Alfen Nv

Hello, welcome to the ALFA 2026 Half-Year Results Conference Call, hosted by Michael Collein, CEO, and Bart Meusen, Interim CFO. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and afterwards there will be a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. And I would now like to hand the call over to Michael Collein. Mr. Collein, please go ahead.

Thank you, Elba. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Alphen's 2026 half-year earnings call. Thank you all for taking the time to join us. I'm Michael Cullen, CEO of Alphen, and I'm delighted to be leading this trading update with you today. Before we start, let me introduce Bart Merson, who joined us as interim CFO on the 1st of July and is with us on this call for the first time. With his appointment, continuity of the finance function and financial leadership is safeguarded. Bart joined at a demanding moment and has made a strong start. He has been closely involved in preparing the results we are presenting today. As such, he will take you through our financial performance and join me during Q&A. It has been a pleasure working with Bart these first few weeks. Let me give the word to Bart for a short introduction.

Yeah, thank you Michael and good morning everyone also from my side. I joined Alphen as the interim CFO on the 1st of July and got a warm welcome by the team. I've been working closely with Michael, the Alphen management team, and the finance department over the last weeks. The first weeks here, as you said it already, have gone straight into the half year. Like also what's written in the short announcement, I had careers at companies such as KPN, Philips, and most recently at BAM as CFO of the Netherlands. In all those assignments, I gained extensive experience and knowledge, on finance leadership, business transformation, and organizational change. What I found is a finance organization that knows its business well and a company with a clear sense of what it is building, with many strong and dedicated professionals. My focus is on continuity, making sure the finance function keeps delivering and that, for example, you receive the same quality and consistency of reporting you are used to. My second focus is to support the ongoing transformation with everything that is needed to be done with structure. I really look forward to speaking with you later in the call and to meet many of you over the course of the coming months. Michael, back to you.