Halma Plc Unsp/Adr

Good morning and welcome to our half year 26 results presentation. I'm pleased to be here to present a really strong set of results for the six month period. Results which clearly demonstrate the enduring strength of our sustainable growth model and most importantly the exceptional talent and commitment of our teams across the group. And I'd like to start by thanking everyone at Halma for their individual contributions that enable us to live a consistent growth and positive impact. Carol will provide more insight into our financial performance shortly. But first, let me start with the highlights. As I say, it's great to report another set of record half-year results. And I'm really pleased to see these results underpinned by strong organic growth. And fantastic to see the strong performance across all three sectors, in addition to the premium growth of our photonics business. We've also delivered a very strong margin performance and continued high returns on capital, and this supporting further substantial investment in the significant opportunities we see for future growth. And these results put us on track to deliver our 23rd consecutive year of record profit. Delivery of this financial performance demonstrates the power of our sustainable growth model, a model which has supported strong compounding growth and returns over decades, and a model which, when combined with the opportunities we see in our markets, underpins my confidence in our continued long-term success. the strength of our model lies in the way that each of the elements are interlinked, aligned and complement each other. Together, they remain critical to the delivery of our performance, both in the short and long term, a topic which I'll come back to later in the presentation. But first, let me hand you over to Carol for more details on our financial performance.

Thank you, Mark. And a very warm welcome to everyone on the call. I'll be taking you through some of the detail behind this excellent set of results. First, let me give you the highlights. For me, these results are a great demonstration of what the Halma model can deliver. First, strong growth. We reported headline revenue growth of 15% and EBIT grew 27%. Excluding a one-off benefit in E&A that we've already flagged in our trading update, revenue grew 14% and EBIT 23%. And we delivered an exceptionally strong first half margin of 22.3%, up 160 basis points. I'll give you more detail of the drivers of this increase in the sector reviews. A fantastic performance, and as you will see, driven by organic growth broadly spread across our sectors. At the same time, we've continued to make substantial strategic investments to support our future growth. We've invested 300 million in the first half, including nearly 60 in R&D, around 130 in acquisitions and over 100 million in CapEx and working capital to support growth in a number of our companies. While this investment resulted in cash conversion being below our KPI at 79%, we expect it to be more in line with our 90% KPI at the full year. All in all, a substantial level of investment reflecting the significant growth opportunities our companies see in their markets and our confidence in continuing to deliver strong growth and returns. The strength of our financial model means that we've been able to make these investments while maintaining a strong balance sheet and delivering high returns. Net debt to EBITDA is essentially unchanged since the year end at just over one times. And returns have increased significantly, 190 basis points to 16.2%, a very strong performance. All of this supporting a further increase in our dividend, putting us on track to deliver our 47th year of dividend increases of 5% or more. Now let's look at our revenue growth in more detail. This slide bridges the year-on-year revenue growth of 15.2%. Organic revenue growth was very strong at 16.7%. This reflected healthy growth broadly spread across all three sectors and a continued benefit from premium growth in photonics, which accounted for around half of the organic growth. Most of the growth was volume-driven, with price increases averaging between 1% and 2%. There was a modest contribution from acquisitions of 1.6%, reflecting the number of deals completed in the last year. This acquisition contribution was partly offset by the disposal of AEI, which we sold in July. As a reminder, AEI's revenue last year was approximately 42 million, so there will be a larger effect in the second half. There was also a translational currency headwind of 3.2%, primarily due to the weaker US dollar. Based on latest currency rates, we expect a similar headwind for the year as a whole. Finally, the one-off benefit was equivalent to 0.9% growth. Excluding this, reported revenue growth was strong at 14.3%. Let's now move from revenue to profit and margins. EBIT was up 22.8%, excluding the one-off, and a very healthy 22.7% on an organic basis. This was ahead of revenue growth and reflects margin expansion across all three sectors. Acquisitions contributed 3.1%, again ahead of revenue, reflecting the quality of the businesses we have bought, while disposals were also accretive to margins. The currency headwind was similar to revenue at 3.4% and the one-off benefit of 3.9% completes the bridge. Moving on to the sector commentaries, starting with safety. It was great to see further momentum in safety following two years of double-digit growth. On an organic basis, revenue grew 6%, led by strength in the public safety and worker safety sub-sectors. This was partly offset by a mixed performance in the other two sub-sectors, given some specific end-market trends and customer project delays, notably in the US. Profit grew 16%, reflecting a 280 basis point margin increase to 27%. This is a historic high for the sector and was driven by four main factors. The sector's continued revenue growth, favourable portfolio and product mix, strong operational delivery and benefits from accretive acquisitions and disposals. our safety companies continue to invest at a good level to support their future growth, with R&D spend increasing by 11% to 6.1% of revenue. Turning next to environmental and analysis. This slide shows E&A's performance excluding the one-off. There's a slide in the appendix which shows performance including it. The sector delivered an exceptionally strong organic revenue and profit growth of 36% and 38% respectively. And it's really pleasing to see this driven by growth across all sub-sectors. Strength in water analysis and treatment was driven by water infrastructure demand in both the US and UK. A strong performance environmental monitoring reflected growth in US gas detection and gas management in Asia Pacific. And in optical analysis, we saw continued premium growth in photonics, reflecting increased demand from our long-standing hyperscaler customer. The profit increase of 38% on an organic basis included a 90 basis point increase in margin to 23.6%, driven by growth in all subsectors and continued cost discipline. At the same time, it was pleasing to see a good level of investment with R&D up 7%. Adjusting for photonics, where development is part of the revenue we earn, R&D for the sector is at a healthy level at over 6% of revenue. And finally, it was good to see a strong 4.3% contribution from acquisitions, including Brownline and Minicam's bolt-on Haythorn. Now let's turn to healthcare. which delivered a stronger performance compared to last year, reflecting good execution against a background of steady recovery in healthcare markets. This was supported by improving customer confidence and demand for solutions which improve our customers' efficiency given increasing health burdens and rising patient backlogs. This resulted in good levels of organic growth in both therapeutic solutions and healthcare assessment, which together account for over 90% of the sector's revenue. Therapeutic solutions saw strong performance in a number of surgical and respiratory device companies, although this was partly offset by continued softness in eye health therapeutics in Europe. Growth in healthcare assessment was broad-based, with most companies in the sub-sector delivering solid organic growth. Sector profit was 10% higher and on a reported basis up 8% organically. Margin increased 50 basis points to 21.3%, reflecting benefits from stronger revenue growth and improved pricing and mix. our healthcare companies remain well invested with R&D at 5.4% of sales. Finally, there was a good contribution from acquisitions, reflecting the quality of businesses we recently acquired, such as Lameday Norie. I'll now talk about our cash flow and balance sheet, and how we've allocated capital during the first six months. The cash generative nature of our companies means that we've been able to make a substantial investment to support our future growth while maintaining a strong financial position. Our first capital allocation priority is organic investment to support our long-term growth, represented here by investment through R&D and CAPEX of £93 million. Our financial strength means that we have also been able to support a number of our companies in making strategic investments in working capital. This resulted in a larger than usual outflow of £75 million. Together with higher CapEx investment, this was the driver behind our lower cash conversion in the half, and we expect it to drive a stronger position at the full year. Our second priority is continued value-enhancing acquisitions, where we invested a net 148 million. And our third is a progressive return to shareholders through the dividend, with 53 million returned in this first half. In total, we've invested over 300 million in the half to support future growth, both organically and through acquisitions. And our leverage has remained almost unchanged at just over one times net debt to EBITDA. So before I look at our financial KPIs, let me briefly describe the M&A investments we've made this half year. First Brownline, which is a fantastic purpose-aligned acquisition, which extends our strengths in the trenchless technology market. Its location services deliver pinpoint accuracy underground for operators of horizontal directional drilling equipment. This is increasingly vital as utilities and data providers look to improve resilience and safety by burying their pipelines and cables. At the same time, they also want to reduce the surface disruption of digging trenches while safely navigating increasingly congested underground spaces. Brownline's best-in-class technology and deep technical know-how make it a great addition to Halma. Next, new perspectives. A small but strategic acquisition for iHealth assessment company Keeler, enhancing its capability in cryogenic technology. This reflects a broader trend across Halma of our companies using bolt-ons to expand into adjacent markets and deepen their presence in existing niches. We also remain disciplined in managing our portfolio. The disposal of AEI reflects our commitment to continually assess our portfolio for strategic fit and to ensure each company contributes to our long-term ambitions for growth and returns. Looking forward, I'm confident we'll make further progress in 2026. We have a healthy pipeline of acquisitions and a good mix of deals by size and type, both bolt-ons and standalone acquisitions. Now let's turn to our performance against our financial KPIs. It's clear that this half year represents a strong performance by any measure, driven by broad-based growth and strong returns across all three sectors, combined with premium growth from our photonics business. We're substantially ahead of our targets for organic revenue and profit growth and delivered margins and returns well into the upper quartile of our target ranges. And while acquisition profit and cash conversion were below our KPIs, this principally reflects the dynamics in this specific half year. Over longer term, our performance is ahead of our targets. So all in all, a very pleasing half year, but one that I'm aware comes from an unusual combination of broad positive momentum in both revenue and margins across all three sectors. Taking a longer term perspective, this half year provides another proof point of what the Halma model can deliver. And these KPIs frame our ambition to deliver strong and compounding growth and returns over the longer term and further extend our strong track record against our targets. Moving on to my last slide on full year guidance. The strength of our first half performance across our portfolio together with our current expectations for the remainder of the year means we have upgraded our full year guidance for the second time this year. While our companies continue to experience varied conditions in their end markets and the economic and geopolitical environment remains uncertain, we've made a good start to the second half of the year. For the year as a whole, we now expect to deliver mid-teens percentage organic constant currency revenue growth, including a continued benefit from premium growth in photonics and an adjusted EBIT margin of around 22%. I'll now hand you back to Mark.

Thanks, Carol. Fantastic to see the excellent performance against our financial KPIs and the further upgrade in our four-year guidance. In this section, I wanted to take a step back from the results themselves and provide insight into the role of our sustainable growth model in driving our continued success. It's a model which has always been key to our past success, including in the first half of this year. And it underpins our ability to deliver compounding growth and high returns over the long term. you'll recognize the core elements of our sustainable growth model. In June at our full year results, I looked back over the last 50 years and shared how our model has been tested and proven to be resilient in a wide range of environments. And this enabling us to continue to scale through many different geopolitical events, economic cycles, technological advancements, and changing market dynamics. And while our model continues to evolve, its fundamental elements remain at its core. Today, I want to highlight how our model enables one of Halma's most important characteristics, our ability to combine a long-term view with short-term agility. At Halma, we're guided by our clear and ambitious purpose and powered by long-term growth drivers that underpin our markets. And this enables us to think in decades and take a long-term view for determining the talent and capabilities we need or for the organisational model required to scale and when we're choosing the markets and opportunities in which to invest. If I take our markets as an example, we invest in markets with resilient, often regulatory driven growth drivers that extend over decades. And our disciplined approach targets niches with high barriers to entry, strong societal benefit and sustainable demand. Markets and niches where we enable our customers to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face today. Better healthcare for everyone, clean air, clean water, and how to keep us safe in our cities and in the places where we work. All of these fundamental challenges which are intensifying, supporting our growth and returns for decades and giving us the confidence to invest ahead of the opportunity that's in front of us. And thinking in decades also enables us to continuously scan the horizon to identify long-term trends and reshape our portfolio to align with those evolving markets and technologies. And at the same time, our decentralized model and the quality of our leaders means that we're able to seize new opportunities. Agility is embedded in Houma's DNA. It enables us to respond quickly to fast changing challenges and opportunities without losing sight of our long-term goals. Our model puts our companies close to their customers and their end market. And this gives our entrepreneurial leaders who are not dependent on other parts of the organization, the freedom to innovate and adapt rapidly to changing market conditions. And this means that while maintaining their core long-term focus, they can also look for opportunities to apply their deep technical expertise to those faster growing end markets for a period of time. Let me just bring that to life. Crocon is applying its gas detection expertise into battery energy storage, detecting hazardous gases to protect these systems that provide critical backup power for sectors like healthcare. Centric is applying its industrial interlock technology to keep assets and people safe in the fast-growing data center space. And Alicat's proven ability to apply its flow and pressure control expertise to many different fast-growing end markets. Just a few examples of how our companies are always looking to capture emerging additional growth opportunities. And this combination of long-term thinking and short-term agility is a powerful combination let's look a little bit closer at how we can maintain our agility as we continue to scale and this is why we insist on talented entrepreneurial leaders with the ambition to act quickly and to innovate Our structure enables fast decision making and by having our companies close to our customers, they can anticipate and adapt their changing needs. And this focus on the long term alongside the importance of agility means that we're constantly balancing seemingly contradictory requirements at the group sector and the company level. At Halma, we see these as complementary. It's not either or. We call it yes and. It's embedded in our DNA and our sustainable growth model. It's part of our culture and a source of our strength. Our leaders have the autonomy to grow their business in the way that's right for them. And they are held accountable for delivering that growth. Our leaders are focused on delivering this year's results and they're focused on where the growth is going to come from five years from now. Our companies have the agility and speed of SMEs and they get the benefits of being part of a global group. And it's this ability to combine the long term and short term agility that enables us to capture those fast growing emerging opportunities with pace and invest ahead for future growth. And it's this same approach that we're adopting through this period of premium growth in photonics, a great example of everything that I've just said. When we first acquired the company in 2011, our long-term view recognized Photonics as an enabler of technologies across many end markets. We could also see how the company was showing exceptional agility in capturing growth opportunities by accessing new, faster-growing markets, a consequence of great leaders and deep technical expertise. And one of these opportunities has led to a period of over 10 years of working closely with their hyperscaler customer. They're using their substantial application knowledge to support their customer with the development of a relatively small but critical component of a wider solution in data centers. Our model allows us to maximize the opportunity with the customer while remaining focused on the continued delivery of our group strategy of sustainable compounding growth and returns. And this outstanding delivery in the short term through excellent local execution allows us also to reinvest for the long term to enable future organic and acquisition growth. Investments in innovative R&D at our companies, in building out our teams for scalability, in our M&A capability, and in the addition of great value-added acquisitions such as Brownline. As we heard from Carol Brownline, another great example of a fantastic acquisition underpinned by long-term growth drivers. Urbanization, the need for resilient infrastructure, including water, electrification, and the rollout of fiber and data networks. And this combination of a long-term view and short-term agility is critical in the continued delivery of our strategy. Being invested in niche markets underpinned by long-term growth drivers and having that org model and culture that gives us the ability to operate with agility is a fantastic start point. However, it's our talent that is the enabler and the multiplier. We structure for growth and agility, but it requires leaders and a culture that can realize it. It's our entrepreneurial and ambitious leaders that maximize our potential. And the criticality and therefore the focus on talent isn't new. It's been there since the beginning, embedded into Houma by our founders, David Barber and Mike Arthur. In fact, it remains such a critical element of our model that we brought together all our MDs and presidents for our Accelerate event last month. And we spent two days solely focused on how we as a leadership team can all become even better at spotting and developing talent to help maximise Helmer's potential. A truly inspiring event and a demonstration of how our great individual leaders benefit from the power of our network. But don't take it from me. Let's hear from some of our leaders on why talent is so important to their businesses.

So talent really matters because we're small SME sort of opcos where you really need the agility of somebody to really know the market and then be close to the market and then be able to adapt when things change.

At Helmo, we want leaders that have an ownership mentality, that are decisive and not afraid to make the call, even if it's a tough call. They are the person that's closest to the customers in the markets, but we have to have someone that is comfortable making the call and can live with the accountability of the decisions that they make.

Because we don't have lots of processes and playbooks, you have to rely on brilliant talent. And there's something so special about when you put amazing talent in place and you don't shackle it.

Having the right talent in our company allows us to be more autonomous. If I can trust my team to be able to deliver and they can trust their teams to be able to deliver, we can all be more outward looking and focused on the next growth opportunity.

To me, it always comes down to really looking for individuals who are motivated by ability to make an impact. And I think that's where we stand out. You know, coming to Volk or other opcos within Halma and the autonomous model, people really get a chance to deliver, I would say, outsized impact versus, you know, being part of a much larger organization.

When you have the right talent in place, it's like the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle, you know, it really unlocks straightaway kind of capabilities. I often see that the, you know, if you're bringing in a manager or a director sort of level, the team below them is immediately empowered and kind of opens up capability and you find a bit of a halo effect where that's magnified across a team as opposed to just being in one individual.

We recently hired a CTO for our organization that has been able to take us from releasing one new product every five years to be able to release five products in one year and really exceed our customers' expectations. That's the impact that having the right talent on board can really have.

When you find the right resource who really understands the culture of the organization and if it's a good match with their skill set, their potential, you know, magic happens.

Some fantastic comments from our leaders in the video illustrating just how important talent is at every level of our business. Both Alex and Alan capturing why talent is critical to seizing those faster growing opportunities. Robert picking up on the importance of accountability driving that ownership mentality. And Natalia on why we've been able to attract and retain fantastic talent and the ability for them to make an outsized impact at Hauma. As you heard from the video, we create a culture where leaders can thrive. This is what enables us to keep scaling and maintain our culture as we grow. And it's why we continue to invest in our people and our capabilities to support our future growth. For example, we've grown our M&A teams and we've added two new divisional chief executive roles over the last year. Our DCEs are critical to our growth. They're responsible for acquiring new companies and then they chair those companies once they join the group. So the strengthening of both of these teams gives us greater capabilities to find more companies and the ability to continue scaling. We also continue to invest in our development programmes and our graduate scheme, the Catalyst programme, both critical in enabling us to grow and develop our own future leaders, ensuring that we maintain our culture as we continue to scale. really pleasing to see those investments bearing fruit. For example, we heard from Alan in the video, who's one of three company MDs that have come through our Catalyst program. Also the continued strength of our organic growth, a direct result of our continuous investment in R&D. And the acquisition of Brownline, a result of the targeted investment in setting up a dedicated E&A sector M&A team when we transitioned to our three sector structure four years ago. So bringing it all together, Carol's described the strength of our performance in the first half of 2026, another record result delivered in varied markets. You've heard how this continued success is enabled by our sustainable growth model. a model which enables us to take a long-term view, staying focused on and investing in capability needs and structural growth drivers, and a model which gives us that agility to capture emerging opportunities and mitigate risks. It's a model amplified by the exceptional talent at Halma, accountable to deliver long-term sustainable growth and empowered to act with agility to capture those short-term opportunities. A model that continues to deliver consistent, sustainable and compounding growth and returns. And a model that underpins my confidence in our ability to continue to deliver for decades to come. And that's the end of the presentation, and now we have time for some questions. As ever, there's two ways that you can ask your questions. You can either raise your hand using the tool at the bottom of your screen, and I'll invite you to ask your question verbally, or you can type the question, which Karen and I will read out and then answer. So, Bruno, let's come to you first.

Thank you for taking my questions. The first question is just on the strong growth seen in E&A this half, and it relates to, I guess, the growth of photonics was good to see, but what was more surprising for us actually was the very strong implied growth in ENA outside of photonics, which we calculate to be roughly around 17 to 18% on an estimated organic basis. Could you maybe just speak to the drivers of that a little bit more? So why was gas detection so strong in the US and gas management solutions so strong in APAC and also the water infrastructure market?

Yeah, great. Thanks very much. As you say, really pleasing to see that broad spread growth, not only in the E&A sector, but across the whole group. I think that really is the story of these results in this six month period. Picking up on the specifics of your question again, really pleased to see growth across all subsectors within environmental analysis. As you say, optical analysis very strong with that exceptional growth from photonics. Beyond that, spectroscopy was mixed. We saw some recovery in certain end markets around semiconductors, personal electronics and other OEM customers, but slightly weaker in areas such as biopharma. But again, no real read across there. It's a really small part and pretty specialist in terms of what we're doing. within water analysis and treatment. Yeah, great to see the strength of the performance in water analysis. That was driven really by water infrastructure demand in the US and the UK. We also saw a recovery in water testing and disinfection. So again, There's still a bit of uncertainty, certainly in the UK as we transition through the AMP cycles, but good to see the recovery come back and that underpin of the demand. And then finally, to your point in environmental monitoring, strong across both environmental monitoring and gas detection and analysis. We've seen that really, as you say, notably in the USA. There is a little bit here just in terms of these specific companies have got a few more projects in them. So there's a bit of phasing in terms of the number of the projects, but growth across all regions in gas analysis. So net-net a really strong performance. Always worth just remembering within that it is a six-month period and some of those are a little bit more project-based, but strong underlying growth and also actually pretty unique to have all of the subsectors moving forward in the same six-month period. But net-net really pleased with the wider performance.

That's very clear. Thank you. And I guess just to follow up on photonics, and I know you're limited in terms of what I was wondering if you could help us understand what the drive of acceleration in the half a little bit more. So more specifically, are volumes for Tonics simply scaling up with CapEx or investment at your customer, or is it more complex than that and you're perhaps taking share of CapEx wallet at the same time? And then finally, maybe a little bit on how you expect this relationship to evolve in the coming years. Is the base case that you just, again, simply scale with investment at your customer? Or is it more complex than that? Is there a replacement angle that we should factor in? Or again, share gains in terms of customer wallet? Just some thoughts around there would be super useful.

Yeah, I'll sort of pick up on the specifics, but I think before I do that, I mean, there's no doubt going to be a few questions on photonics. As I said at the outset there, I think the big message from today is the wider performance of the group, really pleased in terms of what we've delivered. I guess for me, we're now here executing what we said we were going to do sort of six, nine, 12 months ago. and that is we're maximising the opportunity in front of us, a phenomenal job by the team in the company in terms of execution and really scaling what is complex manufacturing. We're then continuing to deliver a strong performance in the rest of the portfolio and then using this period of premium growth to reinvest for future growth. So really good to see that coming through. To your point then more specifically, we're going to get some questions on for Tonics, so it's probably worth me just giving a few reminders, setting a bit of background and then coming back to your specific questions. Firstly, as a reminder, As you say, we have got customer confidentiality to work through here, so I'll be a little bit guarded. I think we have been increasing our disclosures, but we've got to be careful and adherent to the confidentiality. Again, as a reminder, a business we acquired back in 2011, around £4 million of revenue at that point. And as I said in the presentation, we recognize that Photonics had many use cases. We recognize the quality of the team and the technical expertise. And our org design means that they've had the autonomy to look for those opportunities. And then within the business, and we've talked about it before, their drivers of success and their core characteristics are largely the same as many other companies, if not all the companies in the group. So they've got that agile and entrepreneurial talent, still the founders, in fact, in this instance. They're very close to the customer. In fact, it's an embedded relationship. We work closely with all parts of the team, with the customer, including the R&D team, and that's a relationship that's been embedded here. for over 10 years. And as I say, we've got significant technical skills. We're solving a really complex problem and it's highly complex manufacturing of what is a small but critical component. So a bit of a reminder there in terms of the background. I've talked to how we're managing it in the group. I guess taking a view of the wider market, which will feed in a little bit to your point in terms of how do you scale? Is it linked to CapEx? There's no doubt there's lots of commentary and a wide range of views across a number of topics in and around AI in particular, whether that's valuations, economics of investment, timing and scale of investment. And there's no doubt there's a lot of investment going in and around and a lot of interest in and around AI, I guess. We look through the short term there. And if you think about the adoption of AI in particular, whether that's in our daily lives at home or at work, through productivity, automation, innovation, all of that continues to happen. I think it's been referred to as transformative technology in the last week or so. And there's no doubt that we're aligned to that point around compute demand accelerating. So if you've got an underlying demand for compute, then underneath that, that shift is going to require infrastructure and investment. And that's where data warehouses come through. Again, I'm sure lots of different views, as there are out there around the absolute scale and timing of that build out. But fundamentally, as I say, there needs to be a foundation and an infrastructure. And I guess if you take a more specific focus on data centres, there's that. real focus at the minute on speed, on latency, and more and more now on efficiency and energy consumption. So it's likely that photonics can play a role in solving some of those problems. So net-net, and we can talk about kind of short-term forecasts and all of those things, regardless of absolute scale, regardless of precise timing, we still see that medium-term demand in terms of the operations. All of that said... we mustn't forget that it is a very dynamic market, whether that's the technology, whether that's the demand cycles. And specifically, again, as a reminder for our business, we are operating on that 10 year relationship. It's PO based. We've got sort of six, 12 months of visibility. But fundamentally, not a contract in place because of that embedded nature, because of the strength of the relationship. So a lot of information there, but hopefully it just means everyone on the call is in the same place. Coming back then to your specific questions. As you know, we've been working with the customer for over 10 years. It's iterative in terms of the innovation. We continue to innovate with them and we grow with them to your point. So their capex investment, what they're investing, we're investing with the customer. In terms of the potential for replacement and upgrade, absolutely, that remains potential in fast-moving innovation, fast-moving technology. We haven't seen that as yet, but clearly as you take a much longer-term view, there is that opportunity potentially. But again, I'd just come back to that thought around... the dynamism in the market, the shifts in technology, etc. But certainly as we sit here today, I think the team are doing a fantastic job locally of executing. And I think the rest of the group are doing an excellent job in terms of continuing to deliver that long-term growth and compounding returns.

Thank you for the color. Very much appreciated. Maybe just a final one on safety and the very strong margin that we saw in the first half. And I appreciate that a six-month window is narrow when it comes to assessing profit margins. But I guess, could you just help us a little bit more with unpacking just why the margin was so strong? Were there any mixed elements or anything else that we should be aware of? And just a little bit around how we should be thinking about the trajectory of the safety margin from here. Thank you.

Hi, Bruno Carroll here. I hope you're well. Yeah, I mean, as you say, first and foremost, across all three sectors, a brilliant job in the six months. great execution across the piece. As you rightly point out, it is a six-month period, and so we would never be suggesting that you take six months as sort of inferring longer-term trends. And I think it's worth saying as well, it is actually quite unique that we have all three sectors growing with margin progression in a six-month period. To your specific point on safety, I mean, as ever in these explanations, there's a number of factors and variables. I mean, as you know, safety has come off the back of two years of double-digit growth, so there's continued momentum through the top line. There is a bit, as you lead to, around product and portfolio mix in there, and I suppose as we look forward, taking those points... while safety is well invested, the reality is that you don't grow at that rate without having to then step up your investment further to make sure that you can sustain that growth. So as we look forward into the second half and beyond that, that's our thought process. And as we've said many times before, we're not in the business of chasing the margins higher. It's more that combination of keeping the margin strong whilst keeping the top line moving too. So, you know, a couple of small examples for safety. You heard Mark talk about two new DCEs in the group. One of those is safety. You've heard Mark reference investment in M&A. You know, again, that's the sort of thing that Funmi and the team are thinking about. So as you look forward, you know, think about the need for that additional investment. And I think also worth saying, and not something that we you know, we major on because it's not a big spend for us, but CapEx-wise, one of the bigger CapEx investments this year is in one of our biggest safety companies where, you know, because they've been growing strongly, they're needing to expand their facilities. So that same thought process and logic applies to some of our other safety companies too.

Got it. That's very clear. Thank you.

Thanks, Bruno. So just looking at the list, Jonathan will come to you. Jonathan Hearn.

Yes, good morning, guys. Hopefully you can hear me well. First question is just coming back to photonics, Mark, and one of the comments you made there just in terms of the visibility. Obviously, you have visibility on the revenue. I think you alluded to through the second half of this year. Can you just talk about the revenue visibility into your next fiscal year? How much visibility do you have on 27? And then also just maybe sort of following up on photonics, Just in terms of the customer exposure, obviously you've got one key hyperscaler customer. Have you made or are there any efforts within the photonics business to widen that exposure, maybe get some more customers on board? Essentially, that was the first question. I know it's got two parts.

Carol, do you want to pick up on the first point and then I'll do the strategy on customers?

Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Jonathan. I mean, you've heard us reference, if we just take half to 26 first in terms of visibility on photonics. So we've spoken about the premium in the first half being about 8 percentage points of the group growth. And we're expecting similar for the second half. I mean, beyond that, you heard Mark obviously articulate and remind everyone the whole position with this customer and how dynamic the market is. And whilst we do get a forward view from the customer for the next 12 months, I think it's fair to say that we consider that to be directional. And so I suppose coming back to Mark's description, you know, clearly we'll guide for the whole group next June. But the way that would sort of encourage you to think about the photonics opportunity at the moment is that we would envisage it being a tailwind going into FY27.

Thanks, Karen. And Jonathan, just picking up on that point around the customer, as you say, we've got that strong long-term relationship. At this moment in time, strategically, we think it's the right thing to continue with that relationship. From a commercial viability perspective, as I say, it's more than just that transactional relationship, that embedded nature and insight from the R&D side, we believe is a good place to be. That said, both within the individual company, but also the sector and the group, clearly we're looking at other opportunities to diversify. The reality is with the team and the scaling up, I mean, that is just a phenomenal job in the amount of time that takes. That's proving difficult locally, but they have set up separate teams and they'll continue to look. And then as you've heard today, we're doing a great job at the E&A sector of wider areas to look at. We saw Brownline coming in and then the wider group continuing to grow. As I say, strategically today, it's maintained that customer relationship, but options are always open as we go forward and we're looking for other opportunities.

Great, very clear. If I could just ask a second question, just on healthcare, please. First part of it was just on life science, obviously a smaller part, probably sort of 10% of the division, but it's the one area that's struggling. Just your views there, when do you start to think that will recover? Do you think that's potentially going to come through in H2? And the second part was just on the margin, really. Obviously, we're a long way from the peak in that. Can you just give us a feel for how you think that sort of margin develops for healthcare, please?

Yeah, I'll pick up the first point around life sciences. As you say, it is a relatively, well, it is a small part of the group, relatively small part of the healthcare portfolio. And particularly what we're doing there is mainly around specialist pumps, valves and manifolds. We've seen a mixed performance. We've actually seen pretty strong growth there. in the UK and mainland Europe and then offset by decline in wider Asia Pacific. But again, it's difficult to read anything into that fundamentally. I wouldn't do a read across anywhere in terms of other businesses in this arena. The reality is, again, we're starting to see a recovery. We're starting to see a bit of confidence in customers. I think we're through the de-stocking, but we're not at the stage that I'd want to say we were back to normal levels of demand just yet. Cara, if you pick up on that.

Yeah, sure. And then on the margin point, actually just picking up what Mark said there, Jonathan, so... You know, we're characterising it as continued recovery. And, you know, there's still some uncertainty clearly, in some of the markets. So Steve Brown, our sector CEO, and the team are doing a great job, and in particular in the more challenging period, the last couple of years or so, have been quite measured in terms of investment, although not under-investing. So I suppose in the mix of making sure that we're investing into the recovery and the growth, we would expect to see the margins continue to move forward back towards historic levels. But I think you should think of it as progressively getting towards that point.

Very nice. Thank you very much. Very helpful.

Thanks, Jonathan. Just looking at lists, if we now go to Christian.

Morning, Mark. Morning, Claire. Thanks for the opportunity. I want to start on photonics, perhaps unsurprisingly. And apologies if this is a naive question, but you've mapped the macro. As we think about the actual product set, how do we think about useful life of what you sell? And is it a fair assumption to assume that effectively any of your sales are really greenfield data expansion rather than, say, upgrades in existing facilities?

Yeah, I've got to be a little bit careful here, Christian, in terms of the confidentiality. I'll just come back to the point that I made to, I think it was Jonathan's question. At this moment in time, we believe that a lot of that demand is CapEx and build out. But we do believe that, haven't seen it yet, but just by natural instance of the pace of change and the increase in innovation, there may be

be a replacement cycle but as I say we're not seeing that yet and this is a dynamic market so I certainly wouldn't want to pin any future definite guidance on that at all Thank you Maybe pivoting to the safety business I was interested in your regional growth commentary there marginal growth in the US which compared to good growth in the UK and it seems strongest growth in mainland Europe Curious what's driving that distinction. It seems to be a bit at odds with maybe broader macro trends.

Yeah, hi, Christian. Carol here. I just probably heard us say before, we don't particularly focus on the explanations around the geographies. And you have heard us reference the particular geographies in public sector and worker safety. So that's really what you're seeing coming through the geographies. So, you know, nothing that we would consider to be structural, I suppose. And, yeah, I mean, really sort of one of our bigger business, bigger safety businesses is doing particularly well, which is benefiting the European numbers. And then in the US, for example... We talk about the other two subsectors being a little bit softer in infrastructure safety and fire safety. Some of that is in the comps where there was a couple of bigger projects last year. So I suppose in the round and I guess the genesis of your question about whether there's something more structural by geography, then no, we're not seeing any discernible trends that would indicate that.

Thank you very much.

And Christian, I see you've got a written question. So maybe we just pick that one up as well. And if I just read that out. So the brown line acquisition sits among the top three deals by size over the last 20 years. Does this reflect an appetite to do more medium sized acquisitions? Secondly, when we think about those M&A ambitions, does the increased concentration of sales from photonics affect your preferences across the segments? So I guess if I just pick up the second part of that first, not necessarily. We're open for business across all of our sectors, all geographies. So it isn't that we're looking to avoid certain areas or double down in certain areas. We're looking for those opportunities much through the lenses we always do with that disciplined approach that we have to M&A. From a deal size perspective, I guess the reality is as we continue to grow, we do get a higher level of confidence in our ability to bring value to larger companies. So those businesses at the top end of our portfolio, around sort of that 30, 40, 50 million of EBIT, they're still growing at the same rate as the rest of the group. So we've got confidence that we can bring value to those businesses. All of that said, with our aspiration at 7.5%, Each year on M&A, take that on half a billion. We're looking to acquire 40 million next year. Double that in five years, double again. It's a long, long time before you have to do anything transformative. So I think we've got the opportunity. We've got the appetite. I think we've, as we've seen before, we've got the opportunity to do even more bolt-ons as our companies get bigger by size and they use bolt-ons to deliver their own growth strategies. But at the same time, we've got that confidence to do bigger deals than maybe we have done historically. But I don't see it as a significant shift in strategy. It's much more aligned to us being clear on the value we bring and having confidence in those future cash flows. Thank you, Mark. No worries. Thanks, Christian. So is there anyone else just on the call? Dylan, I can see you've got your hand up. Dylan, on mute, maybe.

Apologies for that. Can you hear me now? Yes, perfect. How are you? Yeah, well, thanks. Morning, Mark, Carol. Thanks for taking my question. Just another follow-up on photonics and obviously being appreciative of the fact that you're limited somewhat to what you can say, but I'm just wondering if there, along with product sales, there's also opportunities for service and maintenance opportunities. sort of post-sale, particularly with this hyperscaler sort of customer in the aftermarket that could potentially sort of help smooth the growth trajectory over time. Obviously, I understand that, you know, the market dynamics are incredibly favourable and they look favourable for the foreseeable future and perhaps getting a little bit or perhaps a little bit early to be thinking about this but just sort of wondering what levers are within that photonics businesses control to sort of deliver a sort of steady uh return or normalized sort of growth rate in the longer time sort of avoiding that sort of sharp drop off if you will

Yeah, I think unfortunately what we're talking about here is kind of hypothetical in what is a very dynamic market. I guess I would just come back to three points there to think through. One is just the embedded nature in the long-term relationship. Two is the real, and I just cannot... under um communicate the real expertise that we have in our company in terms of the use of photonics and the application in solving the problems and then finally i think coming back to that point i made earlier if you think about kind of the need for increased speed the need for increased energy efficiency there's quite a bit of commentary out there that photonics potentially has a role to play so you put those things together and i think you come back with hypothetically but i certainly wouldn't want to be sitting here today making a call for something 10 15 20 years out

No, I appreciate that. Thanks for the response. One last question. I think you sort of guided for obviously the step up in CapEx, you kind of alluded to there's a bit sort of going on in safety, but also the sort of corporate cost line. I think you've got it to be just a little bit higher. Should we sort of think about that as the sort of recent investment in the M&A capabilities or is there some other investment going on in the sort of corporate cost line?

Hi, Dylan. I'll take those. Yeah, and I'll pick up actually on your CapEx point as well, which is well made. Yeah, so we've moved our CapEx guidance up by about 5 million. So the majority of that actually relates to Brownline, which is obviously a good news story because it means that the prospects are good. And it's something that we envisaged in completing the deal earlier. So that addresses the CAPEX increase. And then on the central cost, they tend to run around 2% of revenue, and the slight increase is a bit of a mixture of things, actually. A little bit more into the central costs that support M&A. So, for example... We support centrally the integration activity of new acquisitions and also more specialist areas around tax advice and those sorts of costs. And then the broader theme of technology... Also, you know, make sure that we're well invested in the centre around areas like AI that Mark's obviously been talking about and what that can mean for us as a group. And also the ever-present investment that is required in things like cyber security. So hopefully that gives you a flavour of what's driving those.

Yeah, very clear. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Karen. That nicely answered a written question from Rory as well. But Rory, put your hand up if it didn't cover it, but I think it did. So I think we've got time certainly for one more question. Bruno, is your hand up for a new question or is that a legacy of having the first question? You're on mute as well, I think.

No.

Hello. Hi there, Bryn. It's up. Yes. Just a follow-up question really around reinvestment in the group. I was wondering how you think about reinvestment during a period of premium growth in one area and allocation across the portfolio of the group. So do areas outside of photonics essentially disproportionately benefit during this period? And so does your confidence of strong growth and, say, safety and healthcare actually start to increase as you look towards the following years or is it that your investment plans remain largely unchanged regardless of where the premium growth is occurring?

Yeah, it's a good question. I think the philosophy, certainly from an R&D expenditure, is it's largely unchanged. That's very much bottom up. We've never restricted capital to the individual business. It's our number one capital allocation priority in terms of R&D spend. So that doesn't necessarily change. We're not saying no to businesses. There's an opportunity there to invest. I do think, to the point that Carol just alluded to, there's a bit of investment that we can do in the M&A teams. There's a bit of investment that we can do in the sector teams. And, of course, the other opportunity, as we've talked to many times, is the opportunity to accelerate M&A, which, again, you make those investments. We cannot lose the discipline. So I think net net. Absolutely. That's part of our strategy. How do we reinvest through this period of premium growth to give us that future compounding growth? But I don't think it is specifically to the point in R&D per se. It'll be more around M&A and anything that we can do at the sector level, because as I say, the R&D is very much bottom up and open for everybody.

Got it. That's very clear. Just a small, I guess, clarification. When we speak around orders growing year over year and a positive book to build, does that hold for, I guess, photonics and also outside of photonics?

Yes, it does, Bruno.

Got it. Thank you. Excellent. Thanks, Bruno. And thank you all. I don't see any other written questions and I don't see any hands up. So many thanks and have a great morning. We will speak to you soon.