Rubis Adr

Welcome to the Ruby 2026 half-year results presentation. For the first part of the conference, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants will be able to ask questions by filling in the form at the bottom of the live page or orally by clicking on the participation button in the player labeled as request to speak. Then, you will be notified when to ask your question. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. I'm very delighted to be with you this morning to present Ruby's 2026 health care results, which are very robust. I'm joined by Jean-Christian Bergeron, Managing Partner and CEO of Ruby's Energy, and Marc Jacquot, Managing Partner and Group CFO. Thank you for being with us today. I will start with the key highlights of the first half. Jean-Christian will then take you through the operational review before Marc comments on the financial performance. I will then come back for the wrap-up and Jean-Christian will present the outlook before we open floor to your questions. So let's start with the key messages of this H1. Ruby delivered another strong operating performance in H1 2026. What matters here is not only the level of growth, but also the exceptional quality of the team's execution despite the volatile and uncertain environment. All product categories and origins contributed positively. This once again demonstrates the strength of our diversified model across In energy distribution, volumes were up 9% and growth margin was up 16%. This was not only volume growth, but also mixed pricing discipline and efficient inventory management in a very volatile all-price environment. Photosol continued to develop in line with this trajectory, with the secured portfolio up 20-22% year-on-year to 1.5 gigawatts, while power EBDA increased by 13% to 25 million euros. At group level, this translated into EBDA of 434 million euros, up 18%, and Next Income Group share of 191 million euros, up 17%. Cash flow from operating activities came to 223 million euros. This was lower year on year, but it should be raised in context. The decrease mainly reflects higher working capital needs due to higher oil prices over the period. It does not change the underlying quality of Reviscash's generation profile. The balance sheet remains healthy, capital allocations remain disciplined, and the first half is strong enough for us to upgrade our 2026 EBITDA guidance to a range of 775 to 825 million euros. In short, H1-2026 demonstrates three things. Strong delivery, effective execution in a volatile environment, and a growth underpinned by strong fundamentals. I will now hand over to Jean-Christian for the operational review.

Thank you, Clarisse. Good morning, all. The main point I would like to make is that performance was well balanced across our activities and territories. So SPG, Fuels and Bitunel all contributed to profitable growth, but each with different drivers. And that is exactly the strengths of our model. We are not dependent on one market, one product or any single driver of performance. So starting with SPG, volumes were broadly stable, as you can see, up 1%, and growth margin increased by 9%, reflecting a more profitable business mix and strong execution across our key markets. So in Europe, growth in France and Spain, driven by a continuing momentum in the gas and further market share gains, largely offset software demand in Portugal and Switzerland. In Africa, profitability improved quite significantly in South Africa, supported by Customer growth across both segments, the packed, the cylinders, and the bulk segment. While Morocco benefited from a progressive recovery of industrial demand, mainly ceramics, improved sourcing conditions and disciplined commercial management. More broadly, LPG continues to illustrate the strengths of our model. Our historical positions are quite concentrated in markets that still offer attractive growth potential, while our teams remain focused on value rather than volume. Through portfolio optimization, sourcing excellence, pricing discipline, and strong operational execution, we continue to expand earnings at a faster pace than volumes. Now moving to fuels. Volumes. increased by 6% and gross margin grew by 13%. So retail activity benefited from a strong traffic trend across East Africa, by the way, not only in Kenya, but also in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia. And that was also supported by a more favorable pricing framework. The continued recovery in IT also contributed positively to the performance. In CNI, commercial and industrial activity, it was another quite meaningful contribution, especially in Kenya and Haiti, offsetting the impact of increased price competition, price pressure, I would say, in Guyana and to some extent in Jamaica. Finally, aviation continued to deliver a very solid momentum across the Caribbean, and that is supported by the sustained growth of the tourism sector. Before leaving fuels, let me briefly highlight the strong progress we are making in Lubricants. Lubricants continue to establish themselves as one of our key growth engines for the future. I am pleased to report that the business is developing fully aligned with our expectations, with already very encouraging results in Kenya and significant opportunities for further expansion across East Africa and other markets on the continent. Turning now to Bitumen, the business, as you can see, delivered a very, very strong first half with volumes up 44% and gross margin up 54%. And this performance was driven by continued growth across Africa, notably South Africa and Gabon. but also in most of our other African markets with maybe the exception of Nigeria where we experienced kind of slowdown in demand. However, profitability in Nigeria remained very strong and favorable project mix and excellent operational execution. So the increase in vitamin volumes also reflects our expansion into Europe, as you know, operations in Europe Antwerp are progressing according to plan and we are particularly encouraged by the positive feedback we continue to receive from customers regarding both quality of our products and the level of service we provide to them. This definitely reinforces our confidence in the long-term prospects of the business in Europe. But as always, with B2M it's important to remember that this is a project-driven Our business performance can vary from one period to another depending on project timing and execution. So nevertheless, we remain structurally very confident in this activity. Demand continues to be supported by significant infrastructure needs across our markets. Why would this benefit from a differentiated logistics platform that provides a clear and competitive advantage? So overall, the first half once again demonstrates the resilience and growth potential of our energy distribution business. Across LPG, fuels and bitumen, we successfully capture market opportunities where conditions were favorable, while maintaining pricing discipline in more competitive environments. Importantly, our performance is not only driven by execution. Our core businesses are well positioned in markets with attractive long-term growth fundamentals. At the same time, we continue to develop new growth engines, including, as I said, lubricants, but also non-fuel retail activities within our service station network and solar and broader energy solutions for industrial customers. We'll get back to that in a moment. So together these initiatives are expanding our growth opportunities, enhancing the quality of our earnings and reinforcing our capacity to create sustainable value over the long term. Turning now to renewable energies, Photosol reached a very important milestone in the first half with the start-up of the Cray Solar Plant. At 200 MW peak, it is the second largest solar plant in France, and this represents a significant step forward in the ramp-up of the photocell portfolio. Assets in operation increased by 32%, while electricity production rose by 28%. This is exactly the type of progress we want to see projects moving from development into operation, and gradually making a growing contribution to cash generation. The 6-year portfolio reached 1.5GW peak, up 22% year-on-year, while forward EBITDA increased by 13% to 25 million euros. These results definitely demonstrate that the Photosol platform continues to mature and that the value embedded in the portfolio is increasing increasingly translating into operating performance. International diversification is also progressing and we have a 44 MW peak currently under construction in Italy. We remain disciplined in our expansion strategy. Our objective is not growth The sake of growth is the development of projects that meet our technical, economic and risk-return criteria. So as I said before, Biéron Photosol Renewable Energy is also developing renewable energy solutions that are closely connected to our existing customer base, our CNI customers, including sustainable aviation fuel, for instance in Kenya or in the French Antilles, solar solutions for commercial and industrial customers for instance in Jamaica or in East Africa. So as a result, our renewable energy activities are developing along two complementary tracks. First, utility scale solar through photosol, and second, customer-driven energy solutions through this energy in Africa and the Caribbean. Marc, over to you to speak about the financial results of the first half. Thank you.