco International, right? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Well, yes, indeed, improved profitability in the parent company is quite significant. I agree. And the reason behind it is the following. We have a lot on our plate right now. We are trying to use all the opportunities. And I guess, in none of the segments, we have any free capacities because we are really using our capacities to the full. So I think this effect is what we actually already announced in 2023. Back then, we told you that we feel a lot of pressure on the payroll and on vacancies. Well, these problems are no longer the case that much. We still have some bottlenecks when it comes to people allocation. Of course, it's easier when you have an order backlog for the current year and for the next one, and it's easier to manage and to plan your people in the optimum way. That's why the efficiency improved. So we made some extraordinary effort in many areas. I'd like to say that very clearly. Another reason is a very special situation, which is in all operating segments, we've seen a very good year. 2025 has been a very positive year. None of our businesses incurred any losses. I think it's a long-term effect of the fact that we've been fighting to diversify our revenue streams and of mastering the planning. To some extent, it's probably the result of our optimization efforts and using different technologies, including AI, obviously. So these technologies have been helping us to ensure even better quality of the software to our clients. AI is actually at different stages of production. So the products that we offer also include the AI component. Still, at this point, we can't give you any exact rate to express the actual impact of AI on improved efficiency or productivity. Think about AI in testing automation. In our case, software, thanks to AI, is tested much better. So then also at the service point, we have fewer tickets. So the servicing guys can be more efficient. However, it's really hard to capture that effect in numbers. Artur Wiza: Right. I think that would be actually great to introduce the AI team so that they can -- at least the leader, maybe not the whole team, so that they can tell us more about our AI solutions that we've implemented so far. Next question, could you please give us an additional comment on Asseco International, it's [indiscernible] company that was added to the group recently. And what about the write-off for NextBank? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Marek, would you like to take this one? Marek Panek: Ladies first. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Right. So let me tackle first our activity in India and Dubai, Asseco Southeastern Europe. The acquisition of the company was written off in this year's results. So looking at the balance sheet, you can see the impact in a couple of items. But efficiently -- effectively, if you look at the result -- net result, it's not such a huge impact. It's PLN 3.5 million up to PLN 4 million. That's the impact on Asseco Group's results. Now this is driven by the following fact. Back then, when we bought the company, a big part of the payment for the controlling package was a conditional obligation. And that obligation was meant to be paid only when some results would be delivered in the future. When that decision was taken, by the management, we came to the conclusion that, that acquisition is not reasonable. So it would be fair to make a write-off. So the write-off is about such assets as the goodwill and some liabilities. On the other hand, there was room to write off that conditional obligation or liability. So the net result is not as impressive in the end. As to the second part of the question, NextBank, we acquired that group some years ago in 2018, right? Marek Panek: Yes. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: And at that time, it was kind of an attempt to try out our operation in a different sector. We invested in a start-up actually. So we patiently waited for a breakthrough, but it never happened. Therefore, we decided that at the point of an individual report or statement, we would write off these investments and the loans that were granted to the company. And then in the consolidated report or statement, we wrote off also the goodwill. Marek Panek: But don't think that there is anything wrong happening in this company because this is not the case. The company is operating. And let me remind you that this is a company registered in Czech, in Poland with a brand with a subsidiary in Philippines and it manufactures a cloud solution subscription based. And over the years, there have been around 50 implementations. So there is quite a big group of client banks that rely on the software. At a certain point, there was an issue because the company started working together with huge banks. And some -- one of the banks made huge promises about IT projects. So NextBank established a huge team to implement the project. But at the end of the day, the budget got cut off heavily and the demand was much poor, hence, the loss because of this part of the activity. But we -- we still believe that the company will pick up and we'll get new customers. Now the subscription-based revenue covers the cost of activity. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: So I think that the cash flow will be positive next year. Yes, but we will see the positives next year. So the scale of the write-off, it's PLN 25 million in the individual and PLN 14 million in the consolidated statement. Artur Wiza: Next question. Can we expect an additional dividend because of the sale of shares to TSS this year? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: And this was Santa Claus asking, we are waiting. We have until the 2nd of December. this would have to be a down payment, and we are still waiting for the change of the Articles of Association to be registered officially. This has been already decided in the general meeting, but this needs to be processed. And I think that around the usual dividend day, we will break the news to you, but no decisions have been made yet. So this also depends on our shareholders. It's up to them. But today, it's too early to say because the Articles of Association haven't been amended officially yet. Artur Wiza: What do you think about the forecast for Asseco Poland, the outlook in 2026? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: So if you have a look at the results in 2025, they are quite or even very positive, and they make us optimistic. And a huge part of current projects will continue next year. Now we are doing the budgeting. Nothing makes us worry about the Polish segment and next year to the contrary because if you have a look at the backlog, contracts are growing at a very decent rate. So if we succeed in improving the efficiency, the prospects are very good. But it doesn't mean I'm promising you anything right now that I'm promising you the same results because the results are really spectacular in 2025. And partially, this is because of the momentum. But speaking about the outlook, -- now we have to focus on performing the contracts and improving the effectiveness, the efficiency and not on gaining new contracts that much. Artur Wiza: Thank you. There is one question left. Could you please share the recording of this presentation as soon as possible on the website? Yes, certainly, we'll do it soon in Polish and English. Thank you. Thank you for all the questions. And please stay in touch with our Investor Relations department and follow us on the during the conferences we are going to attend. We will be attending the conference with [indiscernible] in Prague this week. We will be speaking about our results over there as well. And I would like to invite you for the conference on the results from 2025 next year. And Adam Goral will also attend, he's sending his best wishes right now. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Topps Tiles Plc Results Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself, however the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO, Rob Parker. Good morning, sir. Robert Parker: Thank you. Thanks very much. Yes. Good morning, everyone. A very warm welcome to the Topps Group 2025 results. As you just heard, I'm Rob Parker, current Chief Executive. I'm very pleased to be here today for what will be my last set of results with the company. So also joining me today, I'm delighted to say is our new Chief Executive, Alex Jensen. And the plan for the session is I will run through the overview for the group. I'll talk to the FY '25 financials. I'll also address strategic progress during the course of the year. And then I'll hand on to Alex as our new CEO, to share her initial thoughts on the business and also her priority areas for the year ahead. So turn on to the highlights for the year. Firstly, we have a really clear strategic goal for the business, which we call Mission 365, and that's about getting to GBP 365 million worth of sales in a single financial year with a very clear profit underpin of a minimum of 8% and a range of 8% to 10% net margin, we believe we can deliver across each of those sales. We're making really strong progress towards our goal. And actually, after about 18 months since we launched this goal, we're now 40% of the way towards the sales part of the target. And our goal is underpinned by 5 very clear areas of growth, and I'll talk to each of those in turn as we go through the presentation. The CTD business we acquired about 15 months ago has been a major part of our focus in the year just gone. So we've been dealing with the repercussions of the CMA investigation into that acquisition. One of the outcomes from the CMA, the primary outcome was we needed to dispose of 4 of the stores that we acquired. Three of those disposals are now completed and the final fourth disposal is imminent, and we expect to go really sort of day by day, but it should be gone before the end of this quarter, and that will then bring to a close any sort of CMA involvement in that process. That will leave us with 22 stores trading under the CTD brand. The operations are now fully integrated. So the IT systems are all now being run off of core Topps Group systems, and it operates under our core -- one of our core logistics facilities as well a warehouse down in Northampton. We've got really clear plans for the business to move it into profit in the year. We've now started FY '26. And the strategic rationale for CTD absolutely remains as clear as it was when we purchased the business 15 months ago, and I'll talk to that as we go through the slides a little bit more. Across the group, 75% of our sales are now trade weighted. Trade also forms a vital link back into particularly Topps Tiles for the homeowner for us. Many of our homeowners now prefer to shop through their chosen fitter. So a very important link for the business. Digital has been a key area of focus for us, and our digital credentials continue to strengthen. Digital penetration across the group is now just over 21% of our sales, so are transacted through digital platforms of some description, and that is up from 18.5% just a year ago. We've also -- this week, actually, as part of our results week, we've announced the appointment of a new CFO for the group. That person is Caroline Browne, who will join us somewhere around spring of next year following serving of a notice period. And we also very recently acquired the Fired Earth brand, intellectual property and stock. Alex will provide more detail on both the CFO appointment and the Fired Earth acquisition as part of our update. So turning to the right-hand side of the page with the group financials, a very strong year of progress, we feel, particularly in the second half where we saw a number of the key financial metrics really step on, and we delivered certainly very strong sales growth over the second half of the year and profit growth on that basis. Gross margin has also seen really good progress this year. Again, second half stronger than the first half, but overall gross margin for the group is up by around 50 basis points year-on-year. Adjusted pretax profit on that basis has come in at the top end of the range of analyst expectations. It came in at GBP 9.2 million, which in itself is a 46% increase for the group year-on-year. Adjusted earnings per share growth was similar, very slightly less because of slightly changed tax rates year-on-year, but that's allowed us to pay a dividend or recommend the dividend to shareholders, which represents a 21% increase year-on-year and is equivalent to about 85% of our adjusted earnings per share being remitted back to shareholders. Our balance sheet also remains robust. I'm very pleased to say we've maintained a net cash position year-on-year. So GBP 7.4 million of net cash at the year-end, very slightly down on where it was a year ago, but remains in a net cash position. And we've also got behind that a GBP 30 million revolving credit facility with our primary lenders. So turning then on to the highlights of the -- so the adjusted measures of the income statement in a little bit more detail. So sales on an adjusted basis, so that's excluding the CTD business, actually grew by 6.8% year-on-year to GBP 265 million. And then when combined with the gross margin improvement I mentioned, which on an adjusted basis grew to 53.8%, that actually generates an additional GBP 10.2 million worth of gross profit. Operating costs remain -- does remain absolutely a key area of focus. The regulatory environment particularly remains very challenging here. I'll talk to that in a little bit more detail on the next slide. But operating costs in total grew GBP 5.7 million or 4.7% year-on-year. And the interest charge for the business includes IFRS 16 charges. Actual bank interest paid was about GBP 900,000 for the year, GBP 0.9 million, which in itself was up GBP 0.9 million year-on-year and does reflect the fact we did carry a level of net debt across the year. And all of that then combined into the number I mentioned on the previous page, the adjusted pretax profit of GBP 9.2 million, a 46% increase year-on-year for the group. So turning then to some performance bridge charts, and we've set out here the changes year-on-year across revenue, gross margin and adjusted operating costs being sort of key 3 areas of the income statement. So sales by brand on the top left-hand corner of the page, every single part of our business grew their sales year-on-year, which is something we were very, very pleased with. So Topps Tiles in aggregate grew by 3.9% to GBP 218.6 million. Parkside grew by almost 12% to GBP 8.5 million of the sales and what we call online pure play, which is our tile warehouse business and also Pro Tiler Tools combined grew by 25.6% to just over GBP 38 million. That's the sales on the adjusted basis. And then when we add in the CTD business, that delivered sales of GBP 30.4 million, which brings us to that number I mentioned a couple of slides ago, GBP 296 million in aggregate for the group. Turning to gross margin on the top right-hand side of the page. The first 3 blocks effectively lay out the changes in the margin structure for Topps Tiles this year. So Topps Tiles has seen a good year of progress. We have seen improved buying in Topps Tiles, which has helped to drive increased margins. We've seen reduced levels of discounting in the stores, and we've also seen some price increase coming through the network. All of those things have helped to increase gross margin. We've also seen reduced levels of damage across the business, particularly in our supply chain and also some gains in terms of foreign exchange rates year-on-year as well, where the regime was slightly more favorable to us. That's also generated gains. They have in part been offset by increasing trade mix in Topps Tiles typical trade customer operates on a slightly lower gross margin because of bulk volume discounts, et cetera, that we offer when compared to a retail customer. And the Topps Tiles trade mix in the year was 68% when compared to 62.8% year-on-year. So trade continuing to grow very rapidly, and we'll talk to that in more detail. So gross margin showed a material increase. We actually -- in aggregate, we were up 130 basis points to 58.9% in Topps Tiles. But then following that, all parts of the business actually grew gross margin year-on-year as well. That brings us to the adjusted gross margin when we add in the gross profit -- sales and gross profit relating to the CTD business. CTD operates on approximately a 40% gross margin, and that would have the effect of diluting overall group gross margin by about 160 basis points to bring us to the statutory gross margin we see on the page. The operating cost environment, as I've mentioned, remains challenging. We've had continued increases in National Living Wage. We've had national insurance, employer national insurance increases as well. When you add in other underlying inflation, that generated about GBP 4.6 million of extra cost to the group. Improved performance across the business as well has driven higher levels of performance-related pay. That added about GBP 2.5 million to the group's cost base. We've seen some additional investment in marketing and systems. When combined, that's about GBP 800,000. Our online pure play business, as I mentioned, continues to grow very, very rapidly, and we continue to invest in that business. So that has added additional cost into our cost base as well. And then those costs have been offset in part by slightly fewer stores trading in Topps Tiles, about 4 fewer stores trading across the year has saved us about GBP 1 million of store-related costs and about GBP 3.3 million from other areas of savings, some of which is property related, some of which is lower depreciation. We've also seen lower utility charges this year. Those sorts of areas are all helping to keep the business' cost base as efficient as possible. And CTD, I've mentioned a couple of times, has been treated below the line in FY '25 as it comes back into our core financials this year in FY '26, that will add approximately GBP 11 million of cost to the group's cost base. Turning next to adjusted net cash. The operating cash flows for the business have increased this year. We've seen GBP 15 million of cash generation, and that in itself has been supported by higher levels of profits. Working capital is actually a very modest outflow. That in itself was driven by slightly higher levels of receivables in the form of trade credit, where I'll talk to in a bit more detail, we are having a bigger push in terms of trade credit across the group. The CTD business represented GBP 5.4 million of cash outflow this year. Lots of that is one-off in nature, and I'll actually come on to the P&L impacts of CTD in a couple of slides' time. Tax paid in the year is actually relatively modest due to some statutory losses that we saw in FY '24, which in themselves were IFRS 16 related. CapEx for the year for the group was GBP 5.5 million, GBP 2.8 million of that was on a new warehouse that we've opened, and I'll talk to in more detail. Around GBP 2 million was accrued in terms of store investments. and then the remainder was on IT projects and other sort of similar kind of initiatives. Dividend outflow for the year of GBP 3.9 million. That's the final from FY '24 and the interim dividend from FY '25, all of which brings us to a net cash position of GBP 7.4 million, down GBP 1.3 million year-on-year, but still in a net cash position and still representing a robust balance sheet. So turning next then to strategy and the update on the key areas. We have a very clear strategy for the business supporting our delivery of our goal of Mission 365. And the way this schematic should be interpreted is the first 4 blocks across the page are really all about growing sales. The first 2 on the left-hand side are all about our customer offer and the products that we choose to focus on, our product specialism. And then on the right-hand side, the key customers we serve. Consumer in essence, is homeowner and trade. The key point here to note is [indiscernible] is a very, very broad church, and we'll talk about some of those different kind of trade customers as we go through the presentation. all of which is underpinned by 3 supporting pillars: environmental leadership, very important to us. Top people, top service is all about our world-class customer service credentials and then operational and digital excellence, which reflects some of the investments that we plan to make in key enablers of the strategy. On then to what we call the Road to 365. So this is our landing and our flight path to get to our goal of GBP 365 million worth of sales. We've very clearly identified 5 key areas of opportunity for us, which we believe will take us successfully to our goals. CTD since we acquired it, has been added into the B2B element of the chart here, and we actually expanded our ambition in that space off the back of the CTD acquisition. But we're 18 months on now from when we first shared this with shareholders. And as I mentioned at the start, we've delivered GBP 296 million worth of sales this year. That's a new record year for the group. We've successfully celebrated 4 years out of 5 record years across the group in the last 5 years, and we're now 40% of our way to Mission 365. So I'll talk to each of those 5 specifically on the next few slides. So in terms of category expansions, we think we feel we've made good progress in the year in terms of category expansion, but we do also recognize that there is still more to do in the space and certainly a lot more opportunity to come across the group and particularly in Topps Tiles where we're very focused here. We now feel outdoor and LVT luxury vinyl tiles actually are really part of the core operations of the group, and both are actually performing quite well across the business. They both deliver sort of material levels of volume. Other categories are now launched and they're launched in all of our Topps Tiles stores. Sales though do remain quite modest today, and it's an area where we intend to push much harder, particularly in areas like marketing to make sure customers really understand that we sell these categories and also colleague training to make sure we can do a great job of servicing our customers' needs. Sales for the year have grown by around 12%, and we do consider all of that to be incremental to the business. And as a result of our sourcing gains, actually, we've actually managed to generate a 20% increase in gross profit for the year. Turning next to Topps Tiles Trader Digital experience. Trade has been a very key area of success for the group as a whole and particularly in Topps Tiles. And within that, our digital strategy for trade has been working very, very well, we feel. We've relaunched the trade website this year. We've significantly improved the experience for traders, so much simpler registration, much clearer pricing as soon as you come on the website. And as part of the new website functionality, we've now also got things like single basket checkout, which really helps to drive the convenience even further. We launched in the year a new customer engagement platform. We launched that in the second half of the year. This represents a really significant step forward in our ability to communicate with our trade customer base, and we're starting to really push on with some of the opportunity that presents. Trade credit, I mentioned on the cash flow page, trade credit has been an area of growth and will continue to be. We've actually seen a 40% increase in trade credit in the Topps Tiles part of the business this year. It still remains relatively modest overall and it's really only as we see it for our sort of largest multi-operative trade customers, but where it's required, it is an important hygiene factor for those trade customers. And yes, we've seen a 40% increase in those sales this year, but remaining relatively modest overall. Our Trade Club has been completely rebranded and relaunched this year, which in turn supports our non-digital activities, such as Trade Nights in stores as well, still remain very, very important. Some of these sort of non-digital activities for our trade customers. We've got a trade app development well underway now. We plan for that to launch in the second half of the year. We're now in FY '26. That again, will offer significant further steps forward in terms of trade experience and our marketing capability, particularly in terms of our ability to deliver things like push notifications to our trade base. In terms of financial performance this year or financial statistics, traffic -- trade traffic actually increased 66%, which we're very, very pleased with. Trade digital sales increased by 70%, admittedly from a low base, but nevertheless, very good growth. But overall trade in Topps Tiles grew by 13.3%, which was a very significant outperformance across the whole business. And we now have 152,000 active customers. That's trade customers that have shopped with us in the last 12 months. And trade, as I mentioned, is now 69% of overall sales in Topps Tiles. So next to the B2B, business-to-business part of the group. We identified this as part of Mission 365 as a significant area of opportunity. Each of our 4 trade brands listed on the bottom of the slide here has a role to play. We see lots of opportunities in selling to larger contractors and particularly multi-operative customers. Prior to the CTD acquisition, our sales in this space were probably somewhere between GBP 10 million and GBP 15 million. That would have been the Parkside business. And also, we had a Topps Tiles contract sort of direct selling based team. Post the acquisition of CTD, this is now a GBP 40 million to GBP 45 million part of our operations. Parkside has actually performed very well in the year, they've grown sales. They've moved into profit for the first time. They've actually delivered in the region of a 5% net margin as well, which has been great to see. And we formed a partnership with Wren Kitchens as well. We've been working on that for probably a little over a year. We now supply a Topps Tiles branded curated offer to Wren Kitchens. It's available in all of their showrooms. We fulfill that through our branches, so Wren don't get involved in the physical side of the product at all. It remains relatively modest today, but we do see that as a key opportunity moving forward as well and another opportunity to grow our B2B credentials. Turning to the right-hand side of the page then with the CTD business. As I mentioned, we acquired about 15 months ago. We feel we've made some really good progress in the second half of the year. But by the same token, we're also accepting we're not where we want to be right now, and we are still working very hard and very rapidly to bring this business to where we do want it to be. So the direct selling teams, which is really across the Architectural & Designer sector and also National Housebuilder, the direct selling teams are now integrated into our core commercial operations. That part of the business is actually working very well. As I mentioned, our warehouse and IT migrations have been completed. So the business now operates on the Topps Tiles core systems, which has really helped us move forward. The CMA disposal process has been hard, and it's been quite complicated because of a number of parties that needed to be involved. But the final of the 4 stores is imminently due to be disposed of, and that will then completely end the CMA involvement in the business. And post the completion of those disposals, we will retain -- we will have retained 22 stores. Those stores are delivering like-for-like growth. They have been consistently for the last 6 to 8 months. The financials for the year is quite a tough picture. Actually, there's been quite a lot of disruption here. So the CMA process in terms of advisory costs will have cost us somewhere in the region of GBP 2 million across the year. We've had about GBP 3.2 million of one-offs. About GBP 1 million of that probably is noncash, but this has been dealing with a lot of legacy type contracts and agreements that were in place and one-off activities we needed to get completed. And that leaves about GBP 1.7 million from trading operations, much reduced over the course of the second half of the year. But as we start the year FY '26, the CTD business is still generating a modest level of trading loss, and we have a very, very clear plan supported by that like-for-like growth to get the business into profit in 2026. And the strategic vision for the business absolutely remains. So CTD gives us an offer for a large contractor customer base and also present participation in the National Housebuilder sector, which we were not involved in at all prior to this acquisition. Turning next to Pro Tiler. Pro Tiler has been a huge success story for the group since our acquisition of the business just around -- well, about 3.5 years ago now, actually. During the course of the year, we relocated them into a complete new facility. They've become very constrained in their existing facility. We moved them into a new 140,000 square feet facility just off the M1, which is actually shared with the CTD side of the business now, so both co-located under one roof. But in doing so, we effectively trebled the amount of cube available to the Pro Tiler business. And we've really seen the benefit of that coming through in the second half as sales have again stepped on to new levels and level -- rates of growth have actually accelerated over the second half as well. So we're very, very pleased with that decision and that activity in the year. The new site without question, has the capacity for us to allow us to deliver our Mission 365 target of GBP 50 million of sales for Pro Tiler, and we're rapidly moving to that level. And the business, as I mentioned, continues to expand very, very rapidly. The team is developing to feed the growth of that business and overall operations are in excellent shape. This year, we've also delivered a 9:00 p.m. cutoff for customers of Pro Tiler. Most of our competitors in all honesty, struggled to get part of the midday really. So as a professional tiler or a professional builder, you can go home and order up to 9:00 p.m. at night for next day on-site delivery, which is pretty much unrivaled amongst the competitor set. Financials, as I mentioned, very strong growth in the year. And actually, you can see the acceleration coming through. So in the first half, the business grew by 17%. In the second half of the year, it grew by 27% once we have that additional operational capacity. The business is now 3x the scale when we purchased it, delivering GBP 35 million a year. When we purchased it, they were doing GBP 12 million worth of sales. Profit is actually broadly flat year-on-year in Pro Tiler, which in itself, I actually think is a very good success story because we've taken on the additional overhead of the increased warehouse capacity. What you might normally expect is for the performance to step back a little before it steps forward, but we've actually managed to stabilize numbers across the year, which has been great. And the exit rate for the business is now very close to our target of an 8% net margin. So an excellent year for Pro Tiler as an acquisition that has created lots of value for shareholders over the last 3 years. Tile Warehouse, we've also seen very good continued progress with the Tile Warehouse business. It's now recognized actually as the fastest-growing digital tile specialist in the U.K. market, which has been excellent. The key KPIs are already coming through and delivering. So traffic is up 20% across the year. Conversion rates are up 33% across the year and ATV also delivering growth across the business. Sales for the year now GBP 3 million. So it's the smallest part of our operations, but grew by 82% year-on-year. So we're still very optimistic about where Tile Warehouse can get to over time. The business did recognize a modest level of trading loss in the year, but our projection is for the year, we've now started FY '26, this business will come into breakeven and possibly a modest profit in the second half of the year. It remains a key aspect of Mission 365. We said we think we can deliver GBP 10 million to GBP 15 million of the sales here, and we're growing very rapidly. Final slide for me then, just in summary, Mission 365, we still very much feel this is an exciting goal for the business. And when combined with our ambition of 8% to 10% net margins, this should be capable of driving meaningful shifts in our profits over time. So I'm going to pass you on to Alex now as our new Chief Executive. A very warm welcome to her in these sessions, and she will share with us her first impressions of the business and the key areas of focus. Thank you. Alexandra Jensen: Thanks, Rob. Well, it's great to meet you all today. I put a few slides together, an introduction, my first impressions and priorities for the coming year. So starting with my experience. I have an international background in multisite retail and B2B. In my last role in BP, I was Divisional CEO of Convenience and Mobility for Europe and Southern Africa across 15 markets with 9,000 service stations, 3,500 shops and a material B2B business. So I've got experience in developing and executing sustainable growth strategies, including in this retail service station business. And the 3 value drivers that drove this growth are very relevant to Topps in my view. So firstly, driving footfall by becoming a destination of choice by expanding into new categories. Secondly, driving revenue through customer loyalty and increasing personalization. And thirdly, creating stickiness through B2B contract wins and key account management. Data was central to revenue growth and cost efficiency, both of which then increased the bottom line. So another aspect of my experience I wanted to pick out is in digital and data, built over more than 15 years, including when I was Chief Marketing Officer for BP's global retail business. So one of the things my team did was to launch BP's first offer and payment platform, which enabled payment at pump, click and collect, in-app personalization, GPS and later EV charging. We launched several new loyalty programs across the world, which drove both membership numbers and lifetime value with customers on the app spending 10x as much. I've led relaunches of B2B and consumer websites, most recently at National Express to improve conversion rates and ATV. So I see a number of opportunities in Topps to accelerate digital and leverage customer and operational data to drive profitable growth. So just a bit about my background. And I joined Topps for 3 reasons. Firstly, it's got a great purpose that really resonates with me. Secondly, there's the growth potential, supported by a strong balance sheet. And I could see how my experience was relevant to this next phase of growth. And then thirdly, the culture of the organization, which I'd describe as collegial, warm, customer-focused and entrepreneurial. So that culture also attracted me. So what have I been doing since I joined 10 weeks ago? Well, I spent a lot of time in the business, as you'd expect, meeting all stakeholder groups. I met a large number of our colleagues in 9 cross-country conference roadshows, which was an absolutely wonderful opportunity to meet many people really quickly. And I followed this with working in store, visits to over a dozen tops and CTD stores, visits to our new Parkside architect and design collaboration space in London and meeting the teams at Pro Tiler. I also met with several key suppliers at Europe's largest tile exhibition in Bologna, which was absolutely fascinating, and I have to say, quite a lot of fun as well. And I've had time with shareholders, understanding where the opportunities are and listening to their thoughts and views. Further to that, I've been busy with CFO recruitment. A few weeks ago, we recruited an excellent interim CFO, Rob Swales, who will help deliver the momentum we need over the next 6 months. Until recently, Rob has been Group Commercial Finance Director at Pepco. I've also been busy recruiting a new permanent CFO, and the group was pleased to announce this week that Caroline Browne will be joining us in spring next year. Caroline is currently the Group Finance and Investor Relations Director at Watches of Switzerland. Previously, she was Group Finance Controller at NEXT and held senior finance positions at Boots. So there will be an orderly transition from Rob to Caroline next calendar year. So what about my initial observations? Well, my first impressions are positive. So let me start with the strengths I see. Topps Tiles has clear market leadership and its product authority and quality is second to none. In my view, our store colleagues are experts who know our tiles and essential ranges inside out, and they offer guidance our competitors simply can't match. I've been in store, and I've seen it for myself. But it's not just in Topps Tiles. In Parkside, we're the partner of choice for world-famous brands like Nando's, Hilton, Starbucks, Harrods and most U.K. airports. I mean it's just something that when you're outside the organization, you're not an investor, you probably just don't know. And I was astounded by that when I was doing my research into the company. This is real authority. Pro Tiler is the de facto online specialist for the professional tilers community. I mean it's a clear destination for professional tilers. And in CTD, we're already serving national housebuilders like Bellway, Miller and Blue Homes. So this expertise that we have is clearly recognized by customers. For example, this year, Topps Tiles has scored 4.97 stars across almost 50,000 Google reviews, which is really impressive. And this kind of customer feedback is replicated across the group in all our brands. And I see that as a really important cornerstone for any growth strategy. So the growth potential that drew me to Topps on the outside is confirmed on the inside by the number of opportunities the teams are getting after. And this has led to real progress in 2025 building in the second half. So moving then to the opportunities I see, and these are then folded into the priorities I have for 2026. Our first priority is to ensure CTD and Tile Warehouse are sustainably profitable in 2026. On CTD, I spent time with the team and in stores, as I mentioned, and it's a good strategic opportunity for us. It gives us access to a customer group that we couldn't access otherwise. And I'm impressed by the energy, the knowledge and the commitment of the team, not least their resilience through the CMA process. And my focus now is on realizing the opportunities to grow and continuing the momentum demonstrated in the last few months. Our second priority is to accelerate digital and unlock more value from our customer data. I'm especially excited to see the impact of our trading app to use CRM more extensively to encourage customer behavior and to continue to improve the productivity of our websites. In 2026, we'll also move our legacy systems onto a new cloud-based ERP, and this will give us better workflows, much stronger performance and the ability to scale. It also lays the foundation for a new end-to-end data and analytics platform. So there is much more to come in this space. Our third priority is to cement Topps Tiles as the destination of choice for any hard surface project, which is now an addressable market of GBP 2.1 billion. The team is hyper-focused on sales excellence, driving traffic online and footfall in store, improving conversion rates and also driving stronger basket value by selling more essentials alongside the coverings and clearly highlighting the benefits and features across our pricing ladder and the new product categories, so encouraging the trade-ups. The experience of our store teams, our trade approach and our digital plans are all critical in underpinning this third priority. So fourthly, we'll focus on delivering against our group trade strategy using our portfolio of brands in a really targeted way to win in every customer segment, commercial, housebuilding, contractor and sole trader. So our go-to-market strategy is twofold. It's about inspiring property decision-makers, whether they're commercial architects, homeowners, housebuilders, landlords, so inspiring them with our ranges and then helping the trades and DIY customers to get the job done. And the scale and breadth of the group underpin this dual approach. And finally, all of this is directed at driving sustainable profitable growth. We've made substantial progress in delivering 40% of our GBP 365 million revenue target. And with GBP 9.2 million profit in 2025, we're 12.5% of the way to our net profit goal. So as part of our annual strategy refresh in 2Q, we'll be looking to ensure each business has a clear flight path to the 8% to 10% net margin target. And building on the theme of creating a destination and the power of differentiated brands and product, this week, we announced the acquisition of the Fired Earth brand out of administration. The deal includes the brand, website and stock worth an estimated GBP 2.5 million. Fired Earth was established in 1983 and is a highly respected brand. It's renowned for its premium design credentials. It's a strong strategic fit for tops, adding a premium brand to our offer, and it expands our addressable customer base, strengthening our proposition to homeowners, housebuilders and trades, and it also accelerates our digital penetration. So this acquisition also provides strategic opportunity, both in shaping Fired Earth's future direction and in locking ways for -- further to enhance value across the Topps Group. And I'm looking forward to sharing more details of our plans later in the year. But in terms of immediate next steps, the website has remained open for browsing during administration, and we expect it to be fully transactional very soon. So moving now to current trading and outlook. Group revenue, excluding CTD, remains in growth over the first 9 weeks with sales of 3.3% year-on-year and with Topps Tiles at 2% like-for-like. Sales were moderated slightly due to weaker consumer confidence, perhaps due to people waiting to see what the budget brought, but we've got tight control of costs and delivery. The government budget measures were in line with our expectations. CTD stores are delivering consistent like-for-like growth, and we're confident of delivering a profit in CTD in full year '26. The balance sheet remains strong, as Rob mentioned. We have our GBP 30 million banking facility committed until October 2027, and we're confident of a further year of progress, both financially and strategically, and the business remains well positioned and on track to deliver Mission 365 over the medium term. So that concludes the formal part of the presentation. And I'd now like to open it up to any questions you've got for either Rob or me. And I can see we've already got some coming through. So that's great. Robert Parker: Okay. So yes, thanks, Alex. That's great. We've had 3 questions come through. Let me sort of deal with those, I think, because the first 2 are both about sales really. So the first question is about the revenue uplift potential from combining trade digital capabilities with B2B platforms. I mean I think the answer to this question, I'll refer you back to Mission 365. We've got a really clear goal for the business we've laid out where we think the opportunity is as clearly as it possibly can. We've Pro Tiler, which is obviously all digital. Tile Warehouse is all digital. We talked specifically about targets for Topps Tiles trade digital growth. So I think there is no other answer other than the one that's sort of on the page around Mission 365. And obviously, Alex will update more on that journey as we go forward from here. And then the second question is similar in a way. It's also about sales is asking about what rate can we scale covering from sort of the category extensions really, to which, again, I think the answer has to be we've laid out a really clear target for that as part of Mission 365. We said we think category extensions can be between GBP 25 million and GBP 30 million. And that was achieved by us gaining a sort of broadly a 5% target of our estimations of each of the size of those submarkets, if you like. And again, we've said this year, we're probably at about GBP 12 million of sales. I think it's a good start was the wording I used, but actually, we also recognize there is more to do. So we'll be keen to sort of push on in those areas. But GBP 25 million to GBP 30 million is the target as part of Mission 365. Alexandra Jensen: And I'd just add to that, Rob, that is one of our key focus areas. So one of our priorities is about sales excellence, and that includes making sure we are really expanding into that GBP 2.1 billion of addressable market, which is basically double what it was when it was just tiles, now that it's all hard coverings. So this is a top priority for us. Robert Parker: Yes. Thanks, Alex. There's a question -- sort of 3 pointed question really. One was about sort of things that Alex is looking at, well, I think Alex has covered that very clearly in her slides. There's a question about the average level of net debt. I assume this is referring to the year we've just started. I would refer you back to the notes we just covered on the year just gone actually. So we started the year with net cash. We did run a level of net debt during the year and ended the year with net cash. The big difference this year will be, firstly, I think we've obviously just acquired the Fired Earth business, that's a GBP 3 million cash outflow, but we'd also expect to see a significantly reduced level of cash outflow in terms of CTD, which is quite a big drag on our cash this year. We are confident in that business and move back into profit. So that should disappear completely from the cash flow. Beyond that, it will be down to the sort of underlying performance of the business really. So I'm not sure there's much else to add in terms of the net debt sort of -- and we wouldn't give forecast on any of the sort of key financial numbers for the year ahead. And then there's a couple of questions actually from different people, which if combined are about sort of the future of tiles really, there's a question about sort of structural decline in favor of paneling and there's a question about are people still buying tiles. Well, very clearly, I think people are buying tiles. The market is quite poorly researched in the U.K. Probably the best number we would look to as a sort of really quite robust measure, I think, is Barclaycard produced a monthly analysis of spend across the U.K. and Barclaycard can probably account for about 50% of all spend across the U.K. between both Barclays Merchant Services card acquiring and Barclaycard itself. And the number for the year, they then subdivide the market. And one of the key categories is home improvement and DIY spend. Their analysis would show that the market declined by 2% overall last year or across our financial year, which is why we are confident this is a market beating level of performance. Beyond that, of course, we can see changes in the tile market. Tiles are getting larger. We're clearly increasing the scale of our large tile offering. We're now talking about sort of XL, XXL and slab format. They are all markets we're very keen to pursue and make sure we're really offering the right choice for our customers over time. But clearly, tile will remain a very big part, I think, of home improvement projects in the U.K. There's a question about paneling. Well, again, we're in paneling. So paneling can mean large-format tiles, so 2.4 meter portal in panels. It can also mean shower panels or plastic and acrylics. We have those as part of our offer now. So our key is to make sure we stay very, very relevant for customers, and we've been doing that for a long time. What else have we got here? Alex, there's a question about branches. I mean, obviously, we've done some work historically in terms of the store network to make sure we felt we were broadly rightsized. Do you want to just talk to sort of your sort of thoughts in terms of branch network? Alexandra Jensen: Yes. I mean, as part of any retail business, looking at the portfolio that we have is a constant piece of work that we do with rising inflation, it's especially important. So last year's budget inflation costs are now full year in 2026, plus the 4.1% minimum wage increase in this budget. And so it's clearly something we need to look at is those stores that are at the bottom end of the tail as there always is in retail, a tail of sites. Are they still chilling the bar and contributing to the progress towards the net profit margin that we're aiming for, which is 8% plus in Topps Tiles as it is across each of our businesses. Added to which we're looking at digital penetration and how that changes the need for the physical store, that changes the economics as well. So yes, it's something we're constantly reviewing. And meanwhile, on CTD, we're looking at adding more because part of the CTD model is selling into housebuilders and then making sure the execution on the ground is supported for their contractors and subcontractors that they can actually get access to the product. So it's a constant assessment. And in 2Q, when we do our strategy refresh, it's certainly something we'll be looking at. Robert Parker: Great. Thanks, Alex. And then there's a question on Fired Earth as well. So has the purchase of Fired Earth changed the strategic direction of the business or at least back to a store portfolio model given the clear plan and success of trade sales, probably one for you, I think, Alex. Alexandra Jensen: Yes. Our strategy in -- as I talked about it, it's this dual-pronged strategy of inspiring the property decision-maker, the homeowners. And sometimes the decision is made by the trade, but quite often, it's the person occupying the space that's making the decisions about the tiles. And so it's a dual-pronged strategy of both making sure we're inspiring property decision-makers and then supporting anyone who's doing the actual job, whether that's DIY or trade in all of the essentials, trims, grout, everything they need to actually get the job done. And so the Fired Earth acquisition is absolutely in line with that because it's about a fantastic brand that really caters into the premium end of the market. And a single brand like Topps can cover so much. But I think at the very premium end of the market, it enables us to really sort of access a new customer group. And so it's absolutely in line with strategy, and I'm looking forward to sharing more details about our plans later in the year. Robert Parker: Thank you, Alex. I think that really, we've addressed, I think, all of the questions that have been asked this morning. So yes, hopefully, everyone has found that a useful session today. As I said, this will be my last session. So I am signing off. It's been a wonderful business to be part of for the last 18 years. Alex has now really got up to speed actually over the last 8 to 10 weeks. And I wish her every success taking the business forward. So Alex, over to you. Good luck with everything, and thank you very much. Alexandra Jensen: Thank you, Rob. I think we all very much appreciate your leadership over the years and wish you all the best. Thank you. Robert Parker: Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Goodbye. Operator: That's great. Well, Rob, Alex, thank you very much for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team of Topps Tiles plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.
Angelo Swartz: Good day, and thank you for joining us as we present SPAR's annual results for the financial year ended September 2025. This year was defined by deliberate focus. We concentrated on strengthening our core, simplifying our portfolio and building the foundations for future growth. We made tough decisions, navigated uncertainty and most importantly, we remain committed to our independent retailers, who, through the resilience, grow our brands in the communities they serve. I'll start with a brief overview of the year and our strategic progress. Megan and I will then take you through the operational performance across SPAR, Build it in SPAR Health, followed by the Reeza with a financial review. I'll return towards the end to discuss our strategy, our outlook and the road map we're executing against. This financial year required disciplined execution. We were operating in the context of shifting consumer behavior, margin pressure and the aftermath of legacy issues. We responded by focusing relentlessly on what we know best, distribution excellence, retailer enablement and local partnerships. You will see that the performance is modest, but the direction of travel is unmistakably positive. We serve more than 2,000 entrepreneurs across Southern Africa, Ireland and Sri Lanka. We are not a chain. We serve a network of independent entrepreneurs tied to their communities. And our role as a group is to empower them to succeed. The value of our independent retailers is that they can adapt faster, they're localize and they predict their customers. Our portfolio is balanced across premium value and emerging retail channels. That balance matters in a world where affordability and convenience are defining consumer choices. Where market are volatile, when affordability shifts and when formats change and capital cost increase, the model that survived is the model that's closest to the consumer. Across our territories, trading conditions were mixed. Inflation, consumer strain and format disruption continued. In Southern Africa, macroeconomic conditions have shown some improvement. Food inflation eased to 4.5% in September, down from 5.1% in June primarily due to lower fuel prices and greater energy stability. These positive shifts have also helped reduce logistics and distribution costs. Meanwhile, consumer behavior is evolving with a noticeable move towards value-driven purchasing and an increased preference for online grocery platforms. Ireland's macro-economic outlook remains positive, with GDP got projected at 9%. The environment is stable, characterized by low unemployment rate of 4.5% and a 25-basis point interest rate cut implemented in June 2025. Nevertheless, consumer confidence is subdued, reflecting ongoing cost of living pressures. In Sri Lanka, reform and IMF support, stabilize the macro environment with GDP improving and consumer confidence returning. This is an early-stage market with strong growth potential that requires disciplined capital and local partnership. These are not headwinds we shy away from. These are the realities we are actively responding to with new formats, digital models and private label growth. Our story in 2025 is simple. We went back to our core, distribution excellence that empowers independent retail. We simplified the group through strategic disposals. We reduced debt and remove distractions. Despite tough trading conditions, momentum across our brands improved, supported by clearer execution. We delivered growth in adjacencies, proving our ecosystem can expand without losing focus. Our partnerships with independent retailers remain our greatest asset. And everything we do is designed to help them win in their communities through disciplined cost and capital management. We strengthened the balance sheet. And this translated into strong free cash flow, reflecting the working capital improvements we put in place. This is the foundation we've taken to 2026, focused, disciplined and positioned for the future. Group turnover increased 1.6% to ZAR 132.4 billion. Operating profit improved 2.3% to nearly ZAR 2.8 billion. And importantly, cash generation strengthened materially, up 13.4% to nearly ZAR 5.5 billion. Group leverage reduced to 1.74x, a material step forward. HEPS declined reflecting higher financing costs and a higher effective tax rate. We made the decision to address impairments proactively and transparently. The group's balance sheet has been cleaned. Our nonfinancial indicators reinforce the same story. Retailer loyalty has started to recover. Digital adoption accelerated, and our commitment to job creation and social impact increased. We added jobs through our rural hub model, and we increased our CSR investment. We were pleased to have been recognized in the year, a testament to our partnerships, execution and the trust our customers place in us. The Advantage Group recognized Build it as the #1 retailer of hardware and DIY and SPAR brands as the leading private label player in the country. In Ireland, BWG Foodservice was named National Foodservice Supplier of The Year. Southern Africa turned the corner in the second half of the year. Wholesale revenue grew 2.3% year-on-year. Grocery and liquor growth was modest, but improved materially through growing 2.9% compared to the 1.1% in H1. Build it delivered a solid performance, and SPAR Health outperformed demonstrating the resilience of essential categories. Megan will unpack these a little later. Retail sales in grocery and liquor grew 2.1%, with like-for-like growth of 2.2%. Those actions were slightly down, but baskets grew 3%, showing the consumer has more intentional and value-seeking. In liquor, retail revenue increased 3.8%, and we maintained a healthy gross profit mix. This shift in category mix, particularly into low alcoholic drinks help defend volume or protecting pricing power. In omnichannel, our approach is very deliberate. SPAR and TOPS 2U is now active in 636 sites, and Uber Eats at over 300 sites. The Uber Eats each integration created immediate convenience revenue without adding complexity to store operations, and it is working. Total order volumes are up 136% year-on-year, demonstrating real consumer adoption, not promotional spikes. We also integrated SPAR Mobile fully into SPAR Rewards that has unlocked a powerful data ecosystem with 11.4 million loyal members, up 33% year-on-year. This scale gives retailers the ability to personalized offers, target baskets and defend share in plus sensitive communities. And finally, Flex continues to gain traction over 1,400 stores are actively using the platform while investing in omnichannel, these are platforms that support independent retailers and protect our market share. The dual platform strategy that we've adopted is starting to pay dividends, and e-commerce numbers are beginning to become far more meaningful. The introduction of SPAR and TOPS and Uber Eats has driven positive incremental growth without eroding the 2U business in any way. It's important that we allow the customer to choose not only the digital channel they shop in, but also to make sure that we differentiate clearly between 2U and Uber Eats. The focus on SPAR and TOPS on the 2U app will be differentiated mainly by enabling the personalization of your store. On the app, this will start with unique landing base, category callouts and larger store unique ranges, evolving and becoming shaped by you as our retailer and the nuances of your community. This really brings to life the concept of My SPAR and offers us a unique value proposition versus purely speed and price. We offer on-demand deliveries within 60 minutes, scheduled delivery as well as click-and-collect options. Uber Eats is a pure convenience play and aligns nicely with SPAR's original value proposition of convenience. With 6.5 million active users, the focus is largely on immediate demand. We're aligning the branding and design principles on the Uber Eats app with what consumers see on SPAR2U. The intention is to offer a smaller range of between 2,000 and 3,000 SKUs with delivery times between 15 and 45 minutes. SPAR Mobile, Spot rewards and Flex are not simply apps, they are digital infrastructure. They deepen engagement. They create new revenue streams and build data assets that help retailers make smarter decisions. Flex usage continues to scale as more stores take up usage to manage digital orders, stock accuracy and customer engagement. Since its launch in March '25, SPAR Mobile has reached over 700,000 subscribers and integrated with SPAR's retail system, and give mobile services to point-of-sale, loyalty apps and promotions to trigger instant discount and data rewards at checkout, managed by [ 85 ] group and powered by MTN, subscriber verification and reward fulfillment are supported by real-time reporting. To date, over 7.5 million baskets have included data-linked purchases. And the platform has continued to grow through eSIM readiness, new bundles and broader coverage. A critical part of our turnaround is format discipline. Gourmet is designed for higher frequency premium convenience shopping. It drives differentiated in-store experiences, fresh bakery, daily food to go, coffee, cafe culture. It attracts discretionary spend that is less elastic to price. SaveMor, so it's at the other end of the spectrum. It offers affordable, simplified capital-light retail with fast stock turn and strong cash generation in lower and middle income catchments. Both formats expand the addressable market and retain retailers at risk of migrating to value only competitors. Shopper attention today isn't one at the toll. It's one through railroads. Our only at SPAR offerings like Food Stall, Chikka Chicken, Fire&Grill and BeanTree create reasons to enter the store, not just reasons to pay. We've made payments seamless with digital vouchers and gift cards. Now active in the 1,300 stores, capturing spend before a shopper even walks in. Through GUESTCX, we are standardizing the in-store experience across more than 1,000 retailers. That protects the brand and converts visits into repeat behavior. Coffee continues to be a powerful footfall catalyst, whether through Vida e Caffe or our own BeanTree solution, and Frozen For You gives us premium convenience available in store and on SPAR2U meeting shoppers where they are and how they shop. Vida e And Frozen For You are 2 proudly South African brands, and we pride ourselves imparting with local quality brands and local entrepreneurs. I'll now hand over to Megan, who will take us through Pharmacy and Build it. Megan Pydigadu: Good morning, everyone, and thanks, Ange. Build it continued to grow aligned with the market with retail sales growing at 4.3% and on a like-for-like basis at 6%. The business has benefited from a strong performance at retail and the continued supply of micro loans to consumers by finance houses assisted most notably by Capitec. We ended the year with loyalty at 67.8%, slightly down from 68.4% in the prior year. Our loyalty results reflect the combined effects of retailer stock efficiencies in freeing up cash flow, intense competition in the wholesale market and cross-border ForEx complexities impacting Build it stores in neighboring countries. Subsequent to year-end, we have exited Mozambique with a retailer, who operated the brand. We will be looking at alternatives and how we reposition the brand in Mozambique as well as ensure supply into the territory. We saw the launch of Build it Rewards in September, which is a fully funded retailer customer rewards program and is based on retailers opting in. Currently, we have 87 stores signed up. We have finalized the first phase of development for the Build it 2U mobile application. The public launch will follow once we have achieved critical mass in retail store onboarding with rollout expected in the first quarter of 2026. We have also been focused on costs and profit optimization. This has resulted in us reviewing our imports warehouse, which is largely for our house brands and accounts for 7% of our revenue. This has historically been a loss leader. As a result, we have streamlined our lines and cut back from 3,700 SKUs to 1,500 SKUs. Ultimately, we are looking at more cost-effective measures to serve our retailers while still maintaining the Build it house brand, sea of Red in stores. and will be affecting changes in how we do this. Lastly, from a strategic perspective, we have reviewed our strategic model, both from a wholesaler and retailer perspective. It is key for our retailers to make sustainable margins and profits and that we grow our market share and store footprint. Historically, our business has been heavily weighted towards wet and building materials. We are now gradually repositioning retail to increase the contribution from categories 3 and 4, which is general hardware, finishes, plumbing, electrical and decorative items, which carry higher gross profit margins. This does not mean we will reduce focus on our wet trade. On the contrary, our ambition is to maintain, grow wet trade volumes while simultaneously strengthening our category 3 and 4 contributions at retail. Moving on to SPAR Health. Our SPAR Health business continued to make good progress with the wholesaler growth at 8.6% and Scriptwise, continuing to go from strength-to-strength and growing at 20%. Our loyalty was at 60% an improvement from the value where loyalty was at 55%. Key to unlocking our loyalty and growth outside of pharmacies and into the hospital networks is ensuring we have a national footprint. We have made good progress with the recent conclusion of Aptekor in the Western Cape, which will allow us to reduce our cost to serve and enable us to grow our footprint and loyalty in the region. We are on track to establish a distribution center in KZN in H2 of the 2026 calendar year and then also have a solution for the center of the country via Bloemfontein . Our business has been built on the pharmacy and script part of the business, and we have seen chronic scripts up more than 25% in our pharmacies. We are looking at the development of the front of store and how we position ourselves in the wellness space. We have big ambitions for our health business and believe we bring a differentiation to the market for independent pharmacists and customers you want to have a connection to their pharmacist. Moving on to the fun bit. Core to what we do is build brands and support independent retail. From concept to launch, we created Pet Storey within 9 months, and it's a store with a difference. The ethos of the brand is warm and fun and encouraging pet owners to bring their pets into stores. We saw a gap in the market where independent retailers don't have the power of a single brand behind them nor the purchasing power to ensure they can compete with the corporate chains. We have created Pet Storey as a franchise brand. And with the purchase of Pet masters and the launch of a few franchise stores, we have 12 stores currently operating. We have seen significant interest and take up for Pet Storey and have a very healthy pipeline, especially amongst our retailers. Thank you, and back to Ange. Angelo Swartz: Thank you for that, Meg. Ireland continues to validate the strength of the independent retailer model. This is one of our most mature portfolios, and it continues to demonstrate the strength of the independent retailer model. Turnover reached EUR 1.7 billion and wholesale revenue grew despite a competitive market. When you look at the segment and category mix, 62% of the revenue is retail, supported by strong in-store execution and high-frequency shopping. Foodservice now contributes 13% of turnover and continues to grow exceptionally strongly. On the category side, groceries are the anchor or tobacco continues to decline structurally. A trend the business is already priced into strategic decisions. The takeaway is this, Ireland is not dependent on a single lever. Its resilience comes from channel diversity, disciplined pricing and a strong network of retailers. At an operational level, the recovery in the second half was meaningful. Retail performance improved with food inflation normalizing and strong summer weather. The new SPAR strategy rolled out well and MACE refits and new stores are already delivering results. We also launched the Brevato coffee brand, which is now in 30 stores, a good example of how we're driving incremental basket value and high-margin convenience. On wholesale, performance reflects disciplined execution. Gross profit margin improved, driven by category mix and pricing discipline. Overheads were tightly managed, and we saw clear benefits from distribution and fuel efficiencies. Service levels from the depots remained exceptionally strong at 97.6%. And the Foodservice channel continues to be a standout. Hospitality lens sales increased significantly year-on-year, underpinning wholesale growth. Overall Foodservice volumes are growing ahead of the market, and we continue to invest in infrastructure and perform it to support that trajectory. In short, this is a portfolio that is performing well. investing appropriately and positioned for continued expansion. Sri Lanka has a genuine growth story. Footfall increased 15%, items sold 6% and we grew our network by 12 stores, 1 corporate and 11 independents. Currently, we have 42 stores in Sri Lanka, 13 SaveMors, 11 SPARs, 8 TOPS, 3 SPAR Express and 7 pharmacy at SPAR. Private label and SPAR2U adoption is growing and SPAR rewards launched in November. This may be a smaller portfolio today, but is one with the right fundamentals, trust, convenience and retail entrepreneurship. Reeza will now take you through the financials. Moegamat Isaacs: Thank you, Angelo, and good morning, everyone. Before I get into the numbers, just some housekeeping matters as far as the results are concerned. I've covered some of this at interim, but let me run over it again. Firstly, the realignment of the reporting periods to the retail calendar. We are now reporting on 52 weeks earnings rather than 365 days. Prior year competitors in the presentation have been adjusted. We have disposed our Swiss operation and continue to treat the U.K. as held for sale, which we have impaired to fair value. In addition, we have reassessed the carrying value of the corporate store portfolio in SA. Previously, the designated CGU was the distribution centers through which we serviced and acquired these stores. And we have changed the way we manage the portfolio and have designated the CGU to be the store. This has resulted in the impairment of around ZAR 585 million during the year, which is shown as an adjustment to headline earnings. For earnings per share and headline earnings per share, we have a few numbers. Earnings from total ops, from continuing ops and from continuing ops normalized for 52 weeks. The important number is, of course, HEPS growth from continuing operations on a 52-week comparable basis. Please bear this in mind when considering the results, the statutory results will be disclosed in the IFRS, but the focus in this presentation is on comparable 52-week results from continuing operations as this is the best indicator of underlying performance. Group cash flows are not split between that of continuing and discontinuing operations. However, I do have a separate slide showing the free cash flow from continuing operations. Just moving on to financial highlights. Some key financial highlights here. Angelo would have touched on this earlier, but it is worth repeating. A set of results reflective of the challenging and competitive trading conditions in the various geographies. In a muted top line environment, our focus has been on protecting margins, managing costs and improving cash flows and, of course, strengthening our balance sheet. Turnover from continuing operations is up 1.8% in constant currency, with 2.6% growth in the second half. There's been strong margin management in both SA and Ireland. SA is up 4.4%, with Ireland up 2.2%, both reflecting positive jaws with higher than sales growth. The SA operating profit is up 6.8%, 8.8% in the second half. This is also very encouraging. We have work to do in getting to our margin targets. And Angelo will cover this a bit later, but the trajectory is in the right direction. Our Ireland operating margin came in at 3.3%, and Ireland PBT is marginally up on last year. Working capital and cash flows were well managed during the period with CapEx also tightly controlled. Then moving on to net borrowings. Net borrowings are reduced by 40% over the year with SA gearing at 1.75x. And this is post the outflows for the exit of Poland and Switzerland as part of the sale of those businesses. Ireland gearing at 1.7x, marginally up on last year due to the U.K. EBITDA losses this year. And when considering headline earnings per share growth, which is down on last year. Please bear in mind that the interest costs and the associated tax, which I will expand on a little bit later. These impacts should dilute as we settle the SA facilities used to exit our offshore operations. And then return on capital employed at 14% for the year adjusted for impairments, above our weighted average cost of capital and up on last year, reflecting our commitment to the most efficient use of capital. Then moving on to the group income statement. Continuing operations adjusted for the retail calendar. Group turnover is 1.6% up on last year. However, this is after translation effects. And I will unpack the SA and Ireland results separately. With the second half sales coming in stronger for SA. We have seen margin expansion during the period. The group managed an increase of 1.7% or 20 basis points despite a muted top line. Net operating expenses is up 3.9%. There are a few increases and decreases in here, and the growth in expenses should also be seen in the context of other revenue and income growth, which was up 6.6%. And also the investment in transformational initiatives in South Africa, rising wage costs in Ireland, offset by lower supply chain and logistics costs. But generally, costs have been very well managed across the group. The cost disciplines at our DCs are exceptional. And as we progress through our transformation journey, we invest in additional capacity and capability at the center like we have this year. Operating profit is up 2.3%, which is marginally better than the GP margin growth of 1.7%. Net finance cost was up significantly at 19.1% due to the high interest costs on the offshore debt assumed in South Africa. And then extraordinary items are significant at almost ZAR 750 million, but related mostly to the corporate store impairments and the write-down of a piece of land that we own in the West Rand. So before moving on to the segmental analysis. I just wanted to connect the dots from the operating profit improvement of 2.3% to the HEPS decline of 8.9%. So as we alluded to, this is in the main due to interest cost growth and a high effective tax charge, both of which have grown in excess of operating profit, which gives us the negative leverage. Interest costs was up 19.1%. I mentioned that before from settling the Poland offshore debt from SA. And we expect to see less of an impact as we deleverage going forward. The same goes for the tax line. On unproductive or nonproductive interest, not a commonly understood concept, but interest incurred on payments made in cases like Poland to settle offshore debt is deemed not to be in the production of income in South Africa from a tax legislation point of view and therefore, is not tax deductible. So the impact in 2025 was to increase our effective tax rate by 4.2%, and we expect it to still have an impact on a blended group rate over the next 2 years, albeit declining as we deleverage. The Ireland corporate tax rate is, of course, 12.5% and SA is at 27%. Right. Moving on to segmental results, starting with the Southern Africa income segment. The Southern Africa segment delivered top line growth of 2.3% on a 52-week comparable basis. While GP and operating profit maintained solid momentum, up 4.4% and 6.8%, respectively. The core SPAR business saw overall modest growth, high single-digit growth in the lower end and the upper end, showing a decline, reflecting the competitive nature of this part of the market. Turnover growth in the core SPAR business was also affected by lower inflation in key categories. The loss and closure, I've mentioned this before of 13 stores in the South Rand, the Mozambique looting and also the floods in the North Rand. The second half saw a marked improvement in sales with SA up which is a significant shift from H1, still not where you want it to be. Loyalty remains stable and availability improved and on-demand again grew exponentially off a low base with very strong take-up in Uber Eats. Build it sales was muted in H2 with adverse weather, however, SPAR also saw strong growth driven by Scriptwise sales. GP margin was up 20 basis points to 9.7% despite a high proportion of drop shipment and liquor sales within our groceries and liquor business. So this is generally margin dilutive and other revenue income was up due to a higher contribution from suppliers and also value-added services. We have seen lower warehousing and distribution expenses due to the drop in the fuel price and also with a focus on efficiencies. And then central and head office costs were up due to the investment in new initiatives and transformation. We incurred incremental SAP costs this year as well as investments made in back office systems and to strengthen our digital and tech capabilities. And from a DC point of view, the KZN DC continued its turnaround going from a loss last year to a profit this year, although I have to say there's still a lot of work to be done to get the DC to normalized profit levels. So this overall performance, together with continued focus on cost discipline, assisted in a modest operating margin expansion of 10 basis points to 1.7%. Angelo will cover the road to the 3% margin, which we have done extensive work on. Then moving on to Ireland. Our consistent performance in the portfolio continues to deliver in a mature and highly competitive market with improved GP and stable operating margins as well as lower finance costs through the effect of working capital and cash flow management. So Ireland top line revenue is essentially flat on last year. But I want to highlight a few things. This is a very, very competitive convenience sector in Ireland. We also saw the loss of a few stores, including 2 Euro SPARs, which were planned for. And in the second half growth, as I mentioned before, was stronger with Easter and a longer summer with higher impulse buying from consumers. We've also seen high inflation in certain categories like cocoa, coffee and protein, which affected volumes. And then tobacco is a big but also declining category. So we saw less tobacco sales. And as I mentioned, it's a mature market with store opportunities occasionally coming up with owners, for example, wanting to retire. And we are taking a careful look at the stores and the returns they generate before we acquire them. And we declined some of them this year as they do not meet the required hurdle rates. Gross margin was up, helped by nontobacco sales and other operating costs were up, but driven by higher legislative minimum wage costs and IT investments, which resulted in a marginal decline in operating margin, but still a healthy 3.3%. And then as I mentioned before, working capital cash flows and consequently, debt has been well managed with net finance costs down 20%. This means that PBT before extraordinary items was up 1.3%, and EBITDA is down on last year due to the losses in the U.K. business. I'll show that when we get to free cash flow. And then, of course, the U.K., we present as a discontinued operation, which I will expand on a little bit later. And then moving on to discontinued operations. Just to touch on Switzerland. We consolidated this business results up to the 8th of September, which is the date on which we completed the sale. Just to run through the income statement very quickly. Sales was up -- was down 3%, reflective of the tough trading conditions, high cost of living affecting consumer confidence. We've seen cross-border shopping continue. And then the Swiss business also suffers from a lack of scale and bigger players investing in price. And then we also had the cyber incident, which we had to contend with, which was very disruptive to sales. But having said that, sales momentum did improve from the third quarter and GP actually showed an improvement of 50 basis points. And as part of the turnaround, the team focused on product mix, SKU rationalization and optimizing promotions. It really is an expensive operating environment. And despite the cost efforts of the team, our net operating expenses were up 4.3%, also impacted by new stores, which we had committed to acquiring previously, and these came online during the year. So this resulted in a decline in operating profit from CHF 11.8 million to a loss in this year. As I mentioned, EBITDA was also down substantially. And however, the third and fourth quarters did see improved momentum with the focus on the turnaround. Moving on to the U.K. And again, just touching on this very, very quickly, also classified as a discontinued operation, but a really tough year for this business. Sales down 7.6% as the sales of the -- sorry, the second half also showed a better momentum with summer, but we're still down on last year. Tough trading environment, highly price-sensitive consumers. There are also bigger players moving into the convenience space and investing in price. And of course, the impact of the single-use vape legislation, which came into effect in June affected sales in this business quite substantially, actually. And then gross margin was down 60 basis points, and this, together with the lower sales means that GP was down 9.5% for the year. Expenses was up 1%, resulting in an operating loss for the period of EUR 6.2 million. And this business made an EBITDA loss this year. Moving on to the group balance sheet. What we have shown here is the balance sheet from continuing operations for 2025 and adjusted 2024 for discontinued operations to make sense of the movements in key balances. So the balance sheet was impacted by translation, about 1% on closing rates, especially on -- obviously on the Irish numbers. Working capital is well managed. Stock was marginally up, but within plan, receivables also higher, impacted by the earlier close on the 26th of September. And then payables benefited a little bit more from the earlier cutoff. I mentioned this before, a reduced gearing was a priority for the group, and this was largely achieved, getting us down from ZAR 9.1 billion to ZAR 5 billion. And then we've also seen equity reduce substantially by ZAR 5 billion due to the impairments, which was partially offset by earnings growth during the period. In -- just to comment on -- just to cover impairments recognized during the year, obviously, significant at ZAR 5.2 billion with Switzerland, we wrote ZAR 3 billion ahead of the disposal that was processed at the half year. And in the AWG or the U.K. write-off this year was about ZAR 1.6 billion, a further ZAR 4 million in the second half to reflect the most recent estimate of carrying value. And then, of course, the SA corporate stores. So in the second half, we changed the way we define the CGU related to SA corporate stores from being part of the distribution center cash generating unit to the lowest level of CGU being the store itself. So resulting in that ZAR 585 million impairment. We move on to group borrowings. Total debt is down from ZAR 9.1 billion to ZAR 5.4 billion. I've said that a few times, but that is a significant achievement, which we're quite proud of. All covenants have been met with adequate headroom across all facilities. And as mentioned previously, the refinancing of our SA facilities was finalized at the end of March. There was good appetite for the term debt and the GBFs and at really good margins, very competitive margins. And of course, I mentioned this before, the SA leverage has reduced despite the offshore outflows, which reflects the strong cash generation ability of our business. Working capital benefited from the earlier close, and we are carrying some of the 2025 planned CapEx into 2026. In Ireland, I've covered this before as well, is well under control and has been constant, slightly up on last year, but that's mainly due to the lower EBITDA coming out of the U.K. All right. Moving on to free cash flows. So I've opted to do free cash flows a little bit differently this time, essentially because of the discontinuing -- discontinued operations and also the cash flows from SA out in respect of the offshore operations. So we start with EBITDA, CapEx, interest, tax and then look at group EBITDA is marginally down on last year, Ireland includes the U.K. wouldn't be correct to exclude the U.K. as it's from one funding pool and the cash flow is effectively treated as one. Working capital has shown a substantial inflow, obviously, benefiting from the earlier close, but also good working capital management. And then free cash flow for the period was about ZAR 2.2 billion. And then post that, we show the outflows relating to international operations for 2025, this amounted to about ZAR 2.3 billion. And that, of course, includes the transaction costs. So a significant outflow and the net use of cash in 2025 was ZAR 133 million. As mentioned, the above working capital benefited from the earlier close, and CapEx was somewhat underspent. But however, if one were to exclude the offshore outflows and adjusted for the working capital and CapEx, our net debt would still be substantially lower than what we have shown in the table, which reflects the strong cash flow generating capability of this business. And I'll leave you to make some of those calculations. No doubt we'll get some questions on that. Then moving on to CapEx. Total CapEx was lower than planned due to the phasing of spend this year. But this is expected to increase with rollovers into 2026. So we've given you a forecast of '26 and '27 and '28, but that is -- these are high-level forecasts. But we do -- and I've said this before, we do expect CapEx to settle at an annual spend of about 1% of turnover as we have guided to previously. Maintenance and SAP CapEx at more or less stable levels. We've shown you what we've spent this past year, and SAP is expected to fall away after 2028. So in -- so on closing, we have a number of moving parts in these numbers on both the income statement and the balance sheet. And I'll admit that it is a bit noisy, not easy to unpack, but hopefully, we've done a decent job in cutting through the noise. But this is also a function of the year that we've had with disposals, discontinued operations and also impairments. So with the exception of the U.K., which we continue to hold as discontinued op, we would have done most of what I call a cleanup in 2025. And next year, both the balance sheet and the income statement should be easier to digest. So -- but we are fundamentally a different group than we were a year ago. And just in closing, just reflecting on the reporting period, I think we've made significant progress, especially from a finance perspective. So firstly, the sale of Poland and Switzerland has resulted in a simply much simplified group. These business did not fit the investment thesis of the group and will drag on not just capital and returns, but also management time. And we will focus available capital and our time on South Africa and Ireland going forward. These offshore businesses also came with not just getting exposure to the SA business, but also parental guarantees, bank guarantees, legal, regulatory exposures and, of course, reputational risk. In the case of Switzerland, this manifested itself in the form of the COMCO fine, which we settled as part of the sale. Just in terms of the refinancing of the SA facilities, Angelo also touched on this, but -- and the reduction of the SA debt levels. Again, I just want to remind you this is despite the significant outflows this year relating to the international operations and the sale. Then we've also proactively cleaned up the balance sheet, and we have taken ZAR 5.2 billion worth of impairments this year, including the write-off of goodwill and the lease assets related to the SA corporate store portfolio. The balance sheet is now a better reflection of the underlying values of assets and also the capital structure of the business now and going forward. I think working capital disciplines have always been strong in this business, but the position continues to improve and the disciplines continue to improve. We have a capital allocation framework, and this is also being embedded within the business. And then on the 3%, this is very important to the investors. We have done extensive work on the pathway to 3% operating margins in South Africa, both in terms of identifying initiatives, setting KPIs as well as realistic time lines for achievement. This is in terms of growth initiatives, margin improvements as well as costs and efficiencies. Stretch targets will be set internally and additional opportunities identified which will give us the best chance to get to the 3%. And hopefully, we exceeded by 2028. Performance will be tracked and executive scorecards will be aligned. And I believe this is eminently achievable, and our aim is to underpromise and overdeliver here. And then just finally, we have previously committed to dividends and/or returns to shareholders in the form of share buybacks over the short to medium term. And we fundamentally believe that our share is undervalued and investing in our own shares in the short term might be the best way to create value for shareholders in the interim before we commit to a longer-term dividend policy. Thank you very much, everyone. I'll close here, and I will now hand you back to Angelo. Angelo Swartz: Thank you, Reeza. Our foundation is solid, a resilient network of independent retailers, trusted brands and teams committed to disciplined execution. We have clear strategic goals, grow the retailer base and retailer loyalty. Loyalty is not a marketing metric. It is a mechanism for stability, purchasing power and network resilience. Expand adjacencies that naturally complement our core. Health care, pharmacies Scriptwise, Pet Storey, these are EBITDA positive, defensible growth nodes, not distractions. Rebuild the balance sheet and predict capital. We remove complexity, we exited noncore geographies. We reduced debt and we reset expectations internally and externally, deliver Southern Africa operating profit of 3% not through pricing increases alone, but through supply chain efficiency, set normalization, centralizing procurement, loss reduction in our corporate stores and monetizing digital media. We are focused on sustainable measure are growth through solid operational execution. This slide is important because it demonstrates the path to a 3% operating margin in Southern Africa. We've analyzed every lever in the value chain, supply chain, distribution, retail operations, procurement and margin expansion and assigned measurable actions with time lines. The 2025 base of 1.76% is our starting point. The target is clear, 3.35% for grocery and liquor by 2028 and 3% for the Southern African segment. Incremental growth before efficiencies and centralization. We stabilized our base and grow where we already compete. This is delivered through KZN business stabilization, supply chain enhancements to improve efficiency and reduce out of stocks. Importantly, this growth is organic, not dependent on acquisitions or pricing actions that erode competitiveness. The next meaningful driver comes from improving nonproduct flows through the business. We're optimizing nontrade procurement, reducing corporate store losses and streamlining accounts payable and the drop shipment process. These actions hit the cost base directly and free up working capital. They are measurable and already in execution. Centralization and efficiency. This is where scale economics becomes meaningful, normalizing SAP costs. unlocking the benefits from CSNX and running standardized processes across regions will deliver structural savings. We're also implementing enterprise cost discipline, group and head office efficiencies that reduce fragmentation and duplication. This is a cultural shift. Every rand must work order. GP expansion and other income. The margin opportunity is not only cost. Top line profitability matters. Centralized merchandise ensures we negotiate once at scale, across categories, value-added services and private label are increasing material contributors. These are asset-light revenue pools that enhance our return on capital. These levers deepen retail and loyalty and create new monetization avenues without inflating consumer prices. Cumulative impact is a disciplined client to 3.35% in grocery and liquor and aligned with our ambition of 3% for the Southern African business. We are not relying on one silver bullet. It is a portfolio of improvements, each accountable, sequenced and owned by specific leaders in the business. This is how we protect and expand the earnings base and how we deliver long-term value creation for shareholders. Loyalty in our world is not a marketing metric, it is a way of life. It protects revenue certainty, stabilizes input pricing, aligns retailer behaviors to the network, attractive procurement rebates, private label and digital ecosystems on the mechanisms we are utilizing to grow and maintain loyalty rates. These are structural mechanisms that improve retailer profitability and shopper stickiness. We have learned painful lessons on systems transformation. We've completely reset our approach. The next phase of our ERP rollout is harmonization across finance. Warehouse transformation will follow phased sequent deployment, beginning with the Eastern Cape and concluding across all DCs by the first quarter of FY '28. We are not chasing speed. We're prioritizing stability and accuracy. Technology is no longer a cost center. It is a multiplier of retailer profitability, stock accuracy, logistics efficiency and working capital discipline. The next year is about execution, not reinvention. We will strengthen omnichannel integration, grow private label, support retail economics and unlock procurement efficiency. We will scale SPAR Mobile and monetize digital reward ecosystems. We'll complete the integration of health assets and scale our adjacent categories. Our strengthened balance sheet gives us optionality as we stabilize margin and. ' earnings, we will return value to shareholders in a disciplined manner, not at the expense of long-term resilience. Governance has improved immeasurably, accountability has sharpened and leadership teams across the group are aligned. Thank you for your time today and your continued confidence in the SPAR Group Limited. We welcome your questions and feedback. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Angelo, Reeza and Megan for that. Now we jump straight into Q&A. Reeza, we noticed we didn't see any EBITDA numbers. Can you maybe give us an overview of EBITDA for the 2025 year? Moegamat Isaacs: Thank you. Thank you, Zihle. The total group EBITDA was about ZAR 3 billion. And in terms of continuing operations, SA was ZAR 1.8 billion, ZAR 1.78 billion and Ireland delivered EUR 62 million of EBITDA. Ireland includes the EBITDA losses from AWG though. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. Another one for you. Can you clarify the sequence of capital allocation? Is the first step likely to be buybacks, dividends or combination? And what determines that order? Angelo Swartz: Look, we have hinted at returns to shareholders over the short to medium term. I think our gearing position and the improvement in our gearing positions demonstrate that we can actually achieve that. Currently, our share price, we believe, is substantially undervalued. I mean, the usual sequence of things would be to recommence dividends once you'd been -- especially if you've been a dividend paying share, however, in our case, the buying back of shares might be the best way to create value for shareholders before we commit to a dividend policy over the long term. Zihle Nonganga: Well done on the debt reduction, can you provide some color on post-period trade in SA and BWG? Angelo, I'll give that to you. And a follow-up question is what inflation are you seeing? Angelo Swartz: Thanks, Zihle. We've had fairly positive post-period trade. October was weaker than we'd like, but November has been exceptionally strong. The weaker October, I think, really reflects a very, very strong September. And so over the 3 months, positive, broadly in line, probably slightly ahead of H2. The second question for BWG. BWG has also been broadly in line with the second half, slightly weaker, but broadly in line. And then for inflation, we've seen in South Africa, in particular, we've seen lower inflation in the last few months. So the inflation number is, I think, 3.5%, for the year. But we have seen weaker regulation substantially below that in the months of September and October. Zihle Nonganga: In SPAR SA, what are the upward pressures on costs that we could potentially see in FY '26? Moegamat Isaacs: From a cost perspective, we are obviously investing in initiatives to as we transform the business, our SAP operating expenses does ramp up at peaks in 2026. But we are busy with a number of efficiency initiatives. Obviously, we're very focused on getting to the 3% operating margin. And I think to -- I mean that spans a range of activities as Angelo expanded on in the presentation itself, and that encompasses growth, cost reduction and operational efficiencies in business. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Reeza. How much of the net debt improvement were aided by working capital cut off support? Without the cut-off support, could you tell us how much net debt would have been? Moegamat Isaacs: Yes. I think the -- in the free cash flow table that I've shared with you, the working capital position does improve quite substantially. And I would say that the improvement due to the earlier cutoff was probably about ZAR 800 million to ZAR 1 billion. However, I think you've got to also bear in mind that from -- that the cash flow that we've shared with you, ZAR 2.3 billion of nonoperating cash flows actually left the business with the disposal of Poland and Switzerland. So I think you've got to look at those 2 in conjunction when looking at the net gearing position at the end of the day. And as I said in the presentation, I'll leave that to you to make your calculations, but it does show that we are a strong cash-generating business. Zihle Nonganga: Could you unpack what happened with the SA margin? What led to the margins in SA ending at 1.7% versus the previously guided 2.1% to 2.3% range? I'll give that to you, Ang. Angelo Swartz: Yes, I think partly the business is seasonal. There's a little bit of seasonality in the business and second half is generally softer than the first half. So we come out of the first half at 2.1%, just under 2.1%. In the second half, it was impacted slightly by 3 [indiscernible] titles. So ECL provisions increased. We had 2 large groups and a Build it store that impacted that number. And the second was KZN, while still profit-making was weaker in the second half than in the first. And those are probably the 2 major factors. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Still on the SA margin, with the 3% being pushed out to FY '28, what is the expected glide path from the current 1.7%? Are we talking 2% in '26; 2.5% in '27, et cetera? Angelo Swartz: I think that's a fairly good way of looking at it from a glide path point of view. Having said that, there will be a higher level of spend on SAP implementation as we go through '26 and '27, and that will impact that glide path slightly. I'd estimate that to be around 15 bps or so every -- in the 2 years, but those are nonrecurring costs once the distribution centers have been brought online. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. Could you please explain the reason behind the difference in revenue and gross profit between the presentation slides and the income statement in the apps? Reeza, I'll give that to you. Moegamat Isaacs: Yes. The apps obviously prepared on the statutory basis and the results are prepared on the comparable 52-week basis. So yes, last year ended on the 30th of September, this year on the 26th of September. But from a statutory perspective, we don't make that adjustment. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. SPAR held back on paying a dividend, and I know group scrapped them at interim stage in 2023 because of the challenges it was grappling with. With more than ZAR 5 billion in impairments in the second half related to Switzerland, U.K. and some corporate stores in SA, is the worst over now for SPAR? And when does the group see themselves paying dividend again? The impairments hurt HEPS from total operations, but with these out of the picture now, does the outlook look more positive, Reeza? Moegamat Isaacs: I think from a balance sheet point of view, we have done a significant reset in terms of the impairments process this year. I think the -- and that was from the investments that we carried in respect of Switzerland and AWG as well as the store impairments in South Africa. I think we've done quite a thorough exercise in respect of that. And I don't -- barring obviously any significant deviation from our glide path, I don't see any significant impairments going forward. Zihle Nonganga: And maybe just to expand a little bit on the impairment impact on HEPS, Reeza for the gentleman who asked? Moegamat Isaacs: Impairments are excluded from HEPS. So it's an adjustment to HEPS. So it's effectively added back. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Reeza. How many corporate stores in South Africa currently? And what was the growth? And finally, are you still looking on selling these corporate stores, Ang? Angelo Swartz: Yes. So just over 50 corporate stores in SA, including Build its or 3 Build its now. We are still planning on exiting those. At this stage, we have planned closures of 4 stores in the next year. And I think in some ways, the impairments of the corporate stores allow us to move a lot more swiftly in that space. And so the plan is to try to accelerate as far as possible. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Meg, I'll give this one to you. What percentage of SPAR South African retail sales is online delivery? And how do delivery fees work for SPAR2U and Uber Eats, respectively? Megan Pydigadu: Thanks, Zihle. So we haven't disclosed the percentage, but what I will say is this past year, we've seen growth of 136%. And post year-end, we've actually seen an acceleration of that growth, which has been good and shows that our partnership with Uber Eats and SPAR2U is working well. In terms of delivery fees, so from a SPAR2U perspective, we charge on a very similar basis as our competitors do, and it's based on price. And then on Uber Eats, there is a markup in the price that's sold through and no delivery fee. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Meg. Two questions for you, Reeza. What sort of drop in net finance costs should we expect in FY '26? And do you expect tax rate -- the tax rate to normalize to 27% in FY '26? Moegamat Isaacs: I'll start with the second one first. So on the tax rate, we've actually provided a table where there is reconciled EPS growth to operating profit growth. And in there, we've indicated that the effective blended tax rate actually drops over the next 2 years. So Ireland, obviously 12.5%, South Africa at 27% statutory rate. So the blended rate is actually disclosed in that particular table. And then with regard to finance costs, we expect for next year to remain more or less at the same level as it was this year. Our absolute debt from a gearing point of view, not a gearing ratio point of view, gearing ratio comes down, but absolute level of debt does more or less remain the same because of the outflows, especially the Switzerland outflow towards the end of the year. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. Ang, I'll give this one to you. How is the sales process of AWG going? Given the losses, will you need to pay the buyer to exit this business? Angelo Swartz: Yes, the process has been slower than we'd like, although we started to make progress in the last week or 2 again. And so we expect to conclude that process sometime early in the new year. At this stage, the initial price is something that remains open and probably the biggest bone of contention from a pricing perspective, we do not expect to pay in. We expect to be slightly positive, although we have impaired the business down to 0. We think there's some value in the business. And so no, I don't think we'd be paying in. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. What cash flows still need to occur relating to the Switzerland sale? Angelo Swartz: None. Zihle Nonganga: Zero. Short and simple. Angelo Swartz: The exception of the potential turnout at the end of 2 years. All cash flows have exited in South Africa. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. How far is the KZN DC from normal profitability halfway or more? Angelo Swartz: Less than halfway. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. Sorry, a couple of repeat questions trying to go through them. Can you expand or explain the comment of SAP falling away in 2028? Angelo Swartz: We expect to complete the rollout of SAP in the first quarter of 2028. So when I say SAP falling away, it refers to the implementation costs that will be nonrecurring costs beyond quarter 1, '28. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Can we double back on the working capital cycle going forward? Given you do not have Poland and Switzerland in the base anymore and you've changed to a retail reporting cycle, how are you anticipating the inventory, accounts payable and accounts receivable days will change in the coming years? Moegamat Isaacs: I think from an overall point of view, you can -- I mean, there was obviously a bit of a reset this year with the cutoff being earlier. That continues for the next few years. And I think the assumption is that the working capital cycle is neutral effectively for the next few years. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Reeza. Can you please clarify when the 3% margin will be achieved in SA? Is it 2028 or 2030? Angelo Swartz: 2028. Zihle Nonganga: 2028. Thanks, Ang. Another question about finance costs. Thank you for the road map to 3%. What are the like-for-like assumptions in that margin waterfall? If we assume a sub-3% like-for-like, is 3% margin still achievable? Angelo Swartz: We've based the bridge on the assumption that we grow the business roughly at inflation or slightly ahead. The majority of our assumptions are controllables and particularly on the cost and margin lines as opposed to the sales line. And so our focus is really to focus on the things we can control. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Megan, this one is for you around Pet Storey. I remember the launch of Pet Storey, it was said that you are targeting 25 to 30 Pet Storeys by the end of this year with a plan to have a minimum of 100 stores by the end of next year. Can you please just tell us a little bit more about that given that the expansion seems to have been drastically slowed down? Megan Pydigadu: I don't think it's been drastically slowed down. I think if you look at the fact that within 9 months, we brought the concept to market, we've already got 12 stores. We've got another 3 stores launching this week. So we should finish up at about 15 stores for December. And then we have a significant interest in Pet Storey from our retailers. And so there's a very healthy pipeline. So it's really a matter of us keeping up with demand and rolling out the stores in the new year. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Meg. Okay. Please talk us through EC contribution to SA volumes and value, which DCs follow thereafter? Angelo Swartz: Eastern Cape is the second smallest DC. It contributes about 10% to the SPAR SA volume. Thereafter, the plan is to go to the low [indiscernible] towards the end of next year, and then we'll go into the 3 bigger divisions that are left over in '27. And so that will be North Rand and South Rand because of how they're located, they are all quite close to each other in Western Cape. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. What are your thoughts on Walmart launching in South Africa? How is SPAR planning to support retailers? Should traction be attained in the everyday low pricing model that Walmart plans to leverage? Angelo Swartz: That's a very difficult question to answer. It remains to be seen how South African shoppers adapt to the everyday low price model. One would assume then that should that happen and that consumers migrate towards an everyday low price model that the cost of promotion reduces. And so one would -- we would be -- if that becomes a preferred method for the South African shopper, which I think is unlikely, but possible, we would have to adapt our model, reduce the percentage of promotional goods that we sell and even out the margin rather than do the high low as we do in South Africa. I think a lot of focus will have to be as Walmart does in all the other operations, is reducing the cost of getting goods to store and reducing the cost of the sale of running stores to support the lower -- the EDLP model. And so all of those things, I think, particularly the ones related to cost are things that we're already working on quite hard. As you can imagine, reducing cost is a focus area for us regardless of what competition is out in the market. And so the model from a promotion point of view will be customer led, I think. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Should we regard the increase in working capital as structural? Or should we expect some reversal of the payables related inflow for FY '26? I've got a follow-up question, Reeza, but I'll let you answer that again. Moegamat Isaacs: I think I've answered that previously. I think there was a bit of a reset in '25. And I think you can assume a neutral working capital cycle going forward for the next few years. Zihle Nonganga: What would need to happen for you to consider a reinstatement of dividend for FY '26? Moegamat Isaacs: I think the -- look, from a margin perspective, obviously, we are working towards the 3%. We still have some lumpy SAP costs coming through from a cash flow point of view. We've got CapEx that we're carrying over from '25 into 2026. But we are highly cash generative, and we are reducing our gearing. I think the -- and that's why we're saying we would probably consider share buyback in the short term before committing to a longer-term dividend policy. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. SA loyalty, retail loyalty has declined by circa 60 bps. Could you please elaborate on the change and where you expect it to get to over the medium term? Angelo Swartz: Yes. I think over the full year, the 60 bps is true. But H2 was significantly stronger than H1. And what we saw was a growth of 1% in royalty in H2, which we are obviously quite happy about. Some of that is related to seasonality and with Easter falling into H2. But by and large, I think we have started to turn loyalty around now. And I think we continue to see loyalty trend upward. I'd say in the short term, that we continue in the range of 79% with the aim of getting to 80% in the next 12 to 18 months or so. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Another one for you. Any specifics you can point out on Black Friday trade? Angelo Swartz: Black Friday trade was exceptionally strong. We were quite aggressive as a group. We had a fairly early break in Black Friday. So we broke with our first Black Friday deals in the second week of November. And I think our team did an exceptional job in terms of both communicating that promotion and then also delivering on prices that got consumers excited. And so we had an exceptionally strong first Black Friday or what we call, Black Friday 1, which was the second week of November. We followed that up with a second strong promotion in the last week of November. And so over the course of those days, Black Friday was exceptionally strong, 6 days, really 3 on Black Friday 1, 3 on Black Friday 2. In both instances, on average, we saw retail turnover up over those days above 30% and in some stores, double that, but really exceptionally strong Black Friday, much stronger in food than on liquor this year. Having said that, we come off a fairly strong base with liquor being very strong last year. So very pleased with Black Friday. And it's -- our team executed pretty well on that. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. For you, Reeza, I assume your 52-week on 52-week segmentals exclude impairments. But what about the movement in the ECL provisions? Moegamat Isaacs: The movement in the ECL would be included in the 52-week -- the ECL -- I mean, the way we looked at debtors costs, it's ECL write-offs and changes in provision. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. A couple of questions on what topline do you think you need in order to maintain the glide path to your margin targets? Angelo Swartz: I think I've mentioned that before. We're looking at inflation -- between inflation and inflation plus. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. Are we going to see any future developments in the SPAR Rewards program similar to other large retailers in SA? Angelo Swartz: Meg, do you want to take that? Megan Pydigadu: Okay. Sure. I think this is definitely something that we are looking at. And we're looking at how we can use behavioral economics really to drive loyalty and change behavior. So definitely something on the horizon. Zihle Nonganga: Reeza, just I think you need to reiterate. Can you quantify SAP costs in '25 and '26 until the final rollout? Moegamat Isaacs: I think the -- look, as I said, 2026 SAP costs peak, both from a CapEx perspective and an operating cost perspective. I don't think we -- I mean, what I can say is that the delta on operating expenses is about ZAR 150 million for 2026 on 2025. And then I think the delta on CapEx is a bit more than it actually is. It's about ZAR 200 million for 2026 on 2025. Angelo Swartz: I would add one thing, though. Just of course, we are going to start seeing elevated depreciation costs as the asset gets depreciated in the year ahead. So the ZAR 150 million relates to SAP implementation costs. And then we do see slightly elevated depreciation costs on our IT assets. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you both. Good morning, everyone. The figures on Slide 30 concerning Switzerland are the figures for 2024 per end of September 2024 and the 2025 figures per September 8, 2025? Moegamat Isaacs: That's correct. We've consolidated it effectively until... Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. Referring to Note 33, you've acquired a further 2 retail stores in H2 and run rate losses in the 6 acquired stores during FY '25 is ZAR 61 million. What is the rationale for acquiring heavily loss-making stores when your stated strategy is to exit company-owned stores? Angelo Swartz: The 2 stores in H2 were one Build it store related to the bad debt issue. Thankfully, that store on its own is profit-making, and we plan to spin that off. I think the sale and purchase of corporate stores in the broader SPAR ecosystem is normal part of our day-to-day operations. Ideally, we want to warehouse those stores and sell them on as quickly as possible. For the 6 stores for the year, something that we want to be clear on is that generally we apply the view of the value chain. And so when we -- what we disclosed in the financial statements is the stand-alone profit outlook for those stores as required by IAS and IFRS, but they do not take the value chain into account. So we do look at the total value chain for us, how much we make on the wholesale end versus how much we lose on the retail end. But this doesn't mean any deviation from our strategy to dispose of loss-making corporate stores. We remain focused on doing that. And those stores would certainly be on that list. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Another question on KZN profitability. How much did the KZN DC profitability improve by? It was at a ZAR 300 million loss last year, and it's now profitable. Can you confirm the level of profitability -- can you confirm, sorry, what the level of profitability is versus a normalized level? Angelo Swartz: It's a bit noisy because we changed the accounting policies internally. I prefer we haven't disclosed that separately. But it was a material increase on last year. Zihle Nonganga: Last question on the platform. Was there a more tax-efficient way to have done the Polish refinance perhaps through Ireland? Moegamat Isaacs: I think -- yes, I don't think there is a more tax-efficient way to do it. I mean the funds flow from South Africa in respect of those entities. And unfortunately, those -- the interest on that funding is deemed to be nonproductive. So I don't think there was any other alternative to actually do that. Zihle Nonganga: And we have come to the end of the questions. No more questions on the platform. So Ang, I'll ask you to close this out. Angelo Swartz: Thank you, Zihle, and thank you to the investment community and shareholders who've taken their time to go through our results with us today. We thank you for your ongoing interest. We thank our shareholders for the patience in terms of capital returns and the return of dividends. As stated, it's a priority for us to consider some form of return to shareholders in the short to medium term. And so I just want to thank our shareholders and investors for that. Just from me, I think 2026 has been -- or 2025 has been a very important year in SPAR's history. We've managed to execute on a number of our key priorities. First, to exit Poland and complete that exit. I think just to take shareholders back, that business was one that was losing us ZAR 0.5 billion a year, and we were funding it by ZAR 0.75 billion a year. And so the exit of that business and the closure of that chapter in our history is one that was achieved this year and something that we are very proud of. Secondly, Switzerland and the closing of that Swiss deal is swiftly as we have as the market will recall, we announced our intention to dispose of that business towards the end of May, early June this year. And we've managed to conclude that transaction and exit that business by the end of August. What that has meant from a business perspective in terms of our debt has been significant. Last -- the next priority that we achieved this year, which I think we should be exceptionally proud of is the reduction in our gearing and the dropping of net debt by 40% and the levels of headroom we've created in the business, I think is something we're exceptionally proud of. We've been -- we've managed to navigate all of these things without a capital raise. And that was a question that was asked of us for some time with how confident we were about being able to do that and I think we've now demonstrated that the business is cash generative and that there was no need for a capital raise. So as hard as it was to go through, I'm exceptionally proud that we've been able to achieve that, both for our shareholders without diluting them and then for the business itself. I think our 2 big continuing operation businesses, Ireland and South Africa, both have something to be proud of. And the Irish business continues to deliver above 3% operating profit in a very difficult Irish environment and very competitive Irish environment, particularly with the multiples, looking for growth and coming after the convenience channel, which is one where we remain the market leader. And in that convenience channel that the business has done exceptionally well. John and his team in Ireland, well done for a really excellent year. We look forward to '26 and a new chapter in Ireland, some exciting initiatives happening there. Within the Southern African business, we've managed to grow our hardware business and pharmacy business and to make Jeremy [indiscernible] and the teams in pharmacy at SPAR and Build it, really well done from -- in both those environments operating above market and gaining share. In the Southern African grocery and liquor business, a softer year in the first 6 months in particularly quite soft, although we've gained momentum in the second 6 months. I'm really proud of growing loyalty in the second 6 months, and we want to see that continuing. And to deliver across the Southern African business, 7% growth or 6.8% growth in operating profit is something that we're very proud of. And just thank you to the Southern African business and their teams, Reeza and your team for delivering a set of financial statements as noisy as they were with discontinuing operations, changes in reporting periods, et cetera, really to your team well done, to our teams in all our businesses. I missed one, which is the starting of Pet Storey, a new chapter in the life of SPAR, something very exciting. I'm actually going to a launch of a Pet Storey on Thursday after the Hillcrest, which is going to be exciting. So to Robin and [indiscernible] and the Pet Storey team, just well done, and welcome to the SPAR family. I have no doubt we're going to grow that business very rapidly. And then to all our teams in SPAR Southern Africa, I know it's been a hard year. I've been very proud of the efforts that our teams have made and on executing on our priorities. I'm very, very proud of what our teams have produced. And then to end off, I think we're very clear on what our strategy is and our strategy is focused on our retailers and those are the last people I want to thank. Our retailers have remained loyal to the SPAR brand. They are right behind us and encouraging us to do better. And for them, I think, just to all of our retailers across all brands, both in Southern Africa, Build it, pharmacy, our new retailers in Pet Storey and our various retailers in the Irish business and Sri Lankan business. We're excited about '26, and we think we can make some really great progress. It's going to be another defining year for SPAR where now that we've cleaned the balance sheet and we are able to focus on operational execution, the execution and delivery of SAP into the next 2 distribution centers is something that's very important for this year. And so it's going to be another transformational year. I look forward to '26. And I look forward to our investors and engaging with you over the next few days. Thank you very much, and thank you, Zihle, for putting these -- the road show together and for the results announcement today. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a good break. I'm sure you all deserve it.
Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Topps Tiles Plc Results Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself, however the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO, Rob Parker. Good morning, sir. Robert Parker: Thank you. Thanks very much. Yes. Good morning, everyone. A very warm welcome to the Topps Group 2025 results. As you just heard, I'm Rob Parker, current Chief Executive. I'm very pleased to be here today for what will be my last set of results with the company. So also joining me today, I'm delighted to say is our new Chief Executive, Alex Jensen. And the plan for the session is I will run through the overview for the group. I'll talk to the FY '25 financials. I'll also address strategic progress during the course of the year. And then I'll hand on to Alex as our new CEO, to share her initial thoughts on the business and also her priority areas for the year ahead. So turn on to the highlights for the year. Firstly, we have a really clear strategic goal for the business, which we call Mission 365, and that's about getting to GBP 365 million worth of sales in a single financial year with a very clear profit underpin of a minimum of 8% and a range of 8% to 10% net margin, we believe we can deliver across each of those sales. We're making really strong progress towards our goal. And actually, after about 18 months since we launched this goal, we're now 40% of the way towards the sales part of the target. And our goal is underpinned by 5 very clear areas of growth, and I'll talk to each of those in turn as we go through the presentation. The CTD business we acquired about 15 months ago has been a major part of our focus in the year just gone. So we've been dealing with the repercussions of the CMA investigation into that acquisition. One of the outcomes from the CMA, the primary outcome was we needed to dispose of 4 of the stores that we acquired. Three of those disposals are now completed and the final fourth disposal is imminent, and we expect to go really sort of day by day, but it should be gone before the end of this quarter, and that will then bring to a close any sort of CMA involvement in that process. That will leave us with 22 stores trading under the CTD brand. The operations are now fully integrated. So the IT systems are all now being run off of core Topps Group systems, and it operates under our core -- one of our core logistics facilities as well a warehouse down in Northampton. We've got really clear plans for the business to move it into profit in the year. We've now started FY '26. And the strategic rationale for CTD absolutely remains as clear as it was when we purchased the business 15 months ago, and I'll talk to that as we go through the slides a little bit more. Across the group, 75% of our sales are now trade weighted. Trade also forms a vital link back into particularly Topps Tiles for the homeowner for us. Many of our homeowners now prefer to shop through their chosen fitter. So a very important link for the business. Digital has been a key area of focus for us, and our digital credentials continue to strengthen. Digital penetration across the group is now just over 21% of our sales, so are transacted through digital platforms of some description, and that is up from 18.5% just a year ago. We've also -- this week, actually, as part of our results week, we've announced the appointment of a new CFO for the group. That person is Caroline Browne, who will join us somewhere around spring of next year following serving of a notice period. And we also very recently acquired the Fired Earth brand, intellectual property and stock. Alex will provide more detail on both the CFO appointment and the Fired Earth acquisition as part of our update. So turning to the right-hand side of the page with the group financials, a very strong year of progress, we feel, particularly in the second half where we saw a number of the key financial metrics really step on, and we delivered certainly very strong sales growth over the second half of the year and profit growth on that basis. Gross margin has also seen really good progress this year. Again, second half stronger than the first half, but overall gross margin for the group is up by around 50 basis points year-on-year. Adjusted pretax profit on that basis has come in at the top end of the range of analyst expectations. It came in at GBP 9.2 million, which in itself is a 46% increase for the group year-on-year. Adjusted earnings per share growth was similar, very slightly less because of slightly changed tax rates year-on-year, but that's allowed us to pay a dividend or recommend the dividend to shareholders, which represents a 21% increase year-on-year and is equivalent to about 85% of our adjusted earnings per share being remitted back to shareholders. Our balance sheet also remains robust. I'm very pleased to say we've maintained a net cash position year-on-year. So GBP 7.4 million of net cash at the year-end, very slightly down on where it was a year ago, but remains in a net cash position. And we've also got behind that a GBP 30 million revolving credit facility with our primary lenders. So turning then on to the highlights of the -- so the adjusted measures of the income statement in a little bit more detail. So sales on an adjusted basis, so that's excluding the CTD business, actually grew by 6.8% year-on-year to GBP 265 million. And then when combined with the gross margin improvement I mentioned, which on an adjusted basis grew to 53.8%, that actually generates an additional GBP 10.2 million worth of gross profit. Operating costs remain -- does remain absolutely a key area of focus. The regulatory environment particularly remains very challenging here. I'll talk to that in a little bit more detail on the next slide. But operating costs in total grew GBP 5.7 million or 4.7% year-on-year. And the interest charge for the business includes IFRS 16 charges. Actual bank interest paid was about GBP 900,000 for the year, GBP 0.9 million, which in itself was up GBP 0.9 million year-on-year and does reflect the fact we did carry a level of net debt across the year. And all of that then combined into the number I mentioned on the previous page, the adjusted pretax profit of GBP 9.2 million, a 46% increase year-on-year for the group. So turning then to some performance bridge charts, and we've set out here the changes year-on-year across revenue, gross margin and adjusted operating costs being sort of key 3 areas of the income statement. So sales by brand on the top left-hand corner of the page, every single part of our business grew their sales year-on-year, which is something we were very, very pleased with. So Topps Tiles in aggregate grew by 3.9% to GBP 218.6 million. Parkside grew by almost 12% to GBP 8.5 million of the sales and what we call online pure play, which is our tile warehouse business and also Pro Tiler Tools combined grew by 25.6% to just over GBP 38 million. That's the sales on the adjusted basis. And then when we add in the CTD business, that delivered sales of GBP 30.4 million, which brings us to that number I mentioned a couple of slides ago, GBP 296 million in aggregate for the group. Turning to gross margin on the top right-hand side of the page. The first 3 blocks effectively lay out the changes in the margin structure for Topps Tiles this year. So Topps Tiles has seen a good year of progress. We have seen improved buying in Topps Tiles, which has helped to drive increased margins. We've seen reduced levels of discounting in the stores, and we've also seen some price increase coming through the network. All of those things have helped to increase gross margin. We've also seen reduced levels of damage across the business, particularly in our supply chain and also some gains in terms of foreign exchange rates year-on-year as well, where the regime was slightly more favorable to us. That's also generated gains. They have in part been offset by increasing trade mix in Topps Tiles typical trade customer operates on a slightly lower gross margin because of bulk volume discounts, et cetera, that we offer when compared to a retail customer. And the Topps Tiles trade mix in the year was 68% when compared to 62.8% year-on-year. So trade continuing to grow very rapidly, and we'll talk to that in more detail. So gross margin showed a material increase. We actually -- in aggregate, we were up 130 basis points to 58.9% in Topps Tiles. But then following that, all parts of the business actually grew gross margin year-on-year as well. That brings us to the adjusted gross margin when we add in the gross profit -- sales and gross profit relating to the CTD business. CTD operates on approximately a 40% gross margin, and that would have the effect of diluting overall group gross margin by about 160 basis points to bring us to the statutory gross margin we see on the page. The operating cost environment, as I've mentioned, remains challenging. We've had continued increases in National Living Wage. We've had national insurance, employer national insurance increases as well. When you add in other underlying inflation, that generated about GBP 4.6 million of extra cost to the group. Improved performance across the business as well has driven higher levels of performance-related pay. That added about GBP 2.5 million to the group's cost base. We've seen some additional investment in marketing and systems. When combined, that's about GBP 800,000. Our online pure play business, as I mentioned, continues to grow very, very rapidly, and we continue to invest in that business. So that has added additional cost into our cost base as well. And then those costs have been offset in part by slightly fewer stores trading in Topps Tiles, about 4 fewer stores trading across the year has saved us about GBP 1 million of store-related costs and about GBP 3.3 million from other areas of savings, some of which is property related, some of which is lower depreciation. We've also seen lower utility charges this year. Those sorts of areas are all helping to keep the business' cost base as efficient as possible. And CTD, I've mentioned a couple of times, has been treated below the line in FY '25 as it comes back into our core financials this year in FY '26, that will add approximately GBP 11 million of cost to the group's cost base. Turning next to adjusted net cash. The operating cash flows for the business have increased this year. We've seen GBP 15 million of cash generation, and that in itself has been supported by higher levels of profits. Working capital is actually a very modest outflow. That in itself was driven by slightly higher levels of receivables in the form of trade credit, where I'll talk to in a bit more detail, we are having a bigger push in terms of trade credit across the group. The CTD business represented GBP 5.4 million of cash outflow this year. Lots of that is one-off in nature, and I'll actually come on to the P&L impacts of CTD in a couple of slides' time. Tax paid in the year is actually relatively modest due to some statutory losses that we saw in FY '24, which in themselves were IFRS 16 related. CapEx for the year for the group was GBP 5.5 million, GBP 2.8 million of that was on a new warehouse that we've opened, and I'll talk to in more detail. Around GBP 2 million was accrued in terms of store investments. and then the remainder was on IT projects and other sort of similar kind of initiatives. Dividend outflow for the year of GBP 3.9 million. That's the final from FY '24 and the interim dividend from FY '25, all of which brings us to a net cash position of GBP 7.4 million, down GBP 1.3 million year-on-year, but still in a net cash position and still representing a robust balance sheet. So turning next then to strategy and the update on the key areas. We have a very clear strategy for the business supporting our delivery of our goal of Mission 365. And the way this schematic should be interpreted is the first 4 blocks across the page are really all about growing sales. The first 2 on the left-hand side are all about our customer offer and the products that we choose to focus on, our product specialism. And then on the right-hand side, the key customers we serve. Consumer in essence, is homeowner and trade. The key point here to note is [indiscernible] is a very, very broad church, and we'll talk about some of those different kind of trade customers as we go through the presentation. all of which is underpinned by 3 supporting pillars: environmental leadership, very important to us. Top people, top service is all about our world-class customer service credentials and then operational and digital excellence, which reflects some of the investments that we plan to make in key enablers of the strategy. On then to what we call the Road to 365. So this is our landing and our flight path to get to our goal of GBP 365 million worth of sales. We've very clearly identified 5 key areas of opportunity for us, which we believe will take us successfully to our goals. CTD since we acquired it, has been added into the B2B element of the chart here, and we actually expanded our ambition in that space off the back of the CTD acquisition. But we're 18 months on now from when we first shared this with shareholders. And as I mentioned at the start, we've delivered GBP 296 million worth of sales this year. That's a new record year for the group. We've successfully celebrated 4 years out of 5 record years across the group in the last 5 years, and we're now 40% of our way to Mission 365. So I'll talk to each of those 5 specifically on the next few slides. So in terms of category expansions, we think we feel we've made good progress in the year in terms of category expansion, but we do also recognize that there is still more to do in the space and certainly a lot more opportunity to come across the group and particularly in Topps Tiles where we're very focused here. We now feel outdoor and LVT luxury vinyl tiles actually are really part of the core operations of the group, and both are actually performing quite well across the business. They both deliver sort of material levels of volume. Other categories are now launched and they're launched in all of our Topps Tiles stores. Sales though do remain quite modest today, and it's an area where we intend to push much harder, particularly in areas like marketing to make sure customers really understand that we sell these categories and also colleague training to make sure we can do a great job of servicing our customers' needs. Sales for the year have grown by around 12%, and we do consider all of that to be incremental to the business. And as a result of our sourcing gains, actually, we've actually managed to generate a 20% increase in gross profit for the year. Turning next to Topps Tiles Trader Digital experience. Trade has been a very key area of success for the group as a whole and particularly in Topps Tiles. And within that, our digital strategy for trade has been working very, very well, we feel. We've relaunched the trade website this year. We've significantly improved the experience for traders, so much simpler registration, much clearer pricing as soon as you come on the website. And as part of the new website functionality, we've now also got things like single basket checkout, which really helps to drive the convenience even further. We launched in the year a new customer engagement platform. We launched that in the second half of the year. This represents a really significant step forward in our ability to communicate with our trade customer base, and we're starting to really push on with some of the opportunity that presents. Trade credit, I mentioned on the cash flow page, trade credit has been an area of growth and will continue to be. We've actually seen a 40% increase in trade credit in the Topps Tiles part of the business this year. It still remains relatively modest overall and it's really only as we see it for our sort of largest multi-operative trade customers, but where it's required, it is an important hygiene factor for those trade customers. And yes, we've seen a 40% increase in those sales this year, but remaining relatively modest overall. Our Trade Club has been completely rebranded and relaunched this year, which in turn supports our non-digital activities, such as Trade Nights in stores as well, still remain very, very important. Some of these sort of non-digital activities for our trade customers. We've got a trade app development well underway now. We plan for that to launch in the second half of the year. We're now in FY '26. That again, will offer significant further steps forward in terms of trade experience and our marketing capability, particularly in terms of our ability to deliver things like push notifications to our trade base. In terms of financial performance this year or financial statistics, traffic -- trade traffic actually increased 66%, which we're very, very pleased with. Trade digital sales increased by 70%, admittedly from a low base, but nevertheless, very good growth. But overall trade in Topps Tiles grew by 13.3%, which was a very significant outperformance across the whole business. And we now have 152,000 active customers. That's trade customers that have shopped with us in the last 12 months. And trade, as I mentioned, is now 69% of overall sales in Topps Tiles. So next to the B2B, business-to-business part of the group. We identified this as part of Mission 365 as a significant area of opportunity. Each of our 4 trade brands listed on the bottom of the slide here has a role to play. We see lots of opportunities in selling to larger contractors and particularly multi-operative customers. Prior to the CTD acquisition, our sales in this space were probably somewhere between GBP 10 million and GBP 15 million. That would have been the Parkside business. And also, we had a Topps Tiles contract sort of direct selling based team. Post the acquisition of CTD, this is now a GBP 40 million to GBP 45 million part of our operations. Parkside has actually performed very well in the year, they've grown sales. They've moved into profit for the first time. They've actually delivered in the region of a 5% net margin as well, which has been great to see. And we formed a partnership with Wren Kitchens as well. We've been working on that for probably a little over a year. We now supply a Topps Tiles branded curated offer to Wren Kitchens. It's available in all of their showrooms. We fulfill that through our branches, so Wren don't get involved in the physical side of the product at all. It remains relatively modest today, but we do see that as a key opportunity moving forward as well and another opportunity to grow our B2B credentials. Turning to the right-hand side of the page then with the CTD business. As I mentioned, we acquired about 15 months ago. We feel we've made some really good progress in the second half of the year. But by the same token, we're also accepting we're not where we want to be right now, and we are still working very hard and very rapidly to bring this business to where we do want it to be. So the direct selling teams, which is really across the Architectural & Designer sector and also National Housebuilder, the direct selling teams are now integrated into our core commercial operations. That part of the business is actually working very well. As I mentioned, our warehouse and IT migrations have been completed. So the business now operates on the Topps Tiles core systems, which has really helped us move forward. The CMA disposal process has been hard, and it's been quite complicated because of a number of parties that needed to be involved. But the final of the 4 stores is imminently due to be disposed of, and that will then completely end the CMA involvement in the business. And post the completion of those disposals, we will retain -- we will have retained 22 stores. Those stores are delivering like-for-like growth. They have been consistently for the last 6 to 8 months. The financials for the year is quite a tough picture. Actually, there's been quite a lot of disruption here. So the CMA process in terms of advisory costs will have cost us somewhere in the region of GBP 2 million across the year. We've had about GBP 3.2 million of one-offs. About GBP 1 million of that probably is noncash, but this has been dealing with a lot of legacy type contracts and agreements that were in place and one-off activities we needed to get completed. And that leaves about GBP 1.7 million from trading operations, much reduced over the course of the second half of the year. But as we start the year FY '26, the CTD business is still generating a modest level of trading loss, and we have a very, very clear plan supported by that like-for-like growth to get the business into profit in 2026. And the strategic vision for the business absolutely remains. So CTD gives us an offer for a large contractor customer base and also present participation in the National Housebuilder sector, which we were not involved in at all prior to this acquisition. Turning next to Pro Tiler. Pro Tiler has been a huge success story for the group since our acquisition of the business just around -- well, about 3.5 years ago now, actually. During the course of the year, we relocated them into a complete new facility. They've become very constrained in their existing facility. We moved them into a new 140,000 square feet facility just off the M1, which is actually shared with the CTD side of the business now, so both co-located under one roof. But in doing so, we effectively trebled the amount of cube available to the Pro Tiler business. And we've really seen the benefit of that coming through in the second half as sales have again stepped on to new levels and level -- rates of growth have actually accelerated over the second half as well. So we're very, very pleased with that decision and that activity in the year. The new site without question, has the capacity for us to allow us to deliver our Mission 365 target of GBP 50 million of sales for Pro Tiler, and we're rapidly moving to that level. And the business, as I mentioned, continues to expand very, very rapidly. The team is developing to feed the growth of that business and overall operations are in excellent shape. This year, we've also delivered a 9:00 p.m. cutoff for customers of Pro Tiler. Most of our competitors in all honesty, struggled to get part of the midday really. So as a professional tiler or a professional builder, you can go home and order up to 9:00 p.m. at night for next day on-site delivery, which is pretty much unrivaled amongst the competitor set. Financials, as I mentioned, very strong growth in the year. And actually, you can see the acceleration coming through. So in the first half, the business grew by 17%. In the second half of the year, it grew by 27% once we have that additional operational capacity. The business is now 3x the scale when we purchased it, delivering GBP 35 million a year. When we purchased it, they were doing GBP 12 million worth of sales. Profit is actually broadly flat year-on-year in Pro Tiler, which in itself, I actually think is a very good success story because we've taken on the additional overhead of the increased warehouse capacity. What you might normally expect is for the performance to step back a little before it steps forward, but we've actually managed to stabilize numbers across the year, which has been great. And the exit rate for the business is now very close to our target of an 8% net margin. So an excellent year for Pro Tiler as an acquisition that has created lots of value for shareholders over the last 3 years. Tile Warehouse, we've also seen very good continued progress with the Tile Warehouse business. It's now recognized actually as the fastest-growing digital tile specialist in the U.K. market, which has been excellent. The key KPIs are already coming through and delivering. So traffic is up 20% across the year. Conversion rates are up 33% across the year and ATV also delivering growth across the business. Sales for the year now GBP 3 million. So it's the smallest part of our operations, but grew by 82% year-on-year. So we're still very optimistic about where Tile Warehouse can get to over time. The business did recognize a modest level of trading loss in the year, but our projection is for the year, we've now started FY '26, this business will come into breakeven and possibly a modest profit in the second half of the year. It remains a key aspect of Mission 365. We said we think we can deliver GBP 10 million to GBP 15 million of the sales here, and we're growing very rapidly. Final slide for me then, just in summary, Mission 365, we still very much feel this is an exciting goal for the business. And when combined with our ambition of 8% to 10% net margins, this should be capable of driving meaningful shifts in our profits over time. So I'm going to pass you on to Alex now as our new Chief Executive. A very warm welcome to her in these sessions, and she will share with us her first impressions of the business and the key areas of focus. Thank you. Alexandra Jensen: Thanks, Rob. Well, it's great to meet you all today. I put a few slides together, an introduction, my first impressions and priorities for the coming year. So starting with my experience. I have an international background in multisite retail and B2B. In my last role in BP, I was Divisional CEO of Convenience and Mobility for Europe and Southern Africa across 15 markets with 9,000 service stations, 3,500 shops and a material B2B business. So I've got experience in developing and executing sustainable growth strategies, including in this retail service station business. And the 3 value drivers that drove this growth are very relevant to Topps in my view. So firstly, driving footfall by becoming a destination of choice by expanding into new categories. Secondly, driving revenue through customer loyalty and increasing personalization. And thirdly, creating stickiness through B2B contract wins and key account management. Data was central to revenue growth and cost efficiency, both of which then increased the bottom line. So another aspect of my experience I wanted to pick out is in digital and data, built over more than 15 years, including when I was Chief Marketing Officer for BP's global retail business. So one of the things my team did was to launch BP's first offer and payment platform, which enabled payment at pump, click and collect, in-app personalization, GPS and later EV charging. We launched several new loyalty programs across the world, which drove both membership numbers and lifetime value with customers on the app spending 10x as much. I've led relaunches of B2B and consumer websites, most recently at National Express to improve conversion rates and ATV. So I see a number of opportunities in Topps to accelerate digital and leverage customer and operational data to drive profitable growth. So just a bit about my background. And I joined Topps for 3 reasons. Firstly, it's got a great purpose that really resonates with me. Secondly, there's the growth potential, supported by a strong balance sheet. And I could see how my experience was relevant to this next phase of growth. And then thirdly, the culture of the organization, which I'd describe as collegial, warm, customer-focused and entrepreneurial. So that culture also attracted me. So what have I been doing since I joined 10 weeks ago? Well, I spent a lot of time in the business, as you'd expect, meeting all stakeholder groups. I met a large number of our colleagues in 9 cross-country conference roadshows, which was an absolutely wonderful opportunity to meet many people really quickly. And I followed this with working in store, visits to over a dozen tops and CTD stores, visits to our new Parkside architect and design collaboration space in London and meeting the teams at Pro Tiler. I also met with several key suppliers at Europe's largest tile exhibition in Bologna, which was absolutely fascinating, and I have to say, quite a lot of fun as well. And I've had time with shareholders, understanding where the opportunities are and listening to their thoughts and views. Further to that, I've been busy with CFO recruitment. A few weeks ago, we recruited an excellent interim CFO, Rob Swales, who will help deliver the momentum we need over the next 6 months. Until recently, Rob has been Group Commercial Finance Director at Pepco. I've also been busy recruiting a new permanent CFO, and the group was pleased to announce this week that Caroline Browne will be joining us in spring next year. Caroline is currently the Group Finance and Investor Relations Director at Watches of Switzerland. Previously, she was Group Finance Controller at NEXT and held senior finance positions at Boots. So there will be an orderly transition from Rob to Caroline next calendar year. So what about my initial observations? Well, my first impressions are positive. So let me start with the strengths I see. Topps Tiles has clear market leadership and its product authority and quality is second to none. In my view, our store colleagues are experts who know our tiles and essential ranges inside out, and they offer guidance our competitors simply can't match. I've been in store, and I've seen it for myself. But it's not just in Topps Tiles. In Parkside, we're the partner of choice for world-famous brands like Nando's, Hilton, Starbucks, Harrods and most U.K. airports. I mean it's just something that when you're outside the organization, you're not an investor, you probably just don't know. And I was astounded by that when I was doing my research into the company. This is real authority. Pro Tiler is the de facto online specialist for the professional tilers community. I mean it's a clear destination for professional tilers. And in CTD, we're already serving national housebuilders like Bellway, Miller and Blue Homes. So this expertise that we have is clearly recognized by customers. For example, this year, Topps Tiles has scored 4.97 stars across almost 50,000 Google reviews, which is really impressive. And this kind of customer feedback is replicated across the group in all our brands. And I see that as a really important cornerstone for any growth strategy. So the growth potential that drew me to Topps on the outside is confirmed on the inside by the number of opportunities the teams are getting after. And this has led to real progress in 2025 building in the second half. So moving then to the opportunities I see, and these are then folded into the priorities I have for 2026. Our first priority is to ensure CTD and Tile Warehouse are sustainably profitable in 2026. On CTD, I spent time with the team and in stores, as I mentioned, and it's a good strategic opportunity for us. It gives us access to a customer group that we couldn't access otherwise. And I'm impressed by the energy, the knowledge and the commitment of the team, not least their resilience through the CMA process. And my focus now is on realizing the opportunities to grow and continuing the momentum demonstrated in the last few months. Our second priority is to accelerate digital and unlock more value from our customer data. I'm especially excited to see the impact of our trading app to use CRM more extensively to encourage customer behavior and to continue to improve the productivity of our websites. In 2026, we'll also move our legacy systems onto a new cloud-based ERP, and this will give us better workflows, much stronger performance and the ability to scale. It also lays the foundation for a new end-to-end data and analytics platform. So there is much more to come in this space. Our third priority is to cement Topps Tiles as the destination of choice for any hard surface project, which is now an addressable market of GBP 2.1 billion. The team is hyper-focused on sales excellence, driving traffic online and footfall in store, improving conversion rates and also driving stronger basket value by selling more essentials alongside the coverings and clearly highlighting the benefits and features across our pricing ladder and the new product categories, so encouraging the trade-ups. The experience of our store teams, our trade approach and our digital plans are all critical in underpinning this third priority. So fourthly, we'll focus on delivering against our group trade strategy using our portfolio of brands in a really targeted way to win in every customer segment, commercial, housebuilding, contractor and sole trader. So our go-to-market strategy is twofold. It's about inspiring property decision-makers, whether they're commercial architects, homeowners, housebuilders, landlords, so inspiring them with our ranges and then helping the trades and DIY customers to get the job done. And the scale and breadth of the group underpin this dual approach. And finally, all of this is directed at driving sustainable profitable growth. We've made substantial progress in delivering 40% of our GBP 365 million revenue target. And with GBP 9.2 million profit in 2025, we're 12.5% of the way to our net profit goal. So as part of our annual strategy refresh in 2Q, we'll be looking to ensure each business has a clear flight path to the 8% to 10% net margin target. And building on the theme of creating a destination and the power of differentiated brands and product, this week, we announced the acquisition of the Fired Earth brand out of administration. The deal includes the brand, website and stock worth an estimated GBP 2.5 million. Fired Earth was established in 1983 and is a highly respected brand. It's renowned for its premium design credentials. It's a strong strategic fit for tops, adding a premium brand to our offer, and it expands our addressable customer base, strengthening our proposition to homeowners, housebuilders and trades, and it also accelerates our digital penetration. So this acquisition also provides strategic opportunity, both in shaping Fired Earth's future direction and in locking ways for -- further to enhance value across the Topps Group. And I'm looking forward to sharing more details of our plans later in the year. But in terms of immediate next steps, the website has remained open for browsing during administration, and we expect it to be fully transactional very soon. So moving now to current trading and outlook. Group revenue, excluding CTD, remains in growth over the first 9 weeks with sales of 3.3% year-on-year and with Topps Tiles at 2% like-for-like. Sales were moderated slightly due to weaker consumer confidence, perhaps due to people waiting to see what the budget brought, but we've got tight control of costs and delivery. The government budget measures were in line with our expectations. CTD stores are delivering consistent like-for-like growth, and we're confident of delivering a profit in CTD in full year '26. The balance sheet remains strong, as Rob mentioned. We have our GBP 30 million banking facility committed until October 2027, and we're confident of a further year of progress, both financially and strategically, and the business remains well positioned and on track to deliver Mission 365 over the medium term. So that concludes the formal part of the presentation. And I'd now like to open it up to any questions you've got for either Rob or me. And I can see we've already got some coming through. So that's great. Robert Parker: Okay. So yes, thanks, Alex. That's great. We've had 3 questions come through. Let me sort of deal with those, I think, because the first 2 are both about sales really. So the first question is about the revenue uplift potential from combining trade digital capabilities with B2B platforms. I mean I think the answer to this question, I'll refer you back to Mission 365. We've got a really clear goal for the business we've laid out where we think the opportunity is as clearly as it possibly can. We've Pro Tiler, which is obviously all digital. Tile Warehouse is all digital. We talked specifically about targets for Topps Tiles trade digital growth. So I think there is no other answer other than the one that's sort of on the page around Mission 365. And obviously, Alex will update more on that journey as we go forward from here. And then the second question is similar in a way. It's also about sales is asking about what rate can we scale covering from sort of the category extensions really, to which, again, I think the answer has to be we've laid out a really clear target for that as part of Mission 365. We said we think category extensions can be between GBP 25 million and GBP 30 million. And that was achieved by us gaining a sort of broadly a 5% target of our estimations of each of the size of those submarkets, if you like. And again, we've said this year, we're probably at about GBP 12 million of sales. I think it's a good start was the wording I used, but actually, we also recognize there is more to do. So we'll be keen to sort of push on in those areas. But GBP 25 million to GBP 30 million is the target as part of Mission 365. Alexandra Jensen: And I'd just add to that, Rob, that is one of our key focus areas. So one of our priorities is about sales excellence, and that includes making sure we are really expanding into that GBP 2.1 billion of addressable market, which is basically double what it was when it was just tiles, now that it's all hard coverings. So this is a top priority for us. Robert Parker: Yes. Thanks, Alex. There's a question -- sort of 3 pointed question really. One was about sort of things that Alex is looking at, well, I think Alex has covered that very clearly in her slides. There's a question about the average level of net debt. I assume this is referring to the year we've just started. I would refer you back to the notes we just covered on the year just gone actually. So we started the year with net cash. We did run a level of net debt during the year and ended the year with net cash. The big difference this year will be, firstly, I think we've obviously just acquired the Fired Earth business, that's a GBP 3 million cash outflow, but we'd also expect to see a significantly reduced level of cash outflow in terms of CTD, which is quite a big drag on our cash this year. We are confident in that business and move back into profit. So that should disappear completely from the cash flow. Beyond that, it will be down to the sort of underlying performance of the business really. So I'm not sure there's much else to add in terms of the net debt sort of -- and we wouldn't give forecast on any of the sort of key financial numbers for the year ahead. And then there's a couple of questions actually from different people, which if combined are about sort of the future of tiles really, there's a question about sort of structural decline in favor of paneling and there's a question about are people still buying tiles. Well, very clearly, I think people are buying tiles. The market is quite poorly researched in the U.K. Probably the best number we would look to as a sort of really quite robust measure, I think, is Barclaycard produced a monthly analysis of spend across the U.K. and Barclaycard can probably account for about 50% of all spend across the U.K. between both Barclays Merchant Services card acquiring and Barclaycard itself. And the number for the year, they then subdivide the market. And one of the key categories is home improvement and DIY spend. Their analysis would show that the market declined by 2% overall last year or across our financial year, which is why we are confident this is a market beating level of performance. Beyond that, of course, we can see changes in the tile market. Tiles are getting larger. We're clearly increasing the scale of our large tile offering. We're now talking about sort of XL, XXL and slab format. They are all markets we're very keen to pursue and make sure we're really offering the right choice for our customers over time. But clearly, tile will remain a very big part, I think, of home improvement projects in the U.K. There's a question about paneling. Well, again, we're in paneling. So paneling can mean large-format tiles, so 2.4 meter portal in panels. It can also mean shower panels or plastic and acrylics. We have those as part of our offer now. So our key is to make sure we stay very, very relevant for customers, and we've been doing that for a long time. What else have we got here? Alex, there's a question about branches. I mean, obviously, we've done some work historically in terms of the store network to make sure we felt we were broadly rightsized. Do you want to just talk to sort of your sort of thoughts in terms of branch network? Alexandra Jensen: Yes. I mean, as part of any retail business, looking at the portfolio that we have is a constant piece of work that we do with rising inflation, it's especially important. So last year's budget inflation costs are now full year in 2026, plus the 4.1% minimum wage increase in this budget. And so it's clearly something we need to look at is those stores that are at the bottom end of the tail as there always is in retail, a tail of sites. Are they still chilling the bar and contributing to the progress towards the net profit margin that we're aiming for, which is 8% plus in Topps Tiles as it is across each of our businesses. Added to which we're looking at digital penetration and how that changes the need for the physical store, that changes the economics as well. So yes, it's something we're constantly reviewing. And meanwhile, on CTD, we're looking at adding more because part of the CTD model is selling into housebuilders and then making sure the execution on the ground is supported for their contractors and subcontractors that they can actually get access to the product. So it's a constant assessment. And in 2Q, when we do our strategy refresh, it's certainly something we'll be looking at. Robert Parker: Great. Thanks, Alex. And then there's a question on Fired Earth as well. So has the purchase of Fired Earth changed the strategic direction of the business or at least back to a store portfolio model given the clear plan and success of trade sales, probably one for you, I think, Alex. Alexandra Jensen: Yes. Our strategy in -- as I talked about it, it's this dual-pronged strategy of inspiring the property decision-maker, the homeowners. And sometimes the decision is made by the trade, but quite often, it's the person occupying the space that's making the decisions about the tiles. And so it's a dual-pronged strategy of both making sure we're inspiring property decision-makers and then supporting anyone who's doing the actual job, whether that's DIY or trade in all of the essentials, trims, grout, everything they need to actually get the job done. And so the Fired Earth acquisition is absolutely in line with that because it's about a fantastic brand that really caters into the premium end of the market. And a single brand like Topps can cover so much. But I think at the very premium end of the market, it enables us to really sort of access a new customer group. And so it's absolutely in line with strategy, and I'm looking forward to sharing more details about our plans later in the year. Robert Parker: Thank you, Alex. I think that really, we've addressed, I think, all of the questions that have been asked this morning. So yes, hopefully, everyone has found that a useful session today. As I said, this will be my last session. So I am signing off. It's been a wonderful business to be part of for the last 18 years. Alex has now really got up to speed actually over the last 8 to 10 weeks. And I wish her every success taking the business forward. So Alex, over to you. Good luck with everything, and thank you very much. Alexandra Jensen: Thank you, Rob. I think we all very much appreciate your leadership over the years and wish you all the best. Thank you. Robert Parker: Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Goodbye. Operator: That's great. Well, Rob, Alex, thank you very much for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team of Topps Tiles plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Yuanbao Inc.'s Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Ms. [ Stella Li ], Investor Relations and Strategy Associate Director. Please go ahead. Unknown Executive: Thank you, operator. Please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, assumptions and other factors. Some of these risks are beyond the company's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those mentioned in today's press release and discussion. A general discussion of the risk factors that could affect Yuanbao's business and financial results is included in certain filings of the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not undertake any obligation to update this forward-looking information, except as required by law. During today's call, management will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the earnings release issued earlier today. Joining us today on the call from Yuanbao's senior management are Mr. Rui Fang, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Huirui Wan, our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Fang will deliver his remarks in Chinese, followed by an English translation. We will conclude the call with a Q&A session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on Yuanbao's Investor Relations website. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO. Mr. Fang, please go ahead, sir. Rui Fang: [Interpreted] Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. This quarter, we continued our trajectory of high-quality growth with several core performance indicators hitting new record highs. In the third quarter, total revenues grew 33.6% year-over-year to RMB 1.16 billion. Net income surged 51.3% year-over-year to RMB 370 million. This marks our 13th consecutive quarter of profitability. As of the end of September, our cash reserves stood at RMB 3.75 billion, providing a solid financial foundation for our continued technological innovation, capital deployment and strategic expansion. These strong results are a direct testament to our disciplined execution and continuous operational refinement. In the third quarter, we issued 8 million new policies with a 41.8% year-over-year increase. This momentum was powered by our enhanced AI and data capabilities, which have improved the precision of our consumer targeting and deepened our understanding of consumer needs. This insight feed direct feedback into our product innovation and scientific pricing processes, helping us build a distinct competitive edge. On the product service front, we remain committed to using technology to lower the barriers to insurance access. To date, we have built a multidimensional product matrix spanning medical, critical illness and accident insurance while continuously rolling out innovative inclusive solutions for diverse user protection needs. Recently, we collaborated with our partnered insurance carriers to launch a short-term and critical illness insurance product. Its core value proposition is high coverage at an affordable price point by adopting a parallel lump sum payment plus multiple reimbursement model. We extend protection from the moment of diagnosis through ongoing treatment, effectively creating a closed loop of protection. This single quality provides both peace of mind during recovery and worry-free medical care, combining onetime lump sum compensation with multiple reimbursements for medical expenses. It represents a novel approach to inclusive innovation in critical illness insurance. By integrating insurance features and employing tiered reimbursement, we have optimized our cost structure to lower prices while expanding coverage. This significantly improves value for consumers and aligns with the market demand for balancing accessible coverage with affordability. Turning to the industry landscape. Commercial health insurance has become a vital component of China's multi-tiered health care protection system. The relationship between social health insurance and commercial health insurance is evolving into a new stage of coordination and complementarity. Inclusive health insurance will play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges posed by an aging population and alleviating the pressure on the public health care system while unlocking a massive incremental market for commercial health insurance. The core driver lies in satisfying the health protection needs of hundreds of millions of underserved families. We believe that the key to unlocking this potential is to establish an Internet-enabled service model that delivers cost-effective protection and optimized user experience and operational efficiency. This is how we translate the stated demand of this vast market into tangible growth momentum. On the intelligence front, our AI technology and data infrastructure are now deeply integrated into our core operational workflows by embedding our proprietary large language model into critical functions, including risk identification, customer acquisition, product design and claims processing. We have built a systematic AI-driven competitive mode that enhances operational efficiency and elevates the overall service capabilities. First, our LLMs are driving an end-to-end intelligent upgrade in R&D. By integrating LLMs and associated tool chains into the R&D workflow, we have achieved comprehensive efficiency gains across documentation and coding. For technical documentation, the LLM has generated over 1,000 documents, including tools such as model context protocol provides one-stop assistance from requirement, the competition and code writing to unit test generation and automated validation. As a result, AI-generated code accounted for nearly 50% of new code developed in the third quarter. Second, our LLMs are empowering our customer service system with intelligent summarization, assisted insights and multimodal analysis. We have integrated LLM capabilities into customer service scenarios, focusing on call summarization and agent assistant functions. Embedded within the customer service workspace, these capabilities automatically generate service ticket summarizes, extract key information post call and produce consumer intent labels, action locks and recommended next steps. On the multimodal front, AI technology is employed to assist in consumer identity verification, while real-time voice analysis captures consumer sentiment dynamics, enabling agents to complete documentation and follow-ups more efficiently. Furthermore, our LLMs are driving the intelligent evolution of modeling and feature mining within our full consumer service cycle engine. By incorporating LLM-assisted modeling and automated feature extraction technologies into this engine, we have been able to automate and deepen the complex feature engineering process. For instance, by leveraging LLMs to interpret pseudonymized or autonomous consumer behavior data, interaction content, transaction information and product information, the system extracts valuable features. This approach reduces the reliance on manual feature design, allowing the large model to automatically generate and filter critical information, significantly enhancing both modeling efficiency and performance. To summarize, the insurance technology and commercial health insurance sectors are benefiting from the dual tailwinds of policy support and rapid technological advancement. Under the national strategic guidance of building a multi-tiered health care protection system, the relationship between social health insurance and commercial health insurance has entered a new stage of synergy and complementary strength. Simultaneously, AI technology is fundamentally reshaping the operational logic of the insurance industry. Yuanbao is capitalizing on the significant growth opportunities in the inclusive health insurance market. On the product side, we are filling market gaps with innovative inclusive insurance offerings that lower the barriers to protection access. On the technology side, we are making forward-looking investments, embedding AI deep into our product design, operational workflows and decision-making system. AI has become an integral part of our management framework and a core driver of organizational upgrade. As our models iterate and business data accumulate, we can serve a massive user base with greater precision and efficiency, building an industry-leading intelligent service ecosystem. Looking ahead, with AI as our driving force, we will continue to upgrade our service model towards greater personalization and proactive care while exploring new growth opportunities through the deep integration of AI and the ongoing accumulation of business data. we are committed to building a more resilient business model, reinforcing our long-term competitive edge and creating enduring value for all stakeholders. Now I will turn the call over to our CFO, Huirui Wan, to present our financial results. Thank you, everyone. Huirui Wan: Thank you, Mr. Fang, and thank you, everyone, for joining today's earnings conference call. I'm pleased to walk you through another quarter of solid financial results characterized by healthy revenue expansion, optimized operational efficiency, improved profitability and a strong and growing cash position. Our total revenues for the third quarter reached RMB 1.16 billion, representing a robust 33.6% year-over-year increase. This strong growth has primarily driven by sustained momentum across both our insurance distribution and system service revenue businesses. Turning to our revenue mix. Revenue from insurance distribution services reached RMB 373.3 million, marking a year-over-year increase of 27.9%. This robust growth was primarily driven by a higher number of policies purchased on our platform, underpinned by more precise consumer targeting and enhanced marketing capabilities. System services revenues reached RMB 783.5 million, a 36.9% increase compared with the same period last year. This growth was propelled by ongoing improvements to our AI integrated full consumer service cycle engine, which further enhanced our marketing solutions and precise analytics services for insurance carriers. In addition, the increase reflected an expanded scope of system service offerings provided to both new and existing insurance carrier partners. Moving to expenses. Our total operating expenses increased by 31.2% year-over-year to RMB 803.4 million. Operations and support expenses were RMB 45.1 million, remaining broadly stable compared with the same period last year. Selling and marketing expenses rose by 23.9% year-over-year to RMB 569.6 million as we continue to invest in our marketing capabilities to attract new consumers and retain existing ones. G&A expenses increased by 97.8% year-over-year to RMB 93.1 million, primarily due to higher personnel costs, including salary, bonus and benefits. R&D expenses increased by 56.8% year-over-year to RMB 95.6 million, reflecting our intensified R&D efforts and the expansion of our R&D team. These investments are essential in reinforcing our leadership position as a technology-driven online insurance distributor. As a result of our strong top line growth and continued operating discipline, our profitability improved meaningfully this quarter. Net income increased by 51.3% year-over-year to RMB 370.4 million, with the net income margin expanding to 32% from 28.2% in the same period last year. Non-GAAP adjusted net income rose by 51.7% to RMB 390 million, representing a non-GAAP net income margin of 33.7%, up from 29.7% a year ago. We maintained healthy cash flow generation during the quarter, further solidifying our cash position. Operating cash flow was RMB 326.1 million, and we ended the quarter with a strong total liquidity balance of RMB 3.75 billion, which increased 82.3% year-over-year to 9.7% since the end of second quarter this year. This robust liquidity provides us with ample financial flexibility to fund the business growth and pursue strategic investments. To conclude, our third quarter results once again validate the strength and scalability of our business model. Looking forward, we will maintain a prudent focus on high-quality growth, operational efficiency and a solid liquidity position, empowering us to continue investing with conviction and to drive sustainable growth. Thank you, and I would like to open the call to Q&A. Operator, please go ahead. Operator: [Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from the line of Amy Chen from Citi. Amy Jy Chen: This is Amy Chen from Citi. First, I want to congratulate the management on another robust quarter, both on revenue and earnings side. I have 2 questions. The first one being on selling and marketing expenses. So we noted that as a percentage of revenue, actually, the efficiency of selling and marketing expenses has improved both year-over-year and quarter-on-quarter. I'm wondering what was the driver behind this improvement? And does this has anything to do with seasonality? And is it sustainable going forward? And the second one would be on... Operator: We have lost Amy's line there. Maybe we can go on to the next question. We will now take our next question from Yue Xu from CSC. Yue Xu: Congrats on your solid results and a strong execution quarter. So my first question relates to the recent tax regulation change effective in October. So with a nearly 15% cap on ad spend deduction, have we seen some material impact on the overall bidding intensity across platforms? And how should we think about the future revenue growth going forward? So -- and the second one is we have noticed some peers also expanding into public traffic acquisition? And how should we think about the margin or the cost -- the customer acquisition cost going forward? Huirui Wan: Thank you, Yue. This is Huirui Wan. I'll take on the Q&A. On your first question regarding ad trend and tax regulation. So far, we haven't seen any material impact or changes to our ongoing business. We've been following it very closely as well. However, if this becomes a market-wide standard, it will affect the entire industry, including advertisers as well as platforms by driving up ad cost for everyone as advertising costs rise across the industry, we do believe that players with stronger profitability and operational efficiency and cost controls are better positioned to stand out and achieve sustainable earnings leading to potentially market consolidation or stronger growth. On your second question regarding competition in the public domain, yes, we've seen our partners increase investment in external traffic, which validates the success of our business model and technological capabilities while also underscoring the substantial growth potential of the health insurance market. Meanwhile, the increase of external traffic by our partners serve as valuable market education, raising consumer awareness for commercial insurance because a large portion of the population still remains uninsured by commercial health plan, indicating that the industry ceiling is still far from being reached. Today, commercial health insurance has become an integral component of China's multi-tier medical security system, as Mr. Fang mentioned, and the relationship between social health insurance and commercial health insurance is entering a new stage of synergy and complementary strength. So in our view, the deciding factor in maintaining a competitive edge ultimately comes down to operational efficiency. Now with our optimized engine, we continue to grow and achieve attractive economics even at our current scale, and we will continuously train and optimize our engine, which is key to driving efficiency and maintaining our competitive edge. Thank you. Operator: We will now take our next question from Amy from Citi. Amy Jy Chen: This is Amy from Citi. I have 2 questions. My first question is regarding marketing efficiency. We noted that your selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of total revenue actually improved both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. I'm wondering is there any seasonality in this? Or what was the core driver behind this improvement? And going forward, is this level of efficiency sustainable? The second question is regarding shareholders' returns. Given our improved top line growth as well as earnings, what are management's thoughts on perhaps dividends or share buybacks at this point? Huirui Wan: Thank you, Amy. So in terms of our marketing expenses, there is some seasonality depending on our acquisition strategy because sometimes we may want to avoid strong acquisition period such as [ still relevant ], but we also continuously dynamically adjust our strategy based on growth targets and ROI targets. So we've been adjusting our marketing approach in real time and different approaches lead to effective outcomes, including potential shifts in age profile, spending power, consumption habits of our consumer base. Now what we are seeing here are obviously improvements in our overall efficiency continuously over the last 13 quarters. But going forward, we believe we want to, as mentioned before, have a very balanced growth profile in tandem with our operational efficiency going forward. And your second question regarding shareholder return. We continue to evaluate best strategies in providing the best shareholder return through various operational and capital markets opportunities. And like you said, dividends is certainly one of them that we are considering. Operator: We will now take our next question from Yuan Liao from CITIC. Yuan Liao: For the strong quarter results. I have 2 questions. The first question is about AI and with the rapid development of the generative AI and AI agent. So how do you see this impacting your products and business models? And could management share your strategic road map regarding future algorithm or product innovation? And second question is about your target market. So how do you view the current market penetration rate within Yuanbao's target demographic? And what potential do you see for the future ARPU growth? Huirui Wan: Thank you, Yuan. So the first question, so we integrate AI capability in various aspects of our operation. As you know, on the front end, for traffic acquisition, we have built a very strong engine with 1,000 models and labels for each consumer, relying primarily on recommendation algorithms, which are tree-based models or GBMs. As for generative AI, we deploy them across our user acquisition journey as well as internally as by Mr. Fang on our LLM capabilities and our earnings highlights. The evolution of our AI agents and AI capabilities will play a crucial role here in both helping with generating innovation and potentially new earnings as well as continued improvements across our business. So on the one hand, it will help us continue to elevate consumer experience. On the other hand, it will allow us to continuously capture data insights, creating a feedback loop in addition to what we have already to further refine our model performance. On your second question regarding industry penetration, so looking at the industry landscape, commercial health insurance has become a vital component of China's multi-tiered health care protection system. The relationship between social health insurance and commercial health insurance is evolving into a new stage of coordination and complementarity, as Mr. Fang mentioned. So we do believe health insurance -- commercial health insurance will play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges posed by aging population and alleviating the pressures on the public health care system. So as global economies grow and innovative drug catalogs for commercial health insurance are established, we believe the demand for protection life will rise continuously and very naturally. So Yuanbao's online inclusive model is actually very ideally and perfectly suited to reach these demographics that are underserved by commercial health insurance. In addition, for users who have already purchased short-term policies, they are far from reaching their protection ceiling. We see tremendous headroom for upselling and cross-selling additional products such as critical illness, accident, et cetera. And there's huge potential in user purchasing policies for family members. And regarding premiums, we don't see it alone as a key driver. Instead, our focus is on leveraging AI and big data for very precise risk assessment as well as understanding the pain points and needs of the consumers. So we believe this will enable a very defined pricing, leading to a healthy and sustainable ROI. So it's, I think, a pretty long-winded way of saying that we have a lot of internal models to calculate the current penetration headroom, and we do believe we are very, very far from reaching any level of higher penetration, but additional data analysis we can discuss further. Operator: We will now take our next question from [indiscernible] from Huafu Securities. Unknown Analyst: Congratulations on the strong results. I have 2 questions. First, regarding revenue growth. Could you break down the third quarter growth between new user acquisition and higher premium per user? And looking forward, what do you see as the key driver for sustainable growth over the next 3 years? And my third question is about AI. Can you quantify the KPI improvements you are seeing in conventional efficiency? And will exporting these AI capabilities create new revenue streams or pricing power for the company in the future? That's all from me. Huirui Wan: Thank you, Xia. On your first question regarding revenue growth. So our revenue growth is driven by multiple factors. Now for the next 2 to 3 years, we see 3 key drivers. Number one is market tailwind. As people become more insurance conscious, the penetration rate and growth in health insurance sector is down to continue to increase. Second is cross-selling and product innovations to tailor to consumer needs because as we understand and analyze more user behavior data, we can recommend and innovate more suitable products. Third is our data advantage. With our growing data scale, we're constantly refining our models to better understand and to have better efficiency and accuracy. This is how we plan to ensure sustainable and healthy ROI. But in terms of the actual breakdown, it's a combination of multiple factors that really drives our revenue as well as our profitability. On your second question regarding AI. So as you know, our business started off by having a very strong AI-based or machine learning team that built out our engine. So AI capabilities and data infrastructure has been very deeply integrated across the entire user acquisition process chain. But now embedding our large language model capabilities across key functions, including risk identification, customer acquisition, product design and claim processing, we've systematically built an AI-driven competitive mode that will continuously enhance operational efficiency and elevate our service quality. And second, through our current engine, we're able to uncover more consumer needs in real time and week by week, month by month and co-develop products with insurers that better meet today's market as Mr. Fang mentioned, a new critical illness product. So together with our insurance carrier partners, we launched a short-term critical illness product. The core highlight is unlocking millions in coverage at an inclusive price point by adopting a parallel lump sum payment plus multiple reimbursement model. And so in summary, our AI capabilities have enabled us to, #1, on the product front, address coverage gaps through the launch of innovative inclusive insurance products to create and offering more value to our consumers, thereby lowering barriers to insurance services. And #2, on the technology front, establish a proactive deployment across all business processes, embedding AI deeply into product development workflow and decision-making systems to make it an integral part of our operational management framework. Whether this is going to create new revenue streams or unlock pricing upside, certainly, from existing business model, we do believe that will help us allow us to continue to grow very effectively and efficiently. But new revenue streams in existing business, we think it will help us expand our potential product offerings. But in terms of diversification, that's also something that we're actively looking at. Operator: We will now take our next question from Yingying Xu from Southwest Securities. Yingying Xu: My name is. I am the Chief Financial Analyst at Southwest Securities. First of all, I would like to congratulate Yuanbao on another strong quarter. I have 2 questions for the management team. My first question is about revenue growth. Looking ahead to 2026, I am curious to know what you see as the main drivers of Yuanbao's continued revenue growth. Is it [ stressing ] marketing spend? Or is it improving the efficiency of your AI models? Is it expanding cross-selling or maybe achieving higher commission rates with [indiscernible]? Also, how do you expect these factors to change over the next 3 years? My second question is about competition and the brand. Compared to ecosystem players like Ping An Good Doctor or An's Insurance, Yuanbao is an independent platform. I would like to know what is your strategy to strengthen Yuanbao's brand? How will you improve customers' loyalty? And how do you plan to increase renewal rates over the next 1, 2, 3 years? Huirui Wan: Thank you. To answer your first question, now in terms of growth, we conduct a very holistic assessment across multiple dimensions, including traffic acquisition at scale, model efficiency cross-selling and tailored to very specific market conditions. So by continuously mining data and refining our modeling capabilities, we aim to maintain very sustainable profitability even as our business continues to scale. So that's something that we've been very consistent about over the last couple of quarters. Now regarding model efficiency, we're very strictly focused on assessing and ensuring that our customer acquisition costs remain stable or trend flat at the minimum as we continue to expand and grow at a very fast scale. And looking ahead, we'll continuously bolster our engine by adding and optimizing models. Our goal is to enhance predictive precision without disrupting our existing infrastructure. And we haven't provided guidance for 2026. But I guess for the remainder of full year 2025, we do believe that we'll grow at least 30% on a revenue basis and continue to maintain a very similar and healthy profit level. Now for your second question regarding existing ecosystem players versus how we plan to strengthen our brand moat and enhance customer stickiness. First, we operate on an AI-driven engine model where insurance distribution is powered by technology. We acquire users across the full spectrum of traffic channels without relying heavily on any one, allowing the potential for a stable and scalable source of new consumers, serving as the foundation of our future consumer base. Second, as an independent third-party insurance distributor, what sets us apart from ecosystem-based players is our capability to -- for daily collaborative iteration across diverse teams, including big data, AI, marketing, operations, customer service, et cetera. Our edge is not derived solely from core model or algorithm, rather it stems from a holistic iterative feedback mechanism that requires significant time accumulation to build over the last few years on a day-to-day basis. This involves very, very much a large part of cross-functional collaboration. So the AI team handles modeling and fine-tuning while data team manages data governance, feature mining, business team, et cetera. So this integrated system polished through daily multi-departmental collaboration, we do believe has brought us to where we are currently over the last few years. And we want to continue that operational know-how and operational excellence going forward to build our capabilities. Operator: We will now take our next question from Xintao Chen from CICC. Xintao Chen: Congratulations on the strong performance in the third quarter. And I have 2 questions for the management. The first is the efficiency of Yuanbao's model stands out against peers. So what's the key drivers behind this? Going forward, is there further room for improvement in net income margin and ROI? And the second one is regarding the competitive landscape. So how does the management view the competitive landscape of the industry over the coming years? Huirui Wan: Thank you, Xintao. So our ROI stems from the full digitization and automation of our insurance full cycle engine or acquisition process which lead to a comprehensive efficiency uplift across the entire user life cycle. Now this spans every single step of the process from adding pressure user registration, purchase, cross-selling, after-sales services and claim assistance. So by leveraging our AI engine to analyze massive user behavioral data, we continue to optimize conversion efficiency at every step. And that's what we want to continuously iterate to enhance our engine. Now going forward, we do see potential for upside in efficiency. But what we have to balance, as mentioned, is we do believe the market has a very large room for additional penetration and growth. So we want to balance growth with profitability such that we are growing at least faster than how fast the market is growing to capture that market share. On your second question regarding competition and so today, we haven't observed any material changes to the landscape. This is primarily because the ad bidding process is both real-time and partial, placing us on a level playing field with all the advertisers across platforms, including those in gaming, e-commerce, et cetera. The platform bidding mechanism is very industry or player neutral. So with our optimized engine, we continue to grow and achieve what we believe is attractive economics as we continue to scale. So we want to make sure that we continuously train and optimize our engine. Furthermore, our competitive edge is not derived from just a few core models or algorithms. And instead it stems from a comprehensive iterative feedback loop that has built by us from one single model or one label starting from day 1. So it hinges on a very deep collaboration across multiple specialized teams and being able to be very adaptive to the changing external environment. And given the vast market potential, we were confident that our sustained iterative capabilities will allow us to maintain our existing position and leadership even as changes in the external environment. Operator: We received an online question here from Thomas Wang of Goldman Sachs. His question is, please provide updates on the following topics: sales momentum per policy premium and product mix and the trend in commission rate and take rate. Huirui Wan: Thank you. So in the third quarter, our total revenue mainly driven by revenue from insurance distribution services growing at 27.9%. Revenue from system services grew a bit faster at 36.9%. Now in the third quarter, our average premium for short-term policies remained generally consistent with historical levels, so tracking within normal ranges, both year-over-year and quarter-on-quarter. Now with the trend in commission rate or as for take rate, it can be roughly estimated by dividing revenue by premium. And looking at the full year picture, we expect our take rate to remain relatively stable to historical levels. Now to emphasize, while take rate is a very important metric, it's just one of several key factors we evaluate in our broader marketing market -- broader strategy to optimize really our ROI. So we focus on balancing all of the key drivers, including take rate. But this also includes price per policy, cross-selling efficiency, customer acquisition costs and other operational metrics, not just take rate at all. Operator: That concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the conference back to management for any additional or closing comments. Unknown Executive: Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us directly or Piacente Financial Communications. Our contact information for IR in both China and the U.S. can be found in today's press release. Have a great day. Operator: For your participation in today's conference, this does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Artur Wiza: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, at this conference where we will discuss Asseco's results for the 9 months of 2025. As always, we will present the activity of the group, and we will tell you more about the finances. In the end, we will make sure that all the questions are answered. So in the meantime, feel free to send questions to us. Again, we would like to welcome Rzonca-Bajorek, CFO; and Marek Panek who is in charge of group's development. Now Marek, I'm sure, will begin with the introduction. He's smiling. So probably he has some good news to share. So Marek, over to you. Tell us how we've been doing in the last 3 quarters. Marek Panek: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Well, it should have been my show, but still, yes, we have some positive news. We are summing up a very positive -- another subsequent positive period in Asseco's activity. So now I will tell you more what were the highlights in the first 3 quarters. Let me start by summing up. You see here some key figures that I would like to communicate. First, results. As you can see, we've observed a very dynamic growth amounting to 11% compared to last year, amounting to PLN 12.3 billion. Our profit -- operating profit was growing even faster, the non-IFRS 1, up by 18% to PLN 1.4 billion. And non-IFRS net profit went up by 29% to as much as PLN 516 million. Now the profitability also improved. The non-IFRS 1 is close to 12%. So taking all this into account, we have reasons to be happy. And indeed, the first 3 quarters, we believe we're very satisfying. These results are driven by the fact that we've consistently been pursuing our strategy, the strategy that was kind of 30 years ago is based on our own products, our own software and on diversification in terms of sectors and geographies where we operate. We are getting stronger in our core areas, finance, public administration and ERP. At the same time, we've seen some promising areas looming, we've been talking about them many times, cloud, cybersecurity, defence and recently AI. In all these areas, we are more or less advanced. We take a close look at the market, and we want to make sure that we are present in all of them. And this is kind of an untypical slide because I'd like to mention one such event, which is we signed at Formula Systems, the agreement for the sales of a majority stake in Sapiens International. So this contributes to our results even though this transaction has not been consumed yet. So in August this year, an agreement was signed to sell the stake in Sapiens by Formula. With that, they will retain 18%. As a result, we are losing control over Sapiens. And that was reflected in financial results. Sapiens as a result was excluded from consolidated revenues and costs as well as income tax. So the data are no longer part of the consolidated revenues. It is now classified as discontinued operations. The net result of Sapiens is included in the profit and loss statement under net profit from discounted operations. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the end of Q4 or beginning of Q1 next year. And we already announced that previously that it will have a significant positive impact on the result of the whole group. We will tell you more about this at the next conference. Now coming back to the traditional part of my presentation, I will start with a short summary of activities in individual geographies and segments. I suggest that we focus on the graph that you can see now on the right-hand side. It's the sales revenues broken down by segments. Starting from the upper part, it's Asseco Poland. This segment was marked by the highest growth of as much as 14% period-to-period, followed by Asseco International, plus 12%. Here, we are close to the amount of PLN 3.3 billion. And the largest part is Formula Systems that observed 11% growth and achieved PLN 7.3 billion. Remember that Sapiens is excluded. So in a nutshell, I would say the following, no big highlights for the Polish segment. We look at the public one. We have a strong position there, and it grew very dynamically. Also, we would like to stress that we have a strong position in the finance segment. It's mainly banks in Poland. For Asseco International, I'd like to point out ERP solutions and solutions dedicated to banking, especially Eastern Europe, Central Eastern Europe. And then Formula Systems segment. Here, I'd like to mention record revenues of Matrix IT and some satisfactory growth of this new part, which is Michpal Group. Here, you can see the revenues broken down by product groups. Again, please focus on the graph on the right hand. Let's start from the upper part, plus 8%. It's solutions for finance. And really, it's one of the largest segments with respect to software in our group. The finance one brought us as much as 23% and the largest software based is the public administration segment. It grew at the most dynamic pace. Exactly, it was plus 16%. So we are very close to the amount of PLN 3 billion. And it's about 25% of the revenue of the whole group solutions for banking institutions. Now ERP solutions, here, we observed an almost 10% rate of growth. And looking at the remaining less software-based IT solutions, it's categorized as other IT solutions. It's plus 12%. I will then remind you what it includes and infrastructure and third-party solutions. It still generates a considerable part of our revenues, but it contributes to less -- to lower margin rates. Still, we were able to generate 10% of growth here. I'd like to underline once again our diversification. The share of the 10 top customers in our case, is 12% and 2.5% is the share of the largest customer in the group's revenues. Moving on, let's have a look now at those individual solution groups in detail. I will start with the finance one. As you can see, we have almost PLN 2.8 billion in terms of the revenues. plus 8%. That's the change. And the greatest contributor is no longer formula systems as it used to be the case. Probably now Sapiens is excluded. So right now, #1 is Asseco International. There, we have almost PLN 1.2 billion revenues and a 6% growth rate. Just to remind you, it involves Asseco Eastern Central Europe solutions for banks and payment solutions. Additionally, it's Asseco Central Europe and Asseco PST. That is the activity in Portuguese-speaking countries. In all those segments, we observed growth. So 6% is the growth of the revenues. Formula Systems takes the second place in terms of the contribution. PLN 1.1 billion is the worth of the sale, 11% growth. And excluding Sapiens, this is now Matrix. That's the main player. They have a lot of banking projects in Israel and Magic Software. Now Asseco Poland that makes us very proud for many years because we believe that our business of banks in Poland is very mature and very sound. It's a great stream of recurring revenues for the company. So here, we almost have PLN 500 million in revenues and the growth rate is 10%. Please be aware that we not only serve banks, but also brokers, houses and leasing companies. So all of that together generates almost PLN 500 million. Now solutions for public institutions. As I said before, that part grew at the most dynamic pace. So we have 16% worth of growth. We are close to PLN 3 billion in revenues. The greatest contributor here is Formula Systems. Again, Matrix IT is the main player. It's the largest IT company in Israel. And at the same time, they have a large share in the supply of solutions to the public sector. Many Israeli public institutions utilize Matrix solutions. Matrix is followed by Asseco Poland in terms of the size, PLN 900 million revenues, again, a very dynamic growth, 21%. In Poland, as you know, we cooperate with many big public institutions. I'm not going to quote them. I'm sure you know what I mean. We also have solutions for local governments, smaller clients and for the health care sector, where we are an important entity offering solutions. That dynamic growth makes us very happy, obviously. And finally, Asseco International. Here, we welcome an almost 30% growth of revenues, mainly driven by Asseco Central Europe. We were able to restore our position. That makes us very happy. You may recall some fluctuations in Czechia and in Slovakia. Some projects were put on hold in the public sector due to the geopolitical situation. Now we are happy to see a return to these projects. Also, I'd like to mention Asseco Southeastern Europe. It is coping very well in -- in this area as well as Asseco Lietuva, our Lithuanian company. Now ERP solutions. Here, we have a lot of revenues. You can see that on the screen and the revenue CAGR plus 8.6%. Asseco International here is the most important one. Remember, we consolidate here Asseco Enterprise Solutions. That operates mainly in the ERP sector. And it's observed 4% growth and generated revenues over PLN 700 million. Number two is Formula Systems segment with 14% of growth. We are close to PLN 450 million. This is mainly the contribution of Michpal. It's a new group, HR and payroll, that's their core activity. And we treat these solutions as part of ERP. Hence, that revenue is classified as this segment. Also Matrix should be emphasized here, a company that also has ERP -- a proprietary ERP system and some third-party companies and Asseco Poland here, it's only PLN 50 million. So you might think it's quite negligible. But still, it makes us very happy because they have a good growth rate of 22%. It's mainly DahliaMatic. And by the way, DahliaMatic in September was moved to Asseco Enterprise Solutions Group so that all ERP solutions are offered as a one-stop shop. And now this will be moved out to a different table. And now Other IT solutions, let me remind you what this is made up of. So first, these are the solutions that do not -- are not classified in the others. So this is our trusted services and our software related to trusted services produced by Asseco Data Systems. And this is also about resources outsourcing. This mainly comprises Magic Software in the U.S. and Israel and also platforms for software development that are supplied by Magic and dedicated solutions for different types of companies supplied by Matrix. So other solutions offered by our company over PLN 2.2 billion and a 12% growth for the whole group. Let me also mention that it also covers our ITC solutions for Poland. So this is a project for the Cyfrowy Polsat Group. In Poland, it's over PLN 150 million revenue, and this group of solutions accounts for an 8% drop in this case in Poland, but don't worry about it. This is because of some seasonal aspect of this project carried out by Cyfrowy Polsat. Now acquisitions. We are continuing the activity here and 9 new companies have joined us. So 2, both in Poland, 1 in Slovakia, 1 in Czechia, 3 in the Israeli market, 1 in Spain, 1 in Egypt. And we will continue acquiring companies. And in Q4, there will be some new companies joining us in the group. And as you know, this is part of our growth strategy, and we take it very seriously. So much from me. Now over to Karolina. Thank you. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: I will discuss the P&L. Marek has mentioned the revenues, and I would like to add a few points because revenue on software and on proprietary services is growing at a fast rate. And I will also discuss the backlog at the end of the presentation. EBITDA over PLN 1.8 billion and CAGR 8% and EBIT 1.4 plus 7% and the net profit is PLN 516 million, and this amounts to 8% of the CAGR. Now period-to-period. We can see that there is a negative effect of the currency rate. It's the negative effect is PLN 135 million. And if you have a look at the growth rate, it's around 2 point difference between the currency rates and now the organic revenue has been growing by over PLN 1 billion and the acquisition at PLN 355 million. As a result, we have the result of PLN 12.255 billion, the revenue. And then let me also mention what Marek has been discussing that this does not include Sapiens, which is recognized in a different place. Now Non-IFRS operating profit, PLN 16 million negative. This is the foreign exchange rate. We have the topic of real property sale, which was positive. This year, it's negative. And this is non-IFRS. Let me remind you -- so some one-offs have been already cleared. They were included in the results of this quarter. PLN 215 million. This is the of organic results and PLN 33 million. This is the effect of the acquisitions. Now the net profit one-offs, PLN 11 million. This is the real property sale and PLN 128 million. This is the organic result of our companies. Now let's break it down into different segments, non-IFRS net results. For some time, the trend has been quite steady. So Asseco Poland has been the largest contributor here and PLN 4 million Asseco is Formula Systems and PLN 26 million is accounted -- is contributed by Asseco International. And if you have a look at the revenues and operating profit, we have already mentioned that the growth rate amounts to 11% total services, proprietary services, 12%. And you can see the dynamics on the right, excluding the FX rate effect, and this is the change, 13% if you freeze the currency rate exchanges. 3 quarters, there is 15% and 15.1%. And now Q3 to Q3, there's a drop in profitability, but I wouldn't worry about it because this is the effect of the adjustment because of the activity in India and the acquisition that was taken away from the results of this year. And without this acquisition, profitability wouldn't be lower. And if you look at it segment by segment, you will see in a moment that there are segments where the profitability is improving. Now the revenue from operating profit, 18%. This is the growth rate. It would be 19% if it weren't for the FX rate. So profitability Q3 to 3 quarters to 3 quarters improves, and there is a significant effect of one-offs because of the M&As. And as a consequence, the growth rate is a bit lower. It's 16% after the 3 quarters. And interest results are quite similar and foreign currency transactions have a bit lower effect. There's a hyperinflation and other adjustments. We have received many questions about the effective tax rate. And as you can see, period-to-period, it goes down by 0.8 percent points. And there is also a significant impact of Asseco Poland. This is a positive tax effect and it's largely due to a one-off. This is because the whole loan time, we couldn't recognize the interest of the loan taken to buy our own shares. And there was no revenue there where we could match the cost and use it effectively in the tax declaration. But once the transaction took place and we knew that we would be selling our own shares, this option appeared -- and we could use this tax loss in this item. And this is the most important effect here in this quarter. And we've been filing requests with the tax office for interpretation to settle the taxes in the most logical way possible. And we have also obtained a positive interpretation from the tax office, which is actually contradictory to another one we received a few years ago. So we have already made some adjustments to the tax settlements for the previous years, and we will continue to make adjustments, but this takes time. Hence, the impact on the effective tax rate. Now in Q3 last year, there was a positive effect because some overstating of the TSG investment at the level of Formula Systems. It was a one-off -- there is no such effect now. That's why this time, it's smaller than what we've been used to because of the one-off last year, which was quite important. Net profit attributable to shareholders, it's PLN 453 million. You can see that the dynamic here is larger because the largest dynamics is always where we are consolidating the highest percent, which is effectively in Poland, Asseco International and lastly Formula. And this is precisely what I've been talking about. Have a look at the parent company, Asseco Poland, you can see the growth rate of the revenue and the operating profit. Here, we can see a huge improvement period-to-period, PLN 272 million compared to PLN 201 million period-to-period. So we are very proud of our parent company and its results. Now Asseco Data Systems has improved significantly as well. So if you have a look at operating profit, it's PLN 442 million. And now other companies that are recognized together in a single line. There were companies that were struggling last year like DahliaMatic. And this year, they have recovered their position and the result is positive. Therefore, this line has improved significantly. Now Formula Systems. So another record quarter for Matrix IT. We've been telling you this every quarter, but this is actually the case that every quarter, they've been improving their results, and we are very happy with the dynamics because profitability is also being maintained or improved. Magic is flat. Let me remind you that we'll have the merger of the company soon. So, once we lose control over Sapiens, it will be different, but Sapiens will be kept as associates and a single line in the P&L and Matrix and Magic will be recognized as a single group. And we think -- we hope that after the merger, there will be some operating benefits in Magic for Magic. And Michpal has had its debut on the stock exchange in Tel Aviv. And I think that this group can be expected to grow because now it's growing at a nice rate, its effectiveness is growing, and it's going to continue. Now the Asseco International segment, Central European market, Marek has mentioned the fact that the ERP group is the driver of growth here. But the core area is also a good contributor of Slovakia and Czechia. This is a huge part of the Central European market. Now South Eastern European market, an organic improvement in banking. Payment would have been better, but a write-off has been recognized here for India. Now the Western European market, as we have already told you, the result is very decent Asseco PSP. Now let's move on. This is cash generated LTM. We are very happy here. Asseco Poland, it's as you can see here, an international 107 -- 114%, Asseco Poland and Formula 104%. Now liquidity situation has been stable. Still, it's negative in 2 segments. But at the same time, I'd like to point out that the debt in 2 segments went down. For Asseco Poland, we are still paying back in accordance to the schedule, a credit facility, investment credit facility. When it comes to Formula Systems, we are also paying back. So the debt is ever smaller. The cost of debt servicing are also expected to go down considerably. For some time now, we've been presenting to you also proportional recognition. So informing you what our results would be according to the ownership logic if the percentage rates were consolidated in an effective way without -- so non-IFRS results. This is proportional revenues for 2024. The foreign exchange impact is here not as considerable. It's minus PLN 40 million and at the same time, PLN 560 million, that's the positive impact of organic results. PLN 67 million was generated by acquisitions. And looking at the operating profit, minus PLN 4 million, that's foreign exchange rates, minus PLN 14 million one-offs, PLN 155 million organic results and minus 2 acquisitions. And again, proportional recognition of the revenues and operating profit. Here, the dynamics changes and efficiency are higher, where the percentage rate is higher, the results show better dynamics and better profitability. So look at proprietary software and services. Here, we generated plus 12% and EBITDA profitability 1.1%. So you can see here in quarter 3, an improvement in terms of profitability. And the same applies to operating profit in an accumulative manner. So accrually, 0.5 percentage points. That's the profitability of the operating profit. Now let's have a look at the balance sheet in the proportional methodology. As you can see, the debt is not as consolidated in formula. And for Asseco Poland, it's close to 100%. So it seems we are on the safe side. Still, we are looking at the working capital in more detail to make sure that we use it as efficiently as possible. Now cash flows, proportional recognition. Cash generated, again, a very satisfying picture, much better than in the consolidated recognition, 112%. That's the cash conversion ratio for Asseco Group. Asseco Poland segment accounts for 115%. Let's have a look at the backlog, order backlog. At the proprietary software and services level, we can see the backlog amounts to over PLN 12 billion in fixed foreign exchange rates, 13% is the growth at the level of the group, plus 14% is the segment Asseco Poland. And the backlog has been growing mainly for the parent company, but it's also the case for Asseco Systems, Asseco International, again, 14% growth. In all of the companies mentioned here, we see great growth rates. Formula Systems, it's plus 12% -- and that's it for me, actually. Artur Wiza: Thank you very much, Karolina. And thank you very much, Marek, for presenting our highlights and the most important events. And now we will move on to the questions that you've kindly sent to us. We will hope to answer them all. The first one is how you're going to manage the money that you get from Sapiens transaction and the other one that was mentioned, which of the settlement will be made next year? Higher dividends? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: For the first part, TSS, so we already have the money. It actually already came to us. And so now we are trying to allocate the money in such a way that we have a good deposit rate in the interim perspective. But ultimately, we want the money to be allocated to pay out dividends in 2 batches probably. Of course, it's the shareholders' meeting that will take the ultimate decision, but that's our original intention. So the money will be translated into dividends. Now when it comes to the other transaction, which is the sales of Sapiens, probably the deal will be made at the beginning of December -- sorry, at the end of December or beginning of January. And then the money will be settled -- the money will be paid to Formula Group. And there, a decision will be taken how it will be managed and allocated, whether it will be used for new acquisitions or some alternative forms of capital acquisition or dividends. At this point, we don't know this yet. We don't know how the money will be allocated. That remains to be seen. But as soon as we know, we will let you know. Artur Wiza: Thank you very much. Next question, how much money Asseco will get from the sales of Sapiens? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Actually, it's a question that I've been trying to explain already in the previous one. So the recognition of result is a different story than the ultimate money. The ultimate value will be allocated between shareholders in the form of a dividend. So as I said, once the decision is taken, we will let you know. And again, the loss of control of Sapiens is something that will also impact our results, and we will tell you what money we are exactly talking about as soon as this is calculated. However, let's remember that it will be driven. Well, we know the worth of the transaction. But remember about the costs that have to be covered and as well as net assets. So these calculations will also be driven by taxes, by foreign exchange rates. So the result will be positive, but its ultimate value is -- remains to be checked, to be calculated. Artur Wiza: Thank you very much. What are expectations when it comes to EF or electronic invoice implementation in the next quarter? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Well, it's hard to expect. It's hard to estimate that at this point. CEF is part of a bigger project. For sure, it's something that should increase the demand for our products and services. So I guess in all of the sectors where the implementation of CEF will be an obligation, we will definitely see the result. I guess the most natural area would be companies that supply ERP and ERP-related solutions, such as Asseco Business Solutions. But I can't give you any exact rates at this point. Artur Wiza: Now improved profitability of the parent company, what is it driven by? And is it driven by AI? And I guess it means artificial intelligence and not Asseco International, right? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Well, yes, indeed, improved profitability in the parent company is quite significant. I agree. And the reason behind it is the following. We have a lot on our plate right now. We are trying to use all the opportunities. And I guess, in none of the segments, we have any free capacities because we are really using our capacities to the full. So I think this effect is what we actually already announced in 2023. Back then, we told you that we feel a lot of pressure on the payroll and on vacancies. Well, these problems are no longer the case that much. We still have some bottlenecks when it comes to people allocation. Of course, it's easier when you have an order backlog for the current year and for the next one, and it's easier to manage and to plan your people in the optimum way. That's why the efficiency improved. So we made some extraordinary effort in many areas. I'd like to say that very clearly. Another reason is a very special situation, which is in all operating segments, we've seen a very good year. 2025 has been a very positive year. None of our businesses incurred any losses. I think it's a long-term effect of the fact that we've been fighting to diversify our revenue streams and of mastering the planning. To some extent, it's probably the result of our optimization efforts and using different technologies, including AI, obviously. So these technologies have been helping us to ensure even better quality of the software to our clients. AI is actually at different stages of production. So the products that we offer also include the AI component. Still, at this point, we can't give you any exact rate to express the actual impact of AI on improved efficiency or productivity. Think about AI in testing automation. In our case, software, thanks to AI, is tested much better. So then also at the service point, we have fewer tickets. So the servicing guys can be more efficient. However, it's really hard to capture that effect in numbers. Artur Wiza: Right. I think that would be actually great to introduce the AI team so that they can -- at least the leader, maybe not the whole team, so that they can tell us more about our AI solutions that we've implemented so far. Next question, could you please give us an additional comment on Asseco International, it's [indiscernible] company that was added to the group recently. And what about the write-off for NextBank? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Marek, would you like to take this one? Marek Panek: Ladies first. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: Right. So let me tackle first our activity in India and Dubai, Asseco Southeastern Europe. The acquisition of the company was written off in this year's results. So looking at the balance sheet, you can see the impact in a couple of items. But efficiently -- effectively, if you look at the result -- net result, it's not such a huge impact. It's PLN 3.5 million up to PLN 4 million. That's the impact on Asseco Group's results. Now this is driven by the following fact. Back then, when we bought the company, a big part of the payment for the controlling package was a conditional obligation. And that obligation was meant to be paid only when some results would be delivered in the future. When that decision was taken, by the management, we came to the conclusion that, that acquisition is not reasonable. So it would be fair to make a write-off. So the write-off is about such assets as the goodwill and some liabilities. On the other hand, there was room to write off that conditional obligation or liability. So the net result is not as impressive in the end. As to the second part of the question, NextBank, we acquired that group some years ago in 2018, right? Marek Panek: Yes. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: And at that time, it was kind of an attempt to try out our operation in a different sector. We invested in a start-up actually. So we patiently waited for a breakthrough, but it never happened. Therefore, we decided that at the point of an individual report or statement, we would write off these investments and the loans that were granted to the company. And then in the consolidated report or statement, we wrote off also the goodwill. Marek Panek: But don't think that there is anything wrong happening in this company because this is not the case. The company is operating. And let me remind you that this is a company registered in Czech, in Poland with a brand with a subsidiary in Philippines and it manufactures a cloud solution subscription based. And over the years, there have been around 50 implementations. So there is quite a big group of client banks that rely on the software. At a certain point, there was an issue because the company started working together with huge banks. And some -- one of the banks made huge promises about IT projects. So NextBank established a huge team to implement the project. But at the end of the day, the budget got cut off heavily and the demand was much poor, hence, the loss because of this part of the activity. But we -- we still believe that the company will pick up and we'll get new customers. Now the subscription-based revenue covers the cost of activity. Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: So I think that the cash flow will be positive next year. Yes, but we will see the positives next year. So the scale of the write-off, it's PLN 25 million in the individual and PLN 14 million in the consolidated statement. Artur Wiza: Next question. Can we expect an additional dividend because of the sale of shares to TSS this year? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: And this was Santa Claus asking, we are waiting. We have until the 2nd of December. this would have to be a down payment, and we are still waiting for the change of the Articles of Association to be registered officially. This has been already decided in the general meeting, but this needs to be processed. And I think that around the usual dividend day, we will break the news to you, but no decisions have been made yet. So this also depends on our shareholders. It's up to them. But today, it's too early to say because the Articles of Association haven't been amended officially yet. Artur Wiza: What do you think about the forecast for Asseco Poland, the outlook in 2026? Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek: So if you have a look at the results in 2025, they are quite or even very positive, and they make us optimistic. And a huge part of current projects will continue next year. Now we are doing the budgeting. Nothing makes us worry about the Polish segment and next year to the contrary because if you have a look at the backlog, contracts are growing at a very decent rate. So if we succeed in improving the efficiency, the prospects are very good. But it doesn't mean I'm promising you anything right now that I'm promising you the same results because the results are really spectacular in 2025. And partially, this is because of the momentum. But speaking about the outlook, -- now we have to focus on performing the contracts and improving the effectiveness, the efficiency and not on gaining new contracts that much. Artur Wiza: Thank you. There is one question left. Could you please share the recording of this presentation as soon as possible on the website? Yes, certainly, we'll do it soon in Polish and English. Thank you. Thank you for all the questions. And please stay in touch with our Investor Relations department and follow us on the during the conferences we are going to attend. We will be attending the conference with [indiscernible] in Prague this week. We will be speaking about our results over there as well. And I would like to invite you for the conference on the results from 2025 next year. And Adam Goral will also attend, he's sending his best wishes right now. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Michael Büchsner: Thank you very much, and welcome to our Full Year 2025 Call. My name is Michael Buchsner. I'm the CEO of the Stabilus Group. And today, you have, as always, with me, Andreas Schroder, Investor Relations, but this time around, first time also in the discussion, Andreas Jaeger, our new CFO. I'll introduce him at a later stage, and then he for sure, will also take part actively of the discussion. He will lead us through the financial portion, so the details by region, business unit and other factors he'll talk about a bit. And then, he will also talk about a little bit CapEx, expenditures we did, net working capital. So, all the finance-related points he'll touch upon. And I'm really happy to have him as part of the Stabilus Group now. But before we go that route, let me confirm the 2025 preliminary results. We all know it's a very challenging environment we are in. And we did release our preliminary results already on November 10. And here as we confirm all these numbers, we've been in a very stable process to close the year and also in a very, very stable financial position as a group, because in a very challenging environment, we achieved EUR 1.3 billion in terms of sales and an adjusted EBIT margin of 11%, which is outstanding given the market circumstances and it leaves us with free cash flow of EUR 119 million for the year, and that leads to a net leverage ratio of around about 3 to 2.96, which we've been talking before about and which is actually spot on with our prognosis we gave in August. Yes. Also the overarching topic for us, and we saw it in the last call and talked about it also in numerous meetings is our transformation program. Throughout the session, I will also give an update on the transformation program, which greatly reduces personnel and operating costs to make us long-term sustainable as a group. So, on the next page, we actually -- I would like to again welcome our new CFO, Andreas Jaeger. Born in 1972 in Switzerland. So, he's a Swiss citizen. And in terms of a professional background, it's very important to us, not only that he has a broad background in terms of financial, but he also has a very profound background in terms of industry business around the globe, global businesses like Forbo, he used to be a CFO there and then also the CEO interim wise. Geberit, also a very well-known company dedicated on different areas on the planet and also very focused on industrial business and sales channel, sales channel management, selling businesses to very challenging markets as well. And this actually helps us as a group because, as you know, our big aim and target is to expand our industrial business. And, Andreas Jaeger, therefore, is actually the perfect fit to our organization to basically strive with us for this target, enriching our industrial business, taking the most out of our industrial footprint, our sales teams aside of the well-positioned automotive business, we are anyways as an organization, taking well care of. So, in terms of the professional part and education, Bachelor degree in Business Administration. And this is basically along with his broad experience as Executive Master in European and International Law, a profound education to basically backfill also the needs of the Stabilus Group in terms of the technical knowledge of this position. So, I'd like again to welcome Andreas. Welcome aboard. We're really happy to have you with us. And as I said, he will lead us through the financial portion then later on. And for sure, he will jump in right away in our Q&A session. So welcome. Good. So we go ahead, and I would like to talk about the main points of our business as we stand and the things we currently work on to continuously improve our business to where it is and where we want to be at 2030. Then, the organizational transformation is going on. We actually are basically about halfway through, I would say. We took all the necessary decisions in terms of how to streamline down the organization, where to streamline it down. We've been talking to our people and are in the rollout phase. Half of the people basically at the end of the day have been talked with. Half of them agreed already to all the actions we are taking. We're taking personnel-related measures, because we know -- we all of us know that this is a good time basically to streamline down the organization. As you all know, we started 2 years already ahead again ago with streamlining down our operations, predominantly focusing on the area of co-brands with next step in terms of Automation, a next step in terms of getting more efficient on the operational side. And with these measures we are taking now, and we've been announcing them a couple of months ago, we are taking out 6% of the global workforce also on the overhead side, because we need to streamline down the organization to become more effective, basically to focus on the right things in business to rightsize our overhead structure with a given circumstances. And for sure, with that, we confirm our STAR 2030 strategy and are striving for EBIT margin targets and this initiative greatly helps us with that. So, we also talk about the different locations. You know that the discussions in terms of streamlining down our footprint are things which we always have on the radar. Just to mention, we do consolidate some German footprint here in the U.S. We moved the Singapore operations and sales offices into Thailand. Just as a few example on how we work on a daily basis to optimize our organization. So, on the next page, some more details on that. And I just want to repeat things, because it's very important to know-how on the financial side, we are performing in terms of our streamlining program, our efficiency program, our restructuring and reorganization program. As you know, we started it in September. We announced late September that we will accrue some money. We did accrue EUR 18 million. So that means the effect on the net profit is already in the numbers in the financial year 2025. In '26, we will for sure see a cash outflow along the line as we basically pay severance payments. However, the big chunk of net profits or the net profit number was already basically stated by end of September with this impact of the EUR 18 million. So, the payback is less than a year. We start this ramp-up phase as we speak. So the first 5-6 months of the year, as I said, we are halfway through with our reorganization, reshaping, restructuring activities. The activities go over the past of the first 5, 6 months of the year. Then we see the effect for the second half of the year. So, we should see that back-end loaded in the year and then a full effect of EUR 19 million cost savings in 2027. Starting 2028, there will be EUR 32 million recurring annual cost savings, because that's when we backfill also all the savings out of the operational activities we've been doing alongside. So, to make the long story short, again, the net profitability numbers was already stated as of September. So the profits are backed in the old year's numbers. The cash outflow will be this year, because we accrued that severance money for the 450 employees and the payback is less than a year, which will materialize in the second half of the year 2026 for us. So, on the next page, I would also like to highlight in technical terms some initial and additional activities we are doing. You know we are a technical company. We are very proud as the Stabilus Group that we invest even in challenging times in the future. So, we invest in new products, we invest in new processes and we invest in capacity, because many of these businesses, predominantly on the Automotive side are already booked. And this is what we take care of with our CapEx number. Andreas will talk about that at a later stage in this presentation. And I would like to highlight, first of all, a technical product, and then I will also go a little bit into the sales channel management in this presentation to tell you also what's new on that area. So, first of all, we introduced a new e-Gripper family. Why is this important? You know in the industry trend, we see that the companies are moving away from pneumatics towards electrification. Electrification is all over the place, because it's more reliable, it's less energy consuming. And also it gives a feedback and is needed for smart production, because it tells you the position of the grippers, it tells you the force you're gripping with, it tells you the distances and measures how to process, which is important for quality measures. That's why our customers, they're also very keen on getting a new product like that, the electric gripper. We developed that over the course of the last 12 months, and it's now pushed into the market with three different sizes even. So it's a perfect tool for robotics. And robotics is all over the place. It's not only in industry areas, it's also in consumer goods production and wherever in the terms of logistics. There are logistics providers who are big customers of ours with this new gripper series. And I wanted to highlight that because it's groundbreaking in terms of new products for our growth in the future. How do we sell this whole thing? We'll talk about it. Next page, please. Because at the end of the day, we started also a Stabilus for Automation initiative. You know that years back, we did harmonize our sales teams around the globe. We also did the same thing over the course of the last 12 months with Destaco. And now, we are in a very good stage of harmonizing our sales teams and bringing both companies even closer together also in terms of selling the different brands. So, we have the right products on hand. We did develop the right products to begin with. And we started the initiative Stabilus for Automation, which basically leverage our combined strengths. The expertise in motion control, the good brand portfolio and the multi-industry portfolio in -- at the end of the day, bringing together the best of both. So, the positioning and handling, which now both companies sell and do, world-class automation and clamping, which we combine the forces of Stabilus and Destaco to begin with and with a stronger market position now in the U.S. So combining and harmonizing these two initiatives, Stabilus into Stabilus 4 Automation brings us a step forward in terms of how we appeal the customer, how we sell products, for example, the e-Gripper. But also many other products in the automation space. So if we now jump ahead on page, I would like to go into the financial numbers. So in a nutshell, just to summarize what we've been talking about on the first pages is strong result of the last year in a very challenging business environment, as we all know. We're actually hitting the right steps in terms of technology and sales management to boost sales. And then also, we have a strong financial performance to begin with, with our initiatives for sales and pushing our products into the different market segments. Yes, in terms of our financial position, and here, you see the quarter 4 numbers. I'd like to highlight a couple of points. You see us performing with EUR 316 million sales in the last quarter of the year. EBIT margin was basically in the range of the company's margin for the whole year in the range of 11%. And the profitability was at this point impacted in the fourth quarter by this accrual we did of EUR 18 million for our reorganization restructuring measures. This is why you see here this negative impact. So, as I said before, we did accrue this money last year. So, it was profit relevant in terms of cash. We'll see the impact this year as we basically pay severance payments. Last year's cash performance was very good with a free cash flow in the quarter of almost EUR 60 million. We basically got to a full year number of EUR 119 million, which we see on the next page. So, the full year numbers basically, as stated at the beginning, show EUR 1.3 billion in terms of sales, adjusted EBIT margin of 11%. As I said, profitability was impacted predominantly by the transformation money we did accrue. And then the cash position is in terms of free cash flow, EUR 119 million. And for sure, Andreas will go into deeper detail in a second on these numbers. But in the given circumstances, in the given market, this is a very stable result. And also, it did allow us to pay back some debt on top of the very successful refinancing we did to further stabilize and build the right foundation for our company to start with. So, this is in terms of quarterly number and full year number. On the next page, you also see that visualize. There are two more pages coming from my side before I hand over to Andreas. So, you see the business development in the fourth quarter. You see us being impacted in Americas by lower sales, but predominantly in Asia Pacific. So, what happened there? I mean, in numerous meetings, we talked about that. The bigger point in Asia Pacific was that exactly in the fourth quarter of the Stabilus business year, the Trump administration announced a 100% tariff at the meanwhile they found an agreement, but this was a shock to the Asia Pacific, predominantly China organization for sure, which did cause that products like automation equipment, but also general industry equipment, which was kind of prior to that announcement, sourced in China and shipped to the U.S. basically came to an end instantly, because of these high tariffs, because all the manufacturing equipment transfers have been burdened with 100% impact on tariffs to the U.S. So that's why U.S. companies stopped basically or deferred ordering. I want to highlight it's deferred ordering. There was no cancellation. So, now things are coming up a bit again, but there is some cautiousness in predominantly China, because of this unstable geopolitical situation and also the unrest in terms of tariff situation. So, in the full year, that means we saw this impact in Asia Pacific, which is all driven by China, with 12% year-over-year decline, as I said, predominantly driven by that all the exports out of China of equipment to the U.S. came to a stall. But also, there was a secondary impact because, a lot of the consumers in China were basically, yes, left with uncertainty. And so, the consumer indices also went down, as you all know. And this had an impact on our business to begin with. One more point, which you also see in the numbers when it comes to the EBIT margin, but also Andreas will talk a bit about this, is we had a transfer pricing adjustment, which was driven by a Destaco-related move of some of the profits from the Americas to EMEA. And this is something which impacted us in the fourth quarter. But at the end of the day, for the complete year, I'd say Americas and EMEA, solid, stable with a slight upwards trend. Asia Pacific impacted by the tariff situation to begin with. And with that, Andreas, I will hand over to you. First meeting for you. Welcome again, and I leave it with you to talk about the regions a little more in depth. Andreas Jaeger: Thank you, Michael, and to all participants, also a very warm welcome from my side. Following the introduction on group level, I will now go deeper into the region, the market segments. And then I round up my part of the presentation with some more information on the investments before I then hand back to Michael for the outlook. So, starting with the Americas. In Americas, we saw a growth of 2.5% in the top line in the revenue. We had two major impacts in there. On one hand, we had the first full year consolidation of Destaco. And you remember in 2024, Destaco was included as of April 1. So, we had 6 months of the results of Destaco in our accounts, whereas in 2025, Destaco is included for the whole financial year. On the other hand, we had a significant negative impact from foreign exchange. The U.S. dollar weakened and we present our accounts in euro. So there, we saw an impact of minus 7%, which is more than EUR 30 million only in 2025. In Americas, Destaco grew, so they contributed positively to the minus 1.2%. The major negative impact we saw came from Automotive and in Automotive from Powerise. In a competitive environment in Americas, we had to adjust our prices. So, the bigger impact came from prices more than from the volumes. If we then look at the EBIT, we also have two major impacts on the EBIT of the period. On one hand, we included Destaco, as I mentioned before, adding 21.2%. But on the other hand, we have this harmonization of the transfer pricing policy following the consolidation of Destaco. There, we added almost EUR 8 million of cost into the region. Important to note, this has a significant impact on Americas, but on group level, this is neutral. And also looking then on the margin, we had in last year a margin of 10.2% in the EBIT. This year, 7.9%. About half of it came from the change in the transfer pricing. Moving then on to Europe. In Europe, we saw a growth of 3.2%. And also here, we had the first consolidation of Destaco that added about 5% to the whole revenue. In Europe, the FX impact was minor and most of the operations are in euro. So, this was a lesser extent. When we look at the segment where this minus 1.4% came from, it's mainly of the negative impact from Automotive Gas Spring. Positive signs we saw from Automotive Powerise and Industrial components, the whole pricing was a less issue in Europe. Looking then on the EBIT, we saw a plus of 20.6%. Here, you see now the positive impact. So, the back swing from the harmonization of the transfer pricing policy. Here, it added EUR 9.6 million. And on the other hand, the big impact -- positive impact came from the first consolidation of Destaco with plus 9.1%. In Asia Pacific, the top line was reduced by 12.4%. Here, we had a minor impact from the first consolidation of Destaco that was positive. On the other hand, we had a minor negative impact from the FX rates in Asia Pacific. Almost all of the minus 12.4% are driven by China. In China, we really see a reduction on one hand on the volume, but also pricing-wise in the competitive pricing environment, we have to adjust our prices. We still grew in the industrial components that we saw an organic growth. The major negative impact was China. And in China, it was Automotive and within Automotive, more from Powerise than from our Gas Springs. Moving on to the EBIT. The EBIT went down with 29.3%. This was obviously heavily impacted by the lower volume and the lower prices. But if you then look at the margin, and we had a margin of 17.5% last year and this year, 14.1%. So you see even with the decline organically of 13.6% in the top line, we could maintain a solid EBIT margin of 14.1%, and that demonstrates our ability to adjust or to flexibilize our fixed cost in order to maintain a profitable business. On the next two slides, I would like to go into the details on the development by market segment. Here, just to highlight the two most important drivers in here, that's only Q4, basically Automotive, minus 10%. Please also note here, we also had a negative currency impact and then where you see a solid growth of 9% is our third biggest segment is the distributor and the independent aftermarket. The full year by market segment, I just would highlight the first two lines, Automotive, similar picture as in the quarter with minus 10%. Also here, this line clearly impacted by the negative currency exchange impact. Industry Machinery & Automation, where Destaco plays the major part of it, it was positive with 61%. This is the first consolidation, but in the footnote, you also see that Destaco as a business had an organic growth of 5.8% year-over-year. Our net leverage situation, you can see on the following slide. We did reduce our net financial debt by EUR 36 million. So here, you see a positive development. The net leverage went slightly up. And the reason being is the result, the EBITDA, but our goal remains and we are committed to bring down our net leverage ratio in the next 3 years down to below the 2%. Our long-term target also remains unchanged. We target a net leverage ratio of 1%. Looking at the net working capital position, and also the net working capital position, we could reduce by EUR 23 million, and we introduced the new ABS factoring. And also going forward, the net working capital and the development of the net working capital will be a priority on my desk. We want to further roll out the ABS program, and we also want to optimize our net working capital in general and particularly the inventory level. Our investment pattern you can see on the next page. This year, we invested EUR 88.5 million in our company. And I think this is a clear demonstration that we are committed to our long-term growth path. Also in a challenging environment, we maintain our strategic investments and we invest in our company. On the next slide, you see then the split. I think that's the even more interesting part, a significant part, EUR 30.8 million or 35% of our investment goes into R&D. We need to develop innovative products in order to secure our long-term profitable growth. That's then also the second biggest portion of our CapEx that goes into growth CapEx is 34%. And then it's maintenance. We need to maintain and keep our plants and machinery in order to have an efficient production process and then this part, CHF 13.5 million goes into optimization. Yes, with this, I hand back to Michael for the outlook. Michael Büchsner: Thank you very much, Andreas. And yes, over the course of the next four pages, we'll talk a little bit more about financial numbers for next year before I summarize them and we'll have a Q&A session. So, in terms of where we stand, we all know it's EUR 1.3 billion, 11% EBIT margin and a fantastic cash flow of EUR 119 million. For next year, our forecast range is between EUR 1.1 billion and EUR 1.3 billion sales, an EBIT margin of 10% to 12% EBIT margin on the adjusted side and EUR 80 million to EUR 110 million in terms of free cash flow. So, that are basically our numbers which we see for next year in terms of the forecast. And on the next couple of pages, I'd like to talk a little bit about the details which are behind that plan, because I think this really matters and should allow you also to feed your charts and simulate and make your assumptions as well. So, you all know that our numbers are to begin with based on GDP growth and light vehicle production. GDP growth should be positive 3% next year in '26 over '25. And this is something which we take as a baseline for sure, with some cautiousness because nobody knows how the geopolitical unrest and also the tariff situation at the end of the day for the next year impacts our numbers in the same way than the economy. And you saw there were some quite significant impacts in the year 2025 to begin with. Yes. On the light vehicle production growth, we assume 91 million produced vehicles, which is slightly less than this year, up 2% to 3%. And this is something which we also see for next year, pretty stable Europe and North America, but also on the lower side with negative 2% and in America -- in Asia, probably down 3%. So, that's the numbers in terms of GDP and light vehicle production. These two numbers impact our business the most, because GDP is on the Industrial side are major and light vehicle production for sure, with whatever is automated -- automotive-related on the component side. Yes, cost inflation at the end of the day, material expenses, we see kind of stable, right? We are wrestling every day with our suppliers also to get some savings out of our supply base. However, in uncertain times with quite stable sales, their abilities are also reaching a floor. So it means we see no inflation big scale, but also no deflation. So, we see a slight decrease of our material rates for next year, but in a ballpark number of 0.5 percentage point. Labor cost inflation, it's in the -- end of the day, it's in the range of 6%, right? Western world, a little less, but we still see, for example, in Romania, but also in Mexico and China, predominantly in the lower cost areas, an inflation, which is above average, we would assume in the Western world. So, we've been calculating with about 6% year-over-year next year. Important is also the FX rates for sure, USD 1.2 to the euro and CNY 8.5 to euro. So that's what we plan for. On the next page, we see that coming down to the regions. And I've been touching on that a little beforehand. The yellow circle, you see the complete year, complete company, the Stabilus Group. So then followed by Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Americas, we see EUR 400 million to EUR 460 million. We see basically 9% to 11% EBIT margin in that range. Similar scale in EMEA, EUR 500 million to EUR 570 million and 10% to 11.5% EBIT margins. So these two regions fairly stable at the end of the day. And as I said, this is why Destaco also was a great move for us, not only that we are stronger in the Industrial side, we also put more focus on the Americas side, which you know these days is a good thing to do. It delivers stability and it makes sure that we have good stakes in both Americas and EMEA region to begin with. Asia Pacific for us, for sure, that's predominantly China, EUR 200 million to EUR 270 million in terms of sales, 12% to 14.5% EBIT margin. That's the target for next year. And as I said, and you see that on the bottom line, GDP growth is in America, 2%; EMEA, 1.5%; China, 4% growth. So, there should be some growth coming on the GDP side. Light vehicle production, however, there are clouds on the sky still, right? Uncertain electro-mobility, tariff situation, consumer sentiment low. And this is why actually GDP. So S&P numbers show Americas and EMEA down 2% and Asia Pacific down 3%. So these are the fundament of our basis planning also for the region in EMEA and Asia Pacific to begin with. We still see some pricing pressures. We always see in the Automotive side. This year, we can deal with majority of it. You know that we saw last year some price deteriorations in China and in Americas, because of high competitive pressure. This basically this year, we still see some of it, but we can overcompensate that or compensate that with the activities we do on the technical side and on the purchasing side and efficiency side. High inflation, Romania and Mexico, I mentioned here, but that's what we also see for China. But in China, it depends on pretty much how also the general business development is because we all know when the general business development is rather soft, then you also -- it's easier to negotiate with labor representatives, the tariff increases in the different regions. And this is something where we think China is -- could be okay. Romania and Mexico is more difficult to discuss with where we see still a labor cost inflation. So on the next page, also some more numbers, right? The PPA, EUR 30 million for '26, EUR 16 million out of that is Destaco PPA. This is reduced EUR 29 million to EUR 26 million. Thereof, EUR 16 million Destaco. CapEx, important to know, Andreas talked about it. We invest majorly in the development of new products and processes and equipment to produce. This is mainly concentrating also on the Automotive side, on the areas of door actuation where we see good growth in the years coming. We've got really fantastic awards. We are market leader in that segment. And the market leader with currently 40% market share on the door actuation, there we have very firm contracts for the years to come. They'll kick in starting end of next year. And then, we also invest, for sure, on the Industrial side in electrification, smartification of products. Andreas mentioned that, and this is, for sure, the biggest bucket of our investments. It's probably 2/3 of the investments. For sure, we do some base maintenance, but it should write things off the table like -- there were some questions we always got underinvestment of Destaco. That's not the case. Destaco, it's where we invested -- it's we invest and this is why we also wanted to highlight that a lot in new technologies and also a lot in operational capacities for years to come. And less in maintenance, we invest in maintenance, what we need in maintenance to do, but it's not overly excessive in that area. So that's why I think the pie chart is very good. Transformation program, to keep it short, we talked about it, EUR 18 million. We did accrue EUR 19 million is a full year cash benefit to us or full year cost benefit in 2027, going up to EUR 30 million during '28 even. Net working capital, I think it's really a good number to be between 17% and 20%. That's something which we saw on the graph. I think that's a good rate. The group tax rate will be anywhere between 25% and 30%. Currently, we're in the range of 27% rather in the mid part of it. And yes, dividend -- and you saw that in the note we distributed, we also stick to our commitments we gave to our investors. We know some of the investors are less interested, others are way more, I tell you, in terms of dividend, because some of our membership, they finance their activities, their offices with dividends. We did cut it down to a lower dividend than in the years before, still being in the range of 40%. So this time around, it's EUR 0.35, which we suggest for the AGM. And I think that's a good number. And on one hand side, it should show our membership who take care of dividend policy that even in difficult times, we let people participate on the net profits the company makes. And on the other hand side, there is good cash still remaining to do other activities for capital allocation like we discussed them beforehand. Yes. And with that, I would like to summarize for you 2025, for sure, we've been impacted like everybody else in the industry out there, but we did do a very fantastic job in terms of EBIT margin and cash generation to begin with. And the AGM '26, we proposed EUR 0.35 per share, total dividend of close to EUR 9 million, which is coming, yes, 37%, closer to 40% of our net profit as we always promised. And then for sure, given the current circumstances and difficulties in the market, we see this as a transitional year being in the range of EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.3 billion sales with an EBIT margin of 11% to 12% -- 10% to 12%, sorry, and a free cash flow of EUR 80 million to EUR 110 million. For sure, with whatever we do, and you saw that with the investments we do in the long run, right, 2/3 of the capital expenditures we do is in new technologies and capacities for contracts we won for the next 2 to 5 years. We invest in the right things and very committed to our STAR 2030 strategy, and we will give full push to reach our numbers. And with that, I would like to open the Q&A session. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And the first question is from Akshat Kacker, JPMorgan. Akshat Kacker: Welcome, Andreas. Akshat from JPMorgan. I have three questions, please. The first one around the full year 2026 outlook. Obviously, a cautious guide at this point of the year, and the range is definitely wider than what we have seen in your previous outlooks. So, could you just give us more details and I think starting with business divisions and then going into different geographies. So, if you could just talk about overall business development expectations across Powerise, Industrial Components and Industrial Automation, those three segments going into next year? What are the key growth drivers? Or where do you see risks across those business divisions? And the second part, as I said, on the regional outlook, you are clearly expecting sharp declines of 10% to 15% at the midpoint of the guide, specifically in APAC and Americas. So could you just give us more details on what exactly is going on in those geographies? The second question is on the transformation program. And I see that you're talking about $32 million of gross savings by 2028, but you're also talking about higher-than-expected cost inflation in Mexico and Romania, along with other moving parts that you mentioned, materials and energy. So could you just help us put all of that in context and talk about the expectations around net savings, if possible, by 2027 and '28? How do you expect overall inflation elements to balance out on the P&L, please? And the last one is probably some kind of guidance on the first quarter to help us put this guide for the full year into perspective. If you could just share some more details on how the first quarter of FY '26 has been progressing on a sales or an adjusted EBIT level? Michael Büchsner: Absolutely. Thank you very much, Akshat. So, I will begin with answering these in essence, four questions you're having. And then for sure, I will also turn it over to Andreas if there is any further comment from his side. But to begin with, you said '26 is a cautious guidance, wider range than in the years before. What are the growth drivers by region? That is in essence your first question. And for the year 2026, it's our aim to have a robust guidance. So, this is what we wanted to start with, right? So that means, if you remember back in last year, the range was basically similar in terms of EBIT margin, for example, at that time, we've been between 11% and 13%, so a bandwidth of 2%. And this time around, it's also a bandwidth of 2%. So that means, our target is always, we build up a plan on the financial basis of S&P and GDP. So how we -- how it works is, we take the GDP numbers, which next year show a positive of 3% and we take the S&P number, which show anywhere between 2% and 3% a decline for next year. And then we put that into the relation of, we have 55% Automotive business, 45% Industry business. And then this is how the fundamentals come together for our business plan. So what does this mean in terms of growth drivers? We took this 3% of GDP growth for the Industrial sector and basically did plan that straight through to our numbers. There's some upsides and downside. There's always also on the Industrial side, some pricing pressure, which we think we can overcompensate with some initiatives we do to increase our cost position. So, on the Industrial side, that's straightforward. On the Industrial side, there's also another impacting factor, which is the tariff situation, a couple of percentage points focusing on the North American business in terms of headwinds, which we also think that to 90% around about we can push towards our customers. So that's basically when it comes for growth drivers, the business of Industry business. How does the growth drivers of the Industry business materialize over the regions? Europe and North America, basically stable growth there of this 3% and probably a little better growth in China, but there is the big question mark for sure of how the region in Asia Pacific in a primary and secondary impact deal with the geopolitical unrest predominantly also the pressure of uncertainty of tariffs. This is what we saw this year. There was basically a roller coaster, and that's why we saw a downward trend also on the Industrial side in China. So when it comes then to the Automotive business, we also took the numbers of S&P. We've been taking the numbers which show a decline of 2% in the area of Europe and North America and a decline of 3% in China. We took that across the board for all Gas Springs and Powerise systems. Then we added back some relief, because of door actuation, which should kick in starting next June. Because next June, July, there is the ramp-up of MI -- Xiaomi Auto, which is adding back for a full year effect, EUR 15 million sales on door actuation, but this starts in June. And then we saw -- we see towards August, September, so after the summer shutdown that for the model all X series of BMW, the sales of door actuation kick in for BMW. So that means we took on GDP side what we have on hand from GDP. And on the light vehicle production, we took the light vehicle production baked it into all Powerise and Gas Springs and then added back volumes on the door actuation starting June, July, August with MI Auto and also with the business of Model X of BMW. So -- and this is with our firm contracts, and that's why we invested in the past year in the CapEx side, predominantly in developing these products alongside with capacities to build these vehicles. So this is how, in a nutshell, the growth drivers are performing. In the same way, you asked about the regional split, Americas and Asia Pacific, how do sales develop here. In Americas, we see some cautiousness in terms of vehicle for build, minus 2%. But on the other hand, 3% GDP growth on the Industrial side. Yes, there is some pricing pressure, but we think we can offset this pricing pressure in America with technical changes. There is some pressure left in Asia Pacific. There is a very strong local competition there with predominantly engine. This is something where there might be a gap of 1% or 2%. But also here, we try to close this gap of price deterioration. So, in terms of price deterioration in general terms, we did bake into the numbers, 0.5% price inflation for Gas Springs in the range of 2 to 3% of standard Powerise systems in China, we think that the price inflation will be in the range of 5%. We will offset majority of this, but there is still more pressure in Asia than in other regions. But we think the vast majority next year, we will offset this pricing pressure. Then you said transformation, EUR 32 million, and sorry for the long answer, because you basically asked for basically a complete P&L with your questions. But in the transformation part, right? There is EUR 32 million 2028, that's absolutely right. There is still some inflation on the Mexican and Romanian side, which is more than average inflation you'd see. But this is something which we learn to deal with. Mexico and Romania, there will be in the range of 6% to 7% inflation, but they also bring to the table in measures and we counterbalance them with automation. So, we drive and continue to drive automation in Mexico and Romania to offset this 6% to 7% labor inflation in that region to begin with. So -- and then in terms of guidance, quarter 1, basically, it's too early to state, because we now are in the closing phase of November. So, I would say out of the fourth quarter, we see some year-end effects, typically, the fourth quarter is very strong for us. So July, August and September with EUR 316 million. There, you're missing probably half a month in December to begin with in terms of sales. So this is something to acknowledge so that there is only half a month in December, which actually basically brings us to a slightly softer quarter than in the fourth quarter per definition, because you are suffering this half of month in December. And then something also to consider is, for sure, the ongoing uncertainty in the market and the unrest in terms of tariff situation. In terms of regional development, we see in average the regions developing like we saw them over the course of the last 3 to 6 months. So, Europe and North America rather stable. Asia Pacific, still a roller coaster driven by the tariff situation and some unstable basically outlook for the economy there, which is coming back to that point. You saw that in Automotive industry will be down according to S&P numbers in China next year, 3%. There might be or is the positive level on GDP. But in general terms, the Chinese people, they see this uncertainty, and this is also something which we see in the numbers. So, I hope that I answered your questions. There were plenty of them touching our complete P&L and forecasting principle, but I hope that answers the question. Akshat Kacker: I'm sorry for the long questions. Just a very quick follow-up. So, when I think about the first question and your outlook, when I'm understanding what you're saying in terms of overall market development on GDP and LVP, your expectations around outperformance, your expectations around offsetting pricing pressure, it sounds to me like you are comfortable between the mid- to high end of the revenue guide as of now when you're thinking about the overall business. Because the lower end of the guide basically talks about 10% to 15% decline. Michael Büchsner: Yes. In a nutshell, I know we always have this discussion guidance and midpoint and where we see it. Over the course of the last 2 years, we saw a lot of things driving in, right, through and alongside the year. So, we always start in the first quarter with October, November, December. And then typically, like this year, the election of Trump and his first couple of months being the President, it was really a shaky situation through the complete economy, right? So that means, there is a lot of things which we're dealing with starting this February, right, with the new administration. Then remember back when 3 years ago, the Ukraine war kicked in along with massive inflation. This also was always early in the year. So, we have, basically we are bringing out a guidance towards the end of the calendar year, not knowing what happens in January and February. This is a slight disadvantage for us. So yes, you could reformulate that and say they rather would like to, yes, be on the -- between the midpoint and the upper point of the guidance. However, the uncertainty is really what we need to consider also in our business, because we also get feedback. Hey, guys, we want you to have a realistic but matchable and achievable guidance for the year. And we, for sure, don't know what we don't know starting next January, which things pop up, right, on the global scale. And I think there are many things like war, tariff situation, inflation, also things about geopolitics in the flow and nobody really knows how that turns out. And this is also something which you shaped in your first question saying the guidance is rather wide. We have an EBIT margin range of this year, 10% to 12%. It's in the similar range, sizable range like we gave before. But yes, the issue is we don't know what happens in the start of the new year. And this is something which we try to formulate in the guidance. And this is why, yes, we have a certain range of the guidance. And yes, if you look on to the activities we are doing in terms of shaping our profits throughout the year, this will be a back-end loaded year, because we start with all the efforts on the restructuring and this kicks in, in the second half of the year. That's also something to basically reflect. And then, it remains that we all are strong in terms of believing that some of these positive signs we see in the economy really materialize, and then we should see that in the second half of the year. I hope that helps. Operator: At the moment, there seem to be no further questions. [Operator Instructions] Michael Büchsner: So many people were scared because it took us now quite some time to answer the first question. If there are any further questions, really happy to answer that. As a side note, you also, for sure, see the full pack of the numbers, including the details of last year in our -- on our homepage. And we value you as our investors for sure. So that means we also can have one-on-ones afterwards and happy to answer your questions then. Operator: We have now another question from Yasmin Steilen, Berenberg. Yasmin Steilen: I have two follow-ups, if I may. The one is on the guidance. So have you already received some indications by your customer in China that price erosion is slowing down to the level of 5%, which you have indicated? Or is it kind of this part of the guidance, which is still kind of uncertain? Any indications on this would be very helpful. And the next question, you also mentioned that you're currently still leading on door actuation systems based on the RFQs. Can you share your view on the competitive landscape? Is there any risk engine that might also take an aggressive approach on pricing here again to gain market share? Michael Büchsner: So thank you very much, Yasmin, for your questions. The first one in terms of guidance when it comes to price erosions in China. From our perspective, the price erosion is way softer this year than it used to be last year. Just as a reminder, last year, we had in the range of 8% to 9% price deterioration on some of the Powerise products. And however, we saw, and this is the main competitor engine also now as they materialize the first products and projects that they see that kind of things are apparently more difficult than they thought. So this basically leads to the point that the price war basically on that end comes or become softer. This is why we think it's in the range of 5%, 6% maybe. And this is something we can deal with to an extent of 4%. So there might be 1% or 2% left, which we basically, at the end of the day, can deal with and we reflected that in the guidance. So the China market is a very dynamic one in both directions. So that means, in many cases, it's more dynamic than in North America and Europe. So that means, also pricing requests typically come up then with basically a heads up of only 3 to 6 months. And this is basically what we fight with. And again, this is something we see that the competitor landscape is, however, stable. And we also have first victories. Right? The engine business is very strong in a spoiler business. So at the end of the car on the tail side, there are some spoilers for sports cars. It's apparently a good market in China. We are pushing in now with our first product to counterbalance. And this is where we are a challenger of engine now. And this is something where we won first businesses, and this is something where we also are counterbalancing and fight this local competition successfully. And by the way, just to point that out again, there's also in China, the main competitors are still Brose, Edscha and Magna. At the end of the day, they are winning or having more difficulties as we speak. So, we are the one which is the real competitor to engine, and we can match their prices. We don't want to do that at all [ Lanxess. ] We don't want to do that with all businesses, because we don't want to kill our pricing for sure and jeopardize our profits. So, we always go only to the extent that we keep some business, then yes, we might give some business to the competitors, gaining back some. Now we're challenging them on the spoiler business. So this is a constant battle we are driving to keep our profitability on a maximum, and that's apparently the outcome. So, bring it to a nutshell, 5% to 6% this year, I think with majority of that we can deal with in China. And then the second question was in terms of door actuator. Door actuator, it's the known competitor landscape. It's Brose, Edscha, [indiscernible] Magna as a Western world competitors. And then, yes, there will be Chinese competition. At this point in time, engine developed a new product. They were not successful in the market. So, we have some positive momentum there in gaining further business, but it would be an illusion to think that the Chinese would be on the long run, not capable to deal with this technology. Now it's about using this head lengths. We are ahead of the competition to secure business, to stable and foster our position and to make it a success. And that's what we are in the midst with because not only that we won business with Xiaomi, with Mi Auto, but also we won good business with Geely, Great Wall, they will come further. I was talking about those who launch next year. There will be in the outer years more business coming. As I said, we have a market share of 40% currently. And this is why we invested so much in the past years to develop this new technology to begin with on the R&D side and also to push the equipment into our plants. We have now in all three main regions, our door actuation lines sitting. They are not generating sales yet, because in the Automotive industry, you need to be ready 6 to 9 months before SOP for the first dry runs with the new products. That's just a given in the market, as you all know, this, for sure, is a little challenge, this ramp-up curve in the Automotive industry, but it's basically a given, and it should secure and it will secure a good business position on the door actuation side. So I hope this answers your question, Yasmin. Operator: And the last question is from Klaus Ringel, ODDO BHF. Klaus Ringel: I actually have two, and I would like to take them one by one. Well the first one being, yes, your view on the pathway of your net debt-to-EBITDA leverage in the next quarters. There's some areas a big attention on this multiple. And the question would be, if we will go south from this 2.96 at year-end or due to this cash out for restructuring and maybe also payment of the dividend, we could see it going up a bit still before it will go down. So very -- would be very interested to hear your thoughts here. That's the first question. Michael Büchsner: So in terms of the first question, yes, we are below 3, below 3 was our target. It's also something which is extremely relevant for us to pay back our debt. We were very successful last year to refinance, which gives stability and also in the same way with refinancing, we've been opening up our covenant to 4, as you know, and now we are at 3. So we have enough headroom to be successful. We think that the net leverage will go up slightly above 3 in the next 2 quarters and then coming down and towards the end of the year, that will be below 3. This is basically our current planning. Klaus Ringel: Okay. And the second one would be a clarification on the impact of this transfer pricing on the margins. That's a one-off? Or will we see a continuous impact in the next couple of quarters? Michael Büchsner: This is a shift of 1% between the region of Europe and North America out of the transfer pricing, which is baked in our forecast numbers by region. And basically, it's something which was basically corrected in terms of transfer prices driven by allocations. And this is something which materializes 1% less in North America, 1% higher in Europe, and this will basically continue to be the new baseline. Operator: And as this was the last question, I would like to hand the floor back over to Dr. Buchsner for closing remarks. Michael Büchsner: Yes. Thank you very much again for your trust, and thank you very much for being part of the presentation today. Again, I think we are very strong set up with our current stable financial results from last year. I think we're doing absolutely the right steps in terms of growing our business with new technologies and invest where it really matters to solidify the numbers for the next year and also continue our path to success with new technologies. And with that, I would like to thank you. And as we probably for most of you don't have the time to talk about -- talk this year, I wish you a happy year ending and all the best for the year 2026. Thank you very much, and have a great day and week.
Angelo Swartz: Good day, and thank you for joining us as we present SPAR's annual results for the financial year ended September 2025. This year was defined by deliberate focus. We concentrated on strengthening our core, simplifying our portfolio and building the foundations for future growth. We made tough decisions, navigated uncertainty and most importantly, we remain committed to our independent retailers, who, through the resilience, grow our brands in the communities they serve. I'll start with a brief overview of the year and our strategic progress. Megan and I will then take you through the operational performance across SPAR, Build it in SPAR Health, followed by the Reeza with a financial review. I'll return towards the end to discuss our strategy, our outlook and the road map we're executing against. This financial year required disciplined execution. We were operating in the context of shifting consumer behavior, margin pressure and the aftermath of legacy issues. We responded by focusing relentlessly on what we know best, distribution excellence, retailer enablement and local partnerships. You will see that the performance is modest, but the direction of travel is unmistakably positive. We serve more than 2,000 entrepreneurs across Southern Africa, Ireland and Sri Lanka. We are not a chain. We serve a network of independent entrepreneurs tied to their communities. And our role as a group is to empower them to succeed. The value of our independent retailers is that they can adapt faster, they're localize and they predict their customers. Our portfolio is balanced across premium value and emerging retail channels. That balance matters in a world where affordability and convenience are defining consumer choices. Where market are volatile, when affordability shifts and when formats change and capital cost increase, the model that survived is the model that's closest to the consumer. Across our territories, trading conditions were mixed. Inflation, consumer strain and format disruption continued. In Southern Africa, macroeconomic conditions have shown some improvement. Food inflation eased to 4.5% in September, down from 5.1% in June primarily due to lower fuel prices and greater energy stability. These positive shifts have also helped reduce logistics and distribution costs. Meanwhile, consumer behavior is evolving with a noticeable move towards value-driven purchasing and an increased preference for online grocery platforms. Ireland's macro-economic outlook remains positive, with GDP got projected at 9%. The environment is stable, characterized by low unemployment rate of 4.5% and a 25-basis point interest rate cut implemented in June 2025. Nevertheless, consumer confidence is subdued, reflecting ongoing cost of living pressures. In Sri Lanka, reform and IMF support, stabilize the macro environment with GDP improving and consumer confidence returning. This is an early-stage market with strong growth potential that requires disciplined capital and local partnership. These are not headwinds we shy away from. These are the realities we are actively responding to with new formats, digital models and private label growth. Our story in 2025 is simple. We went back to our core, distribution excellence that empowers independent retail. We simplified the group through strategic disposals. We reduced debt and remove distractions. Despite tough trading conditions, momentum across our brands improved, supported by clearer execution. We delivered growth in adjacencies, proving our ecosystem can expand without losing focus. Our partnerships with independent retailers remain our greatest asset. And everything we do is designed to help them win in their communities through disciplined cost and capital management. We strengthened the balance sheet. And this translated into strong free cash flow, reflecting the working capital improvements we put in place. This is the foundation we've taken to 2026, focused, disciplined and positioned for the future. Group turnover increased 1.6% to ZAR 132.4 billion. Operating profit improved 2.3% to nearly ZAR 2.8 billion. And importantly, cash generation strengthened materially, up 13.4% to nearly ZAR 5.5 billion. Group leverage reduced to 1.74x, a material step forward. HEPS declined reflecting higher financing costs and a higher effective tax rate. We made the decision to address impairments proactively and transparently. The group's balance sheet has been cleaned. Our nonfinancial indicators reinforce the same story. Retailer loyalty has started to recover. Digital adoption accelerated, and our commitment to job creation and social impact increased. We added jobs through our rural hub model, and we increased our CSR investment. We were pleased to have been recognized in the year, a testament to our partnerships, execution and the trust our customers place in us. The Advantage Group recognized Build it as the #1 retailer of hardware and DIY and SPAR brands as the leading private label player in the country. In Ireland, BWG Foodservice was named National Foodservice Supplier of The Year. Southern Africa turned the corner in the second half of the year. Wholesale revenue grew 2.3% year-on-year. Grocery and liquor growth was modest, but improved materially through growing 2.9% compared to the 1.1% in H1. Build it delivered a solid performance, and SPAR Health outperformed demonstrating the resilience of essential categories. Megan will unpack these a little later. Retail sales in grocery and liquor grew 2.1%, with like-for-like growth of 2.2%. Those actions were slightly down, but baskets grew 3%, showing the consumer has more intentional and value-seeking. In liquor, retail revenue increased 3.8%, and we maintained a healthy gross profit mix. This shift in category mix, particularly into low alcoholic drinks help defend volume or protecting pricing power. In omnichannel, our approach is very deliberate. SPAR and TOPS 2U is now active in 636 sites, and Uber Eats at over 300 sites. The Uber Eats each integration created immediate convenience revenue without adding complexity to store operations, and it is working. Total order volumes are up 136% year-on-year, demonstrating real consumer adoption, not promotional spikes. We also integrated SPAR Mobile fully into SPAR Rewards that has unlocked a powerful data ecosystem with 11.4 million loyal members, up 33% year-on-year. This scale gives retailers the ability to personalized offers, target baskets and defend share in plus sensitive communities. And finally, Flex continues to gain traction over 1,400 stores are actively using the platform while investing in omnichannel, these are platforms that support independent retailers and protect our market share. The dual platform strategy that we've adopted is starting to pay dividends, and e-commerce numbers are beginning to become far more meaningful. The introduction of SPAR and TOPS and Uber Eats has driven positive incremental growth without eroding the 2U business in any way. It's important that we allow the customer to choose not only the digital channel they shop in, but also to make sure that we differentiate clearly between 2U and Uber Eats. The focus on SPAR and TOPS on the 2U app will be differentiated mainly by enabling the personalization of your store. On the app, this will start with unique landing base, category callouts and larger store unique ranges, evolving and becoming shaped by you as our retailer and the nuances of your community. This really brings to life the concept of My SPAR and offers us a unique value proposition versus purely speed and price. We offer on-demand deliveries within 60 minutes, scheduled delivery as well as click-and-collect options. Uber Eats is a pure convenience play and aligns nicely with SPAR's original value proposition of convenience. With 6.5 million active users, the focus is largely on immediate demand. We're aligning the branding and design principles on the Uber Eats app with what consumers see on SPAR2U. The intention is to offer a smaller range of between 2,000 and 3,000 SKUs with delivery times between 15 and 45 minutes. SPAR Mobile, Spot rewards and Flex are not simply apps, they are digital infrastructure. They deepen engagement. They create new revenue streams and build data assets that help retailers make smarter decisions. Flex usage continues to scale as more stores take up usage to manage digital orders, stock accuracy and customer engagement. Since its launch in March '25, SPAR Mobile has reached over 700,000 subscribers and integrated with SPAR's retail system, and give mobile services to point-of-sale, loyalty apps and promotions to trigger instant discount and data rewards at checkout, managed by [ 85 ] group and powered by MTN, subscriber verification and reward fulfillment are supported by real-time reporting. To date, over 7.5 million baskets have included data-linked purchases. And the platform has continued to grow through eSIM readiness, new bundles and broader coverage. A critical part of our turnaround is format discipline. Gourmet is designed for higher frequency premium convenience shopping. It drives differentiated in-store experiences, fresh bakery, daily food to go, coffee, cafe culture. It attracts discretionary spend that is less elastic to price. SaveMor, so it's at the other end of the spectrum. It offers affordable, simplified capital-light retail with fast stock turn and strong cash generation in lower and middle income catchments. Both formats expand the addressable market and retain retailers at risk of migrating to value only competitors. Shopper attention today isn't one at the toll. It's one through railroads. Our only at SPAR offerings like Food Stall, Chikka Chicken, Fire&Grill and BeanTree create reasons to enter the store, not just reasons to pay. We've made payments seamless with digital vouchers and gift cards. Now active in the 1,300 stores, capturing spend before a shopper even walks in. Through GUESTCX, we are standardizing the in-store experience across more than 1,000 retailers. That protects the brand and converts visits into repeat behavior. Coffee continues to be a powerful footfall catalyst, whether through Vida e Caffe or our own BeanTree solution, and Frozen For You gives us premium convenience available in store and on SPAR2U meeting shoppers where they are and how they shop. Vida e And Frozen For You are 2 proudly South African brands, and we pride ourselves imparting with local quality brands and local entrepreneurs. I'll now hand over to Megan, who will take us through Pharmacy and Build it. Megan Pydigadu: Good morning, everyone, and thanks, Ange. Build it continued to grow aligned with the market with retail sales growing at 4.3% and on a like-for-like basis at 6%. The business has benefited from a strong performance at retail and the continued supply of micro loans to consumers by finance houses assisted most notably by Capitec. We ended the year with loyalty at 67.8%, slightly down from 68.4% in the prior year. Our loyalty results reflect the combined effects of retailer stock efficiencies in freeing up cash flow, intense competition in the wholesale market and cross-border ForEx complexities impacting Build it stores in neighboring countries. Subsequent to year-end, we have exited Mozambique with a retailer, who operated the brand. We will be looking at alternatives and how we reposition the brand in Mozambique as well as ensure supply into the territory. We saw the launch of Build it Rewards in September, which is a fully funded retailer customer rewards program and is based on retailers opting in. Currently, we have 87 stores signed up. We have finalized the first phase of development for the Build it 2U mobile application. The public launch will follow once we have achieved critical mass in retail store onboarding with rollout expected in the first quarter of 2026. We have also been focused on costs and profit optimization. This has resulted in us reviewing our imports warehouse, which is largely for our house brands and accounts for 7% of our revenue. This has historically been a loss leader. As a result, we have streamlined our lines and cut back from 3,700 SKUs to 1,500 SKUs. Ultimately, we are looking at more cost-effective measures to serve our retailers while still maintaining the Build it house brand, sea of Red in stores. and will be affecting changes in how we do this. Lastly, from a strategic perspective, we have reviewed our strategic model, both from a wholesaler and retailer perspective. It is key for our retailers to make sustainable margins and profits and that we grow our market share and store footprint. Historically, our business has been heavily weighted towards wet and building materials. We are now gradually repositioning retail to increase the contribution from categories 3 and 4, which is general hardware, finishes, plumbing, electrical and decorative items, which carry higher gross profit margins. This does not mean we will reduce focus on our wet trade. On the contrary, our ambition is to maintain, grow wet trade volumes while simultaneously strengthening our category 3 and 4 contributions at retail. Moving on to SPAR Health. Our SPAR Health business continued to make good progress with the wholesaler growth at 8.6% and Scriptwise, continuing to go from strength-to-strength and growing at 20%. Our loyalty was at 60% an improvement from the value where loyalty was at 55%. Key to unlocking our loyalty and growth outside of pharmacies and into the hospital networks is ensuring we have a national footprint. We have made good progress with the recent conclusion of Aptekor in the Western Cape, which will allow us to reduce our cost to serve and enable us to grow our footprint and loyalty in the region. We are on track to establish a distribution center in KZN in H2 of the 2026 calendar year and then also have a solution for the center of the country via Bloemfontein . Our business has been built on the pharmacy and script part of the business, and we have seen chronic scripts up more than 25% in our pharmacies. We are looking at the development of the front of store and how we position ourselves in the wellness space. We have big ambitions for our health business and believe we bring a differentiation to the market for independent pharmacists and customers you want to have a connection to their pharmacist. Moving on to the fun bit. Core to what we do is build brands and support independent retail. From concept to launch, we created Pet Storey within 9 months, and it's a store with a difference. The ethos of the brand is warm and fun and encouraging pet owners to bring their pets into stores. We saw a gap in the market where independent retailers don't have the power of a single brand behind them nor the purchasing power to ensure they can compete with the corporate chains. We have created Pet Storey as a franchise brand. And with the purchase of Pet masters and the launch of a few franchise stores, we have 12 stores currently operating. We have seen significant interest and take up for Pet Storey and have a very healthy pipeline, especially amongst our retailers. Thank you, and back to Ange. Angelo Swartz: Thank you for that, Meg. Ireland continues to validate the strength of the independent retailer model. This is one of our most mature portfolios, and it continues to demonstrate the strength of the independent retailer model. Turnover reached EUR 1.7 billion and wholesale revenue grew despite a competitive market. When you look at the segment and category mix, 62% of the revenue is retail, supported by strong in-store execution and high-frequency shopping. Foodservice now contributes 13% of turnover and continues to grow exceptionally strongly. On the category side, groceries are the anchor or tobacco continues to decline structurally. A trend the business is already priced into strategic decisions. The takeaway is this, Ireland is not dependent on a single lever. Its resilience comes from channel diversity, disciplined pricing and a strong network of retailers. At an operational level, the recovery in the second half was meaningful. Retail performance improved with food inflation normalizing and strong summer weather. The new SPAR strategy rolled out well and MACE refits and new stores are already delivering results. We also launched the Brevato coffee brand, which is now in 30 stores, a good example of how we're driving incremental basket value and high-margin convenience. On wholesale, performance reflects disciplined execution. Gross profit margin improved, driven by category mix and pricing discipline. Overheads were tightly managed, and we saw clear benefits from distribution and fuel efficiencies. Service levels from the depots remained exceptionally strong at 97.6%. And the Foodservice channel continues to be a standout. Hospitality lens sales increased significantly year-on-year, underpinning wholesale growth. Overall Foodservice volumes are growing ahead of the market, and we continue to invest in infrastructure and perform it to support that trajectory. In short, this is a portfolio that is performing well. investing appropriately and positioned for continued expansion. Sri Lanka has a genuine growth story. Footfall increased 15%, items sold 6% and we grew our network by 12 stores, 1 corporate and 11 independents. Currently, we have 42 stores in Sri Lanka, 13 SaveMors, 11 SPARs, 8 TOPS, 3 SPAR Express and 7 pharmacy at SPAR. Private label and SPAR2U adoption is growing and SPAR rewards launched in November. This may be a smaller portfolio today, but is one with the right fundamentals, trust, convenience and retail entrepreneurship. Reeza will now take you through the financials. Moegamat Isaacs: Thank you, Angelo, and good morning, everyone. Before I get into the numbers, just some housekeeping matters as far as the results are concerned. I've covered some of this at interim, but let me run over it again. Firstly, the realignment of the reporting periods to the retail calendar. We are now reporting on 52 weeks earnings rather than 365 days. Prior year competitors in the presentation have been adjusted. We have disposed our Swiss operation and continue to treat the U.K. as held for sale, which we have impaired to fair value. In addition, we have reassessed the carrying value of the corporate store portfolio in SA. Previously, the designated CGU was the distribution centers through which we serviced and acquired these stores. And we have changed the way we manage the portfolio and have designated the CGU to be the store. This has resulted in the impairment of around ZAR 585 million during the year, which is shown as an adjustment to headline earnings. For earnings per share and headline earnings per share, we have a few numbers. Earnings from total ops, from continuing ops and from continuing ops normalized for 52 weeks. The important number is, of course, HEPS growth from continuing operations on a 52-week comparable basis. Please bear this in mind when considering the results, the statutory results will be disclosed in the IFRS, but the focus in this presentation is on comparable 52-week results from continuing operations as this is the best indicator of underlying performance. Group cash flows are not split between that of continuing and discontinuing operations. However, I do have a separate slide showing the free cash flow from continuing operations. Just moving on to financial highlights. Some key financial highlights here. Angelo would have touched on this earlier, but it is worth repeating. A set of results reflective of the challenging and competitive trading conditions in the various geographies. In a muted top line environment, our focus has been on protecting margins, managing costs and improving cash flows and, of course, strengthening our balance sheet. Turnover from continuing operations is up 1.8% in constant currency, with 2.6% growth in the second half. There's been strong margin management in both SA and Ireland. SA is up 4.4%, with Ireland up 2.2%, both reflecting positive jaws with higher than sales growth. The SA operating profit is up 6.8%, 8.8% in the second half. This is also very encouraging. We have work to do in getting to our margin targets. And Angelo will cover this a bit later, but the trajectory is in the right direction. Our Ireland operating margin came in at 3.3%, and Ireland PBT is marginally up on last year. Working capital and cash flows were well managed during the period with CapEx also tightly controlled. Then moving on to net borrowings. Net borrowings are reduced by 40% over the year with SA gearing at 1.75x. And this is post the outflows for the exit of Poland and Switzerland as part of the sale of those businesses. Ireland gearing at 1.7x, marginally up on last year due to the U.K. EBITDA losses this year. And when considering headline earnings per share growth, which is down on last year. Please bear in mind that the interest costs and the associated tax, which I will expand on a little bit later. These impacts should dilute as we settle the SA facilities used to exit our offshore operations. And then return on capital employed at 14% for the year adjusted for impairments, above our weighted average cost of capital and up on last year, reflecting our commitment to the most efficient use of capital. Then moving on to the group income statement. Continuing operations adjusted for the retail calendar. Group turnover is 1.6% up on last year. However, this is after translation effects. And I will unpack the SA and Ireland results separately. With the second half sales coming in stronger for SA. We have seen margin expansion during the period. The group managed an increase of 1.7% or 20 basis points despite a muted top line. Net operating expenses is up 3.9%. There are a few increases and decreases in here, and the growth in expenses should also be seen in the context of other revenue and income growth, which was up 6.6%. And also the investment in transformational initiatives in South Africa, rising wage costs in Ireland, offset by lower supply chain and logistics costs. But generally, costs have been very well managed across the group. The cost disciplines at our DCs are exceptional. And as we progress through our transformation journey, we invest in additional capacity and capability at the center like we have this year. Operating profit is up 2.3%, which is marginally better than the GP margin growth of 1.7%. Net finance cost was up significantly at 19.1% due to the high interest costs on the offshore debt assumed in South Africa. And then extraordinary items are significant at almost ZAR 750 million, but related mostly to the corporate store impairments and the write-down of a piece of land that we own in the West Rand. So before moving on to the segmental analysis. I just wanted to connect the dots from the operating profit improvement of 2.3% to the HEPS decline of 8.9%. So as we alluded to, this is in the main due to interest cost growth and a high effective tax charge, both of which have grown in excess of operating profit, which gives us the negative leverage. Interest costs was up 19.1%. I mentioned that before from settling the Poland offshore debt from SA. And we expect to see less of an impact as we deleverage going forward. The same goes for the tax line. On unproductive or nonproductive interest, not a commonly understood concept, but interest incurred on payments made in cases like Poland to settle offshore debt is deemed not to be in the production of income in South Africa from a tax legislation point of view and therefore, is not tax deductible. So the impact in 2025 was to increase our effective tax rate by 4.2%, and we expect it to still have an impact on a blended group rate over the next 2 years, albeit declining as we deleverage. The Ireland corporate tax rate is, of course, 12.5% and SA is at 27%. Right. Moving on to segmental results, starting with the Southern Africa income segment. The Southern Africa segment delivered top line growth of 2.3% on a 52-week comparable basis. While GP and operating profit maintained solid momentum, up 4.4% and 6.8%, respectively. The core SPAR business saw overall modest growth, high single-digit growth in the lower end and the upper end, showing a decline, reflecting the competitive nature of this part of the market. Turnover growth in the core SPAR business was also affected by lower inflation in key categories. The loss and closure, I've mentioned this before of 13 stores in the South Rand, the Mozambique looting and also the floods in the North Rand. The second half saw a marked improvement in sales with SA up which is a significant shift from H1, still not where you want it to be. Loyalty remains stable and availability improved and on-demand again grew exponentially off a low base with very strong take-up in Uber Eats. Build it sales was muted in H2 with adverse weather, however, SPAR also saw strong growth driven by Scriptwise sales. GP margin was up 20 basis points to 9.7% despite a high proportion of drop shipment and liquor sales within our groceries and liquor business. So this is generally margin dilutive and other revenue income was up due to a higher contribution from suppliers and also value-added services. We have seen lower warehousing and distribution expenses due to the drop in the fuel price and also with a focus on efficiencies. And then central and head office costs were up due to the investment in new initiatives and transformation. We incurred incremental SAP costs this year as well as investments made in back office systems and to strengthen our digital and tech capabilities. And from a DC point of view, the KZN DC continued its turnaround going from a loss last year to a profit this year, although I have to say there's still a lot of work to be done to get the DC to normalized profit levels. So this overall performance, together with continued focus on cost discipline, assisted in a modest operating margin expansion of 10 basis points to 1.7%. Angelo will cover the road to the 3% margin, which we have done extensive work on. Then moving on to Ireland. Our consistent performance in the portfolio continues to deliver in a mature and highly competitive market with improved GP and stable operating margins as well as lower finance costs through the effect of working capital and cash flow management. So Ireland top line revenue is essentially flat on last year. But I want to highlight a few things. This is a very, very competitive convenience sector in Ireland. We also saw the loss of a few stores, including 2 Euro SPARs, which were planned for. And in the second half growth, as I mentioned before, was stronger with Easter and a longer summer with higher impulse buying from consumers. We've also seen high inflation in certain categories like cocoa, coffee and protein, which affected volumes. And then tobacco is a big but also declining category. So we saw less tobacco sales. And as I mentioned, it's a mature market with store opportunities occasionally coming up with owners, for example, wanting to retire. And we are taking a careful look at the stores and the returns they generate before we acquire them. And we declined some of them this year as they do not meet the required hurdle rates. Gross margin was up, helped by nontobacco sales and other operating costs were up, but driven by higher legislative minimum wage costs and IT investments, which resulted in a marginal decline in operating margin, but still a healthy 3.3%. And then as I mentioned before, working capital cash flows and consequently, debt has been well managed with net finance costs down 20%. This means that PBT before extraordinary items was up 1.3%, and EBITDA is down on last year due to the losses in the U.K. business. I'll show that when we get to free cash flow. And then, of course, the U.K., we present as a discontinued operation, which I will expand on a little bit later. And then moving on to discontinued operations. Just to touch on Switzerland. We consolidated this business results up to the 8th of September, which is the date on which we completed the sale. Just to run through the income statement very quickly. Sales was up -- was down 3%, reflective of the tough trading conditions, high cost of living affecting consumer confidence. We've seen cross-border shopping continue. And then the Swiss business also suffers from a lack of scale and bigger players investing in price. And then we also had the cyber incident, which we had to contend with, which was very disruptive to sales. But having said that, sales momentum did improve from the third quarter and GP actually showed an improvement of 50 basis points. And as part of the turnaround, the team focused on product mix, SKU rationalization and optimizing promotions. It really is an expensive operating environment. And despite the cost efforts of the team, our net operating expenses were up 4.3%, also impacted by new stores, which we had committed to acquiring previously, and these came online during the year. So this resulted in a decline in operating profit from CHF 11.8 million to a loss in this year. As I mentioned, EBITDA was also down substantially. And however, the third and fourth quarters did see improved momentum with the focus on the turnaround. Moving on to the U.K. And again, just touching on this very, very quickly, also classified as a discontinued operation, but a really tough year for this business. Sales down 7.6% as the sales of the -- sorry, the second half also showed a better momentum with summer, but we're still down on last year. Tough trading environment, highly price-sensitive consumers. There are also bigger players moving into the convenience space and investing in price. And of course, the impact of the single-use vape legislation, which came into effect in June affected sales in this business quite substantially, actually. And then gross margin was down 60 basis points, and this, together with the lower sales means that GP was down 9.5% for the year. Expenses was up 1%, resulting in an operating loss for the period of EUR 6.2 million. And this business made an EBITDA loss this year. Moving on to the group balance sheet. What we have shown here is the balance sheet from continuing operations for 2025 and adjusted 2024 for discontinued operations to make sense of the movements in key balances. So the balance sheet was impacted by translation, about 1% on closing rates, especially on -- obviously on the Irish numbers. Working capital is well managed. Stock was marginally up, but within plan, receivables also higher, impacted by the earlier close on the 26th of September. And then payables benefited a little bit more from the earlier cutoff. I mentioned this before, a reduced gearing was a priority for the group, and this was largely achieved, getting us down from ZAR 9.1 billion to ZAR 5 billion. And then we've also seen equity reduce substantially by ZAR 5 billion due to the impairments, which was partially offset by earnings growth during the period. In -- just to comment on -- just to cover impairments recognized during the year, obviously, significant at ZAR 5.2 billion with Switzerland, we wrote ZAR 3 billion ahead of the disposal that was processed at the half year. And in the AWG or the U.K. write-off this year was about ZAR 1.6 billion, a further ZAR 4 million in the second half to reflect the most recent estimate of carrying value. And then, of course, the SA corporate stores. So in the second half, we changed the way we define the CGU related to SA corporate stores from being part of the distribution center cash generating unit to the lowest level of CGU being the store itself. So resulting in that ZAR 585 million impairment. We move on to group borrowings. Total debt is down from ZAR 9.1 billion to ZAR 5.4 billion. I've said that a few times, but that is a significant achievement, which we're quite proud of. All covenants have been met with adequate headroom across all facilities. And as mentioned previously, the refinancing of our SA facilities was finalized at the end of March. There was good appetite for the term debt and the GBFs and at really good margins, very competitive margins. And of course, I mentioned this before, the SA leverage has reduced despite the offshore outflows, which reflects the strong cash generation ability of our business. Working capital benefited from the earlier close, and we are carrying some of the 2025 planned CapEx into 2026. In Ireland, I've covered this before as well, is well under control and has been constant, slightly up on last year, but that's mainly due to the lower EBITDA coming out of the U.K. All right. Moving on to free cash flows. So I've opted to do free cash flows a little bit differently this time, essentially because of the discontinuing -- discontinued operations and also the cash flows from SA out in respect of the offshore operations. So we start with EBITDA, CapEx, interest, tax and then look at group EBITDA is marginally down on last year, Ireland includes the U.K. wouldn't be correct to exclude the U.K. as it's from one funding pool and the cash flow is effectively treated as one. Working capital has shown a substantial inflow, obviously, benefiting from the earlier close, but also good working capital management. And then free cash flow for the period was about ZAR 2.2 billion. And then post that, we show the outflows relating to international operations for 2025, this amounted to about ZAR 2.3 billion. And that, of course, includes the transaction costs. So a significant outflow and the net use of cash in 2025 was ZAR 133 million. As mentioned, the above working capital benefited from the earlier close, and CapEx was somewhat underspent. But however, if one were to exclude the offshore outflows and adjusted for the working capital and CapEx, our net debt would still be substantially lower than what we have shown in the table, which reflects the strong cash flow generating capability of this business. And I'll leave you to make some of those calculations. No doubt we'll get some questions on that. Then moving on to CapEx. Total CapEx was lower than planned due to the phasing of spend this year. But this is expected to increase with rollovers into 2026. So we've given you a forecast of '26 and '27 and '28, but that is -- these are high-level forecasts. But we do -- and I've said this before, we do expect CapEx to settle at an annual spend of about 1% of turnover as we have guided to previously. Maintenance and SAP CapEx at more or less stable levels. We've shown you what we've spent this past year, and SAP is expected to fall away after 2028. So in -- so on closing, we have a number of moving parts in these numbers on both the income statement and the balance sheet. And I'll admit that it is a bit noisy, not easy to unpack, but hopefully, we've done a decent job in cutting through the noise. But this is also a function of the year that we've had with disposals, discontinued operations and also impairments. So with the exception of the U.K., which we continue to hold as discontinued op, we would have done most of what I call a cleanup in 2025. And next year, both the balance sheet and the income statement should be easier to digest. So -- but we are fundamentally a different group than we were a year ago. And just in closing, just reflecting on the reporting period, I think we've made significant progress, especially from a finance perspective. So firstly, the sale of Poland and Switzerland has resulted in a simply much simplified group. These business did not fit the investment thesis of the group and will drag on not just capital and returns, but also management time. And we will focus available capital and our time on South Africa and Ireland going forward. These offshore businesses also came with not just getting exposure to the SA business, but also parental guarantees, bank guarantees, legal, regulatory exposures and, of course, reputational risk. In the case of Switzerland, this manifested itself in the form of the COMCO fine, which we settled as part of the sale. Just in terms of the refinancing of the SA facilities, Angelo also touched on this, but -- and the reduction of the SA debt levels. Again, I just want to remind you this is despite the significant outflows this year relating to the international operations and the sale. Then we've also proactively cleaned up the balance sheet, and we have taken ZAR 5.2 billion worth of impairments this year, including the write-off of goodwill and the lease assets related to the SA corporate store portfolio. The balance sheet is now a better reflection of the underlying values of assets and also the capital structure of the business now and going forward. I think working capital disciplines have always been strong in this business, but the position continues to improve and the disciplines continue to improve. We have a capital allocation framework, and this is also being embedded within the business. And then on the 3%, this is very important to the investors. We have done extensive work on the pathway to 3% operating margins in South Africa, both in terms of identifying initiatives, setting KPIs as well as realistic time lines for achievement. This is in terms of growth initiatives, margin improvements as well as costs and efficiencies. Stretch targets will be set internally and additional opportunities identified which will give us the best chance to get to the 3%. And hopefully, we exceeded by 2028. Performance will be tracked and executive scorecards will be aligned. And I believe this is eminently achievable, and our aim is to underpromise and overdeliver here. And then just finally, we have previously committed to dividends and/or returns to shareholders in the form of share buybacks over the short to medium term. And we fundamentally believe that our share is undervalued and investing in our own shares in the short term might be the best way to create value for shareholders in the interim before we commit to a longer-term dividend policy. Thank you very much, everyone. I'll close here, and I will now hand you back to Angelo. Angelo Swartz: Thank you, Reeza. Our foundation is solid, a resilient network of independent retailers, trusted brands and teams committed to disciplined execution. We have clear strategic goals, grow the retailer base and retailer loyalty. Loyalty is not a marketing metric. It is a mechanism for stability, purchasing power and network resilience. Expand adjacencies that naturally complement our core. Health care, pharmacies Scriptwise, Pet Storey, these are EBITDA positive, defensible growth nodes, not distractions. Rebuild the balance sheet and predict capital. We remove complexity, we exited noncore geographies. We reduced debt and we reset expectations internally and externally, deliver Southern Africa operating profit of 3% not through pricing increases alone, but through supply chain efficiency, set normalization, centralizing procurement, loss reduction in our corporate stores and monetizing digital media. We are focused on sustainable measure are growth through solid operational execution. This slide is important because it demonstrates the path to a 3% operating margin in Southern Africa. We've analyzed every lever in the value chain, supply chain, distribution, retail operations, procurement and margin expansion and assigned measurable actions with time lines. The 2025 base of 1.76% is our starting point. The target is clear, 3.35% for grocery and liquor by 2028 and 3% for the Southern African segment. Incremental growth before efficiencies and centralization. We stabilized our base and grow where we already compete. This is delivered through KZN business stabilization, supply chain enhancements to improve efficiency and reduce out of stocks. Importantly, this growth is organic, not dependent on acquisitions or pricing actions that erode competitiveness. The next meaningful driver comes from improving nonproduct flows through the business. We're optimizing nontrade procurement, reducing corporate store losses and streamlining accounts payable and the drop shipment process. These actions hit the cost base directly and free up working capital. They are measurable and already in execution. Centralization and efficiency. This is where scale economics becomes meaningful, normalizing SAP costs. unlocking the benefits from CSNX and running standardized processes across regions will deliver structural savings. We're also implementing enterprise cost discipline, group and head office efficiencies that reduce fragmentation and duplication. This is a cultural shift. Every rand must work order. GP expansion and other income. The margin opportunity is not only cost. Top line profitability matters. Centralized merchandise ensures we negotiate once at scale, across categories, value-added services and private label are increasing material contributors. These are asset-light revenue pools that enhance our return on capital. These levers deepen retail and loyalty and create new monetization avenues without inflating consumer prices. Cumulative impact is a disciplined client to 3.35% in grocery and liquor and aligned with our ambition of 3% for the Southern African business. We are not relying on one silver bullet. It is a portfolio of improvements, each accountable, sequenced and owned by specific leaders in the business. This is how we protect and expand the earnings base and how we deliver long-term value creation for shareholders. Loyalty in our world is not a marketing metric, it is a way of life. It protects revenue certainty, stabilizes input pricing, aligns retailer behaviors to the network, attractive procurement rebates, private label and digital ecosystems on the mechanisms we are utilizing to grow and maintain loyalty rates. These are structural mechanisms that improve retailer profitability and shopper stickiness. We have learned painful lessons on systems transformation. We've completely reset our approach. The next phase of our ERP rollout is harmonization across finance. Warehouse transformation will follow phased sequent deployment, beginning with the Eastern Cape and concluding across all DCs by the first quarter of FY '28. We are not chasing speed. We're prioritizing stability and accuracy. Technology is no longer a cost center. It is a multiplier of retailer profitability, stock accuracy, logistics efficiency and working capital discipline. The next year is about execution, not reinvention. We will strengthen omnichannel integration, grow private label, support retail economics and unlock procurement efficiency. We will scale SPAR Mobile and monetize digital reward ecosystems. We'll complete the integration of health assets and scale our adjacent categories. Our strengthened balance sheet gives us optionality as we stabilize margin and. ' earnings, we will return value to shareholders in a disciplined manner, not at the expense of long-term resilience. Governance has improved immeasurably, accountability has sharpened and leadership teams across the group are aligned. Thank you for your time today and your continued confidence in the SPAR Group Limited. We welcome your questions and feedback. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Angelo, Reeza and Megan for that. Now we jump straight into Q&A. Reeza, we noticed we didn't see any EBITDA numbers. Can you maybe give us an overview of EBITDA for the 2025 year? Moegamat Isaacs: Thank you. Thank you, Zihle. The total group EBITDA was about ZAR 3 billion. And in terms of continuing operations, SA was ZAR 1.8 billion, ZAR 1.78 billion and Ireland delivered EUR 62 million of EBITDA. Ireland includes the EBITDA losses from AWG though. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. Another one for you. Can you clarify the sequence of capital allocation? Is the first step likely to be buybacks, dividends or combination? And what determines that order? Angelo Swartz: Look, we have hinted at returns to shareholders over the short to medium term. I think our gearing position and the improvement in our gearing positions demonstrate that we can actually achieve that. Currently, our share price, we believe, is substantially undervalued. I mean, the usual sequence of things would be to recommence dividends once you'd been -- especially if you've been a dividend paying share, however, in our case, the buying back of shares might be the best way to create value for shareholders before we commit to a dividend policy over the long term. Zihle Nonganga: Well done on the debt reduction, can you provide some color on post-period trade in SA and BWG? Angelo, I'll give that to you. And a follow-up question is what inflation are you seeing? Angelo Swartz: Thanks, Zihle. We've had fairly positive post-period trade. October was weaker than we'd like, but November has been exceptionally strong. The weaker October, I think, really reflects a very, very strong September. And so over the 3 months, positive, broadly in line, probably slightly ahead of H2. The second question for BWG. BWG has also been broadly in line with the second half, slightly weaker, but broadly in line. And then for inflation, we've seen in South Africa, in particular, we've seen lower inflation in the last few months. So the inflation number is, I think, 3.5%, for the year. But we have seen weaker regulation substantially below that in the months of September and October. Zihle Nonganga: In SPAR SA, what are the upward pressures on costs that we could potentially see in FY '26? Moegamat Isaacs: From a cost perspective, we are obviously investing in initiatives to as we transform the business, our SAP operating expenses does ramp up at peaks in 2026. But we are busy with a number of efficiency initiatives. Obviously, we're very focused on getting to the 3% operating margin. And I think to -- I mean that spans a range of activities as Angelo expanded on in the presentation itself, and that encompasses growth, cost reduction and operational efficiencies in business. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Reeza. How much of the net debt improvement were aided by working capital cut off support? Without the cut-off support, could you tell us how much net debt would have been? Moegamat Isaacs: Yes. I think the -- in the free cash flow table that I've shared with you, the working capital position does improve quite substantially. And I would say that the improvement due to the earlier cutoff was probably about ZAR 800 million to ZAR 1 billion. However, I think you've got to also bear in mind that from -- that the cash flow that we've shared with you, ZAR 2.3 billion of nonoperating cash flows actually left the business with the disposal of Poland and Switzerland. So I think you've got to look at those 2 in conjunction when looking at the net gearing position at the end of the day. And as I said in the presentation, I'll leave that to you to make your calculations, but it does show that we are a strong cash-generating business. Zihle Nonganga: Could you unpack what happened with the SA margin? What led to the margins in SA ending at 1.7% versus the previously guided 2.1% to 2.3% range? I'll give that to you, Ang. Angelo Swartz: Yes, I think partly the business is seasonal. There's a little bit of seasonality in the business and second half is generally softer than the first half. So we come out of the first half at 2.1%, just under 2.1%. In the second half, it was impacted slightly by 3 [indiscernible] titles. So ECL provisions increased. We had 2 large groups and a Build it store that impacted that number. And the second was KZN, while still profit-making was weaker in the second half than in the first. And those are probably the 2 major factors. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Still on the SA margin, with the 3% being pushed out to FY '28, what is the expected glide path from the current 1.7%? Are we talking 2% in '26; 2.5% in '27, et cetera? Angelo Swartz: I think that's a fairly good way of looking at it from a glide path point of view. Having said that, there will be a higher level of spend on SAP implementation as we go through '26 and '27, and that will impact that glide path slightly. I'd estimate that to be around 15 bps or so every -- in the 2 years, but those are nonrecurring costs once the distribution centers have been brought online. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. Could you please explain the reason behind the difference in revenue and gross profit between the presentation slides and the income statement in the apps? Reeza, I'll give that to you. Moegamat Isaacs: Yes. The apps obviously prepared on the statutory basis and the results are prepared on the comparable 52-week basis. So yes, last year ended on the 30th of September, this year on the 26th of September. But from a statutory perspective, we don't make that adjustment. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. SPAR held back on paying a dividend, and I know group scrapped them at interim stage in 2023 because of the challenges it was grappling with. With more than ZAR 5 billion in impairments in the second half related to Switzerland, U.K. and some corporate stores in SA, is the worst over now for SPAR? And when does the group see themselves paying dividend again? The impairments hurt HEPS from total operations, but with these out of the picture now, does the outlook look more positive, Reeza? Moegamat Isaacs: I think from a balance sheet point of view, we have done a significant reset in terms of the impairments process this year. I think the -- and that was from the investments that we carried in respect of Switzerland and AWG as well as the store impairments in South Africa. I think we've done quite a thorough exercise in respect of that. And I don't -- barring obviously any significant deviation from our glide path, I don't see any significant impairments going forward. Zihle Nonganga: And maybe just to expand a little bit on the impairment impact on HEPS, Reeza for the gentleman who asked? Moegamat Isaacs: Impairments are excluded from HEPS. So it's an adjustment to HEPS. So it's effectively added back. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Reeza. How many corporate stores in South Africa currently? And what was the growth? And finally, are you still looking on selling these corporate stores, Ang? Angelo Swartz: Yes. So just over 50 corporate stores in SA, including Build its or 3 Build its now. We are still planning on exiting those. At this stage, we have planned closures of 4 stores in the next year. And I think in some ways, the impairments of the corporate stores allow us to move a lot more swiftly in that space. And so the plan is to try to accelerate as far as possible. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Meg, I'll give this one to you. What percentage of SPAR South African retail sales is online delivery? And how do delivery fees work for SPAR2U and Uber Eats, respectively? Megan Pydigadu: Thanks, Zihle. So we haven't disclosed the percentage, but what I will say is this past year, we've seen growth of 136%. And post year-end, we've actually seen an acceleration of that growth, which has been good and shows that our partnership with Uber Eats and SPAR2U is working well. In terms of delivery fees, so from a SPAR2U perspective, we charge on a very similar basis as our competitors do, and it's based on price. And then on Uber Eats, there is a markup in the price that's sold through and no delivery fee. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Meg. Two questions for you, Reeza. What sort of drop in net finance costs should we expect in FY '26? And do you expect tax rate -- the tax rate to normalize to 27% in FY '26? Moegamat Isaacs: I'll start with the second one first. So on the tax rate, we've actually provided a table where there is reconciled EPS growth to operating profit growth. And in there, we've indicated that the effective blended tax rate actually drops over the next 2 years. So Ireland, obviously 12.5%, South Africa at 27% statutory rate. So the blended rate is actually disclosed in that particular table. And then with regard to finance costs, we expect for next year to remain more or less at the same level as it was this year. Our absolute debt from a gearing point of view, not a gearing ratio point of view, gearing ratio comes down, but absolute level of debt does more or less remain the same because of the outflows, especially the Switzerland outflow towards the end of the year. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. Ang, I'll give this one to you. How is the sales process of AWG going? Given the losses, will you need to pay the buyer to exit this business? Angelo Swartz: Yes, the process has been slower than we'd like, although we started to make progress in the last week or 2 again. And so we expect to conclude that process sometime early in the new year. At this stage, the initial price is something that remains open and probably the biggest bone of contention from a pricing perspective, we do not expect to pay in. We expect to be slightly positive, although we have impaired the business down to 0. We think there's some value in the business. And so no, I don't think we'd be paying in. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. What cash flows still need to occur relating to the Switzerland sale? Angelo Swartz: None. Zihle Nonganga: Zero. Short and simple. Angelo Swartz: The exception of the potential turnout at the end of 2 years. All cash flows have exited in South Africa. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. How far is the KZN DC from normal profitability halfway or more? Angelo Swartz: Less than halfway. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. Sorry, a couple of repeat questions trying to go through them. Can you expand or explain the comment of SAP falling away in 2028? Angelo Swartz: We expect to complete the rollout of SAP in the first quarter of 2028. So when I say SAP falling away, it refers to the implementation costs that will be nonrecurring costs beyond quarter 1, '28. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Can we double back on the working capital cycle going forward? Given you do not have Poland and Switzerland in the base anymore and you've changed to a retail reporting cycle, how are you anticipating the inventory, accounts payable and accounts receivable days will change in the coming years? Moegamat Isaacs: I think from an overall point of view, you can -- I mean, there was obviously a bit of a reset this year with the cutoff being earlier. That continues for the next few years. And I think the assumption is that the working capital cycle is neutral effectively for the next few years. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Reeza. Can you please clarify when the 3% margin will be achieved in SA? Is it 2028 or 2030? Angelo Swartz: 2028. Zihle Nonganga: 2028. Thanks, Ang. Another question about finance costs. Thank you for the road map to 3%. What are the like-for-like assumptions in that margin waterfall? If we assume a sub-3% like-for-like, is 3% margin still achievable? Angelo Swartz: We've based the bridge on the assumption that we grow the business roughly at inflation or slightly ahead. The majority of our assumptions are controllables and particularly on the cost and margin lines as opposed to the sales line. And so our focus is really to focus on the things we can control. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Megan, this one is for you around Pet Storey. I remember the launch of Pet Storey, it was said that you are targeting 25 to 30 Pet Storeys by the end of this year with a plan to have a minimum of 100 stores by the end of next year. Can you please just tell us a little bit more about that given that the expansion seems to have been drastically slowed down? Megan Pydigadu: I don't think it's been drastically slowed down. I think if you look at the fact that within 9 months, we brought the concept to market, we've already got 12 stores. We've got another 3 stores launching this week. So we should finish up at about 15 stores for December. And then we have a significant interest in Pet Storey from our retailers. And so there's a very healthy pipeline. So it's really a matter of us keeping up with demand and rolling out the stores in the new year. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Meg. Okay. Please talk us through EC contribution to SA volumes and value, which DCs follow thereafter? Angelo Swartz: Eastern Cape is the second smallest DC. It contributes about 10% to the SPAR SA volume. Thereafter, the plan is to go to the low [indiscernible] towards the end of next year, and then we'll go into the 3 bigger divisions that are left over in '27. And so that will be North Rand and South Rand because of how they're located, they are all quite close to each other in Western Cape. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. What are your thoughts on Walmart launching in South Africa? How is SPAR planning to support retailers? Should traction be attained in the everyday low pricing model that Walmart plans to leverage? Angelo Swartz: That's a very difficult question to answer. It remains to be seen how South African shoppers adapt to the everyday low price model. One would assume then that should that happen and that consumers migrate towards an everyday low price model that the cost of promotion reduces. And so one would -- we would be -- if that becomes a preferred method for the South African shopper, which I think is unlikely, but possible, we would have to adapt our model, reduce the percentage of promotional goods that we sell and even out the margin rather than do the high low as we do in South Africa. I think a lot of focus will have to be as Walmart does in all the other operations, is reducing the cost of getting goods to store and reducing the cost of the sale of running stores to support the lower -- the EDLP model. And so all of those things, I think, particularly the ones related to cost are things that we're already working on quite hard. As you can imagine, reducing cost is a focus area for us regardless of what competition is out in the market. And so the model from a promotion point of view will be customer led, I think. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Should we regard the increase in working capital as structural? Or should we expect some reversal of the payables related inflow for FY '26? I've got a follow-up question, Reeza, but I'll let you answer that again. Moegamat Isaacs: I think I've answered that previously. I think there was a bit of a reset in '25. And I think you can assume a neutral working capital cycle going forward for the next few years. Zihle Nonganga: What would need to happen for you to consider a reinstatement of dividend for FY '26? Moegamat Isaacs: I think the -- look, from a margin perspective, obviously, we are working towards the 3%. We still have some lumpy SAP costs coming through from a cash flow point of view. We've got CapEx that we're carrying over from '25 into 2026. But we are highly cash generative, and we are reducing our gearing. I think the -- and that's why we're saying we would probably consider share buyback in the short term before committing to a longer-term dividend policy. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. SA loyalty, retail loyalty has declined by circa 60 bps. Could you please elaborate on the change and where you expect it to get to over the medium term? Angelo Swartz: Yes. I think over the full year, the 60 bps is true. But H2 was significantly stronger than H1. And what we saw was a growth of 1% in royalty in H2, which we are obviously quite happy about. Some of that is related to seasonality and with Easter falling into H2. But by and large, I think we have started to turn loyalty around now. And I think we continue to see loyalty trend upward. I'd say in the short term, that we continue in the range of 79% with the aim of getting to 80% in the next 12 to 18 months or so. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Another one for you. Any specifics you can point out on Black Friday trade? Angelo Swartz: Black Friday trade was exceptionally strong. We were quite aggressive as a group. We had a fairly early break in Black Friday. So we broke with our first Black Friday deals in the second week of November. And I think our team did an exceptional job in terms of both communicating that promotion and then also delivering on prices that got consumers excited. And so we had an exceptionally strong first Black Friday or what we call, Black Friday 1, which was the second week of November. We followed that up with a second strong promotion in the last week of November. And so over the course of those days, Black Friday was exceptionally strong, 6 days, really 3 on Black Friday 1, 3 on Black Friday 2. In both instances, on average, we saw retail turnover up over those days above 30% and in some stores, double that, but really exceptionally strong Black Friday, much stronger in food than on liquor this year. Having said that, we come off a fairly strong base with liquor being very strong last year. So very pleased with Black Friday. And it's -- our team executed pretty well on that. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. For you, Reeza, I assume your 52-week on 52-week segmentals exclude impairments. But what about the movement in the ECL provisions? Moegamat Isaacs: The movement in the ECL would be included in the 52-week -- the ECL -- I mean, the way we looked at debtors costs, it's ECL write-offs and changes in provision. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. A couple of questions on what topline do you think you need in order to maintain the glide path to your margin targets? Angelo Swartz: I think I've mentioned that before. We're looking at inflation -- between inflation and inflation plus. Zihle Nonganga: Thanks, Ang. Are we going to see any future developments in the SPAR Rewards program similar to other large retailers in SA? Angelo Swartz: Meg, do you want to take that? Megan Pydigadu: Okay. Sure. I think this is definitely something that we are looking at. And we're looking at how we can use behavioral economics really to drive loyalty and change behavior. So definitely something on the horizon. Zihle Nonganga: Reeza, just I think you need to reiterate. Can you quantify SAP costs in '25 and '26 until the final rollout? Moegamat Isaacs: I think the -- look, as I said, 2026 SAP costs peak, both from a CapEx perspective and an operating cost perspective. I don't think we -- I mean, what I can say is that the delta on operating expenses is about ZAR 150 million for 2026 on 2025. And then I think the delta on CapEx is a bit more than it actually is. It's about ZAR 200 million for 2026 on 2025. Angelo Swartz: I would add one thing, though. Just of course, we are going to start seeing elevated depreciation costs as the asset gets depreciated in the year ahead. So the ZAR 150 million relates to SAP implementation costs. And then we do see slightly elevated depreciation costs on our IT assets. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you both. Good morning, everyone. The figures on Slide 30 concerning Switzerland are the figures for 2024 per end of September 2024 and the 2025 figures per September 8, 2025? Moegamat Isaacs: That's correct. We've consolidated it effectively until... Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Reeza. Referring to Note 33, you've acquired a further 2 retail stores in H2 and run rate losses in the 6 acquired stores during FY '25 is ZAR 61 million. What is the rationale for acquiring heavily loss-making stores when your stated strategy is to exit company-owned stores? Angelo Swartz: The 2 stores in H2 were one Build it store related to the bad debt issue. Thankfully, that store on its own is profit-making, and we plan to spin that off. I think the sale and purchase of corporate stores in the broader SPAR ecosystem is normal part of our day-to-day operations. Ideally, we want to warehouse those stores and sell them on as quickly as possible. For the 6 stores for the year, something that we want to be clear on is that generally we apply the view of the value chain. And so when we -- what we disclosed in the financial statements is the stand-alone profit outlook for those stores as required by IAS and IFRS, but they do not take the value chain into account. So we do look at the total value chain for us, how much we make on the wholesale end versus how much we lose on the retail end. But this doesn't mean any deviation from our strategy to dispose of loss-making corporate stores. We remain focused on doing that. And those stores would certainly be on that list. Zihle Nonganga: Thank you, Ang. Another question on KZN profitability. How much did the KZN DC profitability improve by? It was at a ZAR 300 million loss last year, and it's now profitable. Can you confirm the level of profitability -- can you confirm, sorry, what the level of profitability is versus a normalized level? Angelo Swartz: It's a bit noisy because we changed the accounting policies internally. I prefer we haven't disclosed that separately. But it was a material increase on last year. Zihle Nonganga: Last question on the platform. Was there a more tax-efficient way to have done the Polish refinance perhaps through Ireland? Moegamat Isaacs: I think -- yes, I don't think there is a more tax-efficient way to do it. I mean the funds flow from South Africa in respect of those entities. And unfortunately, those -- the interest on that funding is deemed to be nonproductive. So I don't think there was any other alternative to actually do that. Zihle Nonganga: And we have come to the end of the questions. No more questions on the platform. So Ang, I'll ask you to close this out. Angelo Swartz: Thank you, Zihle, and thank you to the investment community and shareholders who've taken their time to go through our results with us today. We thank you for your ongoing interest. We thank our shareholders for the patience in terms of capital returns and the return of dividends. As stated, it's a priority for us to consider some form of return to shareholders in the short to medium term. And so I just want to thank our shareholders and investors for that. Just from me, I think 2026 has been -- or 2025 has been a very important year in SPAR's history. We've managed to execute on a number of our key priorities. First, to exit Poland and complete that exit. I think just to take shareholders back, that business was one that was losing us ZAR 0.5 billion a year, and we were funding it by ZAR 0.75 billion a year. And so the exit of that business and the closure of that chapter in our history is one that was achieved this year and something that we are very proud of. Secondly, Switzerland and the closing of that Swiss deal is swiftly as we have as the market will recall, we announced our intention to dispose of that business towards the end of May, early June this year. And we've managed to conclude that transaction and exit that business by the end of August. What that has meant from a business perspective in terms of our debt has been significant. Last -- the next priority that we achieved this year, which I think we should be exceptionally proud of is the reduction in our gearing and the dropping of net debt by 40% and the levels of headroom we've created in the business, I think is something we're exceptionally proud of. We've been -- we've managed to navigate all of these things without a capital raise. And that was a question that was asked of us for some time with how confident we were about being able to do that and I think we've now demonstrated that the business is cash generative and that there was no need for a capital raise. So as hard as it was to go through, I'm exceptionally proud that we've been able to achieve that, both for our shareholders without diluting them and then for the business itself. I think our 2 big continuing operation businesses, Ireland and South Africa, both have something to be proud of. And the Irish business continues to deliver above 3% operating profit in a very difficult Irish environment and very competitive Irish environment, particularly with the multiples, looking for growth and coming after the convenience channel, which is one where we remain the market leader. And in that convenience channel that the business has done exceptionally well. John and his team in Ireland, well done for a really excellent year. We look forward to '26 and a new chapter in Ireland, some exciting initiatives happening there. Within the Southern African business, we've managed to grow our hardware business and pharmacy business and to make Jeremy [indiscernible] and the teams in pharmacy at SPAR and Build it, really well done from -- in both those environments operating above market and gaining share. In the Southern African grocery and liquor business, a softer year in the first 6 months in particularly quite soft, although we've gained momentum in the second 6 months. I'm really proud of growing loyalty in the second 6 months, and we want to see that continuing. And to deliver across the Southern African business, 7% growth or 6.8% growth in operating profit is something that we're very proud of. And just thank you to the Southern African business and their teams, Reeza and your team for delivering a set of financial statements as noisy as they were with discontinuing operations, changes in reporting periods, et cetera, really to your team well done, to our teams in all our businesses. I missed one, which is the starting of Pet Storey, a new chapter in the life of SPAR, something very exciting. I'm actually going to a launch of a Pet Storey on Thursday after the Hillcrest, which is going to be exciting. So to Robin and [indiscernible] and the Pet Storey team, just well done, and welcome to the SPAR family. I have no doubt we're going to grow that business very rapidly. And then to all our teams in SPAR Southern Africa, I know it's been a hard year. I've been very proud of the efforts that our teams have made and on executing on our priorities. I'm very, very proud of what our teams have produced. And then to end off, I think we're very clear on what our strategy is and our strategy is focused on our retailers and those are the last people I want to thank. Our retailers have remained loyal to the SPAR brand. They are right behind us and encouraging us to do better. And for them, I think, just to all of our retailers across all brands, both in Southern Africa, Build it, pharmacy, our new retailers in Pet Storey and our various retailers in the Irish business and Sri Lankan business. We're excited about '26, and we think we can make some really great progress. It's going to be another defining year for SPAR where now that we've cleaned the balance sheet and we are able to focus on operational execution, the execution and delivery of SAP into the next 2 distribution centers is something that's very important for this year. And so it's going to be another transformational year. I look forward to '26. And I look forward to our investors and engaging with you over the next few days. Thank you very much, and thank you, Zihle, for putting these -- the road show together and for the results announcement today. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a good break. I'm sure you all deserve it.
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