Arcadis Nv S/Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Jamie, your chorus call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Arcadis conference call and live webcast to present and discuss third quarter 2026 trading update. All participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press the star key followed by one on their telephone any time during the call. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may see an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephones. At this time, I would like to turn the floor over to Ms. Sinem Baykalos, IR Officer. Ma'am, you may proceed.

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our 2026 Third Quarter Trading Update conference call. My name is Sinem Baykalos, and I'm the Investor Relations Officer. Joining me on the call are our CEO Heather Polinsky and our CFO Simon Crowe. As usual, we will start with the presentation followed by a Q&A. Before we start, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that management may reiterate forward-looking statements made in today's press release. Please note the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in the press release and on the company's website. Now, please Over to you, Heather.

Thank you, Sinem, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter 2026 results. We delivered another strong quarter and continued to build momentum. Growth accelerated, margins expanded, and backlogs strengthened. Importantly, the pattern of our performance reflects the priorities we have been putting in place throughout the year. Growth is being driven by the markets where we have chosen to focus, including water, energy, semiconductors, life sciences, and digital infrastructure. We are progressing our portfolio actions, simplifying our operating model, and aligning capacity more closely with demand. Disciplined execution is translating into margin improvement, stronger billability, and cash performance. Our strategy has one clear underlining objective, continuing to get closer to our clients and converting our expertise into more consistent growth and profitability. The momentum that we have been building throughout the year reflects these strategic priorities. and our focus on disciplined execution. We reaffirm our 2026 outlook and are using any headroom we have to one, reinvest in and two, transform the business. Let me take you through the quarter in more detail. We have green arrows across the board. Net revenues increased 4.3% in the quarter, capitalizing on sustained client demand. More importantly, the pattern of growth matters. It is precisely in the markets we identified at our Capital Markets Day as strategic priorities. Margin improved year on year to 12.5%, driven by our operational actions while we continue to invest in the capabilities needed to deliver sustainable, profitable growth. Our backlog continued to grow, giving us confidence and greater visibility on our future trajectory, which I will expand on shortly. And all while voluntary turnover continued to reduce. Reflecting that we are bringing our people along with us on our transformation. Turning now to backlog. Backlog organic growth and rolling order intake have continually increased over the last 12 months. Backlog organic growth this quarter is at 7.9%. This was driven by continued order intake strength in water, in resilience, and major semiconductor wins in places. Our order intake and mobility reflects the timing of awards. Here, we remain focused on pipeline conversion, aligning our delivery capacity with expected workload, and implementing our strategy. Consistent with this positive trend and backlog, organic revenue growth has also been accelerating throughout the year. This progression supports our confidence in the underlying momentum of the business and provides a stronger foundation as we move forward. A great example of this is a significant win in our mobility business. An award from Irish Rail to deliver advisory and design services for their strategic rail review. Let's now take a closer look at each of our business areas. Resilience remains a consistent performer with sustained growth in Q3, driven by water across the US, Netherlands, and UK, which includes Thames Water, Wessex Water, United Utilities, and the Environment Agency. In Germany, major grid expansion programs continue to support strong power growth. And in Brazil, mining and critical minerals is supporting growth. The momentum we have been building throughout the year reflects the strategic priorities we have been putting in place and our focus on disciplined execution. This impact is reflected by our sustained improvement in growth and margin. Environmental restoration continues to be a differentiator across our geographies. This quarter we are proud to have secured a multi-year environmental remediation program with 3M in Belgium to address historical PFAS contamination. Our teams continue to invest in capabilities and client relationships that support ongoing growth across our energy, water, and environmental services. In places, our action to focus and invest where we see the greatest opportunity are paying off. This business is starting to turn the corner with positive organic growth of 1.2%. Underlying growth was even higher at 4.2% when excluding the architecture business and China. This is consistent with the performance we expect from our retained portfolio. That is a good example of the value we will achieve by being more focused, directing talent and investment toward markets where we see sustained client demand and where we have the strongest opportunity to differentiate. This will support greater growth. This quarter, growth was supported by life sciences and digital infrastructure across key geographies, and we expect to see continued momentum here. Booked bill was strong at 1.3 times following major semiconductor awards. One example is the expansion of our engineering procurement and construction scope for a major semiconductor manufacturing program in the US. Going forward, we could continue to refocus our portfolio towards attractive growth markets, progressing the announced portfolio actions in China and architecture, and directing talent and investment towards the areas of sustained client demand. Turning now to mobility. Organic growth was strong in the third quarter, supported by major transportation programs in Germany and Canada, as well as closing several contract variations. Border intake, however, reflected the timing of several pursuits. Our pipeline and mobility remains healthy across key markets, and we remain focused on disciplined conversion. Our recent win is an example of this, where we are leveraging the capabilities of our recent acquisitions in Germany and Spain to win a multidisciplinary project for a major rail hub on the Munich Berlin network. While major infrastructure programs remain central to our mobility strategy, we are deliberately broadening the portfolio towards more programmatic advisory and asset lifecycle work. This creates deeper, long-term client relationships and a more balanced business alongside the inherently lumpy nature of our large design build infrastructure awards. Capacity alignment is also important to how we execute our transportation strategy. These actions are intended to improve billability and project delivery. helping us deliver on our financial ambitions while also reducing revenue variability quarter on quarter. I'll now hand over to Simon to take you through the detailed financial performance of this quarter.