Essilor Luxottica

Hello everybody, this is Giorgio Iannella from the IR team. Thank you for joining Essiro Luxottica H1 2024 results management call. The group's chairman and CEO Francesco Milleri, the deputy CEO Paul Dusayan and the CFO Stefano Grassi will walk you through the business and financial highlights for the period. After their presentations, there will be a Q&A session. If you want to make a question, please press a star, followed by five. We kindly ask you to limit your questions to a maximum of two. With that, I hand it over to Francesco.

Welcome everybody. Good to see so many of you connected today for the Silor Luxottica first semester earning call. I'm pleased to introduce our sound financial performance and give you an update on our key strategic initiatives. In the first six months of the year, we posted revenue growth in line with the long-term targets, with the two quarter well aligned in their performance and the operating margin in sound progression. That leaves us fully confident to deliver on our five-year targets. Stefano will elaborate on that. I'd just like to emphasize here the solidity of our growth path since 2021 on both revenue and margins, always translating into strong cash flows. While we well execute our strategy in the core business of eye care and eyewear, we play the role of a front runner in the technological revolution of the industry. The combination of Essilor, Luxottica and Grand Vision into one single stronger group was just the first step. Now we are at work to make a second, much bolder move, bringing our group into the promising future of wearable and AI-based face computing. We'll bring together digital platforms, portfolios of new applications ranging from eye care, hearing aids, predictive advanced diagnostics to gaming, sports and entertainment. In that direction, Ray-Ban Meta continued to be a great success, upgrading product quality, adding new functionalities and accelerating growth sales. At the start of its journey, Ray-Ban Meta already sold more than Ray-Ban's story in its entire life. We strongly believe we are just at the beginning of a revolution which will combine technology with design and branding and deeply reshape many industries converging on our wearable unique platform. One of the key engines of such a revolution is our long-term partnership with Meta, making our proposition in new generation of eyewear more and more powerful. Nuance Audio is part of the same vision. Over the past year, we have made significant progress in developing the new technology, fine-tuning the product, and collecting supportive clinical evidence from extensive research and top-quality tests. We continue to present the product to end-users and potential customers, gathering a great deal of interest. At the launch we will be ready with presentation tools and store product corners to support the sales of Nuance Audio in third-party optical and audiological locations, together with our own stores. Based on the high potential of our product, we have decided to proceed with a submission with the FDA in order to ensure that our product meets the highest standards of safety and efficacy. Being fully respectful of FDA procedures, we still target the end of the year for the launch of Nuance Audio in the U.S. market. The two acquisitions we announced last week, the leading diagnostic medtech platform Heidelberg Engineering from Germany and the iconic Supreme brand from the US coast, are fully in line with our strategy, as they respectfully bring to Essilor Luxottica strong capabilities in the ophthalmic applications and one of the most iconic brands among the youth. Starting from Heidelberg Engineering, on which Paul will elaborate further, I want to highlight that the German group, founded in 1990, is a leading innovator in high-end diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions for ophthalmology, with a unique portfolio of patents and applications. In two SLO Luxottica's ecosystem, including Helix's new digital division, Heidelberg will bring opportunity in different areas, like R&D, optometry, healthcare IT, big data, and AI. As for Supreme, Started in 1994 in New York City, that is really a leading iconic brand, the most authentic and desired brand for the new generations, fully direct to consumer, with an aura of exclusivity and scarcity around its product offering, often released in limited units. Such a community is loyal to the brand, thus offering Silor Luxottica an access to an audience that is untapped by its current brand portfolio. Well beyond the strong position in Apparel, we are acquiring a unique communication platform to address young consumers. Nice retail points offering a superior in-store experience are part of such identity. supreme directly operates 17 well-performing stores in big city worldwide with a strong penetration in china and the other asian markets in a much more fluid landscape with different business and industry converging and mixing each other brands will matter even more than ever We see brands as the necessary support for the diffusion of innovations in wearable and digital platforms, the necessary cultural vehicle to push our disruptive view of the future. Last but not least, supreme acquisition will be a creative on our margin. With that, I hand over to Paul. Thank you.

Thank you, Francesco, and good morning, good evening to you all. It's a pleasure, like always, to be here with you. Today, as you have heard, we are presenting solid first half results. We are very thankful to all our colleagues for the hard work they have put into delivering them. Before digging a little bit deeper into the acquisition of Heidelberg Engineering, I would like to emphasize three messages. First, our core activity is in strong shape. In a context that is complex, our teams are deeply focused on the execution of our strategic priorities. In the last month, we have consolidated our organization, developing our leaders and preparing the generation of tomorrow at all levels. Our flat and agile structure is nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of our company. Second, our innovation dynamism remains unparalleled. Just think about how rich our pipeline has been in recent time and the tangible impact it has already made to our growth. Stellest, Varilux XR, Transition Gen S, Ray-Ban Meta, Ray-Ban Change, the new licenses Swarovski, Jimmy Chou, Bruno Locucinelli, Ferrari, Moncler and now Diesel. It is truly inspiring. We have talked about them already during our last call, so today I would like to just touch upon two of our iconic brands and categories, Stelest and Oakley. We have recently released our five-year clinical trial findings for Stelest at the ARVO annual meeting in Seattle. The data shows that the lenses are effective in slowing down the myopia progression and axial elongation, saving one and three-quarters of diopters on average over five years. The confirmation of the strong results over an extended time horizon really proves how impactful our technology is. More than one million children have been equipped with STELEST in the first half. A lot is going on at Oakley. And on top, they are preparing for the Olympics starting tomorrow in Paris. The brand is buzzing with excitement for this huge sporting event and will have a pavilion at the Palais Brognard to host its team Oakley athletes. Oakley will be outfitting the US surfing team with a super cool collection of functional offshore apparel and eyewear. The brand has also just dropped the new special Inner Spark frame collection, drawing attention to the deep emotions that athletes go through when competing. Check it out. Third, we are preparing for the future in a bold way. With industry transforming initiatives, as we have heard from Francesco, and a clear focus on sustainability, where we are advancing well on our agenda with concrete actions. We have just announced that by 2025 we will create a 25 hectares solar farm close to our Italian Barberini manufacturing site, able to produce approximately 30,000 MWh of the renewable energy per year, an equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of approximately 10,000 families. and we have recently submitted our near-term emission reduction targets to the SBTI for approval. Our initiatives so far have led to an improvement in major sustainability rankings, such as MSCI, ESG, Sustain Analytics, and Moody's. Now, I would like to focus on Heidelberg Engineering. This is clearly a leap forward in stepping up the capabilities of Essilor Luxottica in the medtech space through building a complete spectrum of eye care solutions from routine exam to advanced diagnostics combined with AI capabilities. With Heidelberg Engineering and their teams, we are bringing great expertise connecting edge technology and a globally renowned brand into the Essilor Luxutica family. Their advanced solution in the field of diagnostic imaging, digital surgical microscopes, and healthcare IT solutions empower ophthalmologists to detect, diagnose, and monitor eye disease at an early stage. Their Spectralis device is widely recognized as the gold standard in ophthalmic imaging and has also been chosen by the NASA to monitor the vision of astronauts aboard the ISS. Heidelberg Engineering is known for its powerful R&D capabilities and contribution to site-saving scientific research. They are also actively integrating small and innovative companies to foster the development of new projects. Values that are very much aligned with the one of our company. With this move, we enter the space of clinical ophthalmology, which will allow us to upgrade our offering and expand our scientific programs. And now I will hand it over to Stefano, who will run you through the financial performance. Thank you.