Technip Energies Nv

Good afternoon, this is the conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the TechNIP Energies half-year 2026 financial results and conference call. As a reminder, all participants are listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions by pressing star and 1 on your telephone keypad. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and 0 on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Phillip Lindsay, VP Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Eugenia. Hello, and welcome to Technip Energy's financial results for the first half of 2026. On the call today, our CEO, Arnaud Pieton, will discuss our H1 performance and business highlights. This will be followed with a financial review by CFO Bruno Vibert, Arnaud will then return for the outlook and conclusion before opening the questions. Before we start, I would encourage you to take note of the forward-looking statements on slide three. I'll now pass the call over to Arnaud.

Thank you, Phil, and welcome everyone to our first half results presentation, where I will begin with the key highlights. Technip Energy's first half performance reflects a complex operating environment. alongside clear evidence of our strong commercial positioning and longer-term outlook. Revenues were stable year over year at 3.7 billion. However, EBITDA margins were impacted by operational challenges and higher costs mostly linked to the prolonged conflict in the Middle East, which I will cover in more detail shortly. Ultimately, This led to recurring EBITDA being around one-third lower year over year. While this is clearly disappointing, we are actively managing the near-term situation by exercising our contractual rights towards cost recovery, maintaining discipline in execution, and working toward an improved financial performance in the second half and further normalization in 2027. Importantly, we continue to reinforce the fundamentals that support our longer-term growth, with remarkable first-half order intake of €12.7 billion and a significantly expanded backlog to €25 billion. In addition, we delivered enhanced capital returns to shareholders through the payment of our annual dividend and the completion of our 150 million share buyback program. Turning to our operations in the Middle East. We continue to prioritize safe execution and I am pleased to report that all Technip Energies personnel are safe and well. I also want to recognize our teams and their families for their commitment and resilience through a difficult period. Our projects remain fully mobilized with activity normalizing through the second quarter. We continue to work closely with customers to address logistical constraints with some improvement in the flow of required bulk materials and equipment by land and sea.