Belysse Group N.V.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call of Belize Group and V regarding the H1 2024 results. As a reminder, all participants will be in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a questions and answer session for analysts covering the Belize share. Today we have with us James Newling, Chief Executive Officer, André Ruggis, Chief Financial Officer, and Ruben Patius, Group Director of Sustainability and Strategic Projects. Gentlemen, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Lynn. James Newling speaking. Good morning to everybody and welcome to our first half, the Belize Group's first half results call. If you have not already done so, you can download the press release and presentation from this investor relations section on Belize.com. I need to start with bringing your attention to the disclaimer on slide two. I will not read it out, but please do make sure you have read it. So now I will talk about the financial summary in the first half of 2024. Then Andy Rogist, CFO of Belize Group, will take us through the financial review. And finally, Ruben Pateas, Group Director of Sustainability and Strategic Projects, will give a quick update on our Beyond program. I will then do a conclusion. As Lynn stated earlier, we will end this call with a Q&A session with the analysts following our stock. So let's turn to slide four for the first half financial summary. From a financial standpoint, we saw a first half 2024 consolidated revenue, a total of 144.7 million euros, which represents an organic decrease of 7.0% year on year. Revenue of our US business declined by 6.2% year on year, while our European business faced a decline of 7.8% year on year. In terms of profitability, the first half 2024 adjusted EBITDA was 21.5 million, which represents a significant increase of 75.1% year-on-year. The net debt at the end of the period was 139.2 million, including a 25.3 million euro impact from IFRS 16 lease liabilities which brings us to a reduced leverage of 3.2. Andy will now go more in depth to the financials.

Thank you, James, and good morning to everybody dialing in. First, let's have a closer look at our revenues for the second quarter of 2024. So moving to the slide six. So we saw in the second quarter of 2024, a consolidated revenue of 74.5 million euros compared to the 79 million euros that we realized in the second quarter of 2023. This is representing a 5.7% year over year decreased. In the US, our revenue decreased to a minor extent by 1.9% to 42.7 billion euros compared to the decrease compared, of course, to last year. The volumes of our US division improved compared to the first quarter of this year, 2024. And this was mainly led by the higher sales in the education, corporate and residential segments where we are active in. In Europe, our revenue decreased by 10.4% versus last year to approximately 32 million euros. The decrease in revenue can be explained by lower volumes, primarily in our residential business line. We are now moving into these next slides, which will cover the first six months or the first semester, starting with the group revenue. So on the first six months, we saw consolidated revenue of 144.7 million euros. This is representing a decrease of 7% year over year and is fully organic. In the US, our Bentley Mills division revenue decreased by 6.2% to approximately 76 million euros. The decrease reflects the lower volumes compared to the first year, year half of 2023. In Europe, revenue decreased by 7.8% versus last year to 68.8 million euros. The volumes in the first half of 24 were below the volumes in the same period last year due to the continued market softness in the residential business, as well as a strategic shift into more profitable product offering in this segment. In the more project-driven commercial business line, volumes in the first six months were comparable to the ones we had in the first six months of 2023. So let's now turn to the slide eight to talk about the group adjusted EBITDA. So Belize Group consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 24 increased to 21.5 million euros. This is representing a significant increase of 75% versus the first semester last year. And the 21 and a half million euros of adjusted EBITDA represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.8%, where we had 7.9% margin in the first half of 2023. Our US business realized an adjusted EBITDA of 14.4 million euros in H1 2024. This is 3.6% higher than the first year half of 2023. The adjusted WDA and the WDA margin improved as a result of higher unitary margins as well as fixed cost savings that more than offset the negative impact of the lower volumes. Europe EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA was just above 7 million, so 7.1 million euros in H1 2024. Both our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin have recovered significantly compared to the first six months of 2023, which was still at a lower comparative base. But as a result, the result was driven of the first year half 24 was driven by the lower raw material costs where we talked about already on previous occasions and the higher margin for the portfolio as well. And not to forget on fixed costs saving measures we have been implementing since second year half in 2023. So we can move on to cashflow. So we ended the first year, half year, with a cash balance of 29 million euros compared to a cash balance of 35.8 million euros at the end of 2023. The negative cash flow for over the six months was mainly the debt repayments, the interest payments, the arrangements fee. all linked to our previous and our current financing with a total of 15.1 million euros, as well as capital expenditures of 5.2 million euros, change in other working capital of 4.1 million euros, and a 3-day working capital change of 2.9 million euros. This offsetting more than offsetting the realized adjusted EBITDA of 21.5 million euros. This brings us to the chart on our leverage. So net debt at the end of the period was 139.2 million euros. This includes 25.3 million euros of IFRS 16 lease liabilities. And this is also 6.1 million euros lower than the reported value at the end of last year. Given the strong improvement of our adjusted EBITDA and further reduction of our debt, our leverage is now reduced to 3.2 times, where it was 4.5 times at the end of 2023, and it was 5.5 times at the end of first year of 2023. Our total available liquidity, this is also including Our available headroom under the RCF is 41 million euros at the end of June, 2024. So this concludes my part, and I will now hand over the floor to Ruben, Ruben Pateus, who is our Group Director of Sustainability and Strategic Projects for an update on the BEYOND program.