Jumbo Sa Unsp/Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Konstantinos, your core co-operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Jumbo Conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first half 2025 financial results. All participants will be listening only now that 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 star followed by one on their telephone. For the webcast participants, you can submit your questions in English. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Apostolos Evangelos Vakakis, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Paulis Folicarpou, CFO, and Ms. Karamitsouli Amalia, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Karamitsouli, you may now proceed.

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining our call today. I will walk you through Jumbo's performance for the first half of 2025, highlight the main operational developments, and then to share our outlook for the rest of the year. In the first half of the year, Jumbo sales grew by 8%, reaching €497 million. On a comparable basis, EBITDA increased by 7% to €165 million, and while net profit increased by 5% to 117 million euros. Our gross margin came at 54%. This represents the strong growth of franchise sales, which, as you know, carry a lower margin than our own operated stores. At the same time, our net staff position remained very strong at almost 318 million euros. CapEx during the period was 14 million euros. Let me also highlight the key steps we have taken so far. In March, we distributed 0.4667 euro per share to our shareholders and 0.50 euro per share in July, underlining our commitment to return value to shareholders' partners. We also opened our second store in Venezuela, Romania, further strengthening our presence in the market. In June, we launched our online store in Bulgaria, marking another important milestone to our digital expansion. In August, we completed the cancellation of the listing and the listing of 1.25% of our total shares. Here today, we have also bought two-lease stores in Greece. Looking at the regional sales growth, Greece was up 9%, Cyprus was up 7%, Bulgaria by 2%, and Romania up 8%. Franchisee sales grew strongly by 52%, reaching 38 million euros, while e-commerce sales accounted for 2.3% of our total group sales. Our budget for the year is based on scenarios that sales will grow around 8%, with the Christmas season expected to play, as usual, a decisive role. Sa Reg Shs taking on cybersecurity, introducing new AI tools. We also plan to add two distribution centers with a total investment of 1,560 million to be completed in the next three to five years. Going forward through steady steps, the group aims to open another two new stores a year, adjusting the pace of expansion to the conditions of each market. At the same time, we're further setting up a strategy by acquiring stores that are currently operated under lease agreements. To conclude, Jumbo continues to operate from a position of financial strength. This allows us to invest in growth, expand our network, and at the same time, return value to our shareholder partners. Thank you all for your attention. Mr. Apostolos Vakaitis will now take your questions.

I'm all ears good awesome ladies and gentlemen at this time we will begin the question and answer session anyone who wishes to ask a question using telephone audio conference may press star followed by one on their telephone if you wish to remove yourself from the question queue then you may press star and two for the webcast participants you can submit your written questions in English audio conference participants please use your handset when asking your question for better quality Anyone who has a question, we press star one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from the line of Yucayazani with Europe Securities. Please go ahead.