IMI plc

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's IMI PLC Q1 Trading Update. My name's Drew and I'll be the operator on the call today. After the prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session. If you would like to register for a question during that time, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad and to withdraw your question if star followed by two. With that, it's my pleasure to hand over to Roy Twight, CEO to begin. Please go ahead when you're ready.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to IMI's first quarter training update. I'm joined here today by our CFO, Luke Grant. We have made a good start to the year, delivering organic growth across IMI in the first quarter. This performance reflects the strength of the one IMI operating model, our strategic focus on three mega trends, energy, automation, and healthcare, and the continued efforts from all of our people globally. We are pleased to reconfirm our full-year guidance, remain firmly on track to deliver our sixth consecutive year of mid-single-digit organic revenue growth in 2026, and we continue to expect that full year adjusted EPS will be between 136 pence and 142 pence. Process automation delivered strong revenue growth. As expected, order intake was slightly lower year on year against a strong Q1 comparator, particularly in the aftermarket, where we grew 19% organically in the first quarter of last year, driven by several large nuclear orders that we previously announced. Industrial automation performed in line with expectations, benefiting from an easier comparator following the cyber incident in the first quarter of last year. Climate control continues to perform well, supported by demand for our energy-efficient solutions. Life sciences and fluid control was slightly better than the prior year as we saw further signs of stabilisation in the life science device market. Transport grew in line with the heavy duty truck market. Before I hand back to the operator, I would like to provide a quick update on the Middle East. We are actively monitoring the situation where the safety of our people remains our absolute top priority. The region represents 6% of IMI sales in 2025, principally in process automation. And I want to be clear on how this is reflected within our guidance. As at the end of April, we have shipped approximately £35 million to the Middle East year to date. Despite the ongoing disruption, we currently have a further £15 million planned for delivery in May and June. Our guidance assumes that conditions normalise allowing us to deliver around £75 million in the second half and therefore approximately £125 million across the full year into the Middle East. IMI remains well positioned with a unique market-led approach to innovation, significant recurring high margin aftermarket exposure and strong pricing power. Importantly, our strong balance sheet and significant cash generation continue to support investment, shareholder returns and strategic flexibility. So, with that, I'm going to hand you back to the operator who will manage the Q&A session. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now start today's Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question on the call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And to withdraw your question, it's star followed by two. Our first question today comes from Chitrita Sinha from JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.