Bekaert Sa Ord

Good morning and welcome to the Bekaert 2024 results call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode and we will open the floor for your questions after the presentation. If you require assistance, you may press star zero on your keypad at any time and an operator will assist you. If you wish to join the queue to ask a question at any time, you may press star one. And should you wish to remove yourself from the queue, press star two. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. Guy Marks, VP, Investor Relations. Sir, the Let me just take you through the safe harbor. And just to remind, this presentation may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Becca is providing the information in this presentation as of its date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in it in light of new information, future events or otherwise. Becker also disclaims any liability for statements made or published by third parties and does not undertake any obligation to correct inaccurate data, information, conclusions or opinions published by third parties in relation to this or any other published publication issued by Becker. With that tongue twister out of the way, I'd like to hand over to Dave.

Thank you. Thanks, Guy, and also a warm welcome from my side. So 2020-2024 results. So another year of resilient delivery in a business environment that has been challenging, with 24 with two phases. First half still good market amount, and second half, which, you know, we hear market amount in many of our end markets. In that context, we deliver a $4 billion top line and an EBITU margin around 9% on the higher end of our guidance. Underlying EPS and leverage broadly in line and stable with previous years. So some highlights on 24. We continued, of course, working on our mix improvement cost structure, minimizing the impact of lower volumes. while also evolving or progressing, as announced this morning, on our business portfolio with a further divestment of our activities in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Venezuela at attractive multiples. We've been commenting during the last year's calls about the evolution of the growth platforms. So based on geopolitical situation and priorities in the end markets, we've seen some slowdown in some of our growth platforms. our delays we will come back later how we look into the future on the other end we've successfully integrated in the synthetic gross business our acquisition of Mexico and the Flintstone business one of the challenges we shared in the second half of the first half of the year and then uh we copy in the first second half of the year was the operational challenges in our always business in Europe and North America. And we're happy to report that the recovery plan as laid out in the second half of the year has been materialized and we brought back the business in the profitability levels that was targeted. So having said that, this introduction, I hand over to Seppo who will give you more details about our financial and operational review by Cegna and those at the company.