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Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Tongcheng Travel 2025 Fourth Quarter and Annual Results Announcement Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Kylie Yeung, Investor Relations Director of the company. Please go ahead, ma'am. Kylie Yeung: Thank you. Good morning, and good evening, everyone. Welcome to Tongcheng Travel's 2025 Fourth Quarter and Annual Results Conference Call. I'm Kylie Yeung, Investor Relations Director of the company. Joining us today on the conference call are our Executive Director and CEO, Mr. Hope Ma; our CFO, Mr. Julian Fan; our Chief Capital Officer and President of Wander Hotels and Resorts, Ms. Joyce Li. For today's call, our management team will provide a review of the company's performance in the fourth quarter and full year 2025. Hope will brief us on the company's strategies. Joyce will discuss our business and operational highlights, and then Julian will address the details of financial performance accordingly. We'll take your questions during the Q&A section that follows. As always, our presentation contains forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. This presentation also contains some unaudited non-IFRS financial measures. They should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for measures of the company's financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. For a detailed discussion of non-IFRS measures, please refer to our disclosure documents in the IR section of our website. Now let me introduce our CEO, Hope. Hope will be presenting in Mandarin, and our colleague will provide the English translation afterwards. Hope, please go ahead. Heping Ma: [Interpreted] In 2025, China's travel industry and the company entered a new phase of high-quality development. Over the past year, we witnessed resilient travel demand with increasingly diversified trends as immersive and experiential consumption continues to gain popularity. Amid this backdrop, we deeply dive into user needs and comprehensively optimize our travel products and user experiences. As a result, both our user base and ARPU demonstrated robust growth in 2025 with APU reaching a record high. The robust business growth reflected the ongoing enhancement of our service quality and the expanding influence of our brand. The year 2025 was a year of challenges and opportunities for us. In response to consumers' diversified and personalized needs, we continuously enriched our product offerings, facing growing expectations for premium services. We consistently improved our service quality. Amidst AI-driven technological revolution, we proactively embraced new frontier technologies with an open attitude. All these showcased our strong organizational agility and exceptional execution capabilities, further reaffirming our commitment to our user-centric mission of make travel easier and more joyful. The Chinese government sees travel as a vital pillar of national economic development. The latest 15th 5-year plan has explicitly stated the commitment to expanding the supplies of high-quality travel products and to enhancing travel service standards with the goal of establishing China as a premier travel destination from the pilot implementation of autumn and winter vacations in certain regions to the longest spring festival holiday on record. These expanding holiday arrangements underscore significant governmental support for the travel industry. In terms of demand, travel has become an essential part of people's pursuit of a better life with seasonal themes such as spring flower viewing, summer retreats, all foliage tours and winter snow activities continuously gaining popularity. In the coming year, we will remain focused on domestic market and deep dive into user needs, aiming to further solidify our leading position in the mass market. Simultaneously, we will make intensified efforts to capture growth opportunities in the outbound travel market to propel our global expansion strategy. On the operational front, we will continue to implement technological innovation and product upgrades centered on user experience while enriching membership privileges and deepening user engagement. In 2021, we tapped into the hotel management business. After several years of rapid expansion, it has now gained meaningful scale. The integration of Wanda Hotels and Resorts in 2025 marked a pivotal milestone in the development of our hotel management business. This strategic move strengthened our brand portfolio and ecosystem while substantially elevating our competitiveness and market influence. By consistently executing our strategy and leveraging our strong Internet DNA, we are well positioned to accelerate the segment expansion in 2026, laying a robust foundation for our long-term sustainable growth. Amidst the rapid advancement of AI technology, we are devoted to expanding the application of AI in our business process, further optimizing operational efficiency and enhancing user experience. Building on our user-centric value proposition, market acumen and superior execution capabilities, we are confident that we will continue broadening our competitive moat in the travel industry. Moving forward, we will continue to export our technologies and expertise to empower our partners and support the broader industry ecosystem while strengthening our commitment to corporate social responsibility to foster sustainable industry growth and create greater value for all stakeholders. Next, I will hand over the call to Joyce. She will share with you our business and operational highlights of the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025. Joyce, please go ahead. Joyce Li: Thank you, Hope. 2025 was a pivotal year of growth and achievement for our company. Beyond the steady expansion of our domestic business, our outbound travel and hotel management businesses made remarkable progress, contributing meaningfully to the overall growth momentum of the company. During the past year, we acutely grasped users' evolving preferences and precisely captured emerging demand. This enabled us to once again deliver solid growth across all business segments, highlighting our excellence in strategic execution, operational efficiency and organizational agility. Throughout the year, our accommodation business sustained robust growth momentum and achieved a record high in room nights sold. In early 2025, we identified a notable shift in users' preference towards high-quality hotels. In response to the changes, we strategically reallocated operational resources to meet this evolving demand, resulting in an approximately 5 percentage point year-over-year increase in the proportion of high-quality hotels sold on our platform. In the meantime, we prioritized enhancing user experience. We not only offer the best value for money products and services, but also provided faster and more responsive support to user requests to further strengthen our presence in the mass market. As for our international business, we continue to enhance our product capabilities by deepening partnerships with third-party providers as well as expanding our product and service offering. In addition, we leveraged our domestic user base to drive cross-sell initiatives and execute the precision marketing campaigns targeting high potential users. All these efforts collectively led to nearly 30% growth in our international room nights sold in 2025. In terms of our transportation business, it continuously demonstrated strong resilience throughout the year. Over the past year, we placed a strong emphasis on improving both user experience and engagement. At the core of the efforts is our Algorithm-driven Huixing system, which leverages advanced algorithm capabilities to provide users with viable and accessible travel solutions by utilizing a comprehensive range of transportation options. The intelligent system significantly enhances the overall travel experience for users. In the fourth quarter, we launched skiing-themed marketing campaigns and rolled out various benefits to skiing enthusiasts so as to reinforce our positioning as an experience-driven platform and further engage our user base. On the international front, we focused on improving operational efficiency by implementing a more disciplined subsidy policy and expanding our VAS offerings. As a result, we achieved a balanced growth in both volume and revenue throughout the year with volume growth of nearly 25% for 2025. As mentioned at the beginning of the speech, 2025 marked a milestone year for our hotel management business with significant progress achieved. This year, we successfully completed the acquisition of Wanda Hotels and Resorts, a company that possesses a renowned portfolio of upper upscale and luxury hotel brands with strong market presence in China. In addition to its hotel management expertise, the company is the only hotel management firm in China with proven specialization in operating scale resorts. This unique capability can help us strengthen supply chain resources in the travel industry, thereby enhancing our influence and competitiveness. Furthermore, Wanda Hotels and Resorts operates its own in-house design institute which is recognized as one of the leading hospitality design teams in China and has received numerous prestigious international awards. The team possesses strong capabilities in designing and managing large-scale hotels as well as convention and exhibition centers. Its design solutions serve not only its own properties, but also high-end hospitality projects across the industry. Following the acquisition, the Wanda Hotels and Resorts team underwent a seamless integration process, resulting in a significant boost to its vitality and optimized organizational capacity and refined strategic direction. This strategic integration has improved our brand portfolio, strengthened our market presence and accelerated the sustainable growth of our hotel management business. Regarding our eLong hotel technology platform, we remain focused on expanding our geographical footprint while prioritizing quality growth throughout the year. The platform also offers technology-enabled hotel management solutions featuring a proprietary property management system, a smart marketing solution, [indiscernible] and service robots for automated in-room delivery. By the end of December, our total number of hotels in operation exceeded 3,000 with more than 1,800 in the pipeline. Looking ahead, we are committed to further expanding our asset-light hotel management business through network expansion and ecosystem enablement. This strategic approach will position us to achieve leadership in China's hotel industry and establish a second growth engine for the company. Traffic operation has been the foundation of our success, leveraging the Weixin Mini program, we have effectively reached a broad user base across China, in particular, those in lower-tier cities. Over the past year, the Weixin ecosystem continued to serve as a critical traffic channel, where we focused on enhancing operational efficiency. At the same time, our stand-alone app, a key driver of new user acquisition, demonstrated strong growth momentum over the past 4 quarters. To attract younger demographics, we rolled out a series of innovative products and engaging marketing campaigns to enhance user mind share and solidify our positioning as an experience-oriented travel platform. As such, the average DAUs of our stand-alone app posted more than 30% growth year-over-year in 2025. Additionally, social media has played an increasingly vital role in engaging users, particularly those younger audiences. During the year, we stepped up our efforts in social media platforms to connect with younger travelers and broadened our user reach through effective and targeted user engagement. We have accumulated the most extensive user base in China's OTA industry. For the 12 months ended December 2025, our annual paying users climbed to 253 million, representing a year-over-year growth of 6%. In addition, the accumulated number of passengers served on our platform over the past 12 months continued to expand and reached 2,034 million with an annual purchase frequency exceeding 8x per user. Moreover, our annual ARPU for the year further rose to RMB 76.8, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 5.5%. Besides our MPU also maintained a growth trajectory throughout the year and increased by 6% year-over-year to 46 million for 2025. As an innovation-driven company, we fully embrace new technologies such as Gen AI to transform our business. In December, we rolled out collaboration with Yuanbao, enabling users to access to our travel booking services via the Weixin Mini program by searching travel itineraries on Yuanbao app. In mid-March last year, we introduced our AI-powered travel planner, DeepTrip, which integrates the supply chain capabilities and market insights of our platform with the resuming capabilities of DeepSeek. Over the past few quarters, we have continuously refined its functionality, incorporating social features to enhance its shareability among users. In the fourth quarter, we embedded a map tool to give users a clearer visual representation of their travel destinations. By the end of December, approximately 6.8 million users in total have utilized DeepTrip. Additionally, we extended its application to some business scenarios by integrating DeepTrip into air ticketing service. We aim to address users' prebooking inquiries as well as helping them find competitive ticket prices, which not only improved operational efficiency, but also enhanced overall user experience. In customer service, AI now covers around 80% of user inquiries, demonstrating its important role in streamlining operations and enhancing user experience. Over the past year, we have consistently advanced the integration of AI in every phase of the customer service process, which not only reduced the workload of customer service staff, but also improved overall operational efficiency. Furthermore, we have made continuous advancements in AI capabilities to enhance its precision in identifying user requests and delivering timeless, contextually relevant and human-like responses. By leveraging AI-driven solutions, we aim to further optimize customer interaction, reduce response time and maintain seamless user support as we continue to grow. In pursuit of global excellence in ESG practices, we have achieved milestones in improving our ESG performance over the past few years. Notably, in 2025, our MSCI ESG rating was elevated to the top AAA level, surpassing 95% of global industry players. In addition, we were included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook China for the third consecutive year, and we were also honored with the Industry Mover Award for our remarkable progress in driving sustainable development within our sector. All these achievements have not only demonstrated our leadership in ESG performance among global peers, but also reflected our resilience and excellence in corporate sustainability in the face of market uncertainties, evolving policy landscape and dynamic social development, we remain dedicated to further strengthening our ESG practices and contributing to a more sustainable future. I'll stop here and give the call to our CFO, Julian. He will share with you the detailed financials in the fourth quarter and for the year of 2025. Julian, it's your turn. Lei Fan: Thank you, Joyce. Good evening, everyone. Over the past quarter, China's travel industry showcased remarkable resilience driven by rising demand for immersive and experiential travel experiences across both traditional holiday hotspots and newly emerging destinations. Leveraging our profound understanding of evolving traveler preferences, we delivered another quarter of robust performance, capping off a highly productive year. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we achieved healthy growth in both top and bottom line. We reported net revenue of RMB 4.8 billion, representing a 14.2% year-over-year increase from the same period of 2024. We executed targeted marketing campaigns to strategically prepare for the 2026 Chinese New Year, while upholding rigorous cost discipline to ensure financial prudence. During the fourth quarter, our adjusted net profit rose to RMB 779.8 million, reflecting an 18.1% year-over-year growth. The increase was principally fueled by the enhanced economies of scale and the optimized operations of our OTA business. Our core OTA business revenue registered a 17.5% year-over-year increase to RMB 4.1 billion during the fourth quarter of 2025. Our accommodation reservation business achieved RMB 1.3 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025, representing a 15.4% increase from the same period in 2024. The revenue increase was primarily driven by growth in hotel room nights sold, coupled with a modest rise in ADR. In our domestic accommodation business, we proactively explored diverse accommodation scenarios to capture emerging growth opportunities, including themed offerings tailored to specific demand such as winter vacation and exam season space. For our outbound accommodation business, we strengthened cooperation with third-party partners to expand product offerings as well as our destination footprint catering to growing user demand. In the fourth quarter, our ADR once again achieved year-over-year growth, benefiting from growing consumer demand for high-quality hotels and our proactive adjustment to user subsidy strategies, supported by precise and disciplined marketing strategies. Our net take rate remained stable year-over-year. Our transportation ticketing revenue for the fourth quarter reached RMB 1.8 billion, marking a 6.5% year-over-year increase compared with the same period of 2024. During the past quarter, we heightened our focus on improving user experience. We actively expanded travel supply chain and enriched VAS offerings to deliver a broader range of mobility options and ensure seamless travel experience for users. As for our international air ticketing business, it achieved balanced growth in both volume and revenue, which aligns with our long-term strategy. In the fourth quarter, our international air ticketing revenue increased to more than 7% of our total transportation ticketing revenue. Our other business segment maintained stellar growth momentum with revenue reaching RMB 916.7 million in the fourth quarter, representing a growth of 53% year-over-year. This growth was mainly propelled by outstanding performance of our hotel management business and the consolidation of Wanda Hotels and Resorts. Our tourism business achieved a revenue of RMB 777.5 million, which was largely flat year-over-year. mainly due to our proactive reduction in prepurchased business as well as softer demand for Southeast Asia and Japan. In terms of profitability, our gross profit increased by 18.5% year-over-year to RMB 3.2 billion for the fourth quarter of 2025. The operating profit margin of our core OTA business remained flat year-over-year for the fourth quarter of 2025, while the operating profit margin of our tourism business has been affected by the one-off goodwill impairment. Our adjusted EBITDA increased by 28.6% and reached RMB 1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. Adjusted net profit grew by 18.1% to RMB 779.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Adjusted basic EPS for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 0.33 with a 17.9% year-over-year increase compared to the same period in 2024. Service development and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter of 2025 increased by 6.8% from the same period of 2024. Excluding share-based compensation charges, service development and administrative expenses in total accounted for 18.1% of revenue in the fourth quarter compared with 18.6% of revenue in the same period of 2024. Selling and marketing expenses in the fourth quarter of 2025 increased by 22.7% from the same period of 2024, excluding share-based compensation charges. Selling and marketing expenses accounted for 32.4% of revenue in the fourth quarter compared with 30.2% of revenue in the same period of 2024. Now let's move to our results for financial year 2025. Our net revenue in 2025 achieved RMB 19.4 billion, representing an 11.9% year-over-year increase. The core OTA revenue achieved RMB 16.5 billion, representing a 16% year-over-year increase. Our accommodation reservation revenue was RMB 5.5 billion in 2025, representing a 16.8% year-over-year increase. Our transportation ticketing revenue reached RMB 7.9 billion, representing a 9.6% year-over-year increase. Other business revenue for 2025 achieved RMB 3.1 billion, representing a 34.4% year-over-year increase. Our tourism revenue for 2025 reached RMB 2.9 billion, representing a 6.9% year-over-year decrease. In terms of profitability, our gross profit in 2025 increased by 15.7% year-over-year to RMB 12.9 billion. Adjusted EBITDA for 2025 improved by 26.9% year-over-year to RMB 5.1 billion. Meanwhile, adjusted net profit for 2025 increased by 22.2% year-over-year to RMB 3.4 billion. Adjusted basic EPS for 2025 was RMB 1.45 with a 20.8% year-over-year increase. As of December 31, 2025, the balance of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments was RMB 12.3 billion. We highly appreciate our shareholders' consistent support and are committed to delivering sustainable capital returns. Our Board of Directors has proposed a final cash dividend of HKD 0.25 per share, marking a 38.9% increase from last year. This reflects our commitment to enhance capital returns to shareholders. Over the past year, China's travel industry has demonstrated increasingly prominent trends towards diversification and personalization as consumers place growing emphasis on emotional value and unique experience-driven travel opportunities. Notably, the 2026 Spring Festival represented the longest holiday period on record. During the 9-day holiday, consumers divided their holidays into multiple shorter trips such as homecoming visits and vacation travel. Incremental demand from multiple trips during the festival has driven robust growth in our business volume. In addition, the pilot implementation of spring and autumn vacations initially launched in Zhejiang and Sichuan has been expanded to include more regions such as Jiangsu and Anhui. We believe this initiative will help stimulate travel consumption and provide additional momentum to the growth of the tourism industry. Such supportive government policy, combined with sustained strength in user demand, fuels our optimism about the upward trajectory of China's travel industry in the coming year. Moving forward, we will remain focused on our core OTA business, providing users with diverse domestic and international travel products while sparing no effort to enhance user experience. As we continue to improve operational efficiency in domestic OTA operations, we will actively expand our outbound business to bolster our global brand presence. Additionally, our hotel management business will enter a new phase of high-quality growth, building a solid foundation for the company's long-term sustainable development. Concurrently, we will continue to adopt technological innovations as well as deepening the integration of AI technology with our supply chain capabilities, striving to better meet user needs. Last but not least, we will strengthen our corporate social responsibility to support the healthy development of the travel industry and to create greater value for our stakeholders. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions now. Thank you. Operator: [Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from the line of [ Xi Wei Liu ] from Citi. Unknown Analyst: Xi Wei From Citi. Congratulations to the company on a solid operating performance. I have 2 questions. The first about outbound travel. There have been many flight cancellations between China and Japan recently. How has this impacted your outbound business? Could you share the regional breakdown of your outbound markets? And what are your 2026 targets for outbound revenue growth and profitability? The second about large model and AI strategy. The company has actually rolled out some partnerships with large models so far. In the long run, as AI model portals become more important, how will the company position itself? Joyce Li: Thank you, Xi Wei for the question. The first one is in terms of outbound travel. We did observe a decline in Japan-bound travel volume given the current circumstance. However, the overall impact on our business has been limited as outbound travel accounts for only around 5% to 6% of our total transportation and accommodation revenue. And at the same time, outbound travel demand remains resilient, and we have been seeing users shift to alternative destinations rather than cancel their travel plans. During the Chinese New Year holiday, shop to middle-haul destinations within a 5-hour flight regions such as South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau remain among the most popular choices, while demand for Thailand also shown signs of gradual recovery. In addition, demand for long-haul travel increased year-over-year with European destinations such as Italy and Spain seeing particular strong growth. We have been actively adjusting our product offerings and marketing focus to capture this demand shift. Overall, given the relatively small contribution of our outbound travel to our core OTA business and the substitution effect across destinations, we do not expect a material impact on our overall performance. And looking ahead to 2026, our priority remains to further improve the quality of growth by enhancing pricing discipline, optimizing marketing efficiency and strengthening cross-selling from air tickets to accommodation and other travel products. At the same time, we will continue to deepen partnerships with global suppliers to improve service capabilities and user experience. Overall, we expect the international business to continue expanding in scale and become an increasingly meaningful contributor to our revenue. Over the next 2 to 3 years, growing business volume and expanding the user base will remain the key priorities while maintaining a strong focus on improving growth quality and profitability. We expect the revenue contribution from the outbound segment to increase to around 10% to 15% with increasing operating leverage over time. And in terms of the AI cooperation, our AI strategy focused on enhancing both user experience and operational efficiency as we continue to evolve from a traditional OTA toward a more intelligent travel platform. We see AI as a core capability that helps us better understand user needs, improving decision-making and optimize service delivery across the entire travel journey. At the same time, AI-driven efficiency improvements are significantly enhancing staff productivity and optimize our cost structure, which we believe will be an important driver of margin improvement over time. On the user side, we have integrated our proprietary travel-specific AI with advanced large language models to develop DeepTrip, which supports itinerary planning, travel inspiration and personalized product recommendations. By combining AI capabilities with our real-time supply and transaction ecosystem, DeepTrip provides a practical and actionable solution and enables a seamless end-to-end booking experience. We will continue to iterate its functionalities to better support users across different travel scenarios. And as a positioning of us, I think that we have been started exploring the partnership with large AI platforms and large model ecosystems. For example, we enabled traffic [ redirection ] from Yuanbao to our mini programs and apps. So our strategy is to actively participate in the emerging AI ecosystem by positioning our platform as a trusted travel service partner with deep market insights and a strong understanding of user behaviors. Leveraging our long-term accumulation of transaction data and operational experience, we are able to provide users with more accurate recommendations and practical bookable travel solutions on our AI platforms. Users who enter through AI platforms complete their bookings within our mini programs or apps and the related user and transaction data remain within our ecosystem. This allows us to maintain direct user relationships, accumulate valuable behavior insights and continuously optimize our product services and personalized recommendations. It also enables us to strengthen user engagement and lifetime value, which remains a key competitive advantage for our OTA platform. Going forward, we will continue to monitor development of the AI ecosystem and expand partnerships where it makes strategic sense, while maintaining our focus on strengthening our product service offerings, operational capabilities and user experience. Operator: We will now take our next question from Wei Xiong of UBS. Wei Xiong: First, I want to get your thoughts on regulations because recently, an OTA peer has been under antitrust investigation. So how should we think about the implications to the OTA sector? Do you foresee any impact on OTA's business model or lead to any change in the competitive landscape? Lei Fan: Thank you, Wei Xiong, -- please go on. Wei Xiong: Yes. Sure. So second question is on the hotel management business, which is set to become our second growth engine. So I wonder, could management elaborate your strategic focus and planning for this year? And what are the key operational goals and financial metrics that we look to achieve in 2026 and in the medium term as well? Lei Fan: Okay. Thank you for the question, Xiong, Wei. In terms of the investigations, as you mentioned, we closely monitor regulatory developments recently. At this stage, we have not observed any material changes that would impact our day-to-day operations. Tongcheng has always operated with a strong focus on compliance and fair cooperation with our partners. We believe a well-regulated market environment is beneficial to the long-term healthy development for the company and also for the industry. We will continue to adapt our business practices as required to ensure full compliance in the company. Overall, we remain focused on executing our strategy and delivering sustainable growth and profitability improvement. In terms of the hotel management plan, I think Joyce will have her words. Joyce Li: Thank you, Xiong, Wei. Actually, following the completion of the Wanda Hotels and Resorts acquisition, the integration has progressed smoothly and is better than our expectations. We have achieved rapid organizational alignment, revitalized organization and teams and further refined the strategic direction of the business. Overall, the post-acquisition integration has been very successful. On the synergy front, we are beginning to see encouraging early results. The addition of the Wanda's upscale and luxury brands has enhanced our overall brand portfolio and strengthened our positioning in the middle to high-end segment of our hotel management business. At the same time, the integration has enabled better resource sharing across business development, operations and membership, which is gradually improving operational efficiency. It also further reinforced Tongcheng's presence within the accommodation supply chain. From the other perspective, Tongcheng also empowers Wanda Hotels and Resorts through our technology capabilities. By providing standardized system tools and digital solutions, we help improve internal operational efficiency while reducing research and development efforts and lowering system maintenance and third-party service costs. From a financial perspective, the acquisition has already delivered a positive contribution at the operational level as Wanda Hotels and Resorts is an established hotel management company with a solid operating track record. The consolidation has enhanced our revenue scale, optimized the business mix and strengthened the earnings visibility of the segment. As we move forward, our development strategy will remain disciplined with a focus on balancing scale expansion with operational efficiency and healthy returns, ensuring sustainable and high-quality growth of the business segment. With continued expansion of scale and improving operational efficiency, together with the contribution from Wanda Hotels and Resorts, we expect the hotel management segment to maintain strong revenue growth with a further improvement in profitability from 2026 onwards. Thank you. Operator: We will now take our next question from the line of Brian Gong of Citi. Brian Gong: Two questions here. First is, how do you -- how is the travel consumption trend for the industry in the first quarter considering recovery on hotel ADR. Do we still expect teens level on room nights growth this year? Second question is that recently, [indiscernible] has been under government's investigation. Do you think this will impact their cooperation with us and their stakeholding on us? [indiscernible] is adjusting their hotel business to comply with government's requirement. How will this impact the industry and us? Lei Fan: Okay. Thank you for the questions, Brian. In terms of the first quarter's performance and also the industry outlook, actually, during the Chinese New Year holiday, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, the China travel market continued to demonstrate very solid demand. According to the Ministry of Transport, national passengers throughput during the 9-day Chinese New Year holiday reached a throughput record 8.2% year-over-year growth during the holiday with decent growth for both long-haul and short-haul travel. Our passenger throughput of railway and airline increased by around 10% and 7% year-over-year, respectively. Meanwhile, according to the industry statistics, overall hotel ADR increased during the Chinese New Year holiday among all segments. With demand for family reunions concentrated in the pre-holiday period, we observed a pickup in passenger throughput during the latter part of the Chinese New Year holiday this year. In response, we promptly adjusted our operational resources, strengthened supply coordinations with our partners and enhance the targeted marketing efforts to capture the rebound in travel demand and improve conversion efficiency in the latter part of Chinese New Year holiday. So as a result, we continue to outperform the industry in the first quarter and also during the 9-day Chinese New Year holiday with especially strong momentum in our accommodation business. Average daily room nights sold increased by 30%. Specifically, room night growth for 3-star and above hotels significantly outpaced that of lower-tier properties. This reflects our ability to respond effectively to changing user preferences as more travelers place greater emphasis on higher quality accommodation experiences. As a result, our hotel ADR in quarter 1 maintained a positive trend during the period and once again exceeded the industry average. For transportation business, we continue to focus on improving monetization, while average daily air ticket volume was broadly in line with the overall market. And also for the room nights growth in the full year of 2026, actually, I cannot provide a very clear numbers here because of the short booking window. But as we mentioned, looking into 2026, we continue to view the long-term fundamentals of China's travel market positively. Consumer preferences are increasingly shifting towards experiential-oriented spending with growing interest in event-driven and themed travel such as concerts, exhibitions and outdoor activities. At the same time, travel is becoming more integrated into everyday lifestyle, supporting more frequent and diversified travel demand. In addition, supportive policy measures aimed at expanding domestic consumptions and promoting high-quality tourism development provide a favorable backdrop for the whole industry. And also for the second question about the investigation, actually, we don't monitor any change on the cooperation with Trip and also, we don't monitor any change of the shareholder structures or potential change of the shareholder structures. So currently, as I mentioned in previous question, we're just focusing on our own execution and long-term competitiveness improvement. So actually, our strategy remains very consistent, focusing on enhancing our user value, improve the ARPU, strengthening our product and service capabilities and deepening cooperation with our suppliers through a mutual beneficial approach. And also, at the same time, we will continue to take a disciplined and prudent approach while monitoring the industry regulatory development. Thank you for the question. Operator: We will now take our next question from Yang Liu of Morgan Stanley. Yang Liu: I have 2 questions. The first one is also related with AI. Could management elaborate more about the DeepTrip's contribution to the business, especially on the business -- overall business volume and also cross-selling side? And my second question is regarding the marketing intensity this year, given the geopolitical risk in both China and Japan and also Middle East this year, will management adjust the outbound business marketing intensity? Yes, that is my second question. Joyce Li: Thank you. The first question is concerning our DeepTrip. As I mentioned, DeepTrip is our AI-driven travel planner that use the reasoning power of DeepSeek and our platform supply chain advantages to create personalized travel itineraries. Since launch, DeepTrip has served about 7 million users with orders placed through the platform steadily increasing over the past few months. Over the past quarters, we continue to enhance DeepTrip with the goal of strengthening user awareness and building long-term trust. We have been continuously upgrading its user-facing capabilities to support more comprehensive travel planning. Key enhancements include the integration of trend transfer data to enable seamless multimodal itineraries. The addition of social sharing features to improve engagement as introduction of a map tool in the fourth quarter to provide a more intuitive visualization of travel plans. In addition, DeepTrip has been embedded into our air-ticketing service to help users address pre-booking inquiries and identify more competitive fare options, delivering a more seamless booking experience. Beyond user-facing applications, we have also extended DeepTrip into different business scenarios to improve operational efficiency. We integrated customer service agent capabilities into DeepTrip to respond to customer inquiries directly within DeepTrip and guide users to human support when needed. For corporate clients, we piloted a travel booking suggesting tool customized according to travel profiles, business travel policies and past bookings. In the future, DeepTrip will continue to serve as a platform for understanding and addressing users' comprehensive travel needs across diverse scenarios. We will further leveraging our AI capabilities across various business segments to provide valuable solutions to users, thereby strengthening our competitive advantages. Additionally, we have begun the cooperation with [indiscernible] to acquire more traffic. We're also actively exploring potential collaborations with our AI agent platform to further broaden our reach and engagement opportunities. We remain committed to leading AI innovation, continuously increasing the investments in this area and delivering cutting-edge user-focused features to elevate our user travel experience. And in terms of the current circumstance in terms of outbound business, we have seen considerable growth potential in the outbound tourism market. As the travel habits evolve, more travelers are eager to explore the international destinations. The number of outbound tourists is still significantly lower than the domestic travelers, revealing a substantial opportunities for expansion in this area. At present, we believe that there are only a limited number of Chinese OTA players have the capabilities and resources to actively drive outbound business. This situation place us in a favorable positioning facing relatively low competitive pressure and allowing us to fully capitalize on the growth potential of the market. Again, our strategy and confidence are anchored in the long-term growth prospects of China's outbound industry and our competitive advantages. While we remain agile in our short-term tactics in response to the market conditions, I think our business momentum remains unaffected. Thank you. Operator: In the interest of time, we will take our last question from Thomas Chong of Jefferies. Thomas Chong: Congratulations on a solid set of results. My first question is about our future growth driver and the take rate trend for accommodation and transportation. And my second question is relating to margin. How should we think about the 2026 margin trend as well as the margin driver in the future? Lei Fan: Thanks for the question, Thomas. For growth, actually, the company's focus remains on achieving a high-quality growth in 2026 by balancing scale expansion with operating efficiency improvement, while continuously enhancing our user value and ARPU. So in the first quarter and also the second quarter, we will prioritize healthy and sustainable growth across our core OTA segments, supported by improved operational efficiency and more refined resource allocation. At the same time, we will continue to strengthen our competitiveness positioning and capture growth opportunity to future expand our market presence. Within the core OTA business, we anticipate that the accommodation business will grow faster than transportation business through the whole year. For accommodation business, we believe that the growth will be driven by volume expansion and ADR improvement, as we mentioned a lot of times. Our volume is expected to continue outpacing the market growth, while our ADR will benefit from the ongoing upgrade in hotel star mix driven by shifts in user preference. So we think it's enough to support a very nicely growth for accommodation business by these 2 reasons. So this year, in terms of the take rate of the accommodation, we expect that the take rate may be stable year-over-year at 2025. For transportation business, volume growth will be in line with the market and still one of the reasons of the revenue growth for transportation. While our take rate improvement driven by cross-sell and VAS will continue to contribute to the revenue growth of the transportation segment. Also, we expect the hyper growth for other revenue, mainly due to Wanda consolidation since the middle of October last year and the hyper growth of our original hotel management and PMS business and also our Black Whale business, the membership business. In terms of the profitability, as we promised, the margin improvement is one of the very important strategic priorities for the company. For the reasons, one, for our core OTA business, the improvement in operational efficiency will continue to be an important driver of profitability over time. In particular, we are leveraging AI technologies to enhance both customer service automation and R&D efficiency, which help improve staff profitability and overall operating efficiencies. For the development of our hotel management business, including eLong Hotel Technology platform and Wanda Hotels and Resorts, we will continue to support its high-quality expansion with a near-term focus on scaling the business, while the return profile is expected to improve progressively as the business matures. For our international business, we will maintain a very prudent approach as we continue to build the foundation for future growth and cultivate the company's next growth engine over the coming years. Last, in terms of the marketing investments, our marketing dollars may fluctuate slightly depending on market opportunity. For example, in quarter 4 last year and quarter 1 this year, we identified strong early booking demand for the 9-day Chinese New Year holiday period and therefore, increased our marketing investments to capture early demand and gain market share. At the same time, we will continue to strengthen ROI management across different marketing channels. So overall, we will continue to balance growth opportunities with disciplined cost management while focusing on improving operational efficiency across the business and improve our margins. Thank you. Operator: That's the end of the question-and-answer session. Thank you very much for all your questions. I'd now like to turn the conference back to Ms. Kylie Yeung, for closing comments. Kylie Yeung: Thank you. We are closing the call now. If you wish to check out our presentation and other financial information, please visit the IR section of our company website. Thank you, and see you next quarter. Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.
Operator: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Concentrix First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call over to Elise Brasell, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead. Elise Brasell: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Concentrix First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. This call is the property of Concentrix and may not be recorded or rebroadcast without the written permission of Concentrix. This call contains forward-looking statements that address our expected future performance and that, by their nature, address matters that are uncertain. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future expectations, events or developments. Please refer to today's earnings release and our most recent filings with the SEC for additional information regarding uncertainties that could affect our future financial results. This includes the risk factors provided in our annual report on Form 10-K and in our other public filings with the SEC. Also during the call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted free cash flow, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP EPS and constant currency revenue growth. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures is available in the news release and on the company Investor Relations website under Financials. With me on the call today are Chris Caldwell, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Andre Valentine, our Chief Financial Officer. Chris will provide a summary of our operating performance and growth strategy, and Andre will cover our financial results and business outlook. Then we'll open the call for your questions. Now I'll turn the call over to Chris. Christopher Caldwell: Thank you, Elise. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, I'd like to start by giving you an overview of how we're thinking about the quarter, and then I'll turn it over to Andre to talk more about the specifics of our results. Overall, in the first quarter, we continue to win the right business, drive the right revenue mix and execute on our strategy, allowing us to come within our guide for both revenue and profit. Our solutions are driving value both from automating work or when combined with the human to drive performance. Our overall wins with technology are up more than 61% year-over-year in the first quarter, highlighting the shift in our go-to-market offerings and client acceptance. When we look at our bookings quarter-on-quarter, our signed annual contract value for solutions, including AI, more than doubled, and we're seeing sequential increases in expanding AI license consumption across our client base. Our pipeline of opportunities to continue to be solid and represent a continued progression and shift to a higher solution mix. Our proprietary iX suite of AI products our third-party technology partners and our deep domain expertise continue to be differentiators that open the door for us to win larger, more transformative deals with our clients. While this might initially compress some existing revenue and margin, when these programs reach scale and full production, the margin is accretive, and we generally see revenue growth across our portfolio of services into these clients. As an example, we closed, close to 60 enterprise iX suite deals in the quarter including our largest iX Hero contracts to date with 2 Fortune 50 companies. Both clients will use our proprietary AI technologies to modernize their ability to create more efficient personalized and effective interactions with their customers while allowing us to sell additional solutions into these accounts. Looking forward, we are continuing with our focus of securing complex work and high-value services in our client base, growing our share of wallet, using our extended offerings, allowing clients to consolidate work with us, leveraging our own IP and third-party platforms to differentiate ourselves in the market and driving internal efficiencies to fuel continued investment in areas of new growth. In summary, we delivered another quarter with revenue growth, and we are on track to meet our expectations for the year. We are winning the right business and successfully executing while making the right investments in the business for long-term revenue and margin growth. I would like to thank our game changers for their tireless pursuit of excellence with our clients and their trust and partnership that we have with our clients. With that, Andre, I'll turn it over to you. Andre Valentine: Well, thanks, Chris, and good morning. I'll review the details of the first quarter and then discuss our outlook for the second quarter, remainder of 2026. We delivered revenue of approximately $2.5 billion, an increase of 1.9% on a constant currency basis and over 5% on a reported basis. Looking at constant currency growth by vertical. Revenue from banking and financial services clients grew 13% year-over-year. Revenue from retail, travel and e-commerce clients grew 6% largely driven by growth with travel and e-commerce clients. Media and Communications revenues grew 3%, largely with clients outside the U.S. and global entertainment and media companies. Our technology and consumer electronics vertical and our health care vertical both decreased about 6% driven by lighter volumes than clients expected and shore mix. Turning to profitability. Our non-GAAP operating income was $295 million. The midpoint of the guidance range we provided on our last call. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $348 million, a margin of 13.9%. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $2.61 in line with the guidance range we provided in January. GAAP results for the first quarter reflect a $6 million loss on the sale of 2 small nonstrategic businesses. One of these sales closed in the quarter with the second expected to close later this year. The assets and liabilities of the pending sale are reflected in the balance sheet as assets held for sale. Total net proceeds from the 2 sales will be approximately $20 million. Our GAAP results for the first quarter and our expectations for GAAP results for the second quarter also reflect restructuring charges related to cost actions that we're taking to align our cost structure and invest in higher growth and higher profit areas. We expect the combination of the actions taken in the first and second quarters of 2026 to drive approximately $40 million in annualized savings over and above investments in growth. This will contribute to sequential profitability growth in the second half of 2026. Complete reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures are provided in today's earnings release. Adjusted free cash flow was negative $145 million [ in the ] quarter, reflects an increase in accounts receivable at the end of the quarter, resulting from the timing of cash receipts. The related receivables were all collected in the first week of March. As a reminder, free cash flow in our business is seasonal with negative free cash flow in the first quarter and robust free cash flow generation in each subsequent quarter. This pattern is expected to recur in fiscal year 2026. We're confident in repeating our previous guidance for between $630 million and $650 million in adjusted free cash flow this year. We returned approximately $65 million to shareholders in the quarter, which included repurchasing $42 million of our common shares or approximately 1.05 million shares at an average price of approximately $40 per share. The remaining $23 million in shareholder return was in the form of our quarterly dividend. In February, we issued $600 million of 3-year senior notes maturing March 1, 2029. The new notes carry an interest rate coupon of 6.50%. The proceeds from the new notes were used to retire $600 million of 6.65% senior notes that mature in August 2026. $200 million of the 6.65% senior notes maturing in August 2026 remain outstanding, and we expect to repay them with strong free cash flow in the second and third quarters. At the end of the first quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $234 million and total debt was approximately $4.75 billion, bringing our net debt to $4.51 billion. Our off-balance sheet factored accounts receivable borrowings were approximately $129 million at the end of the quarter. At the end of the quarter, our liquidity was nearly $1.4 billion including our $1.1 billion revolving credit facility, which was undrawn. To summarize, in the first quarter, we delivered revenue and profitability in line with our guidance range. We also took proactive steps to manage upcoming debt maturities while continuing to invest in growth. Now I'll turn to our outlook. For the second quarter, we expect the following: second quarter revenue of $2.46 billion to $2.485 billion. Based on current exchange rates, we expect an approximate 75 basis points positive impact of foreign exchange rates compared with the prior period. The guidance implies constant currency revenue growth for the quarter, ranging from 1% to 2%. As we've said, our goal is to be conservative in our revenue guidance, and we are being prudent with the current geopolitical situation. We expect second quarter non-GAAP operating income of $290 million to $300 million, this implies a non-GAAP operating margin of 11.8% to 12.1%. Second quarter non-GAAP earnings per share will be expected to be $2.57 to $2.69 per share, assuming approximately $67 million in interest expense, 60.9 million in diluted common shares outstanding and approximately 4.9% of net income attributable to participating securities. The non-GAAP effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 25% for the second quarter. Our expectations for the full year non-GAAP metrics remain unchanged from our earnings call in January and can be found in today's release. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to expect to generate between $630 million and $650 million in adjusted free cash flow this year. In addition to our strong free cash flow, we expect aggregate proceeds for approximately $40 million from asset sales, including the sale of the 2 businesses I mentioned earlier. The remaining proceeds will come from the sale of owned properties that are no longer being utilized. We are committed to reducing our net leverage to below 2.6x adjusted EBITDA by the end of fiscal 2026. In summary, our overall demand environment remains solid. The margin headwinds we have seen in recent quarters are being managed, and we are confident in our ability to drive year-over-year profitability growth in the second half of 2026. We're confident in the continued strong free cash flow generation of the business and our plan to reduce net leverage over the balance of the year and we are in a strong competitive position to drive long-term outperformance. Now operator, please open the line for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. Ruplu Bhattacharya: Chris, can you specify approximately how much revenue in 1Q was related to AI and the iX suite? And how are you pricing these solutions? And can you give us an idea of how you're looking at investments related to AI in 2026? Christopher Caldwell: So let me answer the questions in a bit of a backwards way. So just in terms of how we're pricing these solutions, our iX Hello solution, which is the fully autonomous solution that we have basically is priced by consumption. So we put it in for very small or de minimis fees. And then based on how many contacts that are fully automated, we get paid for. And so as you can imagine, when we put it in, we see a negative margin for the first little while. And then as it scales and grows, we see a positive margin similar to what you'd expect from a SaaS or software type of business. On our Hero product, it is a subscription basis, where we sell on a per-seat subscription of how many humans are actually using the product to drive the business. And as we talked about, at the end of last year, we ended Q4 at $60 million of ARR. We continue to add to that. We're not releasing numbers on a quarterly basis, but our expectation is to be at or above $100 million by the end of this fiscal year. If we reach that sooner, we will update you on that. But so far, we're actually a little ahead of plan from where we expected based on what we've sold within the first quarter. And we have a very, very strong pipeline going into the second quarter that we've already started to see some good uptake with -- on our proprietary AI products. In terms of the percentage of our business with AI within our business in Q1. Ruplu, the challenge that we have is that what we're seeing in the marketplace is that as you think about AI solutions, we're seeing clients adopt more than one AI solution, and sometimes they're adopting more than one AI solution from us. Sometimes, they're doing some things internally. So the way we look at it is of the revenue we service -- of the clients we service, how much of that has AI involved in it? And the reality is it's the vast majority of our clients are using our AI, their own AI, some other bits and pieces of AI. What we also look at is our success rate of AI implementations because in the marketplace, there's a lot of people who are talking about AI, but they're not getting the success rate. And we're seeing very, very high success rates. Very, very high success rates on our AI implementations driving real tangible value for clients. And so that's what we're very excited about as we're going into the second quarter. Ruplu Bhattacharya: Okay. details there, Chris. For my follow-up, Andre, can I ask you a question related to the cadence of margin improvement. If we look at the guidance, the implied operating margins go from 11.8% this quarter to about 12.5% in the -- for the full fiscal year. You mentioned a couple of things like there's cost reduction actions you're taking. I think Chris mentioned like the pipeline indicates a better mix. And I think you also said that margins improve over time in contracts. Can you help us get comfortable with how we should think about this margin progression? It looks like the EPS guide for next quarter is slightly below the Street estimates. So can you help us just think about how you're thinking about the ramp and what's giving you confidence that you can get to 12.5%, which would mean above 13% operating margin for the fourth quarter? Andre Valentine: Sure. Happy to do that, Ruplu. And the guidance is very much consistent with what we said entering the year, which was we thought that margins would be somewhat compressed in the first half, and then we would see sequential margin expansion in the second half of the year that would get us to year-over-year margin increases in the second half of the year. Driving that is certainly the result of the cost actions that we're taking in the first half. Other drivers are -- if you look at the revenue guide, there's roughly, depending on where you are in the guide, $100 million to $150 million of additional revenue coming online in the second half of the year over the first half. That's going to flow through at absorb the capacity that we've added into the business and will certainly drive revenue at a fairly high flow through as we go forward. Then you have some of the transformational deals, as Chris alluded to, getting to kind of full scale and full production and reaching the intended margins on those projects. And then that's really it. And so we have a great deal of confidence in our ability to drive the expansion in margin that begins. First, you see kind of stable to slightly expanding margin here in Q2, a bigger uptick in Q3 as we go sequentially, thanks to revenue coming online and the cost actions and then a further step up in the fourth quarter, which is kind of a traditional pattern of a step-up in margin as you go from Q3 to Q4. Ruplu Bhattacharya: If I can just ask a clarification on that. Andre, you had also mentioned in prior quarters that some customers, both in Europe as well as North America. We're looking to move operations offshore, and that was impacting revenues in the near term and the margins would have improved over time. Can you update us on how that is impacting results currently? Also, you had talked about supporting some customers whose volumes were not materializing and you had laid out 2 or 3 options that you had. Can you give us an update on where that stands? And are customer volumes coming back as you had expected? Or are you taking some remedial actions? Andre Valentine: Sure. Happy to do that. Well, yes, absolutely, the trend towards moving work offshore continues. As we talked about, I believe, on the last call, we have as we see it roughly 15% of our revenue is delivered out of North America and Western Europe that we think over time, as the capacity to perhaps move offshore, we provided in our revenue guide entering the year. for roughly a 2-point headwind from shore movement. We think we're still in line with that. And as we think about what that means from a margin perspective, particularly the commentary that I made about utilizing capacity that we've built ahead of revenue. A big piece of that is that shift offshore filling up capacity that we've added over the last couple of quarters in advance of that revenue. So that is how we would think about the impact of shore movement. Obviously, when those programs get offshore, margins are improved. When they get -- when the programs get the full run rate. Back to the commentary about volumes not materializing. As you recall last year, second half of the year, actually starting in the second quarter, we saw impacts from tariffs, delaying some programs. We said that, that would eventually -- we've worked that through the system through either having the volumes materialize or shedding the excess capacity that we've added in advance of those programs. That is pretty much playing out in line with our expectation. We saw improvement in that situation as we expected in Q1, and we think that's fully out of our system kind of as we exit Q2. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Luke Morison with Canaccord Genuity. Lucas Morison: Starting with Andre. So you sold those 2 small nonstrategic businesses in the quarter for, I think you said, $20 million combined, obviously, pretty small, but can you just talk about the philosophy behind those divestitures? Is this potentially the beginning of a more active portfolio pruning effort? Were those more opportunistic? Are there other parts of the portfolio that you consider noncore? Just any help there. Andre Valentine: Yes, happy to do that. Yes, so we're not really looking to shed anything else at this point in time. We're always kind of looking at the portfolio of what we have in the business. These 2 businesses were quite small, not strategic, not growing, not accretive to overall margins. And so it just made sense to exit those. We'll continue to look at the portfolio over time and see if there are other things that make sense, but I wouldn't expect certainly nothing imminent there and nothing really that we're working on. Lucas Morison: Got it. Helpful. And then, Andre, the 2 verticals you mentioned that were down 6% in the quarter. I wonder if that was related to the customers that you were referencing in your last question. And then maybe double-clicking there. You attributed that to lighter volumes than clients expected and shore mix. Can you just help us disaggregate those 2 factors and then whether or not you have line of sight to those verticals stabilizing in the back half of this year? Andre Valentine: Yes. So I'll bifurcate the 2 because they're not exactly the same. So health care, we actually saw lighter volumes than expected, largely related to changes in Medicare membership for some of our clients as well as participation in the Affordable Care Act program. And so that impacted our revenues in the health care vertical. We don't see that really returning to growth here for a couple of quarters. And so that is kind of where that vertical stands. With respect to tech and consumer electronics, there -- the impact is a little bit around underlying volumes. Even as we consolidate a share within some of those clients, underlying volumes are down, a little bit of impact of automation there. That's about half of the revenue change there and then shore mix being the other half of that kind of 6% constant currency reduction. That vertical, you've seen some volatility in the past 8 quarters. Some quarters we grow a little bit, some we shrink. We think that could go up or down as we go through the second half of 2026 based on what we see in the pipeline and opportunities to continue to gain share within the client base. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of David Koning with Baird. David Koning: I guess my first question, just longer-term margins. I know you've had some puts and takes, but if we think back to, I think, '22 to '24, you had 14% or so margins. We're lower than that now. And I know there's some factors. But things that should make it go up, the Webhelp synergies, scale, shift to AI, offshore, like all those should be positive tailwinds can those tailwinds drive margins back to at least where margins have been or hopefully higher? And how fast could they get there? Christopher Caldwell: David, it's Chris. You're right. I mean when we look at the business and kind of some of those AI; implementation, the transformational implementation and look at sort of programs that are running at scale, running the way we'd expect and everything else that kind of goes along with it. We're in that range. And our expectation is we continue to build on that as we get some of these other programs up to scale as we put in the new AI. A lot of the Webhelp synergies we've invested in developing our AI and changing our go-to-market platform, which we talked about last year and this year. And as we talked about in the prepared remarks in terms of the annual contract values effectively doubling as we went into Q1 as we talk about sort of our attach rates increasing, all of those are going to kind of give us some momentum and leverage. I don't want to guide past 2026, but it's very clear to Andre and I, that our expectations is we get this back to historical margins and then we can progress past there. Timeline, I think, as earlier question around where we see our margins at the end of Q4 this year, you can start to see kind of how we're incrementing up to get back to those historic margins. David Koning: Yes. Okay. That's helpful on that. And then, I guess, banking was very strong in the quarter as was the retail segment. Maybe just refresh a little bit on those, is growth in those 2 sustainable? And is it some market factors happening right now or any one-off impacts that are happening? Maybe just kind of walk through those again. Christopher Caldwell: Yes. So banking, you saw last quarter was quite strong, and we expect there to be fairly strong strength through the course of the year, sort of high single-digit, low double-digit growth based. And what we like about it is that it's very widespread. We're doing very well in banking, BFSI across both fintechs, top kind of 200 global banks, sort of the traditional enterprise banks and some new entrants who are trying to disrupt the market. And so really, we're seeing broad-based success in that. What's really driving a lot of the growth is actually this combination of the solutions of the banks now coming to us for more complex work. So very large transformational deal we won last year that we talked about is in the BFSI. That's starting to come through to fruition this year and driving the performance and profitability as we expected. And we're seeing more of that coming through where traditionally, we haven't been able to sell some of our tech solutions into the banking and BFSI sector, and now we are. So we see that kind of sustained growth. In the travel, transportation and e-commerce sector, it's really both e-commerce and travel that are doing well. In the e-commerce side, we see that quite sustainable. We are winning net new clients as well as consolidating share in that. And again, it's a mix of the new solutions we're bringing to the table as well as people looking at our footprint and seeing benefit in how we can deliver consistently around the world. And then on the travel side, we've got a strong travel portfolio, both in short-term stays portfolio to longer stay portfolio to airlines, to consolidators to e-commerce platforms that deal with travel. And again, we're seeing broad-based support. And what we like is what's going into those accounts is, again, these kind of complete solution sets that's allowing us to get spend that historically hasn't been outsourced. Technology spend, which historically hasn't come to us and then consolidation as well. So we see that as sustainable as well. Don't ask me if jet fuel goes up to $200 a barrel. But at this point, we're very confident in what we can see with the pipeline in that -- in those verticals. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vincent Colicchio with Barrington Research. Vincent Colicchio: Chris, did you see any change or any signs of sentiment change or client behavior once the geopolitical issues started recently here? Christopher Caldwell: Yes. So Vince, we've talked to a significant amount of our clients. Some are being impacted, but very de minimisly so far, things have been fairly robust. Our exposure to this is about 1% of revenue, give or take, which is sort of our Middle Eastern operations. And so far, we haven't seen sort of an impact at this point in time. I think people are just being very, very cautious right now. But so far, it's fairly steady. Vincent Colicchio: And Andre, to what extent did excess capacity negatively impact margin this quarter? Andre Valentine: Yes. It's in the 20 to 40 basis point range. And so that as we think about opportunities to improve profitability as we get into the second half of the year, we think that -- and here I'm just really talking about the physical capacity mostly. As we grow into the physical capacity, we think we see a 20 to 40 basis point improvement in second half. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Cheetah Mobile Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Helen Jing Zhu, Investor Relations of Cheetah Mobile. Please go ahead. Jing Zhu: Thank you, operator. Welcome to Cheetah Mobile's Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are our company's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Fu Sheng; and our company's Director and CFO, Mr. Thomas Ren. Following management's prepared remarks, we will conduct the Q&A section. Please note that the management's prepared remarks are presented by AI agent. Before we begin, I refer you to the safe harbor statement in our earnings release, which also applies to our conference call today as we will make forward-looking statements. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Fu Sheng. Please go ahead, Fu Sheng. Sheng Fu: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. In 2025, we finished stabilizing the business and built a stronger foundation for Cheetah Mobile. During the year, our total revenue grew 43% year-over-year, driven by continued growth in both our Internet business and AI and Others segments. In the fourth quarter, AI and Others already accounted for half of total revenues, reflecting the increasing contribution of our new growth initiatives. More importantly, we achieved full year non-GAAP operating profitability, our first time in 6 years. Our Internet business remained resilient in 2025, generating approximately RMB 460,000 in adjusted operating profit every working day. This consistent operating cash flow forms the financial backbone of the company and allows us to invest in robotics and AI in a disciplined and sustainable way. Our second highlight is robotics, which is emerging as a key structural growth driver. For full year, robotics revenue grew approximately 31%. In the fourth quarter alone, robotics revenue reached about RMB 60 million, up 94% year-over-year and 43% quarter-over-quarter. A voice robot in China achieved 100% year-over-year growth for 3 consecutive quarters, accounting for high single digits of the fourth quarter's total revenues. This progress is driven by our strategic focus on core strength in voice robotics and the integration of AI agent technology to enhance product experience. We are now seeing our voice robot become a must-have solution in receptions, guided tours, retail environment, hospitals and service halls as they deliver proven measurable value. We recently introduced a new version of our voice robots, which comes with built-in skills like guiding, patrolling and advertising, enabling end customers to start using them right away, our robotic arm business mainly in serving overseas markets is making up high single digit of the first quarter's total revenues. We focus on long-term demand from research institutions and the R&D teams that value openness and the customization. This customer base is sticky and repeatable, supporting long-term demand, building on our proven indoor autonomous mobility technologies. We are introducing a smart wheelchair, targeting developed regions such as Western Europe and North America. This product is positioned as a premium solution for users who value safety, independence and confidence in daily mobility. We are seeing a clear shift in demand as users increasingly value safety, assistance, and intelligent features in mobility products, while scalable solutions in the market remain limited. By applying our experience in service robots we are able to meaningfully improve the user experience. During my own recent recovery, I personally used our smart wheelchair and saw a clear improvement in safety and convenience. Importantly, we can deliver these benefits without significantly increasing the costs compared to traditional high-end electric wheelchairs, making this a more practical and accessible product for users. We have entered into framework agreements with established mobility brands who will manage branding, distribution and aftersales services. Initial shipments are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026, representing an early-stage commercial validation of this product category. Across the industry, more companies are starting to test and deploy service robots. We believe the next 1 to 2 years will be a validation phase, where ROI and reliability will matter most. You don't need a robot that looks like a human. You need a robot that works every day, delivers measurable value and it's easy to operate at scale. This is exactly where our current products are positioned. Our Internet business remains strong, generating steady cash flow, which allows us to invest in AI in a disciplined and sustainable way. For more than a decade, we have built utility applications serving hundreds of millions of users. This product DNA shapes how we approach AI, rather than competing in model development we focused on turning AI capabilities into practical tools that help users complete real tasks. During the Chinese New Year, I spend a lot of efforts experimenting with an AI agent system built on the OpenCloud framework starting from a single agent that could barely complete basic tasks, the system evolved into a multi-agent team capable of running tests continuously. In one scenario, the system generated personalized New Year messages for more than 600 colleagues and managed the entire sending workflow automatically. What we see emerging is not simply a new AI tool but a new way to organize digital work. AI agents can automate entire workflows from information gathering to processing and distribution, significantly improving productivity. Building on these learnings, we introduced EasyClaw based on OpenCloud and open source agent framework for both domestic and overseas markets. EasyClaw is our AI coworker platform that helps users create and deploy task-oriented AI agents capable of executing real-world tasks autonomously. At this stage, we focus on execution capability rather than scale. We are already seeing a continued increase in user engagement as reflected in the rapid growth of our total token usage. We are building EasyClaw into an agentic operating system that changes how users interact with software and machines. By integrating EasyClaw into our PC products, we are improving user experience and driving higher conversion and ARPU. In robotics, EasyClaw allows users to program and customize robots using natural language, lowering customization barriers. This helps us deploy faster, reduce cost and scale more easily, making our products more competitive. Some investors may ask how we compete with our training foundation models. We believe the real advantage in the agent era lies not in the model itself, but in the systems built on top of it, including task orchestration, tool usage and cost management. By leveraging open ecosystems and leading APIs, our product can evolve as models continue to improve. Finally, our global DNA remains a core competitive advantage. We continue to expand both our AI tools and robotics businesses internationally with a disciplined approach. Looking ahead to 2026, we do not provide specific financial guidance, but we see continued structural improvements. We believe our robotics business will maintain strong growth momentum as commercial validation deepens and become a more important part of our revenue mix. At the same time, AI-enabled products will gradually enhance engagement and monetization efficiency across our software ecosystem. We will increasingly apply AI internally to accelerate the development, aiming to further improve operational efficiency. As we grow, we will continue improving transparency and disclosure, credibility to data and our focus remains clear. Execute with discipline and net results compound over time. Cheetah is entering its next phase of development combining digital coworkers through AI agents and physical coworkers through service robots supported by real operating cash flow and disciplined financial management. We are building the foundation for our next stage of growth. Thank you. Thomas Jintao Ren: Thank you, Fu Sheng. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Unless otherwise stated, all financial figures are presented in RMB. 2025 marked a year of meaningful operational recovery and improved financial discipline for Cheetah Mobile. During the year, we continued improving operating discipline and cost structure across the company. We concentrated resources on commercially validated use cases in robotic products and practical AI applications, while leveraging open source ecosystem and third-party models to improve R&D efficiency and optimize infrastructure costs. This approach allows us to accelerate iteration without significantly increasing fixed costs. For the full year 2025, total revenue grew approximately 43% year-over-year to RMB 1,150 million. Although we reported a GAAP operating loss of RMB 179 million for the year, this represented a substantial improvement compared with operating loss of RMB 437 million in 2024. On a non-GAAP basis, operating profit reached RMB 14 million compared with a non-GAAP operating loss of RMB 232 million, in the prior year, reflecting improved operating leverage. We ended the year with USD 215 million cash and cash equivalents. Turning to our segment performance. Our Internet business continued to serve as a stable cash generating platform for the company in 2025. Revenue from Internet business increased 19% year-over-year to RMB 615 million with Internet revenue, Internet value-added services revenue increased 21% year-over-year in 2025, contributing 65% of segment revenue, supported by both paying user growth and ARPU expansion. In addition, we observed that many users subscribe for periods longer than 12 months, reflecting the recurring nature of our utility applications and strengthening revenue visibility. In terms of profitability, the Internet business generated approximately RMB 115 million in adjusted operating profit in 2025, maintaining healthy margins and strong operating cash flow. As Fu Sheng mentioned earlier, the Internet business generates roughly RMB 460,000 in adjusted operating profit per working day which provides predictable cash flow to support strategic investments in new initiatives. Looking ahead, we expect the Internet business to remain stable and profitable while continuing to provide financial flexibility for the company to invest in long-term growth opportunities. Turning to our AI and Others segment. Revenue from this segment increased 85% year-over-year to RMB 535 million in 2025, as a result, this segment accounted for 46.5% of our total revenue compared with 35.9% in 2024, reflecting the growing contribution from our emerging businesses. Within the segment, the robotics business continued to scale since the second half of 2025, making up 27% of the segment's revenue and 13% of total revenue in 2025. Robotics revenue increased 31% in 2025 driven by deployment of voice robot in China and continued demand for robotic arms in overseas markets. Other businesses, namely overseas advertising agencies, service and multi-cloud management platform within this segment also contributed significantly to revenue growth, benefiting from increasing overseas expansion by Chinese enterprises. At the same time, we continued to improve operating efficiency to more selective investment and disciplined cost control. For the full year, adjusted operating loss from the AI and Others segments reduced by 42% year-over-year to RMB 274 million as we continued scaling the business while maintaining disciplined investments. Turning briefly to the first quarter performance. Total revenue reached RMB 309 million representing a 30% year-over-year increase and a 7% quarter-over-quarter increase, while Internet revenue declined slightly year-over-year, in the fourth quarter it increased quarter-over-quarter as we continue shifting toward a subscription-driven business model. In addition, user subscription revenue within the Internet segment increased 32% year-over-year and 16% quarter-over-quarter as we chose to focus on subscription business model, which supports a healthier product and user experience. Revenue from the AI and Others segment reached RMB 153 million, accounting for nearly half of total revenue in the quarter. With this segment, robotics revenues increased by 94% year-over-year and 43% quarter-over-quarter to about 19% of the fourth quarter's total revenue. Other than that, our revenues from overseas advertising agency service and multi cloud management platform also contributed to this segment's year-over-year growth. On a non-GAAP basis, the company generated operating profit of RMB 15 million in the fourth quarter compared to RMB 42 million operating losses in the same period last year. We believe the improvement we achieved in 2025 reflected structural improvements in both our cost structure and revenue mix. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear: disciplined growth, continued improvement in operating efficiency, balanced and disciplined capital allocation with stronger financial discipline, clearer strategic focus and increasing contribution from our emerging businesses, we believe the company is entering a more stable and predictable operating phase. Thank you. We are now ready to take your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Thomas Chong: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, can we move to the next question? Operator: The next question comes from [ Nancy Lu ] with JPMorgan. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Thank you. Operator: The next question comes from Cheng Ru Li from Guoyuan Securities. Cheng Ru Li: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Thank you. Operator: The next question comes from [ Yongping Diao ] with Guotai Haitong. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Thank you, operator. Please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from [ Jie Zhu ] with GF Securities. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from [ Wei Feng ] with Mizuho Securities. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from Lydia Lin with Morgan Stanley. Chenyueya Lin: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from Vicky Wei with Citi. Yi Jing Wei: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from Zeping Zhao with ICBC. Zeping Zhao: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Yes. Thank you. Operator, please check if we have any further questions. Operator: We have no further questions at this time, which concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks. Jing Zhu: Thank you so much for joining our conference call today. And if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to let us know. Thank you so much. Bye. Sheng Fu: Bye-bye. Operator: The conference has now concluded, and we thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2025 Results and 2026 Outlook Conference Call. I am Mathilde, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Stefan Weber, CEO. Please go ahead. Stefan Weber: Thank you, Mathilde, and good afternoon, everybody in Europe. Good evening, everybody in Asia, and good morning and early 6:30, have a good starting to the day from Dana Point, California. As usual in the past years, we are spread over the world. The only person right now in our Milan offices is the CFO as he should be. He's sitting on the money that we need to spend in the upcoming period. Our Chief Medical Officer, Ravi Anand, is right now preparing for the SIRS, Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference that starts tomorrow. And I am attending the conference of ROTH Capital at Dana Point. So welcome to this call. I hope you have had a chance to download the slide deck that we are going to guide you through, and I will start with Slide #4. So if we look back at the last 15 months and the period that we are reporting about, and I will then do the outlook for '26 and hand over to Ravi for the new science and R&D progress and then to Roberto for the financials and the AGM EGM that is upcoming. If we look back, this has really been a period that couldn't have been much better. We practically hit all the quick points. We made all the milestones. But what I want to tell you already now is that for the upcoming 12 to 15 months, we might see even better outcome. So be prepared for that. If we look back, and that is all about evenamide and schizophrenia for the moment. We have to start with the deal that we signed in December 2024, the validating deal with EA Pharma from the Eisai Group. We did that deal with one of the top 10 Japanese pharma groups with a CNX experienced company, and there were some reasons. We wanted to validate our unique mechanism, the only drug that modulates glutamate in schizophrenia. We wanted to validate being the first add-on therapy in schizophrenia. We wanted to validate our claim that this is the drug that is the only one that qualifies to work in the vast majority of schizophrenia patients who are poor responders or treatment resistant to the current medication. We wanted to get an indication of the intrinsic value of that compound, which by analysts was after that deal was signed, estimated to be more than EUR 1.5 billion. And finally, we wanted to get the cash to perform our Phase III study because at that time, the markets were very challenging on equity. We got all that and since we signed the deal, and that is the starting point of the 2025 success story, we collected EUR 48 million, which was exactly the money we needed to advance our evenamide into the decisive pivotal study program called ENIGMA-TRS. And as you know, that is split in 2 studies. One is ENIGMA-TRS 1, that is a 600 patients, 1-year double-blind placebo-controlled study, which was finally enrolling first patients in August after we had gotten the approval for the overall program in May. This study is right now actively enrolling on all target continents, and Ravi will give you more update on the status. Importantly, in December then, we could start ENIGMA-TRS 2, the second pivotal study. So 2 shots at target even if 1 sufficiently positive study should do to get this drug approved. We started ENIGMA-TRS 2 in the U.S. study centers with UCLA and since then have added Johns Hopkins and the other studies centers are ready to initiate, and we have submitted the documentation in all the other countries in which we want to enroll patients. So this study is up and rolling now. And again, Robbie will give you an update. And then importantly, just by the beginning of this year, 2026, we could inform markets that also our partner, Eisai Group has initiated their Phase III program. So right now, I can say this is the most advanced clinical program in schizophrenia. We are right now running 3 pivotal studies in total with more than 1,300 patients in the world. And as you will hear later on, we expect results from the 12 weeks readout within this very year. Now we did have absolutely thrilling. I'm moving to Slide 5. We did have absolutely thrilling 1-year results from a study in treatment-resistant schizophrenia when evenamide was added to best-selling antipsychotics. And we did have the first highly statistically significant efficacy results from Phase III study called 8A, but there was plenty of questions given the new mechanism and the new positioning. So it was very important that all the clinical results of the past have by now been peer reviewed and published in the papers. We have presented them at numerous conferences. All the space is now being educated about the benefits of this drug in those patients in which today's medications just don't do good. But it was very important last year in August that Pittsburgh University came up with a piece of research, which could explain for the first time why in the pivotal -- why in the Phase II and Phase III studies, we saw that ever increasing efficacy, doubling, tripling responder rates by 1 year, 50% patients no longer qualify as treatment resistant and for the first time ever, treatment-resistant patients being reported to be in remission for 6 months. We didn't know why and how our drug would do that. And I think Pittsburgh has provided substantial explanation how this drug does so by qualifying schizophrenia as a disease that is substantially caused a hippocampus, a section of the brain where today's drugs simply don't hit, and that is why they do not improve negative symptoms, neuro cognition and why they only have limited benefits in symptoms. So that work of Pittsburgh now peer-reviewed and substantial support for the positioning of our compound and the explanation of the benefits we have shown. Again, starting this year, early 2026, we got another validation that is on a new composition of matter patent on crystalline forms of evenamide, which has the potential to extend our exclusivity to 2044. That would be 17 years post the expected approval of our compound, which we expect by end of '27. This patent has been submitted a year before, but ahead of time, the European Patent Office declared their decision to grant this patent in Europe in early January. The same patent is right now in the process of being reviewed, and we expect it to be approved also in all the other key territories, importantly, including the United States, where, again, this would give us exclusivity until 2044 and thus 17 years post the expected approval of this drug. On the corporate ends, moving to Slide 6. All the excitement about our results and the initiation of the U.S. study triggered 3 U.S. analysts to start covering Newron and the fourth one joined from Europe. So we got plenty of new coverage. We saw doubling or tripling liquidity in the stock. We are right now trading between 0.7% and 1% of the stock every day, which is clearly showing us that we get better coverage around the world and more people looking at our stock. This is a process that must be continued and even further improved. Very importantly, we also resolved 2 key issues on funding. Number one is that with existing shareholders and new shareholders from Europe and Asia, we signed a funding agreement in February this year, which will give us access to up to EUR 38 million, of which EUR 15 million are already in the bank, EUR 11 million will come before this year is over with no milestones attached and then the EUR 12 million remaining will come conditional to positive results of our pivotal studies by end of the year. That money being in the bank, we now have the funds to complete our ENIGMA-TRS 1 and 2 studies to the 12-point readout. So we will have all the money to report on the primary endpoint after 12 weeks and the secondary endpoint, and we will be able to advance our drug into NDA submission, and we will have a number of months of reserves beyond that point in time. And the second component of improving our financial situation was that we reached agreement with the European Investment Bank that all future payments under our loan agreement would be delayed at least by 2 years and a quarter to not before June 2028. So we are now in a very good financial situation. We have 3 pivotal studies rolling, and we have all the cash required to get to read out. On the corporate end again, our Board of Directors is already 1 year that Chris Martin has become our new Chairman. And I have to say that it is a marvelous cooperation between management and Chris, very much appreciated. He succeeded Ulrich Kostlin who was our Chairman for the 12 years before. In order to now complete the new setup of our Board of Directors and have completely independent directors on the Board, both Patrick Langlois after 18 years of service on the Board and Luca Benatti, after 12 years of service on the Board. Luca was the last founder of the company, have declared they will not stand for reelection in this year's shareholders' meeting. And I think we can say that we have found 2 outstanding new candidates for the Board, George Garibaldi, who is a highly respected industry [indiscernible] with years of experience and Paolo Zocchi, senior ex-partner in the top 4 audit company who are proposed for election by our shareholders as independent nonexecutive directors in the upcoming shareholders' meeting. So what should we expect for this year, 2026 and early 2027? And I'm moving to Slide #7. I think it is worth to start from the end. If you look at where we want to be in the end and you remind yourself what are our peers. And the peers, the latest companies with one product nature in schizophrenia were Karuna and Intra-Cellular. And Karuna was acquired once they had submitted the NDA for their 1 product company -- for their 1 product to the FDA. They were acquired for $14 billion by Bristol-Myers and Intra-Cellular were acquired after they had launched their own compound in the United States, commercialized it for a few years up to $680 million sales with a market cap of $9 billion. They were then acquired by J&J for $15 billion. We are now the most advanced follow-up to those companies. So what are we missing? Well, to be fair, we are missing positive results from our Phase III program, and we will be getting to those results in the next 12 months. Then what they had, what we do not have, they were listed on NASDAQ. And that is something we cannot ignore because as we have lately seen again, about 2/3 of the global biotech money is traded in the United States. So clearly, if you want to have full access to capital markets and you want to get a fair price, you should also have your shares listed on that largest stock exchange. So what we need to do is we need to work the path towards the results of our pivotal program. We need to prepare our NDA dossier. The initiation of the work must start way ahead of the results. Then something which is important that evenamide does not only work in schizophrenia, but like all the other compounds like Intra-Cellular's drug that has gone big in bipolar. This drug will also work in additional indications, and I'm also thinking of the elderly patients with dementia and psychotic episodes. This should be a perfect drug for those patients. And that is where additional indications should be pursued and Newron should start working on those. Clearly, on the corporate side, we should strengthen our institutional shareholder base, and we are working with a number of supporting agencies to do that. And now this all takes us to the shareholders' meeting of April 2023 of this year because there is things that we can do on our own with the means we have and the tools we have and there's steps where we need the support by our shareholders, and we need to get the tools from our shareholders. And you have probably seen the agenda of the shareholders' meeting. There's the usual household stuff like approval of financials, then there's the important elections of the Board. And then you will see that we have also put on the agenda of the shareholders' meeting a capital increase authorization for 15% of the capital. I do believe this is a moderate request, and it's clearly a compromise between aggressive strategy and the wish of some shareholders not to see any dilution. Clearly, the intention is that those shares would be used to advance evenamide in indications beyond schizophrenia and to support us towards submitting the NDA dossier and getting our drug approved. Clearly, also those shares might be used for a listing of our shares on a U.S. stock exchange like NASDAQ. And these are all procedures that need months and months of preparations. So what we are asking our shareholders for right now is not to approve a capital increase that will be put in place tomorrow, but what we ask them for is to give us the tools and the instruments that we need to start preparations and execute transactions at the right time, which also clearly means at the right share price to the right parties. So if the question is, is an IPO and uplisting of Newron stock to NASDAQ an option today, the answer is probably not because we are missing key ingredients, including share price results and other components. What we ask our shareholders for is support, providing us the tools and allowing us to initiate the process. So your question might well be, so is it worth? What is the opportunity, and that takes us to Slide #9. What we have to offer today is truly the opportunity to transform schizophrenia treatment with evenamide. This is the first compound that offers glutamate modulation in schizophrenia, and we start understanding how much more important it is to go beyond the dopaminergic pathway drugs that have dominated schizophrenia in the last 70 years. This is a huge market opportunity. We talk about 1% of the global population, but the vast majority of patients is not well treated by today's medication. The vast majority of patients is poorly responding or treatment resistant. So what it needs is a completely new mechanism of action, that is what we offer. And what we need is the first ever add-on treatment to be approved in schizophrenia. What we need is the option for doctors not to change the current medication, but to add a drug with no additional side effects of relevance, but with additional incremental benefit. No risk of relapses, reduced risk of hospitalization, suicidality. That is the promise of such a new mechanistic drug, an add-on to the current medications. As evenamide is the first and so far only drug that qualifies as an add-on to any antipsychotic of relevance, including importantly, including clozapine, and Roberto will talk to that. What we offer is highly exciting 1-year Phase II results of evenamide as an add-on to antipsychotics as well as highly statistically significant first Phase III results in a 4-week study in poorly responding patients. What we have seen is excellent tolerability, the most prevalent side effect being nasal pharyngitis in the Phase III study. I have already spoken about the potential of evenamide beyond schizophrenia that must clearly be evaluated. And we have also covered the topic of the strong IP protection. Right now, we have a Composition of Matter in the U.S. of 2035 and Process Patents to 2042 -- this new Composition of Matter 2044, that would be 17 years of a truly innovative treatment in schizophrenia, protection and market exclusivity post approval. That all said, it's my pleasure to hand over to Ravi on Slide 10 for the update on science and clinical. Ravi Anand: Thank you, Stefan, and good morning and good afternoon to everybody else. So I think I'm going to start with Slide 10, and I think this is a schematic presentation of how we currently view schizophrenia. And this has been brought out by the University of Pittsburgh and some of the universities. Contrary to common belief, the schizophrenia symptomatology does not begin in the basal ganglia, but in the hippocampus. The hippocampus controls the rate of abnormal firing from the dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia. When it's not working, there is hyperfiring from the dopamine receptors, and that leads to some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. What has also become very clear is that the hippocampal nuclei control negative symptoms, control cognition. So you need to have a drug working there. All current antipsychotics work at the level of the basal ganglia where you have the dopaminergic receptors. And therefore, they will never be able to reach the hippocampal nuclei, and that is one of the reasons why we don't see any benefits in negative symptoms or cognition with currently available drugs. Evenamide at the level of hippocampus, it has no activity at the basal ganglia at all. And the data that I'll show you will convince you based upon the work done by Pittsburgh University that it works on all these facets. I'm moving now to the next slide, Slide #11. So this is the experiment done. I'm very briefly describing this experiment. You should really take the effort to read the paper, which is fully published and it's on the Newron website. In this experiment, what was done by Pittsburgh University Research is they take rats, they give them a DNA alkylating agent called MAM. MAM changes the brain structure, changes the cytoarchitecture. The progeny, which are born basically show many of the symptoms and signs of patients with schizophrenia. So it's a neurodevelopmental hypothesis model of schizophrenia. You see hyperactive firing from the hippocampal pyramidal neurons, and that is reduced in this -- that this model creates and then basically get reduced by evenamide. What we see is the ventral pigmental area, dopamine neuron population activity is hyper and again, that is normalized by evenamide. Some of the most important findings are that the effects of evenamide outlast its presence in the brain and there's no way to explain it because the drug has a very short half-life, and this is way beyond that. This suggests that we are having the induction of long-term plasticity, which would be a very welcome thing for patients with schizophrenia. And then as I said before, you will see data which suggests that basically evenamide improves cognition and improves negative symptoms in these animal models and likely, we'll be able to do that in patients. If I move to Slide 12. This is a wonderful experiment, a little difficult to understand, so you need to just concentrate on it. If you look at the first bucket, that's looking at the effects of neurons. We're looking at the active dopamine neurons per track and how they're firing. If you look at the first 2 bars, there's no difference because it's only normal animals, so there's no effect of evenamide. The next 2 bars, you see the black bar, which is high up. That's because that's showing you increased abnormal firing in the MAM-treated animals. But the same MAM-treated animals, when they get evenamide, you can see there's a significant reduction. This is within 1 hour and the drug half-life is about 25 minutes. If you look at the second hour, there's no drug remaining. The drug has no active metabolite. There's no sequestration. But you see that the activity is actually increasing. The difference between the black bar and the blue bar is increasing. So even when the drug is not there, it's producing a benefit. And if you look at the third hour where there's no chance even of getting the drug around, the effect of evenamide is going on increasing. It's reducing further and further the abnormal dopaminergic file. Nobody is able to explain this. We can't really fully explain this, except that this is a very welcome finding because what it suggests is that patients will continue to benefit from this drug for long periods of time. Moving on to Slide 13. Now negative symptoms are present in all patients with schizophrenia. Even when patients improve from positive symptoms, negative symptoms don't improve. And one of the main reasons why patient functioning does not improve is because of the presence of negative symptoms. Now in this model what you're seeing out here, we have a rat in the middle. The rat has a choice to go to a toy chamber where there's a toy or to a social chamber where there's a real rat. Rats are very inquisitive animals. They love to interact with each other. So therefore, what will happen? Next slide, if you see now what is in the next slide is happening is, we are looking at the MAM-treated animals. There, there is no difference between the toy chamber rat, the time spent sniffing or the real one. But if you look at the second -- the third and fourth bar, you can see the MAM-treated animals are not able to distinguish between the toy, whereas the evenamide-treated animals recognize, which is a real rat and they're spending a significantly more time on that. And this is not because there's any effect on locomotion, which is shown by the other graphs, but because the animal now which is socialized. Any socialization is a prominent feature in patients with schizophrenia. And this suggests that this drug will improve social interaction. If I now move to the next slide. This is now looking at novel object recognition. This is a test of cognition. We take the rat, we give it an object. It familiarize it cells by sniffing. We then take it away, 1 hour later, we introduced the old object and the new object. The rat which is inquisitive, will memorize that, oh, this is the old object. I'm not interested. I want to go to the new object. Does this really happen? In the non-treated animals who have lost a lot of the neural architecture, there is no difference between the vehicle and the evenamide-treated animals -- in the evenamide treated because there's no deficit. But if you look at the non-treated animals, cognitively, these animals are impaired. The amount of time they spent on the wrong model, which is the Toy, the old object has gone down. Evenamide is able to protect against that, and there's a significant improvement. So you're seeing an improvement in negative symptoms, you're seeing an improvement in cognition. We've already seen an improvement in firing rates. All this leads us to the clinical data, which is shown in the next slide. And then basically, I will walk you through that. So what have we seen until now? This is Slide 18. Evenamide has shown efficacy in virtually every study performed, whether it be a 4-week study, in early patients, a 4-week study in patients who are inadequate responders and a 1-year study in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. In all these studies, it was given as an add-on treatment. The benefits of our ranging, they are seen on positive symptoms, they are seen on negative symptoms. The drug is very well tolerated. The attrition rate is less than 5%. The most common adverse event is nasopharyngitis, which means missing and the same incidence as placebo. What we've seen in the first Phase III study that we did in patients with inadequate response more or less confirm the results that we saw in the open-label study in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. It's one of the very few first times that I've ever seen that I -- all efficacy endpoints came out significant in the Phase III study, which is the 8A study, and this is published also. All the endpoints reach statistical significance. And basically, what we are seeing is the side effect profile is so benign that you cannot tell the difference. Now we are basically looking at this, these results and the animal results because we are doing a 1-year study, where you expect to see efficacy continuing to improve over 1 year. Just to remind everybody, in schizophrenia, we generally have improvements in 3 weeks, 4 weeks, but rarely after that. That's why the FDA advises the sponsors nowadays to limit the study to 4 weeks because after that, there's no real improvement. I move on to Slide 19 to show you the study 8A, which I talked about, the potentially pivotal study, which has now been published everywhere. It's a 4-week study done in 11 countries, 291 patients were patients who are on second-generation antipsychotic, received either 30-milligram bid of evenamide or placebo. All second-generation antipsychotics were allowed in this study, and the patients had to be psychotic. The design is shown on the next slide. What we did in this study is at the very beginning of the study, we took blood samples to make sure that patients were really poor responders and noncompliant patients. We had the blood samples analyzed to make sure the concentration of the antipsychotic was at the right level to be able to ensure that they were getting a therapeutic dose. 30% of the patients had no measurable plasma levels, which tells us that they were noncompliant rather than inadequate responders. This study took us much longer to do because of this of the difficulty of finding patients who are compliant with medication. Ultimately, we got 291 patients. And as you can see, the study went up to 4 weeks, which was the endpoint of the study. The drugs that were allowed in the study, the second-generation antipsychotics are listed at the bottom, and they constitute about 90% of all second-generation antipsychotics in the market. Slide 21 shows you the side effect profile of the drug. If you just look at the bottom part of the table where you see preferred term, the most common adverse event is nasopharyngitis. The incidence is almost the same as placebo. Again, then headache, which seems to be more -- almost the same as in placebo. What is more important is what you do not see [indiscernible]. You do not see any extrapyramidal symptoms. You don't see tremor, you don't see rigidity, you don't see akathisia. You don't see weight gain, you don't see diabetes. You don't see sexual dysfunction, no abnormal changes in the ECG or in the liver function test or kidney function test. No blood pressure changes at all. No severe sedation, no severe excitation. So it's a remarkably silent drug, which is ideal as an add-on treatment. If we now go to the next slide, Slide 22. This gives you the primary results for the study. In line with the expectations from FDA and from ICH requirements that the primary measure should be the PANSS total score. So we designated the PANSS as the primary estimate for the study. The analysis are done in the ITT population. And as you can see from the fourth row, the null hypothesis, meaning there's no difference between drug and placebo is rejected with a p-value of 0.006. And the core secondary measure, which is the CGI of severity, meaning clinical global impression of severity is also significantly reduced with a p-value of 0.037. But that's not all. If you look at the next slide, this is showing you now the slope of the curve over a 4-week period of time. Obviously, this is not long enough. But you can imagine that if this study were to go on longer, the placebo group will keep on flattening, the drug group keeps on improving. And based upon this, we have designed the next studies. This is the next slide is showing you the simulation in which we are imagining what would happen at week 12 and what would happen at week 26 and 24. What you can see is based upon the data from the previous studies, it seems like at week 12, we would have about a 10 to 14 point difference -- a 12- to 14-point difference from baseline, that is likely to be highly significant. Similarly, if you go to 26 weeks, we expect that basically we'll have a difference between 14 and 19 points compared to baseline, and that's likely to be highly significant. Now I'm showing you some very interesting data. These have been published again. We looked at what happens to other antipsychotics when evenamide is added. Firstly, to our surprise, the clozapine patients, clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic. And even those patients when they get evenamide improved by about another 3 points compared to clozapine alone. But more surprising than that is olanzapine. Olanzapine is probably one of the most effective antipsychotic, has never come out second to any antipsychotic in the trial. And those patients, when they receive evenamide, they improve by about 5 points more than they get olanzapine alone. And this difference is statistically significant. Overall, it looks like whenever you get patients receiving evenamide on top of a second-generation antipsychotic, they improve. And this leads us to believe that this could be a drug which could help all patients who are not doing well on their current medication. But what are the other results like in this study? So you can look at this, Slide 26, where basically we're showing you the PANSS responder analysis, clinically significant. In other words, 20% improvement, which is considered clinically significant in treatment-resistant patients with poor responders. You can see the effect is increasing over time and at day 29, which is significant. This rate, if it continues, you can imagine at week 12, we will have a very large difference between patients who are responders on current treatment as well as those who are current treatment and evenamide. But it's not only on the PANSS, we now look at the CGI of change. This is an analysis, which looks into account -- takes into account only those patients who show much improvement, not minimal improvement, only much improvement. And once again, by day 29, you can see almost a doubling of the number of patients who are responders on evenamide. Again, a very nice outcome. And if we continue this projection forward to week 12 and 26, we will have a very significant outcome. Now I'm now going to just very briefly mention the pivotal ENIGMA trials which are currently ongoing. And I'm now on Slide 29. This is the TRS 1, the treatment of schizophrenia 1 study. This is a 52-week study. The first study ever done in treatment-resistant patients, which is placebo-controlled and 52 weeks. All patients have to be on treatment -- have to be diagnosed as treatment resistant. They are -- we confirm this by taking blood samples at the beginning, 3 times in 42 days to make sure that they are really taking their medication and even then they are not responding. Then the data are going to an independent eligibility committee, which really decides that these patients are actually treatment resistant. Then only the patients get randomized to 15 or 30 milligram of evenamide or placebo add-on. And the study is very tightly monitored, and we will look at the primary results at 12 weeks and the next results at 26 weeks and the last results at 52 weeks. And these results are the basis for which we will get the registration. The 12-week endpoint is really necessary for showing the drug in an antipsychotic and will be the basis with which we file for regulatory approval, the first regulatory approval, both in CHMP in Europe as well as in the U.S. The second TRS study is a shorter study. It's a 12-week study that is currently ongoing also, but that study has only got 400 patients into the 600 patients. And that study has just started. It's got approval in virtually all of the countries that we wanted to. And then basically, we expect that this study will also complete fairly quickly. We expect the TRS-1 study to complete enrollment by the end of August, which will provide us results by the end of the year and lead to hopefully to an NDA filing around the first to second quarter of next year. The TRS study will come in close behind that, so we will be able to include the results in that package. With that, I turn it over -- we have done a lot of congresses this year, sorry. And you can see that on the Slide 32, we have a listing of all the congresses that we are presenting at. It's been a very busy season for us. Everybody is recognizing the value of evenamide and making up to a new mechanism of action. And all this paper, we have published a lot of papers, which you can also get from there. With that, I turn it over to Roberto. And thank you for your attention. Roberto Galli: Thank you, Ravi, and good morning and good afternoon to everybody else. So I'm on Slide 34. As you know, Newron is listed at SIX since December 2006. And since June 2019, we are also traded at Dusseldorf Stock Exchange, et cetera. By the end of the year 2025, we had 20 million -- around 20 million shares outstanding. Currently, they are EUR 20.8 million because of the capital increase Stefan was mentioning to you before. And always at the end of December 2025, we have outstanding call option and derivative or warrants, if you prefer, of up to 1.6 million, of which 50% more or less were related to call options and the remaining 50% were the warrants that we granted to EIB. Let me welcome 3 new U.S. banks among our analysts, and I'm talking about Wainwright, ROTH Capital and Lucid, and they are on top of the already existing ones, so Baader, RX Securities, ValueLab, Edison and Octavian. I'm now moving to Slide 35. Let's just talk about a few numbers. License income decreased. But of course, in 2024, we booked the downpayment of the Eisai deal. So no surprise here. And the value you can see are mainly related to the Myung In deal down payment and certain milestones that we got from the TRS 1 study progression. The other income, even if it's not a big amount, I want to talk about those because I'm referring the R&D tax credit benefit that we were able to book after 4 years of no additional benefit. And I'm talking about a couple of million, so EUR 1.9 million. What I want to tell you on top of this R&D tax credit is that accumulated, so since 2025, we got EUR 25 million of benefit. And so far, we have used EUR 22 million. The financial results net decreased by about EUR 3 million. And the main reason is a technicality and IFRS technicality because according to IFRS, we are supposed to evaluate the warrant fair value and this value because of the increase in the share into increased by EUR 2.5 million. Please note that there is no cash impact related to this effect. On the very last, I want to talk about the income taxes. Last year, for the very first time, we paid income taxes, while this year, the amount you see are only the withholding tax paid on the milestone and now payment received from the deals I was mentioning to you before. In Slide 36, so I'm showing you the balance sheet on the left and the cash flow on the right. So let me start from the balance sheet. What you see in the current asset in 2024 that is EUR 51 million is mainly the receivable related to the 8A Pharma deal that became cash. And this is why you see the increase in cash in 2025. While in the liabilities, the EIB loan last year was booked mainly in the noncurrent liabilities. And this year, you see everything in the current liabilities. But as Stefan was mentioning to you before, 1 week ago, we obtained from EIB the chance to delay the debt till end of -- sorry, till June 2028. On the right, you can see mainly the bar on the working capital and the green -- it's green because it's generating cash and it's exactly the effect that I was mentioning to you before. So the cash in -- the cash we received in January and of the revenue that we booked in December 2024, partially compensated by decrease in brand and other payables. If we move to the last slide. So on April 23, 2026, at 10 a.m. CET, we will have our general meeting. In the agenda, in the ordinary part of the agenda, the first point, as usual, is the approval of the financial statement. The second point is the approval of the new member of the Board of Directors. Stefan has already thanked both Patrick and Luca for being with us for so many years. And let me reiterate this concept because we really well appreciate their work and then I'm also willing to introduce to you, George Garibaldi and Paolo Zocchi as new nonexecutive directors. On the extraordinary part, we will amend -- slightly amend, let me say, the bylaw in a few articles, and this is due because after 20 years and COVID, a few laws have changed and so we are willing to align the text of our bylaw to the new and amended shareholder laws. The second and the third point are a capital increase. On the second point, we are asking shareholders to grant 5% for option plans of capital increase. And in the third point of the agenda, we are asking for 15% of capital increase also potentially for an uplisting at NASDAQ and the point 4 is strictly related to point 4, 3 because the creation of ADR serves for the NASDAQ listing. Everything has been already uploaded or will be uploaded in our website. So if you want to look for additional information, please do not hesitate to visit the website. And with that, I think I'm done. Stefan Weber: So I guess it is time for the Q&A session. I hand over to Mathilde from Chorus Call to introduce us to the questions by the parties who have registered for such. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju from H.C. Wainwright. Raghuram Selvaraju: Congratulations again on a landmark year in 2025. You really are to be congratulated on how many fronts Newron advanced on. Firstly, I wanted to ask about your feelings regarding additional indications for evenamide beyond schizophrenia. In particular, we have seen evidence that other antipsychotic drugs, while perfectly serviceable in schizophrenia, actually turn out to be even better in other indications that are ancillary to schizophrenia that may constitute even larger markets. So I was wondering if you could perhaps comment on this. If there are other indications in which you believe evenamide is particularly well suited to have a therapeutic effect, what might these be, whether that would be bipolar disorder, patients with mixed depression and schizophrenia symptoms or others? Ravi Anand: Thanks, Raju. You basically took my hands away from me. I would expect this drug to be highly effective in patients with bipolar disorder. Secondly, I think I would definitely like to go for treatment-resistant depression with psychotic features. And lastly, patients who have behavioral symptoms of dementia but cannot take second-generation antipsychotics. There, I think this drug, because it doesn't affect any neurotransmitter system will be very well tolerated and not have the increase in mortality that we see with all the other drugs. Raghuram Selvaraju: That's very helpful. And I think we're all familiar with the intracellular therapies example that demonstrated just how large a market opportunity there could be for an antipsychotic with applicability beyond schizophrenia. Secondly, I wanted to ask about the information you presented regarding the ability of evenamide to augment the efficacy profiles of multiple second-generation antipsychotics. And if you could perhaps drill down on that a little bit further for us and give us a sense of whether there is a particular subclass of those second-generation antipsychotics that you consider evenamide to be particularly well suited to be combined with? And if so, what might be the kind of your top 1 or 2 choices? Obviously, you furnished a lot of information, in particular on clozapine, but I was wondering if you had additional granularity to provide. Ravi Anand: Sure. I think clozapine because it's the most obvious candidate because when you talk about treating schizophrenia and clozapine, all the drugs, even though it's not used that much. Second, I think what has really been surprising for me and not just in 1 study, but in almost 2 to 3 studies has been the effect in combining it with olanzapine. And as you know, olanzapine and clozapine share certain features. So then the question comes up, really, is it basically because of the fact that both of these drugs are affecting D2 and D1. And -- but then what we see also is that is also affecting risperidone. It's also improving patients with aripiprazole. So I think this improvement facet is probably unrelated to the neurochemistry. It's a generalized effect on brain where it is acting in a way it's more like an antidepressant and produces some degree of configuration change in the brain receptors, which makes them amenable to treatment with the other drugs. I think we are monitoring this very carefully now in the Phase III study, and we're trying to collect plasma levels to exclude pharmacokinetic interaction as a reason for this. Raghuram Selvaraju: With respect to the effect you showed of evenamide kind of having a long-term persistent impact even when the drug is no longer necessarily biologically circulating in the system. I was wondering if you could comment on, first of all, the long-term strategic plans at Newron to potentially explore the possibility of developing a long-acting injectable of evenamide. And if that is the case, how this information indicating long-term persistent effect of evenamide might dovetail with those efforts? Ravi Anand: No, absolutely. I think as you probably know, some of the companies in Europe, which have been led the charge to develop formulation changes, especially in France and for TEVA, for instance, we are going to be in early discussion with them soon. I think to me, it's really a mystery almost that a drug which has only got a half-life of 25 minutes is affecting changes beyond 3 hours. But also in patients, we have a short half-life of 2.5 hours, but the effect seems to persist for more than 12 to 14 hours. So I think a long term, a depot formulation would have to be a very different type, but it would be a fantastic thing because a drug which is very well tolerated, doesn't produce EPS, doesn't produce sexual dysfunction could be ideal for giving long term, not only to the confirmed schizophrenia patients, but to those patients who are early on in their career, like the first episode patients or the at-risk patient population, that would be the way to go for those new formulations. And we would definitely explore that once we are done with the NDA. Raghuram Selvaraju: And I think it's well documented that the long-acting injectable segment of the schizophrenia market is by far the fastest growing and at this point, probably the most lucrative. One last question from me. When do you expect U.S. office action on the COM patent that was already granted in Europe that would extend protection to 2044? Ravi Anand: Stefan? Stefan Weber: Yes. Ram, thank you for joining. Thanks for the questions. So we are right now in discussions with one of the leading U.S. IP consulting firms, and we are in discussion with the leading expert on crystalline form and solid formulations in the United States. We are discussing the strategy. As you know, there is 2 ways of getting a fast-track treatment of the Composition of Matter application in the United States. We are right now evaluating both. And I guess we will take a decision within the next few months. Depending on that decision, we might well see this patent being treated and decided upon before this year is over. And that means we might get that same patent application approved in the United States as per our expectation in this year still, which would be remarkable. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Joris Zimmermann from Octavian. Joris Zimmermann: Joris Zimmermann from Octavian here. Two from my side. The first one on your cash reach guidance throughout 2027. You mentioned that this includes EUR 50 million already received from the new financing plus another EUR 10 million that you expect later in the year. Question is on the remaining, I think, EUR 12 million from that new financing that is not reflected in this guidance. So that would provide you a further extension of the cash reach. And also in terms of the amended European Investment Bank repayment schedule, I would assume that this is already included in the guidance. Roberto Galli: Okay. So let me start from EIB. Yes, EIB is absolutely included in the guidance, of course. As per the additional EUR 12 million, I am a very cautious CFO. So given that we are talking about something that is related to the data, I have kept this upside from these projections. So if data will be positive, most likely, we will see an additional injection of EUR 12 million. And this will, of course, increase the availability of cash in Newron most likely till the end of 2027. So this will give Newron additional, let's say, 6 to 9 months of time to strike the most appealing deal because of the positive data, yes. Joris Zimmermann: One more question on the potential new indications and also a bit on the funding in that regard. You outlined the potential indications where you expect most benefit of evenamide. So in terms of your plans, how would that likely impact funding in the near to midterm? Is that already something in the plans? Or is that still to be decided upon? Ravi Anand: I think it largely is still to be decided upon, but some initial activities are already included in the plans. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Arron Aatkar from Edison Group. Arron Aatkar: Just two for me here. First of all, I just wanted to confirm that the ENIGMA-TRS 2 top line readout will also be in Q4 '26. I think I've seen some approaches where it's specified and others where it's not mentioned. And for this as well, would this come simultaneously with ENIGMA-TRS 1 if so, or will they be separate announcements? Ravi Anand: Okay. Let me answer this. I think ENIGMA-TRS 1 is very, very, very, likely to be within this year. ENIGMA-TRS 2 is a borderline case, whether it's towards December or early January, things of this time. But both of them would be available to be included in the filing for regulatory approval. The announcements would definitely be separate. Arron Aatkar: Okay. Perfect. And my second question, I think you kind of covered it, but I was just looking at the licensing income of EUR 8.6 million. It sounds like that includes upfront payment from Myung In Pharma and also some milestone payments from both partners. Just wanted to clarify if you could provide like a breakdown on how much of the licensing income was upfront versus milestone payments from the 2 partners. Roberto Galli: Yes. So the EUR 8.6 million are more or less 50-50, let's say, 30% related to Myung In and the remaining part related to additional milestone coming from EA Pharma. Sorry, I cannot be much more precise because I cannot disclose the final figures. But these are more or less the percentages. Arron Aatkar: Okay. That's very helpful. My other questions have sort of been covered off already. So no more from me. I just wanted to say congratulations again on the recent progress. Look forward to following the story. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Joseph Hedden from Rx Securities. Joseph Hedden: Just wondered if you could say a little more on recruitment into the ENIGMA studies. Any information on how many patients today or progress in terms of are you on track with where you expect to be? Ravi Anand: Yes. That's always a challenge. As you know, the regulatory process has become very prolonged nowadays especially the one in Europe, which takes forever and then the contracting progress though. So at present moment, I would say that 75% of the sites that we wanted to have initiated have already initiated. And we are basically just about coming up to where we should be. We have over 300 -- approximately 300 patients who have been enrolled in the program in the TRS 1. The TRS 2, as I said, has just got approval. So it's a little bit behind. But I think keeping the progress of TRS 1 in mind, I think we're very, very confident that we should be able to complete the enrollment on time for TRS 1 and then subsequently, the effort for TRS 2. The TRS 2 is a shorter study. It's only a 12-week study, and it's a smaller number of patients, only 400 patients compared to the 600 plus for TRS 1. So we should be okay with the enrollment time lines. Joseph Hedden: Okay. And then on the BD side, just wondering what you think the likelihood of any other regional deals ex U.S. for the ENIGMA results later this year, what's the likelihood do you think? Stefan Weber: Thank you, Joseph, for the question. This will clearly depend if any interested parties will be willing to pay fairly and dearly for the new patent life that we have just added. And we understand that some parties might want to see the patent being granted first. But at the same time, clearly, with the European patent office decision to grant our patent, our expectations have increased. And as we have no cash urgency or lack at this point in time, we would be confident to go full steam ahead towards the results from both pivotal studies and then decide on how to deal with all those territories at the maximum value for our shareholders. So that's the good news after getting all the funding done. We do not depend on income from licensing. But if there are fair offers, we will absolutely consider them. And yes, there could be other deals, but conditional to fair value, including the new patent life. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Stefan Weber for any closing remarks. Stefan Weber: Thank you, Mathilde. Thank you all for joining this call. I hope we have been able to explain to you why we believe this was an extraordinary 15 months in the past. But let me be clear, you please should stay tuned for the next 15 months because this could be much more exciting even than what we have seen in the last 15 months. This is really the opportunity to turn this company into a completely different size of company with a drug that might be approved and with a drug that we might decide ourselves to commercialize to get to the peak value for our shareholders and to secure the sustainable future of this company. So please stay tuned. We are happy to keep you updated. Looking forward to the next opportunity. Have a great day. Goodbye. Ravi Anand: Thank you. Roberto Galli: Goodbye. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.
Operator: Good morning, and welcome to Cadeler's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Presentation. Presenting today are Mikkel Gleerup, Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Brogaard, Chief Financial Officer. Please be reminded that presenters' remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated. The risks and uncertainties that could cause Cadeler's results to differ materially from today's forward-looking statements include those detailed in Cadeler's annual report on Form 20-F on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements made this morning are based on assumptions as of today, and Cadeler undertakes no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. This morning's presentation includes both IFRS and certain non-IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of non-IFRS financial measures to the nearest IFRS equivalent is provided in Cadeler's annual report. The annual report and today's earnings presentation are available on Cadeler's website at cadeler.com/investor. We ask that you please hold all questions until the completion of the formal remarks, at which time in you will be given instructions to the question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Mikkel Gleerup, you may begin. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you very much, and thank you to everyone dialing in to listen to our presentation this morning/afternoon. Yes, I will ask everybody to read through the disclaimer in the presentation. So annual report 2025 and first, taking you through the highlights of 2025. Financial performance in Cadeler in 2025 were above our expectations. We ended at the top end of the range that we guided last year, ending the year with a robust contract backlog of EUR 2.8 billion, which really gives us that earnings visibility into the future that we have been discussing with our investors over the course of the last couple of years. We had 4 newbuilds scheduled for delivery in 2025, and they were all delivered on time and on budget. We added Wind Keeper to the fleet to support Nexra and our partners and really this new O&M service platform. We continued exceptional execution with significant progress made towards the delivering on the Hornsea 3 project. Wind Keeper upgrade successfully completed and multiple campaigns supported with vessel swaps. We have had strong utilization with vessels operating across the world in markets as Europe, U.S. and in APAC. Commercial highlights for the financial year '25. Scylla continued to work in the U.S. on Revolution Wind for Ørsted and have since shifted over to Sunrise Wind. The Wind Orca has been mobilizing for the Hornsea 3 project for Ørsted, where she will be executing the secondary steel scope. On Wind Osprey, we have been mobilizing for the EA3 turbine installation, which is a project we do for ScottishPower Renewables. On Wind Mover, we will shortly be commencing the turbine installation on the Baltic Power project, where she is taking over from another vessel that we previously had working on that project. The Wind Maker stays in Asia. And as we have announced over the course of the last couple of weeks, we'll be executing O&M campaigns for clients in Taiwan this year. Wind Pace came back from the U.S. after having supported the Vineyard Wind project and is also now mobilizing for the EA3 turbine installation project for ScottishPower Renewables. Wind Peak will continue to install turbines on the Sofia project for Siemens Gamesa. The Wind Keeper has been delivered to the client on an up to 5.5-year contract and is currently installing on the He Dreiht project for Vestas. Wind Ally is completing the last phase of the mobilization in Europe in Rotterdam and is preparing to go to the U.K. to start putting in monopiles for Ørsted on the Hornsea 3 project. And the Wind Zaratan project, for her 2026 is a transition year. We have decided to do some upgrades to Wind Zaratan, do some O&M work in Asia and then take the vessel back to Europe to start working both on O&M, but also on support jobs for foundation projects. At a glance, we now stand at 362 office-based employees, more than 800 seafarers. We have now installed more than 1,700 wind turbines, more than 900 foundations, a number that will go up significantly during this year due to the Hornsea 3 project and also have been working on more than 275 locations for operations and maintenance. So all in all, very busy and continuing to grow the business in the industry that is also growing with us. We have been discussing a lot with our investors and other stakeholders in the company, the transition to full scope T&I campaigns for the foundation work. And we have prepared a few slides to go through where we are now on the Hornsea 3 project and where we are as a company on the transition to taking on these full scope T&I campaigns. The company came from a charter-based day rate model where we could add services as requested by the client to now having a more integrated project delivery and construction platform, as we say, it's a solution-based offering to the clients. We have -- we used to have a very compact organization and moderate complexity in the organization, but also in the offerings we were offering to the clients. And now we are going into a much more complexity -- complex environment and really also where the organization has to deliver many different scopes from transport on heavy lift vessels to handling equipment in port, offloading, unloading very, very large pieces of equipment, storing them safely, Q&A on these products while we have them in our custody for the clients. We came from a utilization-driven model with a higher relative percentage margin to an execution driven with a higher absolute return and upside model on the T&I scopes. The vessels in the previous model was the primary revenue stream and where we today see vessels as strategic enablers to capture more scope as we take on these bigger projects for our clients. On Hornsea 3, trying to give you an overview of the time line for the first full T&I scope that we have embarked on. The project was signed in early '23, a very busy year for us signing both that project, but also working on the merger with Eneti, preparing for taking delivery of the vessel, a lot of supplier scopes starting to transport monopiles and secondary steel, starting to install monopiles and secondary steel and then also embarking on installing 50% of the turbines on the project and then commissioning and closing the project somewhere in '27. It is a very, very complicated project and something that we go into with a great deal of humility. But I think that I'm pleased to say that we are exactly where we want to be. And the Wind Ally delivered early, we were able to mobilize her in China directly from the newbuild yard and have taken her successfully back to Europe, finalizing mobilization now in Rotterdam before, as I said, starting to put in monopiles in April this year. Hornsea 3 really requires a lot of coordination. And we are also now experiencing being in the middle of the project, the complexity of the project and also the benefit of having built up the team and having worked close with our clients in terms of what was required to execute this because a project like this never goes to plan, I think it's fair to say. And we have also been met with requirements from our clients to change different things as we have worked since '23 and until today. But I'm pleased to say that we have taken on these challenges with our can-do attitude in the company, and we are exactly where we want to be in terms of being ready to install the project from April of this year. And a total capacity of 2.8 gigawatt when it's installed, 197 monopiles, 60 office-based staff working on it, 120 port and construction staff working out there for us in somewhere where there's a yellow dot on this map. We have 10 vessels in total, 3 from Cadeler working on the project. We are transporting more than 400,000 tonnes of material on the project. We have 10 ports involved and 12-plus partners involved in this. So in all fairness, a very complicated project, but also one where we are learning a lot. We've taken some pictures from the project to also demonstrate the scale of this project because I think it's hard to understand the size of these monopiles. All of them are the same size as the Los Angeles class submarine, and we are installing 197 of those in the U.K. from April this year and until 2027 and into 2027. We have also been working with our client to do a mockup trial of the secondary steel. These foundations are TPless, meaning that they don't have a transition piece on top. And that means that all the secondary steel is being installed by a tool that is being carried on board the Wind Orca that carries storage towers for secondary steel and then she's lifting the secondary steel on board on to the foundation in one lift with this tool. And together with our client, we build a mockup for this, a full-scale mockup in the port where we were able to test this tool and the functionality of this tool before going offshore. And it's been a pleasure to work with our client on these mockups and really refining the whole rehearsal of concept before we go into the actual execution offshore. And we have added some pictures on that as well. As we have been discussing, the changes in the project time line has led to increased, but delayed revenue for the foundation T&I. So Cadeler will earn more money on the Hornsea 3 project compared to what was originally envisaged when we signed the project. Not due to things that have happened on the Cadeler side, so to speak, but because our clients have had to change what they originally anticipated in terms of, for example, monopile delivery, whereas the monopiles coming from. Originally, we expected two fabrication yards, today we are working with four fabrication yards. That all means that we are receiving the monopiles in a different pace, but it also means that the project is stretching over a longer time and that we will be involved with some of the suppliers that we have on the project for a longer time. So what it means is that it's an increased revenue and an increased margin to Cadeler, but the project will stretch over a longer period of time. In terms of our commercial pipeline across the globe, I think I have to say that we are still continuing to grow, and we are still involved in a lot of projects and a lot of bidding on projects globally. Obviously, the European market is really the front runner in terms of new projects that we are working on. And as you can see from this slide, we are working on more than 50-plus open commercial opportunities in the market, and we are discussing projects with our clients, both for '27, '28, '29, 2030, but also well into the next decade, which gives us a very great deal of confidence in the market as such, but also a positive outlook for where we are going as an industry. And I'll come back to that a little bit later in the presentation. Asia continues to perform as well. We see new markets opening in Asia as we progress the ongoing market, which is Taiwan, Korea and Japan. We see also development now in the Philippines, but also development in Australia. And all in all, we are active where our clients want us to be active, and we are continuing to bid for projects in the region -- in a region that I would say is developing as expected. The U.S. market, it is what it is, and we have discussed it many times before. We don't see any short-term opportunities in the U.S. market, but we are still executing in the U.S. market. We sent the Wind Pace back to Europe from completion on Vineyard Wind, and we are now installing with the Scylla on the Sunrise Wind project. All in all, we expect to be busy in the U.S. for the years to come. And also, we are happy to engage with our clients for new projects in the U.S. region when that time is coming. We still sit on a significant backlog. Our backlog year-on-year has grown. We are standing at EUR 2.8 billion in backlog, which, as I said, really provides the earnings visibility that we would expect and also what we have communicated to our clients. We have things also that we are working on here that we have discussed in the market where we are preferred supplier on a foundation project that is not counted in our backlog, and it's also not sitting in our vessel reservation agreements because it has not reached that stage yet. But we still have work that will hit the backlog, and we are sure that in the coming quarters that we will have positive announcements around backlog development. As I said, the backlog stands at EUR 2.8 billion at the moment and 80% of the total backlog has reached FID. And we have discussed that before. And I think that that's really a sign of the quality of the backlog where we know that 80% has already been approved for the final investment decision at the client side, meaning that, that project has also reached a contractual milestone that is important for us. And as I said, we do have a preferred supplier agreement, a sizable preferred supplier agreement. And one of the things that we discussed around our Q3 announcement was that we had some projects in the site that we would like to secure. And one of them is what we have now a preferred supplier agreement on. It's for a significant foundation project in Europe and one of the projects that was important for us for our 2028 campaign. And I'm pleased to say that we have been moving ahead as we expected on that one with our client and that we are also now in the negotiation with the client to make this preferred supply agreement into a real contract. And on '27, '28 that we discussed at length in the Q3 presentation, I'm happy to say that in '27, we consider ourselves fully booked now. We are currently working with the yard to potentially deliver the Wind Apex slightly earlier because we have a client that is ready to take the vessel straight from the yard and into a project, meaning that we are -- with a few white spaces we have left in '27, we do consider that time that we want to keep available for clients should they run into some sort of supply chain issue and really have built a solid '27 for ourselves. In '28, we are also much more positive now than we were in Q3 due to the fact that we have secured the preferred supplier agreement on this large-scale foundation project and overall are seeing positive momentum for the '28 campaign overall. In terms of the progress on the newbuilds, Wind Ace, we are at 94% completion. The naming ceremony for the Wind Ace, the official naming ceremony will be on the 15th of April, and we are looking to deliver the vessel on time. On the Wind Apex, as I said, we are 34% completion, and we are currently discussing with the yard to do up to 1 month early delivery due to the fact that we have a client who would like to take that vessel straight from the yard and into a project for a sizable project on turbine installation. In terms of the progress from the yard, a few pictures as we always have. I think that I can say that on the Cosco shipyard side, things are progressing as planned. Not many surprises there and really pleasing to see that the collaboration we have with Cosco Shipyard continues to develop, and we are very, very pleased to work with Cosco Shipyard, the quality partner for us and for the development of the company. The fully delivered Cadeler fleet as it stands today with an average fleet age of 5 years, which I believe is a very good number to have, and really also shows that we have been building a young fleet that is ready to take on the positive developments of the future. Now, I will hand over to Peter for the financial highlights of 2025. Peter Hansen: Yes. Mikkel Gleerup: Peter Brogaard... Peter Hansen: Thank you very much. Yes, the financial highlights for '25. It was really a strong year seen from a financial and operational point of view. As Mikkel said, we ended in the high end of the range that we have guided revenue of EUR 620 million as compared to EUR 249 million. Equity ratio is now at 44%. It's a decrease as compared to last year. But it's also where we see it bottom out, the equity ratio and starts to increase again. Utilization also very high, 88.9% adjusted utilization as compared to 75% last year. And that is -- the adjustment is where we say, okay, we take out what is planned dry docking and transportation from the yard. We think that is a meaningful number to look at when we get all these new vessels delivered. Market cap of EUR 1.8 billion. EBITDA, EUR 425 million as compared to EUR 126 million last year. Net profit, important number for the shareholders, of course, EUR 280 million as compared to EUR 65 million last year. And as elaborated on a backlog of EUR 2.8 billion. Three months daily average turnover EUR 7.1 million on the stock exchanges. If we first look at the last 3 months of the year, Q4 '25, very, very strong quarter, EUR 167 million in revenue, an increase of EUR 82 million compared to Q4 '25, '24 and with the adjusted utilization of 87% cost of sales is, of course, going up with the delivered vessels. And SG&A also is up because of the ramp-up that we have talked about at previous releases where we build up the organization to be able to manage these foundation projects with increased complexity. Finance net isolated for Q4 is EUR 20 million, and that is a shift you see here in Q4 finances because we have capitalized borrowing cost to a greater extent while we had more vessels under construction. Now that the vessel has been delivered then a bigger part of the finance interest is going to the P&L, and that is something you will see in '26 as well. Of course, it's the same cash outflow, but it's just whether it's in P&L or it is in CapEx. EBITDA, I think very, very strong, EUR 104 million in a quarter where Ally and also Mover were not in operation as such, but in transport to first project. That was Q4 isolated. For the full year, some of the same remarks that we had in Q4, but also what we have seen during the year, it's fair to say everything has played out exact to plan. Revenue in the higher end of the guidance. Cost of sales, everything is as according to plan. SG&A the same. So we are very, very pleased with the financial result for '25, but also the underlying operation where we have control of the important things. EBITDA, EUR 425 million. Vessel OpEx per day is EUR 36.3 million, a small increase towards last year and I think also under control. Headcount onshore average 307. The consolidated balance sheet, now we have an equity of EUR 1.5 billion. an increase of nearly EUR 300 million as compared to last year. And we see the equity ratio of 44%. I think that is something we have all along said that approximately there where we will bottom out. And of course, it's a natural consequence of taking delivery of the vessels where your assets go up and your liabilities also go up correspondingly. We still have a CapEx program now on the Wind Ace and the Wind Apex, these installment with the yard that we show here. We have signed commitment for A Class Wind Ace and we are also having ongoing RCF facility of 148 million. So together with what we expect to raise of financing on the Wind Apex, we are EUR 637 million of total financing. We are in advanced discussion with Apex and are confident that we'll be able to sign that during '26. As you may recall, it's delivered in late Q2 '27. So we have really had the goal of signing a facility -- sign commitment 1 year ahead. So we are not paying unnecessary fees in commitment fees and so forth. Interest from banks are strong. So is it from the ECA. So it will be on similar term as you have seen on previous transactions. Cash, EUR 152 million. And you can see with the A Class payments we have outstanding, that's still a significant cash surplus. This is the financing overview. You can see here that we have the RCF A and B, we have not drawn up fully yet. And since Q3, September, we have signed a Holdco financing, a second one with HSBC and Clifford Capital unsecured loan, EUR 60 million with an accordion of EUR 0 million, and it was made on very similar terms as the original Holdco with HSBC and Standard Chartered. With Apex, I have talked to that, but that is progressing according to plan. We are very confident on that financing. Then there is the outlook for '26. I think what we guide is in revenue, EUR 854 million to EUR 944 million, and EBITDA, EUR 420 million to EUR 510 million. We have put up the comparison here, of course, '25 includes revenue that you are supposed to get in '28, but was postponed and we got termination fees for that. So of course, that should be adjusted for in the comparison, but a very strong outlook for '26. What is important to understand about the outlook in '26 is exactly what Mikkel has talked about earlier in the presentation. First of all, it's a transition year for Wind Zaratan, so isolated on '26, you could argue it is financially a transition year, but it will improve the returns in '27 and onwards. So it's actually a good year for Zaratan as it is an investment year. Wind Ally and Wind Ace will be delivered in Q3 '26, but will not go on any contract and have any contractual revenue in '26 simply because we will sell direct to first projects EA2 North. We have seen in the past that on some of the wind turbine installation vessels that we can do some work before first project, but it's simply not possible on a foundation project. And it's -- again, it's a good sign because the customer wants us to be at the site as early as possible. So we are simply doing everything that we can to arrive as early as possible we can in '27. And then this Hornsea 3, when -- Hornsea you can't look at Hornsea 3 isolated in one year. First of all, it's a project where you have revenue across several years we already had in '24, '25. But as illustrated by the slide, maybe the precent, we now see that the revenue on the project goes up due to changes on the project, not due to Cadeler-speific things, but due to something designed by the developer. But that means for Cadeler, two things. The total project goes up, earnings goes up, but the timing is different. So some is pushed into '27. So when you look at '26 and the outlook, you should also remember that. [indiscernible] evaluating that year. And back to you, Mikkel. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you, Peter. As this is something that still remains very important between '24 and '25. We are -- we have been working on biofuel -- fuel blending in our fuels, and that has been successfully introduced across the fleet in 2025, together with our clients and our sustainability team. We have developed a new circularity strategy. We have more than 30% women in leadership, and that was achieved in 2025. We have set a new target of 40% women in leadership by 2030, and also on governance, the CSR leadership group established to execute key ESG priorities. In terms of our path to zero, we have set a target of a net zero target in 2035 and a 2030 target of 50% intensity reduction. Obviously, we are going up in intensity in the beginning, and that's largely due to the fact that we are delivering lots of vessels that are still burning fuel. But we have a path towards achieving our targets here, and we have maintained our targets. And it is as -- what is described on this slide, it's adoption of green fuels, it's enabling electrification, optimizing energy consumption, which we believe is one of the big things because really education and training of teams on board and clients is one of the real big savers here. And that is how we will achieve the first part of this journey. Second part of the journey is continuing to enable electrification and again, optimizing the energy consumption. And also as we start to see it, getting the green fuels on board, which will form a larger part in the second part of this journey. At the moment, the reality is that the green fuels are not available to us. So although we have a portion of our fleet on the newbuilds that can burn these green fuel types, we are not able to buy them at the quantity that we need them, and it would more be an R&D project at the moment. So we believe that the second part of the journey will have a greater availability of this fuel type, and that is something that we at least will support that with the demand for these green fuel types when it is available to us. In terms of commercial outlook, which, of course, is important because I think in all honesty, we are coming from a 2025 where we were facing a very negative narrative in general in the industry due to a lot of factors. We are seeing milder winds blowing over the offshore wind space and also continued growth of the industry and the deployment of offshore wind globally. And as we say here, after '28, '29, we expect a very strong growth towards the end of the decade. Europe has been raising the bar and as declared by the North Sea Summit, the 9 member states of the North Sea Summit have declared a target of 15 gigawatts per year outbuild between 2030 and 2040, and we are very, very pleased with a target like that, because that is, in our opinion, how you build a supply chain that you actually set a target what should the supply chain be able to push out per year in this region. And this is not the entire European target. This is for the member states of the Green Sea -- the North Sea Summit, sorry. So in all Europe will be a higher number than this. Outside the fact that there's an annual outbuild target, there's also a financial plan to how to achieve this. And that is also what has been lacking in the more arbitrary targets that were more setting a target for 2040, 2050 in the past. So all in all, we really are pleased with seeing these targets, and we believe that, that's a very strong data point for the future and also for the demand situation for the future. Another very real data point is the U.K. auction round 7, where the U.K. government awarded record volumes. Really, it was 70% above what was expected and the budget went up to 200% of what was the original budget. So also a very strong data point. But another strong data point is that the U.K. auction round 8 has already been shifted forward, so we can expect that already to happen in July 2026. And these are projects that are happening towards the end of this decade and the beginning of the next decade. So already today, we are in dialogue with clients for work that is taking place in '29, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033 and so on. So that is a very, very positive data point for us. And then we also do see a lot of private capital coming back into offshore wind, Apollo committing USD 6.5 billion to acquire 50% of Hornsea 3 and KKR forming a joint venture with RWE for offshore wind projects, and there are many, many other examples of this. Altogether, strong growth in the space and in the industry. And as we have said, a much better feeling about the '28 situation for Cadeler, although we still recognize that for the industry, '28 for some can be a difficult year, then we say today that we have a much better feeling about 2028. We still believe that there will be an undersupply of capable vessels in the market, and that will start in '29, 2030. We believe that, in particular, on the foundation side to begin with, of course, because they go in first and then secondly, on the VTG side. It happens for a multitude of different reasons. It's efficiencies. It's the efficiency on the larger turbines. It's the more complicated projects. It's the raw efficiencies in terms of how many turbines and foundations these vessels can transit with, but it's also the fact that there are a lot of vessels that are reaching the end of the useful life in the beginning of the next decade. So vessels that are counted today because they, in theory, can install a turbine, they will not be counted after the beginning of the 2030 because simply they are falling out because they are coming to end of useful life. As the fleet stand today, Cadeler still sits on the largest fleet in the world, and we believe we have the most versatile fleet of really the Tier 1 assets that can support our clients with the targets they have for continued outbuild of offshore wind. We have also decided to distribute this slightly different and first look at which vessels do we believe are able to efficiently install 15-megawatt turbines, and the picture looks somewhat different here. And with the targets that are being set in the North Sea Summit by European government, by Asian governments at the moment, then we believe that there is still a significant undersupply as we come into the next decade of the capable vessels that will always be chosen first by the clients. And if we look on the foundation side, the picture is even more problematic if we want to deliver the targets that are currently being set and also backed up by auctions in many different countries around the world. A few words on Nexra, our business platform for the aftermarket services in offshore wind. We believe that the O&M market will continue to demand -- the demand increase will continue to grow, and we believe that the market is shifting towards long-term agreements. We have seen that with our agreement on Wind Keeper with Vestas, and I think there are other examples in the market as well. So we believe that the whole O&M story and strategy for Cadeler is an important strategy because it will create a longer and more transparent revenue stream on part of the fleet and also it will be able to generate utilization on the installation fleet if there are small gaps between installation projects. And that is important because we have always talked about the importance of keeping a high utilization. And hence, that is something that we really believe is a strong advocate for the whole development of the Nexra business platform. We also believe that Nexra will grow as a business and also at some point in time, potentially even be a bigger business than the installation business, but that is in the years out in the future. But of course, every time we install a turbine, the whole ecosystem for turbines installed grows, meaning that there are more work to do for the Nexra platform to service our clients with -- as it stands today, mainly -- the main component exchanges that we do from a jack-up. In terms of the development of Nexra and an update on that, I think that we saw it and have always seen it as a very strong market, a market that can stand on its own 2 feet, a market that is profitable and it's also a diversification of income streams for Cadeler. We signed the first contract for an O&M campaign in Taiwan and showing that when a vessel is sitting in a region that is complicated to transit back to, for example, Europe from, then you can do these O&M campaigns in the spot market and still upkeep a very healthy financial year for the asset. And I think that, that is something that is important because after this, we have also announced another project yesterday morning in the same region for the same vessel. There's a dedicated team for Nexra today, we are continuing to build the team. I think that it's also fair to say that we get positive feedback from our clients and the fact that we are now having a dedicated team to discuss aftermarket services with them because they have dedicated teams to handle that part of the value chain for them. We believe that as we grow, we will also be better at understanding the needs and the execution requirements and really a very, very strong mandate from all over this company here and from top to bottom to grow Nexra into the strength vehicle we believe it can be. We did strategic fleet expansion in Nexra last year with the acquisition of Wind Keeper, we believe that we did a very, very strong deal and executed very, very fast on this, but also was able to pin a contract -- a commercial contract to that vessel very, very soon after the acquisition of the asset. We took the vessel back to Europe. We did the modification to the vessel that we believe was necessary, and we are now working with the client on a project with the vessel and very pleased to see that. And O&M services in 2025 forms around 1/5 of our total revenues, and that also shows the significance of what we already are doing in O&M. Continuing the growth journey, as we have said, we are in an industry that growth and as we're also saying to you today, we are more positive and have a very positive and optimistic view about the years out in the future. And that is also why that we are looking at continuing the story of Cadeler. We evaluate opportunities to expand into attractive and synergetic systems -- segments, sorry, like, for example, the strategic O&M offering. We are open to both organic and nonorganic growth. We believe that scaling the organization and have a bigger, more versatile, more flexible offering to our client is something that the client is willing to pay a premium for and something that will also secure that Cadeler will always take more than our proportional share of projects in the industry simply due to the derisking of our clients' projects that we can provide. In terms of regional expansion, we are where our clients want us to be, and we are working with the projects that we believe in and the projects that we believe will go from development to FID and to finally execution. That is how we look at it. That's how we have always looked at it, and that's how we'll continue to look at it. We are monitoring and applying new technologies, and we believe that efficiency still will be driving a lot of the value in the industry and also a lot of the sustainability in the industry. So we are very open to discussing efficiency gains with our clients. And we are also willing to do our part in what was the North Sea Summit, which was really trying to make a more competitive offshore wind industry by being more efficient with what we do. And we believe that, that is definitely something we can do if we work together in the whole value chain. And then strategic partnerships have been one of the foundation and one of the pillars that Cadeler is standing on really making sure that we are developing structure -- strategy to strengthen our key strategic partnerships with our clients, including the long-term agreement that we believe is out there and also doing the scopes with the clients that, that they are asking for. So really trying to understand, be early with our clients, trying to understand what it is that they require from us and then be able to deliver that quality-wise and safety-wise when they need it. That is very important. In terms of key investment highlights, largest and most capable and versatile fleet. We believe that, that means redundancy for our clients. And as I already said, that is something that our clients are willing to pay a premium for and also what we believe will secure a more than proportional share of market to Cadeler. We believe that strong relationships and partnerships and our industry-leading position is also something that will be continuing to support the whole growth of the company. We have global reach and experience. We have worked in all key markets, and we are happy to continue to work in all key markets if our clients want us to do so. We believe there's a structural undersupply and an increasing market demand, and we are already starting to see signs of very, very, very strong demand as we move into the next decade. We have a strong track record and backlog, and we are very, very much looking forward to continue to work with our clients in the future. With that said, I think that we are moving into Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Martin Karlsen from DNB Carnegie. Martin Karlsen: I understand that -- can you hear me okay, sorry, it was some... Mikkel Gleerup: We can hear you, yes. Martin Karlsen: I think I heard during the prepared remarks that you said the Wind Apex would be delivered early and do turbine work. Could you talk a little bit about the background for using the vessels for turbines and not foundations and the decision process behind that? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, that is a good question. The reason we are discussing it directly that we are looking at delivering the Wind Apex early is because we have been asked whether we were looking at potentially delivering her late. And just to make clear that that is not a thought at all, it's the opposite. We have evaluated opportunities in the industry and the best opportunity, we believe, for Apex right after the yard is to embark on a turbine installation project. The reason for that is that working with the client on a turbine installation project potentially opens up opportunity for other things. And hence, we have decided that here, the best use of the capacity we do have available, as you also heard in my presentation, I said that we consider ourselves fully booked in '27 now. So basically, what we have available for clients now is becoming limited. And this is the opportunity we have for the client, and hence, we have decided to go with the client because we believe that it's the best overall decision for Cadeler to start with a turbine installation project. It doesn't mean that Apex will stay on turbine installation projects, but the first project will be a turbine installation project. So what it means is that she will earlier generate revenue compared to if we did a foundation project. And with the long -- duration of the contract we're looking into, that will also run into a significant part of 2028, but also a potential for something coming on the back of that with the same client. Martin Karlsen: Could you remind us about how much time and cost there would be to get it back to foundation mode? Mikkel Gleerup: So there is a mission spread, but that is typically part of the project. When you sell a foundation project, the client is contributing to the mission spread there. And typically, it would take somewhere around 2 to 4 months to put her into foundation mode with mobilizing all the equipment on the vessel. Martin Karlsen: And for 2028, you definitely came across as more optimistic, but it seems to be more Cadeler specific than for the industry as a whole. Can you talk a little bit to why Cadeler have been more successful than the industry for '28 and what has changed since last quarter? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. I think that what we do say, when we talked about '28 after the Q3 announcement, we also said that it looked like a year that could be challenging for the industry. And what we are saying now is that we -- that is still the case. We believe that there are still some companies that will have challenges in 2028, but that we today feel much better about '28 than we did around the Q3 because there were still some things that we believed in at that point in time, but that had to happen. And now we are saying that we are seeing that, that is happening. And hence, we are much more confident on 2028. And one of them is, of course, the preferred supplier agreement on a large-scale foundation project. That is important for '28, but that's not the only thing. It is also how other things we are working on have progressed. So all in all, we are much more positive about '28. But it doesn't mean that everybody else will have the same feeling. But for Cadeler, that is the case. But I also think there is a progression from the Q3 call to now where we are saying today that 2027, we can say we're fully booked now. Martin Karlsen: And last question, you're about to get into a real cash-generating mode with all the newbuilds and delivered. Could you talk to how you look to allocate capital ahead between shareholder returns, delevering, and you also spent some time in the presentation today talking about growth opportunities. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. I think that, as we have said before, capital allocation ultimately is a Board decision. But I think it's realistic to believe that we will be spending our capital in 3 buckets. One is to delever the company. One is to continue to maintain the position we have in the industry. And then the last bucket is, of course, returning capital to shareholders in some shape or form. And I think that if we look at where we are moving in terms of generating capital, all 3 buckets are possible at the same time. And I think that, that's where I will land it at this point in time. Operator: Our next question is from Jamie Franklin from Jefferies. Jamie Franklin: So firstly, I just wanted to clarify on Hornsea 3 and appreciate the useful slides in the presentation. If I look at Slide 12 specifically, as you understand it correctly, essentially, we're now going to have a much more progressive ramp-up in revenue through the year from that project. So it's going to be very back half weighted. And it looks like the expectation is first turbine installed around 3Q. So if I assume that the margin and EBITDA contribution should really start to sort of kick in from the second half. Is that a fair assumption? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. I think overall, what you're saying is a fair assumption. And as we are saying that -- and of course, this is what is complicated to sometimes explain when you have projects and calendar years because overall, Hornsea 3 for us is a more value-creating project today than it was when we signed it. But the way the revenues and profits are stretched over time is different. And I think that, that is what we are trying to explain today, and it's due to decisions that have been made by others than Cadeler, but where -- it's in our interest, but also where we are contractually obligated to deliver on this new method. And I think one of the key things on the project without diving too much into the detail is that the flow of the foundations when they come into the project is slower. So we are not building up the buffer we had in the beginning. So the monopile delivery is over a longer period of time, and that is out of Cadeler's control. And it's due to things that is related to the fabrication yards on the monopile foundations. Jamie Franklin: Okay. Got it. And then secondly, just on operations and maintenance. So obviously, you've announced a few shorter duration awards to Nexra platform recently. And as you mentioned, there's been this 10-year O&M contract announced by one of your peers. Could you give us a sense of how you expect to balance the sort of longer-term agreements with the shorter-term contracts? Is the idea to sort of keep Zaratan and Scylla available for more spot O&M while Wind Keeper kind of takes the longer-term contracts? Or could we see you enter into a longer-term contract with a specific one client on those assets? Mikkel Gleerup: The question is, yes, that could be expected that, that would happen, but it all depends on the project economics. There are limits where we believe that it's better to stay in the spot market rather than to sign up to a long term. And for us, that is an internal evaluation that is happening between us and the team that is dealing with the clients on these long-term opportunities because obviously, there are benefits of having a long-term contract, but the benefit of that can be outweighed by, let's say, what you're sacrificing in terms of annual revenues. So for us, it's a balance. And if we believe that we can generate more money by having the vessel in the spot market and being available to our clients when they need us, then that is the decision we will go for. And I think we have discussed it before as well that one of the real benefits of being, let's say, active in the O&M market is the social capital you're building with your client because when they have problems, if you are able to come and help them and fix them, that is something that is very much appreciated and also where you're able to generate stronger relationships and partnerships with your clients. So I -- per se that the long-term agreement is not just what we are aiming for, but of course, if they are good enough, if they live up to our criteria, then we are happy to enter into them. Jamie Franklin: Okay. Very clear. And finally, there was a wind turbine installation vessel order announced by shipyard Hanwha Ocean for about $530 million last month, very high price tag, obviously, relative to what you paid for your newbuilds. Is there anything you can say in terms of what is driving those higher vessel prices? Is it simply a function of kind of shipyard capacity or material inflation? Any thoughts there would be helpful. Mikkel Gleerup: I think the reality that we are looking at today is that the shipyards are incredibly busy. So even if you wanted to deliver a vessel in short time, you were not able to. I know that this vessel is it looks on paper like a short time line, but that is mainly because they have been working on it a long time before they actually announced it. It's a vessel targeting the domestic Korean market with a lot of Korean companies going together in that vessel. It's a repeat M-Class vessel more or less that they have paid $530 million for. I think that the underlying practice for the price is a real tightness in the yards, but also in general, what it costs to build a jack-up today. And I think that there are, let's say, that is -- if you look at the price for ordering one vessel, I think that, that is -- you're probably seeing significantly increased prices to what we built at back in -- when we ordered our vessels. Operator: Our next question comes from Anders Rosenlund from SEB. Anders Rosenlund: Could you break down the order backlog indicatively on '26, '27, '28 and '29 and beyond? Mikkel Gleerup: Unfortunately, we don't do that, Anders. We only give guidance 1 year ahead. So we don't give guidance year-by-year on the backlog. Anders Rosenlund: Also, do you expect to see more of your competitors to place newbuilding orders for '29 and 2030 or beyond delivery given the outlook comments that you coming with today? Mikkel Gleerup: I believe that based on the supply and demand balance we are looking into in the beginning of the next decade and the tightness in the yards that I would be surprised if there were not several companies already looking in the yards. Operator: Our next question comes from Daniel Haugland from ABG Sundal Collier. Unknown Analyst: This is [indiscernible] from China Securities. And thank you for taking my questions. I have 2 questions. The first question is about the foundation installation business. And I noticed that actually the foundation business includes quite large preparation works and it has larger amount. And could you please share with us what's your target of the foundation business in the future? Would the volume or the amount be higher than next year? You just mentioned that next year, the future revenue would be -- maybe would be higher than the installation revenue. So could you please share with us about the foundation business in the future? And your target or your strategy? This is my first question. And the second question maybe for... Mikkel Gleerup: Can we take them one by one. Can we just take them one by one. Unknown Analyst: Okay, okay. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you. I think that to answer your question, we have had a humble approach to the full scope foundation C&I projects. And in 2026, we will be executing the Hornsea 3 project. In 2027, we will be embarking on the EA2 project with ScottishPower Renewables. So we are on a journey here where we are building up together with our clients, two of the biggest developers in offshore wind worldwide. And together with them, we are building up these capabilities to ensure that we do this safely and with the quality that both we and they expect fairly. But our long-term target is, of course, to execute several foundation projects in parallel in a year. That is how we have built the fleet, and that is how we are building the team and, let's say, the protocols around this. So let's say, we have a fully delivered capacity three A Class vessels that are targeting the foundation market. And we would certainly expect that these three A Class vessels would all be doing foundation work in parallel at some point in time in the future. But when I address the fact that I believe that the O&M market could be as big as the installation market, it is because with the outbuild targets that we are seeing in the industry, there will be a lot of requirements for O&M. And hence, we say this, but we cannot say when it will happen or whether they will inflect or whatever. But we do believe that there will be a case for the fact that the O&M market as such will be a very value-creating market to be in and also potentially bigger than the installation market. Operator: Okay. Great. And the second question is about the financial expenses. And I noticed that in 2025, the financial expenses are a little bit higher. Could you give us some color about the financial expenses in the near term or in the 1 to 3 years? Because with our 2 vessels delivered in 2026 and 2027, these expenses cannot be go into the -- cannot be capitalized and this should be go to the P&L. And could you give us some colors about that? Peter Hansen: That is absolutely correct, and also what I talked to in Q4 where you saw net or -- finance net was around EUR 20 million. And that is what you should expect to see going forward and then less and less goes to CapEx when we get one vessel delivered here in '26, then it will be less '27, we get the last one delivered and then it will be to current plans, nothing that we can capitalize. So that is the picture we see. So Q4 is more representative for '26 than the full year. Unknown Analyst: Okay, great. Thank you so much. That's very helpful. Thank you. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you. I don't know whether we missed Daniel from ABG. Operator: Yes, we have a question from Daniel. Daniel Vårdal Haugland: I was a little bit back in the line there. So I have a couple of questions on 2027 that you maybe can kind of enlighten me on because I think you now say that 2027 is getting fully booked from your perspective. So what type of utilization level are you kind of targeting or at least some kind of range when you're talking about kind of fully booked this because I think based on announcements, it looks like there's a lot of white space, but obviously, you guys have looked it through. So... Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, so I think... Daniel Vårdal Haugland: Any commentary on that would be helpful. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. No, that's a totally fair question. I think we have guided from the beginning of the journey of utilization between 75% to 90%, and that is also the target in 2027. And that is an adjusted utilization because, obviously, to assume that a vessel is busy when it's transiting from Asia and back to Europe, for example, that is not possible, even though we would love to install turbines all the way. But -- so that's how we look at it. And then as Peter also said, when he went through his numbers that we exclude planned dry dockings and stuff like that. So the adjusted number, we are expecting between 75% to 90%. And for '27, yes, it is correct that we are considering ourselves to be at the moment fully booked. Daniel Vårdal Haugland: Yes. And just to clarify, then you kind of include this potential contract that you talked about for the Apex. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, that's how we have to do it because there is a potential contract that is negotiated. And -- but of course, nothing is firmed before it's signed and there's ink on paper. But of course, when we are in a process where we believe that this is something that will materialize, then it's also something where we are saying with what we know today, we think that we are in a situation where we don't have much other stuff to sell. Daniel Vårdal Haugland: Okay. And one question on the Orca. It seems like that will be working together with the Ally on Hornsea 3 on secondary steel. It seems from the slide that you kind of indicate that going through Q1, maybe into Q2. Is that kind of correctly assumed? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, it's correct that Orca is starting almost side by side with the Ally being mobilized now for the campaign to go to -- on to Hornsea 3, sorry. It was a valuation we did when we secured the project because it was our option to either go with an offshore construction vessel or with one of our jack-ups. There were benefits in the jack-up in terms of the weather downtime during the winter and hence, the progression on the project. And that's why -- and with the project economics, of course, that we were able to provide to our -- one of our own assets that we decided that the O Class vessel was the best option for the task. Operator: Thank you. That's all we have time for today, and thank you for your participation. I will now hand the floor back to Mikkel Gleerup for any closing remarks. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. Thank you, everybody. And if we did not have time to take your questions, then you all know where to reach Peter and myself or Alexander. And we are, of course, happy to take offline discussions with all of you. But thanks a lot for taking the time to listen to us today. We're looking forward to catch up with you as we move ahead. Thank you.
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Smithfield Foods Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Julie MacMedan, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Julie MacMedan: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Smithfield's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. Earlier this morning, we announced our results. A copy of the release as well as today's presentation are available on our IR website, investors.smithfieldfoods.com. Today's presentation contains projections and other forward-looking statements that are being provided pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all comments reflecting our expectations, assumptions or beliefs about future events or performance that do not relate solely to historical periods. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors identified in the release, in our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or other factors. Please refer to our legal disclaimer on Slide 2 of the presentation for more information. Today's presentation will also include certain non-GAAP measures, including, but not limited to, adjusted operating profit and margin, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA. For a reconciliation of these and other non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings press release and our slide presentation on our website. Finally, all references to retail volume and market share are based on Circana, MULO+ data. With me this morning are Shane Smith, President and CEO; Mark Hall, CFO; Steve France, President of Packaged Meats; and Donovan Owens, President of North America Pork. I will now turn the discussion over to Shane. Shane? Shane Smith: Thank you, Julie. Good morning, everyone. 2025 was an outstanding year. Solid execution on our strategies drove record profits, expanded margins and increased cash flow. We set the foundation for multiyear growth while maintaining a very strong financial position, investing in our business and returning value to our shareholders. Last January, we returned to the U.S. equity markets through an IPO that reintroduced us as the new Smithfield. While our history spans 90 years, the transformation underway over the past decade has fundamentally reshaped Smithfield into a leaner, more profitable and strategically focused company. We streamlined our Packaged Meats portfolio, exited non-core and high-cost operations, accelerated automation and built an accountable culture focused on profitable growth. This hard work prepared us for the IPO. In 2025, our first year as a public company, we delivered on our commitments, record operating profit, record net income, strengthened margins and disciplined execution across all segments. Importantly, these results were broad-based, reflecting the power of our diversified product portfolio, our vertically integrated model and our relentless focus on operational excellence. The advantages of our model were clear in 2025, and we see further opportunities for coordination across the value chain. I'm pleased to announce that we have named Donovan Owens, President of North America Pork. Under Donovan's leadership, the Fresh Pork segment adjusted operating profit increased to $209 million in 2025 from $30 million in 2022. This performance demonstrates our improved agility, channel mix and disciplined operating focus. Under the new structure, Fresh Pork, Hog Production and Commodity Risk Management will report to Donovan. Donovan will also oversee our Mexico operations, which are an integral part of our North America growth strategy. We are excited about the opportunity to unlock additional synergies across our upstream businesses in this new structure. Now, I'd like to review our fiscal 2025 accomplishments in more detail. On a consolidated basis, adjusted operating profit increased 30% to $1.3 billion, with profit margin expanding to 8.6%, up from 7.2% in 2024. Each segment executed effectively. Packaged Meats delivered its fourth consecutive year of operating profit above $1 billion and its second highest profit year despite higher raw material costs and a cautious consumer spending environment. Fresh Pork demonstrated strong execution amid a compressed industry market spread and trade disruptions due to tariffs. And Hog Production achieved its highest profit year since 2014, reflecting improved operations and market conditions. Across the company, continuous improvement and productivity initiatives delivered meaningful cost savings. Our rock-solid balance sheet with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of just 0.3x at the end of the year provides us with the financial flexibility to support our growth strategies and return value to our shareholders. In 2025, we returned value to shareholders through dividend payments of $1 per share. Today, we announced a quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share, and we anticipate paying annual dividends of $1.25 per share in 2026. In January, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Nathan's Famous for $102 per share. Successfully closing this acquisition will be immediately accretive and will secure a core national brand and create meaningful growth and synergy opportunities. In February, we announced that we have initiated the approval process to invest up to an estimated $1.3 billion over the next 3 years to build a new state-of-the-art packaged meats and fresh pork processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Building this innovative new plant from the ground up will represent one of the largest investments in American agriculture and will modernize our manufacturing footprint and unlock long-term cost and efficiency benefits. Now, let's turn to our growth outlook for fiscal 2026. Protein demand is strong and growing across consumer demographics, value for its nutrition and health benefits. Pork, which is not our only protein, but is our primary offering, is well positioned within the protein complex. Pork presents a strong relative value to beef and its nutritional profile with lean cuts like pork tenderloin offers a superior nutritional alternative to chicken breast. Pork is also central to Asian and Latin cuisines, which are popular with U.S. consumers, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. We believe all these factors serve as a long-term tailwind for pork, and we expect 2026 to be another year of increased profitability, driven by margin expansion, disciplined cost management and continued execution of our core strategies. Our 5 strategic priorities remain unchanged, increase Packaged Meats profit through mix, volume growth and innovation, grow Fresh Pork profit by maximizing the net realizable value across channels in a best-in-class cost structure, achieve a best-in-class Hog Production cost structure, drive operating efficiencies in manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, procurement and SG&A and evaluate synergistic M&A opportunities. First, in Packaged Meats, which is our largest and most profitable segment, we are meeting the demand for protein with convenience, flavor and value through our strong brand portfolio as well as our private label offerings. Our strategy to grow Packaged Meats operating profit centers on 3 levels: mix improvement, volume growth and innovation. So first, product mix. We remain focused on accelerating the shift toward higher-margin, value-added product categories and expanding unit velocity while reducing volume of lower-margin commodity type product categories. Coming out of 2025, we saw strong momentum in these value-added categories. In the fourth quarter, we grew units and market share in our core higher-margin focus areas of lunch meat and cooked dinner sausage, among others, and we expect these higher-margin categories to again achieve strong volume growth in 2026. Second, volume growth. We participate in 25 key Packaged Meat subcategories at retail, 10 of which are valued at over $1 billion. In 2025, we grew branded volume share in 6 of these $1 billion-plus categories. This volume growth reflected strong increases in our points of distribution led by our national brands. Looking ahead, we see continued white space opportunities to grow volume and increase market share in each of these categories. We are driving volume in today's economy by delivering quality protein at a good value. Our portfolio of quality branded products spans multiple categories and price points and is an important competitive advantage for Smithfield. A great example is lunchmeat. We are attracting and retaining consumers within our branded portfolio even as they trade up and down the value spectrum. If they choose private label, we benefit as well. Over the past several years, we have improved private label profitability, which represents just under 40% of our retail channel sales. We are also supporting our brands by investing in direct-to-consumer advertising and effective trade promotion. In 2025, we increased foodservice sales by 10%, driving higher sales volumes with both new and existing customers. Our success in foodservice reflects our position as a scaled, trusted provider of high-quality products as well as our ability to deliver value-added solutions that save our foodservice customers time and money. We are also very agile in helping foodservice customers launch limited time offers, which help drive traffic. In 2025, we introduced 57 new limited time offers, which gave consumers reasons to keep coming back. Despite food away-from-home inflation nearly double that of food at home, we successfully grew foodservice volume 2% in 2025. In 2026, we expect to increase Packaged Meats volume across the retail and foodservice channels, driven by product innovation, strong marketing, advertising and trade investment. Next, product innovation. Innovation is an important pillar of our Packaged Meats growth strategy. We focus on introducing new flavors, convenient and easily prepared offerings and premium offerings. We have numerous innovative product offerings planned for 2026 in the retail channel for our 3 national brands: Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's. So in summary, we expect to grow Packaged Meats profitability by focusing on 3 levers: mix improvement, volume and innovation. Now, let's talk about our second core growth strategy, increasing Fresh Pork profitability. We are focused on maximizing net realizable value across channels and continuing to improve operating efficiencies. 2025 was a dynamic year for Fresh Pork due to both compressed market spreads and trade disruptions. Historically, compressed market spreads, the price between hogs and meat significantly reduced profitability. However, our Fresh Pork team demonstrated agility and delivered strong profitability even in tighter markets due to our improved cost structure and diversified channel strategy. In 2025, Fresh Pork profitability was strengthened by sales and volume growth in the U.S. retail channel, with profit enhanced by value-added case-ready items. We also grew volume and profitability in our pet food and pharmaceutical channels, executing well on our next best sales strategy. In addition, we continue to deliver operating efficiencies and cost savings, which helped mitigate the impact of the compressed market spread on segment profitability. In 2026, our priorities include growing volume in the U.S. retail channel, emphasizing higher-margin, value-added, case-ready and marinated offerings, expanding adjacent channel opportunities such as pet food and pharmaceuticals, increasing automation, plant efficiency, yield optimization and supply chain savings and optimizing harvest levels across our network. By focusing on these priorities, we will continue to outperform the market. Now, to our strategy to optimize Hog Production. We continue to progress toward a best-in-class cost structure in Hog Production. In 2025, we outperformed the Iowa State benchmark for hog grower profitability, reflecting improved genetics, feed management and herd health. In 2026, we will continue to focus on improving our operations, including herd health and feed conversion. We're also excited about unlocking more opportunities across our Hog Production and Fresh Pork segments under Donovan's leadership. With respect to the number of hogs internally produced, in 2025, we produced 11.1 million hogs, which is down from 17.6 million at the high point in 2019 and from 14.6 million in 2024. This reduction reflects the transfer of 3.8 million hogs to our external joint ventures, which was consistent with our rightsizing strategy. Over the medium term, we continue to target producing approximately 30% of Fresh Pork's needs internally. We believe this will provide an optimal balance of assured supply and cost risk management. Next, our strategy to optimize operations and deliver operating efficiencies in manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, procurement and SG&A was a meaningful contributor to our improved profitability in 2025. In 2026, we are looking to accelerate the use of innovative technologies across all aspects of our business. We are increasingly leveraging advanced technology to become a more efficient business and to further strengthen our competitive position. We deploy this technology to drive innovation, productivity and optimize performance on our farms in our processing facilities and across our corporate functions. For example, we recently formed a co-sourcing partnership with a third-party technology provider that will provide the benefits of artificial intelligence and robotic process automation for administrative and transactional work in our finance operations. This partnership gives us immediate access to the latest technology and provides flexibility as technology change continues to accelerate. Finally, we continue to evaluate opportunistic M&A to support our growth strategies. In January, we entered into an agreement to acquire one of our top national packaged meats brands, Nathan's Famous. Successfully closing the acquisition will secure our rights to this iconic brand into perpetuity and enable us to maximize Nathan's Famous brand growth across the retail and foodservice channels. With this acquisition, we will own all our major Packaged Meats brands. We will remain disciplined in evaluating additional complementary and synergistic M&A opportunities. In summary, we have returned to the U.S. equity market well positioned to deliver reliable, repeatable earnings and cash flow growth. Our business model has never been stronger. Our high-performing vertically integrated model led by Packaged Meats provides a competitive advantage and supports sustainable margin expansion over the long term. We are investing capital in a disciplined manner to support our growth strategies, to generate attractive returns and to build sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I will turn it over to Mark to review our financials in more detail. Mark Hall: Thanks, Shane, and good morning to everyone joining the call. Our strong 2025 results reflect the consistent execution and resilience of our teams. We closed the year with an outstanding fourth quarter. Total company sales increased 7% for the fourth quarter and 10% for the year with growth across all segments, reflecting higher market prices across the pork value chain and Packaged Meats ability to maintain pricing discipline through innovation and brand power. Record fourth quarter adjusted operating profit of $402 million fueled our record full year 2025 adjusted operating profit of $1.3 billion. Full year adjusted operating profit margin increased an impressive 140 basis points to 8.6%. Fourth quarter adjusted net income from continuing operations attributable to Smithfield was $329 million, which was our second highest on record. This helped us deliver a record $1 billion for the full year. Adjusted diluted EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.83 per share, up from $0.52 per share in 2024 and for the full year was $2.55 per share, representing a 36% increase from 2024. Now, on to our fiscal year 2025 segment results. Packaged Meats delivered fiscal year 2025 adjusted operating profit of $1.1 billion, which was the second highest profit on record and an adjusted operating profit margin of 12.4%. This strong profitability in the face of raw material input cost increases of $525 million and a challenging consumer spending environment demonstrates the success of our Packaged Meats segment strategy. Packaged Meats fiscal 2025 sales of $8.8 billion increased by 5.3% compared to fiscal 2024. This was driven by a 5.6% increase in average selling price with roughly flat sales volume. Industry-wide, volume growth has been challenged due to inflation and consumers' tight budgets. As Shane mentioned, we were able to maintain volume through the power of our strong branded portfolio, complemented with private label options and our diversified product portfolio offering convenience, flavor and value. The higher average selling price was driven primarily by higher market prices across the pork value chain with key raw materials such as bellies, up 19%; trim, up 19% to 35%; and ham, up 9% year-over-year. Next, Fresh Pork. For 2025, we delivered $209 million in adjusted operating profit despite $135 million year-over-year decline in the industry market spread, truly an outstanding job by the Fresh pork team. As Shane mentioned, Fresh Pork executed well on maximizing the net realizable value of each hog and continue to deliver operating efficiencies and cost savings, which largely mitigated the impact of the compressed market spread and export market disruption on segment profitability. Fresh Pork sales of $8.3 billion increased 6% year-over-year, primarily driven by a 5.8% increase in the average selling price and roughly flat volume. The higher average selling price was driven primarily by higher market prices across the pork value chain. Turning now to Hog Production. Hog Production generated $176 million in adjusted operating profit, the highest since 2014. The strong results were driven by improved commodity markets as well as actions we've taken to optimize our operations. 2025 Hog Production sales of $3.4 billion increased by 13% year-over-year. This was despite a 23% or approximately 3.4 million head reduction in the number of hogs produced as part of our planned rationalization strategy. The sales increase was primarily due to higher external sales to our new joint venture partners, both from ongoing sales of grain, feed and other services as well as from the initial transfer of commercial hog inventories. Our average market hog sales price was up 8.9% year-over-year, inclusive of the effects of hedging. Adjusted operating profit for our Other segment, which includes our Mexico and Bioscience operations, of $45 million increased $10 million compared to 2024. We see the Mexico market as a big opportunity for future growth. Our corporate expenses came in $26 million below the prior year, reflecting our disciplined cost management strategies. In summary, we delivered a record 2025 operating profit and net income due to solid consistent execution across our operations. Next, let's review our strong financial position and cash flow generation. At the end of 2025, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 0.3x, well below our policy of no less than 2x. Our liquidity at the end of the year was $3.8 billion, including $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents. This is well above our liquidity policy threshold of $1 billion. During 2025, we generated cash flows from operations of over $1 billion, and it would have been a record of nearly $1.3 billion when adjusted for the repayment of an accounts receivable monetization facility. Capital expenditures for 2025 were $341 million compared to $350 million for 2024. Approximately 50% of our planned capital investments each year are to fund projects that will drive both top and bottom line growth. This consists primarily of various plant automation and improvement projects, as we continue to lower our manufacturing cost structure and better utilize labor. Reinforcing our commitment to return value to shareholders, we paid $1 per share in annual dividends in 2025. And as Shane mentioned today, we announced that our Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share and that we anticipate paying annual dividends of $1.25 in 2026. Our ample liquidity, including sizable cash balance and robust cash flow supports our investment in business growth and shareholder return while maintaining a strong financial position. Now, on to our outlook for fiscal 2026. First, I'd like to share our thoughts on potential market tailwinds and headwinds that could impact our 2026 results. First, tailwinds. We expect protein to remain in high demand in 2026 and for pork to be well positioned as a healthy, affordable option for consumers. We also see raw material costs as a tailwind. While we expect input costs to remain elevated by historical standards, they should be slightly lower than in 2025. Our raw material assumptions are supported by the USDA outlook for pork production to be up 2.5% in 2026. That said, we're monitoring herd health as a key variable impacting the outlook for U.S. pork production and raw material costs. Potential headwinds that we're monitoring include a continued cautious consumer spending environment and a dynamic geopolitical environment. It's still too early to predict the full impact from the conflict in Iran, but there are 3 main components of our business that this could impact. First, the direct impact of fuel costs such as diesel; second, corn prices, which are tightly correlated to the oil markets; third, the petroleum-derived supplies that we use such as resin-based packaging. Based on what we know today, we believe our outlook incorporates identified risks, but it will depend on the duration of the conflict. With these assumptions as a backdrop, our outlook for fiscal 2026 called for continued margin expansion driven by the strategies Shane just reviewed. This includes continued innovation, improved asset utilization, accelerated automation initiatives and cost savings that will help us achieve another record-setting year. First, we anticipate total company sales to be up low single digits compared to fiscal 2025. Our outlook for segment adjusted operating profit is as follows: for Packaged Meats, we anticipate adjusted operating profit in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion. For Fresh Pork, we anticipate adjusted operating profit of between $200 million to $260 million. And for Hog Production, our anticipated adjusted operating profit range is $150 million to $200 million. As a result, we anticipate total company adjusted operating profit in the range of $1.325 billion to $1.475 billion, reflecting broad-based performance. Please note that our outlook reflects 53 weeks of operations in 2026 and does not include the impact of the proposed Nathan's Famous acquisition and investment in the new processing facilities in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Our targeted capital spend for 2026 will be in the range of $350 million to $450 million. In addition, subject to permitting and other approvals, we expect to invest up to $1.3 billion over the next 3 years to construct the new state-of-the-art Packaged Meats and Fresh Pork processing facility in Sioux Falls. We currently anticipate groundbreaking to commence in the first half of 2027 and for operations to commence by the end of 2028. We'll provide more updates as we progress. In summary, 2025 demonstrated that our key strategies are working. We expect 2026 to be another year of increased profitability, as we continue to execute our core strategies. Now, I'll ask the operator to open up the call for Q&A. Operator? Operator: [Operator Instructions] And today's first question comes from Megan Clapp with Morgan Stanley. Megan Christine Alexander: I guess, maybe to pick up, Mark, where you left off there, I wanted to start with the Packaged Meats outlook specifically. You talked about low single-digit top line growth for the total company. I guess... Shane Smith: Megan, did we lose you? Megan Christine Alexander: Sorry, can you still hear me? Shane Smith: Yes, you cut out for a second, though, Megan. Megan Christine Alexander: Okay. Okay. I'll start over. So Packaged Meats outlook, I wanted to ask about that. As we think about the top line guide, you talked about low single-digit growth for the total company. Should we be thinking about Packaged Meats kind of in that range? And then, from a margin perspective, if we just kind of take the midpoint of your profit guidance, I think it does imply some modest margin expansion, but, yes, still kind of well below where you've been historically. And, Mark, you kind of talked about this a little bit in your remarks, but maybe you can just help us understand a little bit more of the puts and takes on margins, as we think about the year ahead in terms of input cost inflation, continued mix benefits, and then, anything you're taking into account on consumer demand given some of the macro factors? Mark Hall: Thanks, Megan, for the question. So just on the top line, it's important to note that the low single-digit revenue growth year-over-year includes $230 million of one-time inventory sales to the joint ventures in 2025 that, that won't repeat. So that's about 150 basis points. And then, consistent with the comments, we're looking for lower markets year-over-year with the USDA call for pork production to be up about 2.5% year-over-year. So that's going to have a ripple effect throughout the segment. And I'll let Steve talk specifically to the top line on Packaged Meats. Steven France: Thank you for the question. So I'd start out by saying that nothing has really changed with respect to our long-term outlook for Packaged Meats margins. In the short term, as Mark had mentioned, consumers are definitely stretched, and I would say that the grocery and foodservice industry are seeing people spend less or trade down to less expensive items or items that deliver more value. And think about the fact that in 2025, our raw material costs were up over $525 million. So although we do expect to see lower raw material costs, as Mark had mentioned, they're still going to be elevated versus historical norms. Now, despite some of these headwinds, we do believe that we are better positioned than most companies due to the family of brands and also the extensive product portfolio that we have. And as you know, we have a very successful private label business, which does provide us the ability to capture those consumers, as they move up and down those different price points. And by doing that, so when you think about the family of brands that we have and also the private label that we have, it actually helps to minimize some of the financial exposure that we have with consumers, as they do move up and down that pricing spectrum. Now, we are focused on building long-term value, but it's also about protecting our near-term profits. So that means we are investing in our brands. We're funding our innovation that aligns with consumer trends. We also continue to shift, as Shane had mentioned during his opening comments, shift our mix from commodity items to higher-margin value-added products. And then, we're also, of course, spending capital to expand on capacity where it supports our long-term growth and profitable growth. So as Shane and Mark had mentioned, for our outlook for 2026, at this point, it really reflects the best view that we have today. And it's really guiding our Packaged Meats profit to that $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, which we believe represents a healthy level of profitability in the face of really cautious consumer spending, higher-than-normal raw material markets. And, of course, there's a big unknown tied to the Iranian war that's currently going on. So at the end of the day, we are very -- we still -- we are confident in the outlook that we have, and we'll be able to address some of these challenges as they come at us throughout the year. Megan Christine Alexander: Great. That's super helpful. And just a follow-up on Hog Production. So the guide for the year, $150 million to $200 million would suggest similar profitability to '25 at the midpoint. And the futures curve at this point does seem to imply similar producer profit levels as well. At the same time, you've talked extensively, including in the remarks here, about the structural improvements you're seeing in your own business and even talked about perhaps monitoring the herd health as a potential tailwind. So maybe you can just help us understand a little bit more about what's embedded in the guide from an industry perspective? And what you're seeing in terms of supply today and -- versus your own internal cost improvements? Shane Smith: Yes, Megan, when you look at supply, we don't see right now any material level of expansion taking place outside of productivity and improvements in health. And I think that's what the USDA is modeling it as well with their 2.5% increase. And as you know, when you look at last year, the real true impacts of the health across the U.S. industry really didn't become apparent until we were in -- really into the second quarter. So we're monitoring what's going on as a part of overall health and how that will impact meat in the back half of the year. We do think that the guide that we issued this morning encompasses what we see today from the grain markets, from the changes in diesel fuel that we're seeing have an impact on things like freight and animal movements. So we feel comfortable where we are. We think it feels like we're back in somewhat of a normal cycle in that Q1-Q4 versus Q2-Q3 scenario. And of course, as you know, we have different hedging strategies that we take advantage of throughout the year. So we're really comfortable with the guidance that we've issued today in hog production. To your point, we have seen some real structural changes in our business. And the genetics that we've talked about for the last couple of years, that really helped us in 2025. We saw a lean pig cost that was down probably 8% year-over-year, better feed initiatives and livability initiatives. Our overall feed cost was down over 5%. And so we're seeing all of those things manifest in the earnings. And so again, I think we're really comfortable with the guidance with what we see today. Operator: And our next question today comes from Ben Theurer with Barclays. Benjamin Theurer: Shane, Mark and team, 2 quick ones. So first of all, as we look into like the value chain as a whole, and we've kind of like talked a little bit about the Hog Production just now and before that about the Packaged Meat segment. So picking up on what's in the middle in the Fresh Pork segment. Clearly, it was, call it, potentially a somewhat challenging 2025 with all the trade restrictions, et cetera. But as we move into 2026 and as you kind of like pointed to the puts and takes, can you maybe elaborate a little bit more on the Fresh Pork business itself, what to think about, a, seasonality? And b, what are like the more Fresh Pork-specific risks and opportunities for 2026 in contrast to 2025? That would be my first question. Shane Smith: Yes. So, Ben, maybe I'll start and then hand over to Donovan. 2025, I'm really proud of how the Fresh Pork team executed. We saw $135 million degradation in the gross market spread, but yet our profits were only down about $17 million. And so we saw growth in retail and sales volumes. I think that was 4% in sales and 5% in U.S. retail channel volume, really leaning into the case-ready part of the business. But also looking at some of those alternative channels that we've discussed before with our pet food business and our pharmaceutical business. And so I would say the Fresh Pork team in the face of what was a really dynamic and ever-changing 2025 did an excellent job in executing that next best sales strategy. Donovan, do you want to add to that? Donovan Owens: Yes. I think Doug (sic) [ Ben ], and Shane, you said it well in your opening remarks. But yes, 2026 for Fresh was a challenging year. I think it led off with what Doug (sic) [ Ben ] might be referring to as the tariffs. So the tariffs started to have some impact. It had some impact on the year. But as we look at how we rebounded in our net realizable value efforts in 2025, they paid dividends. I mean, we focused on our core strategy of looking at our Fresh Pork, Fresh Pork value-added business, as Shane has mentioned earlier. Growing our Fresh Pork in that arena is going to be pivotal in 2026, as it was in 2025. So we're going to focus on our case-ready value-added pork. We're going to focus on our marinate offerings. We're also going to focus on our branded effort, branded fresh pork to tie into our Packaged Meats portfolio. So we want to connect the dots, Doug (sic) [ Ben ], on all of our business. I think that's been an opportunity for Smithfield for a while and leverage our strength of our Packaged Meats business and start putting our name on our Fresh Pork portfolio of Smithfield, not just a brand that we have to fight with other -- with our competitors in the industry. So look forward to it, Ben, sorry for that. I got your name mixed up. But nonetheless, 2026, I feel very confident that we will continue our strategy on fresh pork and look forward to improved results. Benjamin Theurer: Awesome. And then, real quick on the capacity expansion project, Sioux Falls. I think you said groundbreaking first half 2027. So probably within the CapEx of that $1.3 billion, probably nothing yet to be contemplated for 2026. But how should we think about the CapEx needs for that project splitting that into what would be '27 and '28? And how do you think about just the general timeline? If you could refresh me on that one, that would be much appreciated. Mark Hall: Yes. So, Ben, as you indicated, there is no capital included in our estimate of $350 million to $450 million for the current year. So there may be some incremental spending towards the end of the year, but the most significant portion of the spend will come in '27, '28 and a little bit of spillover into '29. So anticipate groundbreaking, as you said, in early 2027, hopefully, to have the first products running down the line at the end of 2028. And I would say that the capital spending will be paced pretty evenly throughout the construction period. Operator: Our next question today comes from Leah Jordan at Goldman Sachs. Leah Jordan: I wanted to follow up on Megan's question within Packaged Meats. Just seeing if you could provide more color on how we should think about the margin cadence in that segment as we go through the year. And any timing impacts we should keep in mind? I mean, we're going to be lapping some different input costs as we go through the year as well as potential shift in Easter and as well as the 53rd week. Steven France: Sure. Thank you for the question. So first, when you think about margins and also how that would potentially tie to promotions, what we're focused on is really -- it's on the quality merchandising side. So it's really going after the quality of it versus quantity because typically, if you're going after the quantity, you're going to run into some potential challenges from being unprofitable. But what we continue to see is improvement with our promoted volume sold as feature and display. And when we do that, that by far is the most impactful promotional vehicle. So we'll continue with our current promotional strategy, although the reality is we're not just counting on promotions to drive our volume, we're actually very fortunate because our consumers are incredibly loyal and our brands perform because people trust us to deliver that same great quality, flavor, value every time. And that consistency that we built over decades shows up in every product. And our customers and consumers know that they can count on us. So -- the other part of your question was, I guess, consistency. And when -- reality is when you look at the first half and second half of the year, it's -- even though we have some seasonality between different items, between seasonal hams, we also have growing items during the summer, but the reality is when you look at first half and second half, they're basically fairly equal from a profitability standpoint. Shane Smith: Leah, the only thing I would add there, and I think this was part of your question, we will see Easter a little earlier this year. So there will be some Q1 impact of last year we would have saw in Q2. And the 53rd week actually will fall at the end of December, which would be post-Christmas for us. Mark Hall: Right. So to Shane's point, on a segment profit margin perspective, it's a little lighter in the first and fourth quarters because of that seasonal ham influence. Leah Jordan: That's very helpful. And then just for a follow-up, I wanted to ask on the feed side, given lower feed costs were such a tailwind for you in Hog Production last year, and now, we've got maybe some potential headwinds emerging, so how are you planning for feed over the coming year? What have you locked in so far? And just any color around assumptions within the guidance range and your flexibility there? Should we see some movement? Shane Smith: Yes. On the feed side, and Leah, we don't necessarily talk specifically about our hedge positions, but we do use corn and soybean meal contracts to help lock in when we think it's advantageous. So -- but I would tell you, our overall feed strategy is more than just a grain. It's being efficient in what we do. It's about the livability, the animals coming out that we've been putting grain into. What I would tell you, as it relates to feed for 2026, we are seeing some increases, and those spikes coincide with what we see taking place in the Middle East. I think we've been very in front of that, I would say, as far as our hedging strategies and how we think about locking in those grain costs as we go forward. So I think, again, as I mentioned earlier, I think we're in a pretty good position, as we look at 2026 from where we stand on corn. And keep in mind, as we go through the year, the later in the year we get, the feed cost, that fed cost of corn really would show up in the back part of the year and into 2027. So I think from a 2026 standpoint, we're pretty well positioned. And we think, again, that guidance that we issued encompasses that variability that we think we'll see in corn. Operator: And our next question today comes from Heather Jones at Vertical Group (sic) [ Heather Jones Research LLC ]. Heather Jones: I wanted just to ask a quick clarifying question on the extra week. So I think you talked about expecting a low single-digit volume increase in -- on the Packaged Meat side in retail and foodservice. I was wondering, is that adjusted for the extra week? Or is it largely due to the extra week, so we should expect most of that increase in Q4? Mark Hall: That includes the extra week. So the extra week is falling after the Christmas holiday this year. So it's -- seasonally, it's a softer week in the year as all the loading has gone on leading up to the holiday season. So from a volume and profitability standpoint, it punches below the average week's weight. Heather Jones: Okay. So you're expecting growth in the other quarters as well, not just the Q4? Mark Hall: Correct. Heather Jones: Okay. And then, I just wanted to ask about the Hog Production outlook, and just, how you all are thinking about the cadence of that 2.5% growth? Because my understanding is that there was some expectation that there would be like an easy comparison because of the PED and PRRS we had in '25. But PRRS has hit pretty hard again. I think it's in the upper Midwest. And so I was wondering, do you think the 2.5% takes that fully into effect? And how you're thinking about industry volumes year-on-year as the year progresses? Shane Smith: Yes. If I understood your question correctly, we are hearing that same thing that you just mentioned that PRRS is really beginning to show up in the Midwest. But again, I think our guidance, as we've issued this morning, takes that into account, both from what we expect to see on a seasonality basis between Q1 and Q4 and in the middle part of the year as in Q2 and Q3. So we think from a disease standpoint, from a corn standpoint, transportation that we've got those things embedded. And of course, as we move through the year, things will become much clearer, and we'll continue to update that guidance as we move through the year. But as it sits today, we feel really comfortable with that range that we printed this morning. Operator: And our next question today comes from Chris Downing of Bank of America. Christopher Downing: This is Chris on for Pete. You noted that acquiring Nathan's will eliminate licensing fees and allow you to capture the full retail margin with immediate earnings growth expected. Can you quantify for us how much of the anticipated accretion comes from recapturing licensing economics versus incremental operating synergies? And how quickly those benefits should scale post close? Shane Smith: Yes, Chris, I'll begin, and maybe, I'll throw it over to Steve or Mark. As we're -- really kind of limited on what we can say and what we can share. Once we close this transaction, once we successfully close it, we'll be able to share a lot more detail on both our plans and some of the inherent numbers. But as it sits today, we're really limited in what we can share until the deal actually closes. Steve, do you want to add some things on Nathan's? Steven France: Yes, I can just add a couple of things. And first and foremost, we're very excited on the Packaged Meat side of the business about Nathan's and what that represents for the future of Smithfield. So we know the Nathan's brand incredibly well. Obviously, we've been making products for years and selling it into the retail channel. So there's virtually no integration risk, and that's a really big deal from an M&A standpoint. Owning the brand, that would let us scale, scale with utilizing our marketing, innovation and also distribution across retail. And then ultimately, we'd have access to that foodservice channel, which again would be a big plus for the total Smithfield business. I would like to share more about what we have planned. But at this point, since the deal is not finalized, I'm going to have to wait until the transaction closes. But it's a great question. We're very excited about the opportunity to purchase Nathan's. Shane Smith: Yes. And, Chris, the only other thing I would add to that is we do believe that the transaction will be immediately accretive to our earnings. And I think you can look at Nathan's disclosures and really get to the crux of your question about what that licensing fee has been. Operator: And our next question today comes from Max Gumport with BNP. Max Andrew Gumport: I was hoping to turn back to Sioux Falls. Obviously, it's a very big investment for the company. I realize it's early, but any color or quantification you can provide on the benefits that you will receive? It's replacing a very old plant. I think it's over 100 years old, so maybe particularly on the cost side, what this means for efficiencies, automations and cost savings? Shane Smith: Yes, Max. I'm really excited about this investment in Sioux Falls. And to your point, it's a large investment, but it's necessary. Sioux Falls is a key part of not only our Fresh Pork business, but also our Packaged Meats strategy in general. And so that facility is over 100 years old. And as you can imagine, there's a lot of upkeep on that facility. But not only that, the footprint of that facility makes it very difficult to implement some of the automation and technology that we as a company are really rolling out across our footprint. When this facility is done, it will be the largest fresh combined, Fresh Pork and Packaged Meats facility in our system. We are anticipating a best-in-class facility that will just deliver significant efficiency gains to both Fresh Pork and Packaged Meats. So I'm really excited about the investment. We're anticipating it's going to have a really strong intern investment, and we expect to see those benefits in year 1, as we move to that optimal production level. But the interesting thing about Sioux Falls for us is it's a key part of the country. There's a tremendous culture of Hog Production in that part of the country. And from a vertical integration standpoint, that plant is less than 1% vertically integrated. So this investment is not only good for us, it's good for South Dakota agriculture, the surrounding regions and American agriculture in general. And like I said in my opening comments, this investment really represents one of the largest single investments in American agriculture that I'm aware of. And so we, as a company, are extremely excited about the opportunity to do this. I think it's going to be transformative for us as a company. And I think it's going to lead the way in the industry, as it relates to cost structures, to competitiveness. And so I'm really looking forward to getting this project done. Max Andrew Gumport: Great. And then, on the first quarter, I realize we're essentially through the first quarter at this point already. So I was hoping maybe for a bit more color on any initial thoughts on the sales and profit realized, maybe you don't typically guide by quarter, but just given that there's essentially only a week left or so, maybe a bit of color on how the first quarter is looking. Mark Hall: Yes. It's really about continuing execution of our strategies, continue to improve that mix within the Packaged Meat side of the business, appealing to the consumer across that price spectrum, whether it's in our branded portfolio or in private label. And again, continuing optimization of our net realizable value within Fresh Pork. So we're seeing continued execution of our strategies, and we look forward to a solid first quarter. We'll be back in front of you in, what, about 5 weeks, I think, to report on the first quarter, but things are shaping up. Operator: We have time for one more question today. And our final question comes from Saumya Jain with UBS. Saumya Jain: Congrats on the quarter. A quick one. With more CapEx spend, as you noted in '27 and onwards, would you see more upgrades or bolt-ons on current facilities or acquisitions of new ones? And what would drive one versus the other? Mark Hall: Yes. So in terms of CapEx, again, the uptick in '27 and '28 is related to the Sioux Falls build-out. Our guide for this year is really in that $350 million to $450 million range. And what you've seen is over the recent past, we've really worked significantly to optimize our network and improve our cost structure. So most recently, we announced the closure of 2 lease facilities in Elizabeth, New Jersey and in Springfield, Massachusetts, and we're folding those into existing operations. So that along with the transfer of the $3.8 million head that Shane mentioned in Hog Production to our joint venture partners, it really brings reduced requirements for maintenance CapEx across the network. So we're going to continue to invest about half of that CapEx figure on growth capital and about the other half on infrastructure, so maintenance types of projects. But we have plenty of opportunities to invest in growth capital, drive capacity expansions and cost savings projects through automation. So again, the $350 million to $450 million is all encompassing on the base business with incremental spend related to Sioux Falls in '27, '28 and '29. Saumya Jain: Great. And then real quick, I noticed that the market share in the hot dogs Packaged Meat subcategory changed from third to fourth. So I guess just wanted to understand what was driving that last quarter. And how do you view your acquisitions of Nathan's then changing the competitive dynamic in the space? Steven France: No, it's a good question. So, as far as the total hot dog category, so this is for the total industry, obviously, we're seeing some historic beef markets, which is resulting in consumers seeking value or gravitating down to private label or value tiers. Now, keep in mind, when I say that, that even when they gravitate down into private label, we have the ability to capture that consumer with some of the private label products that we do produce or some of the regional brands that fit that value tier. Now, if you look at the total category, so not just where we were, but for the total hot dog category for the U.S., in Q4, the sales were down 5.2%. And for total 2025, sales were down 4.8%. Now, with all that said, despite some of the category declines and some of the consumer shifting, we're still able to grow our Nathan's volume share, unit share and dollar share in Q4. So we also increased our points of distribution by over 19% in 2025, and that's on the Nathan's brand. So that really highlights the strength of the brand and also consumer loyalty. So despite some of the category declines that we saw within the hot dog space, we're very comfortable with where we are from a Nathan's performance and also what we expect to see in 2026. Operator: That concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to President and CEO, Shane Smith, for closing remarks. Shane Smith: Thank you, and thanks to everyone who joined our call today. I want to thank all of our Smithfield Foods employees for their exceptional execution in 2025. It truly was an outstanding year, and we're proud that our strategies drove record results, but we're not stopping here. Instead, we're constantly challenging ourselves to grow our business and continuously improve our operations. I'm looking forward to speaking to you again when we report our first quarter results. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. The conference has now concluded, and we thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Geli, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Public Power Corporation conference call to present and discuss the full year 2025 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Georgios Stassis, Chairman and CEO; Mr. Konstantinos Alexandridis, CFO; and Mr. Ioannis Stefos, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Stefos, you may now proceed. Ioannis Stefos: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's conference call for PPC's full year 2025 results. We will begin with an overview of the group's results from our Chairman and CEO, Georgios Stassis, followed by a review of the financial performance for the period by our Group CFO, Konstantinos Alexandridis. After the conclusion of the presentation, we will open the floor for your questions during the Q&A session. The IR team will be available after the call for any follow-up discussions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Georgios. Georgios, please go ahead. Georgios Stassis: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. PPC had a strong performance for another year, in line with the strategic targets set in the business plan with adjusted EBITDA increasing to EUR 2 billion and net income at EUR 0.45 billion, demonstrating the extent of the transformation and the growth that has been achieved during the last years. This significant growth in profitability has allowed us to keep increasing dividend distribution in line with our plan, which provides for further improvement of shareholders' remuneration with a gradual increase of dividend to EUR 1.2 per share in 2028. Investments stood at EUR 2.8 billion, with the majority allocated to renewables, flexible generation and distribution projects, supporting a further step-up in profitability going forward. Despite high CapEx, our balance sheet position remains solid with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 3.2x at the end of 2025, providing the necessary room to implement our investment plan in the next years. Moving to Slide 7. The last years have been directing capital towards renewable energy, flexible generation and distribution. As a result of these investments, we have been able to increase both the regulated asset base, as we will see later, but also the renewables and flexible generation capacity, which now represents 80% of our total capacity. In this way, year after year, we are increasing our renewables footprint, combining it with flexible generation assets, while at the same time, we have made significant progress in phasing out lignite, a process which is at the final stage, with the last unit of 700-megawatt plan to cease its operation by the end of this year. Deep diving now to Generation business on Slide 8. As you can see, we have increased the total installed capacity to 12.4 gigawatts, led by the continuous rollout of new renewable projects, which has outweighed the reduction of lignite capacity during the last year. Our total generation output has remained practically stable, however, with increased participation of renewables on the back of reduced production from lignite and oil. More specifically, renewables output increased to 6.9 terawatt hours, driven by wind and solar generation, reflecting the addition of new capacity, which outbalanced the weak performance of large hydro power plants for last year. As a result, renewables increased its share to 33% of our total output. On the flip side, lignite generation declined at 2.7 terawatt hours and oil at 3.6 terawatt hours, corresponding to 13% and 17% of total output, respectively. 2026 is a milestone for PPC generation activity since it marks the end of lignite-fired generation after many decades, making PPC coal-free. Last, gas generation had no change versus 2024, being, however, a very important component of our energy mix today, corresponding to 37% of our total output. As a result, CO2 Scope 1 emissions declined by 0.5 million tonnes compared to last year. And going forward, we expect further improvements since we will cease our lignite operations by the end of the year. Now moving to Page 9. Let me briefly describe the progress in renewable projects that we have achieved in the fourth quarter of 2025. Executing our strategic plan with discipline, we completed the construction of an additional 800 megawatts of capacity across Greece and abroad. The majority of these additions were solar projects, which exceeded the 700 megawatt in total, complemented by the first 59 megawatts of battery energy storage installed in Greece and Romania as well as 36 megawatts from a wind farm in Northern Greece. In summary, 546 megawatts of renewable projects across various technologies were completed in Greece, along with 272 megawatts internationally in the fourth quarter, leading to total additions for 2025 at 1.7 gigawatts, as we will see in more detail in the following slides. Going to Slide 10, let's see in more detail the additions that we concluded in the fourth quarter of 2025. First, in Greece, major projects totaling 550 megawatts were completed since the November Capital Markets Day. Specifically, we completed the last 30 megawatt of a 550-megawatt solar project located in the former lignite area of Ptolemais in Northern Greece. In the same region, in cooperation with RWE, we completed the final 623 megawatts of a 938-megawatt solar project. In the Ptolemais region, again, in the former lignite area, we completed the first 125 megawatt of a 490-megawatt solar project. The second 125-megawatt cluster is currently under construction, and the third cluster is scheduled to begin construction later this year. For wind, we successfully completed 36.4 megawatts in Central Greece in the region of Fokida. And last, an important milestone was also the completion of our first battery project in Greece in the former lignite areas of [ Ptolemais ] as well. Outside of Greece, in the fourth quarter, we added 272 megawatts of capacity from renewable projects, mainly solar across Southeast Europe, as depicted in detail in Slide 11. Starting with Romania, we completed solar projects of 215 megawatts in total in various locations, along with 9 megawatts of batteries, which will enable us to enhance dispatch optimization and capture value from balancing services and price arbitrage. At the same time, we completed 17.5 megawatts of photovoltaics in Italy and 30 megawatts in Bulgaria, increasing our footprint in these countries. Overall, as you can see, we keep a good pace of additions, delivering significant renewable capacity while continuing to expand our construction pipeline. All of the above are summarized in the next slide, Slide 12, which shows that we remain on track to achieve our 2028 renewables target of 12.7 gigawatt, as presented in our last Capital Market Day. We have added 1.7 gigawatt in 2025, standing now at a total of 7.2 gigawatts. And we have another 3.7 gigawatts that are either in construction, ready to build or in the tender process, having secured, in essence, 86% of the capacity that we target for 2028. There has been further progress in our pipeline also in terms of maturity, having moved during the fourth quarter -- last fourth quarter, approximately 600 megawatts into the under construction and ready-to-build stages from the permitting and engineering stage. And this process of adding new capacity, maturing additional projects is something that we have been doing many quarters now, and we will continue to do so as we advance multiple projects across Greece and internationally. Let us now move to Slide 13, which provides key highlights of our retail activity and the overall environment in Greece and Romania. Electricity demand was slightly decreased in both countries by minus 1.3% in Greece, reflecting milder average temperatures compared to 2024 and by 0.6% in Romania. Our electricity sales decreased by 1.9% compared to 2024, primarily driven by lower demand in Greece and a slight market share reduction in both countries. Deep diving in the retail activity in Slide 14, despite this intensely competitive environment throughout 2025, we successfully defended our market share while expanding beyond the commodity segment, demonstrating our ability to diversify and deliver impactful results. Customers remain our top priority. This is reflected in our strong top line performance across all customer satisfaction metrics and the continued improvement in the quality of our customer base. Notably, bad debt exposure decreased by 14%, as shown in the bottom right graph, driven by improved penetration and more effective management of higher-risk customer segments. On top of various targeted propositions that we launched during the year, SME, family and other and as artificial intelligence continues to shape market developments; we launched in Greece a virtual assistant support our customers. This is the first AI-powered digital assistant in the market, designed to elevate the customer experience by providing clear explanations of bill charges in simple language. For our activities in Romania, 2025 was a transitional year following the lifting of the price caps. As competition has been growing, we focus on protecting and strengthening customer relationships through targeted retention actions. Looking ahead, we expect 2026 to remain highly competitive. We will continue to focus on delivering value, strengthening customer engagement and maintaining resilience in an evolving market landscape. Just a few words for several synergy streams in the retail activity that we set up in 2025, we are in Slide 15. Kotsovolos has been key for this, providing the opportunity to launch a broad range of initiatives. Our collaboration has evolved from establishing a strong in-store presence and developing dedicated PPC shop-in-shop corners featuring our products to extending field services coverage that delivers essential energy solutions to customers and households, services that are fundamental to everyday living. Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to further strengthen our footprint within PPC shops while expanding our product and service portfolio to reach additional customer segments, addressing a broader spectrum of needs. Next, in Slide 16, a few words of certain KPIs of our Distribution business. We continue to invest significantly in 2025 with CapEx increasing by 2% year-on-year, in line with our strategy to enhance and digitalize our electricity distribution networks. The total regulated asset base now stands at EUR 5.7 billion from EUR 4.9 billion last year, mainly driven by the increase in Greece following material investments. The strong investment activity is also reflected in the improvement of the reliability indices of our networks in both Greece and Romania, while smart meters penetration continues its upward trend with further room to grow, especially in Greece. Turning to Slide 17. We can see how the implementation of our strategic initiatives, combined with active engagement have resulted to actual progress in several ESG ratings and scores within 2025. Specifically, our efforts have been recognized by S&P Global, EcoVadis, MSCI, ATHEX ESG and ISS, all of which upgraded PPC's ratings and scores. These improvements reflect tangible progress in several key areas such as environmental management, renewables portfolio expansion, corporate governance, ESG integration and transparent reporting. These advancements underscore our commitment to sustainability, mitigating business risk and fostering long-term value for all stakeholders. Let me now pass it on to Konstantinos for the financial performance analysis. Konstantinos Alexandridis: Thank you, George, and good afternoon to all. Moving next to Slide 19 for an overview of the trends for the main energy-related commodities. To begin with TTF, gas prices in early 2025 were initially strong, supported by reduced Ukrainian transit and cold weather conditions before easing as demand weakened and geopolitical concerns softened. Subsequently, prices declined under the milder weather conditions, strong LNG inflows and lower storage targets from EU with a brief rebound driven by firmer demand and tighter Norwegian supply. Later in the year, gas prices remained broadly stable before falling to their lowest levels towards year-end. Overall, gas prices recorded a moderate year-on-year increase of 5%. Turning to carbon. EUA prices opened the year sharply, but reversed after mid-February, pressured by declining gas prices and uncertainty around U.S. tariffs. Prices later recovered on the back of easing trade tensions and a U.S.-China agreement, although gains driven by geopolitical developments proved short-lived. The market remained relatively balanced for a period before a rally emerged towards September driven by compliance buying with prices peaking towards the end of the year. Overall, carbon prices also recorded a moderate year-on-year increase of 12%. Finally, looking at power prices, they spiked early in 2025, driven by higher TTF and EUAs, easing later in Q1 on the weaker demand and the higher solar performance. Prices rose in Q2, tracking TTF and EUAs, but stayed stable in June, though elevated despite geopolitical tensions, thanks to record renewables output. In the second half of 2025, weather-driven demand and lower renewable output led to a steady rise in prices. Moving now on Slide 20, where we can see the key financial figures for the period, showcasing the strong financial performance recorded in 2025 with increased revenues mainly due to higher power prices and the contribution of Kotsovolos. Adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 2 billion, up by 13% year-on-year, an uplift driven by higher contribution of integrated activities in our two key countries, Greece and Romania. Adjusted net income post minorities stood at EUR 0.45 billion from EUR 0.36 billion in 2024, up by 23% year-on-year. The proposed dividend for 2025 is EUR 0.60 per share from $0.40 per share in 2024, demonstrating our strong commitment towards the increase of distributable profits for our shareholders and in line with our commitment in the latest Capital Markets Day. A more detailed overview of EBITDA and net income evolution will follow later in the presentation. Investments at EUR 2.8 billion, focusing mainly on renewables, flexible generation and distribution. Free cash flow continues to be driven by elevated investment levels in line with our business plan. Net debt at EUR 6.5 billion at the end of December 2025, with net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 3.2x as anticipated, given the progress in our investment plan. Proceeding to Slide 21 for the revenues evolution of the group, which recorded an 8% increase. The largest part of this increase is driven by energy sales, which are up by approximately EUR 0.5 billion as a result of higher power prices we experienced both in Greece and Romania for the full year. The rest is mainly driven by sales of merchandise coming from the operations of Kotsovolos, which have a full year effect in 2025. These two factors have been able to more than offset the impact of our revenues from volume decline related to market share reduction and a slightly reduced electricity demand in both countries, as George mentioned before. All this resulted to a total revenue of EUR 9.7 billion in 2025, up by EUR 0.7 billion versus 2024. Moving to Slide 22 for the EBITDA performance by business activity. As you can see in the left side of the slide, EBITDA has recorded a 13% increase year-on-year with the integrated business being the key driver for this growth. I will provide more color on this in the coming slides. International contribution at 22%, mostly driven by Romanian operations, which stood at EUR 440 million. Next, on Slide 23, a few words on the evolution of the integrated business. The improvement that has been recorded versus last year has been taking place on the back of improved performance in the retail business and green and energy mix throughout our footprint as we increase renewables capacity. In addition, this improvement has been also supported by the reduction of fixed costs associated with lignite activity as we progress with the phasing out of the relevant units. All these factors have been the basis of our commitments in our Capital Markets Day some months ago to improve our profitability in the integrated business by EUR 0.2 billion year-on-year. Now proceeding to Slide 24 for a view of the distribution activity. With regards to Greece, the demand decrease of 1.3% versus 2024 negatively affected the approved network usage revenues that will be compensated in 2027. In Romania, the Distribution business marked a slight decrease versus full year 2024, but this was driven by seasonal effects. Adjusting for construction works that have already been included in the 2026 allowed revenues, the 2025 performance would be higher than last year. Proceeding to Slide 25 for a deep dive on the EBITDA-to-net income bridge. The improved performance in terms of EBITDA that we've discussed in the previous slides has also been reflected in the bottom line with adjusted net income after minorities standing at EUR 448 million, that is a 23% increase versus last year. In terms of EPS, the year-on-year increase is slightly higher, reaching the 24% given the ongoing share buyback program. Adjustments included in the net income includes special one-off items with the largest being the provision for incentives for volume direct exit schemes that we implemented, the PPAs revaluation as well as the incremental depreciation from the asset revaluation of December 2024. Moving on to Slide 26 for the analysis of the investments. We continue to keep a high level of investments reaching EUR 2.8 billion in 2025 despite the reduction of 9% year-on-year. Importantly, 87% of our investments are directed to our distribution networks, renewables and flexible generation in line with our strategic priorities. Distribution has been the largest component, reflecting our focus on network utilization and resilience in both Greece and Romania. At the same time, we are significantly expanding our renewables footprint along with increased investments in flexible generation to support the stability and monetizing the surplus of generation. Geographically, the majority of investments are concentrated in Greece, accounting for 72%, while Romania represents a growing share of 23%. Overall, our investment program is clearly aligned with the energy transition, strengthening our asset base and supporting long-term earnings visibility. Let's now move on to Slide 27 for the free cash flow analysis of the group. The strong operational performance, combined with the positive working capital resulted to a significantly positive FFO of EUR 1.9 billion. The change in working capital had a positive impact of EUR 161 million over the period, supported mainly by CO2 and our hedging activities. With regards to CO2, we had a positive impact in 2025, which is mainly attributed to timing of payments and the overall working capital management. With regards to our hedging activities, initial margin requirements related to new positions declined, mainly as an effect of lower and less volatile gas prices towards the year-end, while at the same time, prior periods positions continued to wind down. Looking at the trade receivables and excluding state-related entities, we had a positive change in working capital by EUR 70 million, partially offsetting the increase of trade receivables from the state-related entities. We have been working with the state to reduce the overdue amount, and we expect in the first half of this year to have positive results. Finally, within category Other, we had a negative impact of EUR 92 million as a result of last year's overperformance in December '24, where some payments were shifted to 2025. Overall, free cash flow is in line with our estimates, given the significant capital deployment that we are doing throughout Southeast Europe and across technologies. Turning to Slide 28. Let me walk you through our debt profile and liquidity position. Despite the acceleration of our investment program, liquidity remains robust, supported by a well-balanced mix of fixed and floating rate debt. We also maintained strong liquidity headroom with $4.6 billion of undrawn committed credit lines as of year-end 2025. At the same time, ongoing refinancing initiatives and favorable interest rate trends have contributed to a reduction in our average cost of debt, which stood at 3.8% by the end of 2025. Our debt maturity profile remains well spread with no material concentration risks. Over the next 3 years, maturities amount to $2.6 billion, including $500 million related to our sustainability-linked bond maturing in July 2028. In October 2025, we successfully issued a EUR 775 million green bond due in 2030 priced at 4.25% coupon with strong investor demand and 3.4x oversubscription. The proceeds were used to redeem in full the aggregate principal amount of sustainability linked senior notes due in 2026 and support eligible green investments in line with our financing framework. The remaining maturities primarily relate to long-term loans and committed facilities, which we expect to refinance in the normal course of business. Finally, our credit profile remains at BB- with both rating agencies with S&P recently revising the outlook to positive, while Fitch affirmed the stable outlook. Next, on to Slide 29 for the net debt evolution and our leverage position. Net debt and consequently, net leverage increased in 2025 as anticipated, reflecting the acceleration of our investment program in line with our business plan. Net leverage currently stands at 3.2x and is expected to evolve in line with our plan. We remain fully committed to our financial policy, including the 3.5x ceiling we have set. Let me now pass it on to Georgios for his concluding remarks. Georgios Stassis: Thank you. Now moving on Slide 31. Before I conclude my presentation, let me reaffirm our guidance on key figures for this year. Our expected adjusted EBITDA is at EUR 2.4 billion, and we anticipate more than EUR 700 million in terms of adjusted net income after minorities, leading to an EPS of EUR 2.1, demonstrating a 58% increase versus 2025. We are on very good track to achieve these targets for several reasons, as we saw at the right-hand side of the slide. First, we have been experiencing mild weather conditions in the first quarter of 2026 so far, which have led to improved margin in our retail activity. Second, wind conditions have been quite strong from the beginning of 2026, benefiting our assets both in Greece and Romania, which combined with better hydrological conditions in Greece, contribute to a good start of the year. And third, we are at a quite advanced maturity stage for the 1.8 gigawatts of new renewables that we are targeting to conclude in 2026, being already at an approximately 50% readiness. Moreover, we feel very comfortable in delivering our targets for 2026 as well. Once again, we highlight our strong commitment for our dividend policy that is expected to reach EUR 0.80 per share from $0.60 per share in 2025, an increase of 33%. In our concluding slide, Slide 32, let me now wrap up with a few final points. Overall, we are delivering on our strategy with strong execution across all key pillars. Our 2025 performance reflects the benefits of our integrated business model. We continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner with EUR 2.8 billion invested in renewables, flexible generation and distribution, supporting our future growth. We have made significant progress in our renewables installed capacity, adding 1.7 gigawatts in 2025. And at the same time, we are building strong visibility on our targets going forward, with 86% of the capacity that we target for 2028 being already secured. Our transition away from lignite is progressing as planned with full phaseout expected by end of this year, further improving our environmental footprint. This shift is strengthening the resilience and flexibility of our portfolio, enhancing our position in a challenging and evolving energy landscape. We are very confident in delivering our 2026 targets, and we prepare ourselves to be able to meet our targets beyond this year, aiming at sustainable value creation for our shareholders, our customers and the market in which we operate. Thank you all. And now looking forward to get your feedback and your questions. Operator: The first question is from the line of Di Vito Alessandro with Mediobanca. Alessandro Di Vito: I have three. First question is on the general energy outlook. I wanted to understand which could be the implications for PPC in case the current escalation in Middle East extends for a longer period of time? And on this matter, if you could remind us the sensitivity you have to power prices. The second question is around the political debate to lower power prices in Europe. I wanted some color on your contribution to this debate. And if you see the risk some political intervention, both at national and at European level? Third question is on your procurement strategy. I wanted to understand if the current disruption in LNG supplies could affect the procurement for your CCGT plants or for your gas supply clients? And maybe just the last one, a clarification during the explanation of the guidance, I heard 2026 net income above EUR 700 million. So I wanted to understand whether this is confirmed or not. Georgios Stassis: Okay. Thank you very much for the questions. Now let me start from the general outlook. Of course, we cannot estimate how this will end and when it will end. And nobody is able to do that right now. However, there are -- because we have some experience now and our experiences from 2022, where we had a major energy crisis and impacting very much also our continent. I want to outline some points. First of all, we do not have any physical delivery issues because we are not procuring from that area, from the Strait of Hormuz. While in 2022, you remember when the pipe was interrupted, we had to handle physical delivery problems as well, which was really a big mess. But we are not in this situation. Therefore, and as far as I understand, this is the situation of Asia, in particular, or some other companies, maybe in Europe, but not ourselves. And then, of course, you may understand that then we need to handle the issue of prices. Today, we think that -- I mean, if we take the today news, every day is a new situation, of course, it is at 60 -- around 60, 62, 63 in the gas TTF. Gas is of our interest. So if you remember, 2022, we handled prices of 350. So I hope we will not see these prices, of course. But still, it is -- we have the experience and the management to handle the situation, first point. Second point, we are -- I mean, we are -- we have an overall portfolio that has -- part of it is fixed. Our fixed customers is already fully hedged. So there's no impact in that situation. And of course, one could question if things go really high, how this will pass into the market. I believe that starting from as you know, from 2023, there was a European directive, which defined when Europe will be considered on crisis and has the limit reaching gas prices at 180. So we are far away from that level, thankfully. And I don't think we will be needed right now to handle any situation like that. In any way, however, this, because of our vertical integration is not -- has been proven also in the past that we never had a problem into managing this situation. If even in the scenario of infra marginal caps, it simply means that we will not have, let's say, huge windfall profits. And those will be used by the governments of Europe to be -- to supporting the citizens of Europe. So what I'm trying to say is that point one, right now, we are not in this situation at all. I'm not sure if we will be. And if and if we will go in a very extreme situation, the tools are available to be used also at the European level, have been used in the past, and we proved that we were not affected by that, and we don't believe we'll be affected as well. Now the other thing is that the timing of this crisis is coming in a period of time, which is spring. And this is very important because we just closed winter. And this is a period of time where renewables are boosting very much. We are mostly of low prices. So I think that there is time in front of us before we move to the heart of the summer where we will have another peak or when we will reach the point that the European storage facilities will start to be having the need to be, let's say, filling up. And that would be possibly an issue which will impact 2027. We don't believe we will have a major impact in 2026 also in such a situation right now. So we wait and see how the situation will develop. But I think we are extremely protected as PPC right now, having worked in our overall vertical integration and our own capability to manage our overall customer base. Now going -- to the second part of your question about the discussion that has emerged in Europe about the energy prices, this is a valid point, I believe. It is a concern for everybody. And I believe it is also a valid point for the industry, which is an important parameter. I have the impression that -- I mean, we will know today, tomorrow, how things will develop in the council, but I have the impression that mostly the discussion will focus around an ETS reform for the future. As you may be aware, ETS is supposed to be formed in July, and there is today already taken decisions from the past to remove quantities from the ETS market from the quote that would tighten the market further and would result in a price increase in ETS. I see personally that there is room in the discussion of the European leaders to make this transition smoother and not so steep in the coming years. And I think, and this is the most important thing, that this is exactly how we were forecasting the development to happen even before this discussion becoming relevant. If you look on our slides on the Capital Market Day in November, you will see that the kind of path we have for ETS prices are reasonable because we were assuming from that time that we don't believe that the current situation will be activated in the sense that we don't believe we will see crazy prices of the ETS market. So we have already budgeted with a very smooth pattern from 2026 to 2028, even beyond 2030. And I think the conclusion of the discussions in Europe will more or less go in that direction. And then having said that, there is another element as well, which is very important, which is our region, because we put all this into a perspective, but we need to think of our region as well because every geography is different. In the Southeast European region, the corridor between Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, up to Ukraine, Moldova, all these kind of countries, Croatia; this is a corridor which is very tight from the capacity point of view. And on top of that, it has very old fleet. So because you have a sensitivity, even in our calculations with a lower EPS from our projections, we don't see the dam changing significantly because the assets that will be activated are quite mature and old fleet and into an area which is having a very old fleet. For all these reasons, I believe that we have been very prudent in managing our assumptions. And I think gradually, we are going in that direction. So we feel that not only for 2026, we are absolutely certain that we will deliver properly, but also for the coming years, we will be in line with our projections. Last, procurement. I didn't quite understood the last part of your question, but I can tell you that we don't feel any procurement issue as a result of the crisis right now in the rate. But if you can elaborate more of what you meant, I will be able to answer. Alessandro Di Vito: Yes. No, I think you already answered. I was asking about your procurement strategy and whether you would be affected by the disruption in the Middle East. But you already said that the fixed portion of supply is secured and you have no procurement from Middle East. The last question was on the net income for 2026, whether it is going to be around EUR 700 million or above EUR 400 million during the presentation, I had above, but I just wanted to make sure about the detail. Georgios Stassis: Okay. Listen, we just closed the year at EUR 450 million net result. I can tell you certainly that we will be in the area of 700. I could even tell you that we're having a good year today. So I would be most probably able to verify a number higher than this. But of course, we have -- we are in an environment of huge volatility. So the only thing I can confirm is the 700 level right now. Operator: The next question is from the line of Nestoras Katsios with Optima Bank. Nestor Katsios: Congratulations for your great set of results. So two questions from my side. The first one has to do with the data centers. Is there any update with your discussions on the data center front? And the second one is about [ Ptolemais ] 5. I understand that you will shut down this year. Are there any final investment decision for the future of [ Ptolemais ], I mean, some gas plant? Georgios Stassis: Okay. Let me start from the last because I think it's the easiest. I mean, for [ Ptolemais ] 5. I think we have already announced that we will convert it to gas, and we are already working in that direction. I think we will see it already in operation in gas from 2028 because we are already working in that direction. We have already secured the equipment we need. And I think we have sufficient time to do this transformation by 2028 early. So this is for [ Ptolemais ]. Now for the data centers, for those of you who are following our company, you may remember that we have announced our intention to develop a data center last April. It's almost a year, not even a year yet. And I told you from that day that I would expect -- I was expecting end of '26 to have some sort of real development. And this is our vision right now. However, we are in discussions with hyperscalers and those discussions are going a little bit better from what I thought. So I mean, we have progress. We have significant progress, but we are not there yet. This is the thing I can say right now. Operator: The next question is from the line of Karidis John with Deutsche Bank. John Karidis: I have four quick ones on just the telco business, please. The first question is, what was the CapEx in FY '25 in millions rather than billions? Secondly, how many customers did you have at the end of 2025? And how many do you have now? Thirdly, during the CMD, I asked you about the timing of the launch for voice services, and you said very soon. Could you please update me on that, hopefully, give me something like a date? And then lastly, a year ago, I asked you whether you were interested in mobile, and you said you were not. Has your view changed there at all? Georgios Stassis: Thank you very much for the questions. I can tell you that we have spent around EUR 200 million until now on this project. We have delivered more or less a network of 1.7 million, but only 1 million is commercially available. First, you create the backbone and then you make the remaining pieces. So very recently, we launched at the end of last summer, the service with a footprint of 500,000, let's say, households passed. And very recently, we opened from 500,000 to 1 million. I can tell you that we are currently connecting around 200 customers per day. This is the current pace we have. So you can calculate. I think we are quite happy with that because in that level, I think this in the coming months because it's too young, not even 6 months that we are working on that. In the current pace, we will probably reach a level of 250,000 in the coming months. And when we will open the remaining 500,000 and so on and so forth, I mean, going gradually as per our plan to 3.5 million; this means that with this trend, we will be reaching a level of around 700, 800 customers, maybe more per day. So we are very happy. We are learning as well from that. As you might have noticed, we are not pushing a lot advertising because we want to have a very good service on our customers. But very shortly, we will start pushing more commercially. So I'm expecting these numbers to pick up. But so far, so good. I mean, we are doing very well. We are very happy, and we will reach the target -- the number of target customers we have in our mind by the end of '28, beginning of '29. About voice, I think we are ready to launch it probably in June, June, July, we will launch voice. About mobile, we are not investing in mobile because our project is a very specific project. That's why we are so relaxed. I mean we are doing this -- we found this opportunity to roll out this fiber project only in Greece. It's not a big project for us versus our total CapEx. And we are in line exactly with the numbers we want to have day by day. So we will go gradually. We are not investing in the mobile. I can verify this 100%. Thank you. John Karidis: I'm sorry, could you please tell me how many customers you had in total at the end of 2025? Georgios Stassis: We have more than 12,000 customers. Operator: The next question is from the line of Walker-Hunt Ella with Citigroup. Ella Walker-Hunt: My first question relates to hedging. So in terms of power price exposure, could you tell us what's your hedge position at the end of the year? So how much in terms of terawatt hours have you sold forward and what duration? And then my second question is about the full-year results. So if you -- if we look at it on a quarterly basis, so the fourth quarter earnings were actually down almost 20% if you compare to the last year. So I was just wondering, what was driving that earnings contraction in the fourth quarter? Georgios Stassis: Okay. The first part -- what was the first part? The hedging, the hedging, we are at a level of more than 40% to 45% right now for the year for everything, all our position, not accounting the fixed customers, of course, that we have 100%, as I told you, on our fleet. Now for the fourth quarter, I mean, we navigated -- I mean, we have a sort of -- every year a sort of seasonality, and we are trying to govern the company also taking into account the market in general. So we chose to support more our customers at the end of the year. And -- but still, we brought our results. So -- but this has happened in many of our years, I mean, in the past years. There is a thin line where you need to keep the pace of growth in a reasonable level. And from quarter-to-quarter, we have and we have had differences like that in the past. This is normal. In the contrary, you will see that if you will compare this quarter, this current quarter when we will announce it because it's going well. With the quarter of last year, you will find exactly the opposite. But it is part of our -- the nature of our business. Operator: The next question is from the line of Pombeiro Mafalda with Goldman Sachs. Congratulations on the results. Mafalda Pombeiro: I only have two left, if possible. The first one would be any indication or guidance on the net debt levels for 2026, if you can share at least the main moving pieces? And the second one is just a clarification. Out of your retail sold volumes, could you please -- I understand that the part that is fixed contract fixed customers. So what percentage is that of the overall sold volumes? Georgios Stassis: Our fixed part is around 20%. And now Konstantinos will take the first one. One second, give us. Konstantinos Alexandridis: Yes. So the way we have set up the business plan that we discussed back in November is asking for additional investments. So we do expect that the more we are progressing, of course, leverage ratio will remain at the area of 3.3x to 3.4x. So that would be at an area in terms of net debt close to EUR 7.5 billion to EUR 7.7 billion. Operator: The next question is from the line of Anna Antonova with JPMorgan. Anna Antonova: Just a few from our side. So first, on the CapEx outlook for this year for 2026. I see that last year, you spent just a little bit lower than you guided below the EUR 3 billion. Is the CapEx for this year still expected around your target, which I think from the end of last year was EUR 3.8 billion? That's the first question. Georgios Stassis: Yes. We -- of course, from last year, the big deliveries of renewables started to arrive in our company. On the other hand, last year, we did our CapEx also with an acquisition. as we have noticed. But the last quarter, we brought 800 megawatts. So it's ramping up. And right now, we are going to deliver 1.8 gigawatt, and it's going fantastic. So we are able to confirm exactly our CapEx for this year. Anna Antonova: The second question is on the outlook for hydropower this year. I remember you commented during the call that in Q1, the weather conditions were quite favorable. So if you could maybe comment where you currently see the upside for hydro generation for this year compared to last year's maybe level, which was, I think, 3.4 terawatt hours. Georgios Stassis: Yes. Finally, we are having a good year on hydro after several years. We had the 3 bad years on hydro levels, and this is coming back this year. So I mean, I cannot predict exactly, but it's going to be for sure, more than last year. Operator: We have a follow-up question from Anna Antonova, JPMorgan. Anna Antonova: Just a quick follow-up question. So with all the events happening this year and higher power prices and kind of regulatory debate in Europe, can you comment if you see any downside to your targets for this year from the current conditions, both on the financials and on especially the lignite phaseout? You mentioned earlier the event of 2022, and I remember that at that time, the lignite decommissioning was a bit delayed due to everything that has been happening. So do you expect kind of any potential risks to the targets for this year? Georgios Stassis: Yes. And what was the lesson in 2022? We kept lignite because why? Not for economic reasons, because of lack of physical deliveries at that time in 2022. And what was the lesson? It was still more expensive than anything else. So we are not intending to keep it back by no means, especially now that we don't have any physical delivery issues. Other than that, I mean, knock wood, this is going very well this year. If it wasn't the Iran conflict, we would be able to be more optimistic, but we stay at this level right now. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Stassis for any closing comments. Thank you. Georgios Stassis: Maybe we have a question. Operator: Yes. We have one more question from Mr. Alderman Richard with BTIG. Richard Alderman: Can you hear me? Georgios Stassis: Yes, please go ahead. Richard Alderman: Just one follow-up question on the hedging there. Just so we don't misunderstand what you're saying about the gas element of the hedging within your retail book, are you essentially hedged for what you see would be your average demand through the rest of the year from your retail book at this point? And then obviously, if there are variations within that and that costs you more, you would pass that through to customers who are not on fixed contracts. I'm just trying to understand... Georgios Stassis: This is indeed -- this is exactly correct what you said. Richard Alderman: Okay. Because there's been some discussion in the market as to whether you had exposure to that, but that's reassuring to hear. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions now. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Georgios Stassis for any closing comments. Thank you. Georgios Stassis: I think 2025 has been an important year. because this company proved that it reached a level of significant net result versus the past years. 2026 will be another year like that. Our growth is very important versus last year. And we feel confident we are exactly on target, maybe a little bit more. We will see how the year will develop. But so far, so good. So we are excited with the development of the company. We are already working very much for 2027, 2028. I believe 2026 is secured. And I think the coming years will be very interesting. Thank you.
Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Achieve Life Sciences Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Nicole Jones, Vice President, Strategic Communications. Nicole, please go ahead. Nicole Jones: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. From Achieve Life Sciences, we are joined by Rick Stewart, President and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Mark Rubinstein, Chief Medical Officer; Jaime Xinos, Chief Commercial Officer; and Mark Oki, Chief Financial Officer. The management team will be available for Q&A following the prepared remarks. A replay will be available later today using the information in the earnings press release or by visiting the Achieve Life Sciences website. Today's conference call will contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the goals, strategies, beliefs, expectations and future potential operating results of Achieve. Although management believes these statements are reasonable based on estimates, assumptions, and projections as of today, these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate at the time of any telephonic or webcast replay. Actual results may differ materially as a result of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including, but not limited to, the factors set forth in the Company's filings with the SEC. Achieve undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements. Please refer to Achieve documents available on our website and filed with the SEC concerning factors that could affect the company. I'll now turn the call over to Rick. Richard A. Stewart: Thank you, Nicole, and good morning, everyone. The NDA submission in June 2025 started the transformation of Achieve from a pure-play clinical development company into a commercially focused enterprise. Our primary objective now is to make cytisinicline available to the 25 million patients who smoke and nearly 18 million who vape. The need for a new nicotine dependence treatment like cytisinicline has never been greater. Achieve is committed to providing the new therapeutic tool to patients seeking to break free from the cycle of nicotine dependence. I'm incredibly impressed by the commitment and resilience of the entire Achieve team and their dedication to addressing the nicotine dependence public health crisis in the U.S. Key highlights in 2025 include: firstly, the submission of the New Drug Application or NDA for the smoking cessation indication and its acceptance by the FDA, moving us one important step closer to becoming the first new FDA-approved treatment in 20 years. Secondly, Achieve's vaping cessation indication was one of the first recipients of the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher. Recognition of cytisinicline as a national priority is an incredible achievement of the work conducted by Achieve and the importance of cytisinicline in tackling the previously intractable problem of nicotine dependence. The Commissioner's voucher gives us an accelerated pathway to be the first and only FDA-approved vaping cessation treatment. Thirdly, our clinical team delivered on all planned regulatory milestones and generated encouraging clinical data across our program during the year. This includes concluding the ORCA-OL long-term exposure trial, which underlined cytisinicline safety profile, demonstrating strong tolerability and excellent patient satisfaction data. We should not underestimate the importance of the findings from the ORCA-OL safety study, which demonstrated the tolerability of cytisinicline over long-term, 52-week exposure to treatment. Dr. Mark Rubinstein will elaborate in a minute. And lastly, post-hoc data published in Thorax, a leading peer-reviewed medical journal, demonstrated that cytisinicline significantly improved smoking quit rates compared to placebo in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There are 6 million COPD smokers in the U.S. today with few options to help them quit. Their level of nicotine dependence must be high, as continued smoking exacerbates COPD symptoms and impairs the efficacy of COPD drugs. The positive data on COPD patients highlights the expansive scope of opportunities for cytisinicline in terms of the range of comorbidities that could potentially benefit from treatment, and broad range of health care providers who would be interested in its benefits. Our commercial team has moved forward decisively towards building a scalable, data-driven commercial model that will position us to launch successfully. Our model is built to address the rapidly evolving health care environment, where approximately 75% of primary care physicians will no longer meet with medical reps. Achieve's omnichannel digital platform provides precision targeting of physicians and patients, which will allow us to identify high-volume prescribers and the patients motivated to quit, deploying resources efficiently and maximizing impact per dollar spent. AI is a critical enabler in this evolution. We'll be using advanced analytics and machine learning to enhance decision-making, automate customer engagement, and generate predictive insights about which messages will resonate most with target audiences, positioning us to continue building an efficient commercial organization that punches well above its weight. We also just announced that we have selected Adare Pharma Solutions, a U.S.-based manufacturing organization that will produce cytisinicline drug product as we prepare for potential commercial launch and future demand. We believe this partnership will secure our supply chain, reduce risks associated with international pharmaceutical importation, and may lower overall costs, including the risk and uncertainty for tariffs on international imports of drug product. I'm pleased to report that work has commenced and our technology transfer to Adare is already underway. The Adare partnership provides redundancy in our supply chain, allowing contingency capacity in the U.S. The manufacturer named in the cytisinicline NDA recently had an FDA Good Manufacturing Practices inspection with 2 observations related to solid oral dose manufacture, which are being addressed through an ongoing communication of its remedial action plan with the FDA. By establishing U.S.-manufacturing with Adare, we increase confidence in our supply-chain security as we advance towards a planned commercial launch of cytisinicline expected in the first half of 2027. We remain focused on bringing cytisinicline to patients as quickly as possible, and our decision to work with Adare positions us to launch with the manufacturing reliability and the operational readiness our patients and stakeholders expect. Now, let me take a moment to remind you why our team is so passionate about bringing cytisinicline to market. Recent data issued by CDC estimated that in 2024, approximately 25 million adults in the United States smoked cigarettes. It's estimated that more than 15 million attempt to quit every year. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., claiming approximately 500,000 lives annually and costing over $600 billion each year in health care cost and loss productivity. The comorbidities are devastating. To name a few, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and cancer. We also know that 60% of the nearly 18 million adult e-cigarette users in the U.S. want to quit, and adult nicotine e-cigarette use is on the rise. However, there is no FDA-approved treatment for e-cigarette cessation. Patients are frustrated, physicians are frustrated. The narrative around nicotine dependence needs to change. We've seen this transformation happen with obesity. When GLP-1s emerged, they helped society recognize obesity for what it truly is, a medical condition, not a personal failure. Nicotine dependence deserves the same recognition. It's a neurobiological condition rooted in how nicotine alters brain chemistry and creates physical dependence. It's a medical condition and it demands medical treatment. That's why we launched our Will Power awareness campaign in January. This is the beginning of us reframing the conversation to help people understand that quitting takes more than Will Power alone and an effective treatment exists. The bottom line is that Achieve is not quitting on people who smoke. The parallels between obesity and nicotine dependence are not lost on many investors. unmet medical needs, same physician call points, same cost to society. In summary, our science is strong. We're advancing through the regulatory review process with the FDA, working constructively towards approval. Our commercial infrastructure is taking shape with real progress in 2025, and we're actively building for launch. With that, let me turn it over to Dr. Mark Rubinstein, who will detail our regulatory progress and the data that continue to reinforce cytisinicline across patient populations. Mark Rubinstein: Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. We have made tremendous progress in 2025 for cytisinicline from a clinical and regulatory standpoint. Since our last earnings call, we've continued to validate cytisinicline's clinical profile through peer-reviewed publications and scientific conference presentations. We were pleased to present findings from a pooled analysis of over 1,600 participants from our Phase III trials at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco or SRNT conference a few weeks ago. This analysis examines cytisinicline's efficacy across participants with different prior treatment histories and quit-attempt patterns. Regardless of whether the participants had previously tried varenicline, Bupropion or nicotine replacement therapy, or whether they had made 4 or fewer quit-attempts versus many more, we saw consistent efficacy. These data show that if approved, cytisinicline will offer a new quit option for patients, including those for whom medications have failed. This consistent efficacy across patient subgroups shows that past setbacks should not discourage people from trying again. For millions of people who have tried and failed, cytisinicline offers real hope. We also presented late-breaking survey data from our year-long ORCA-OL study that demonstrated voluntary, self-reported patient experiences with extended cytisinicline use up to 52 weeks. This survey of data from people who chose to continue treatment beyond the 6- or 12-week standard courses offers insight into long-term tolerability and impact. Patient experience is hugely important for those trying to quit smoking, and is encouraging to see trial participants describing meaningful benefits, including successful quitting and improvements in physical health. We have also been accepted to present research at the 2026 American Thoracic Society Conference in May and look forward to updating you in the coming months. On the e-cigarette front, we received the FDA Commissioner's National Priority Voucher for cytisinicline in e-cigarette or vaping cessation, a significant recognition of the public health urgency. The CNPV is designed to provide enhanced FDA communications and an expedited NDA review time line to 1 to 2 months compared to a typical 10 to 12 months. We are now laying the groundwork for our ORCA-V2 Phase III trial for vaping cessation, including selecting trial sites and identifying principal investigators. In summary, 2025 has strengthened our clinical and regulatory position significantly. We're advancing through the FDA's review process with an active dialogue with the agency. We remain confident that cytisinicline has the potential to deliver the first FDA-approved treatment for nicotine dependence in 2 decades. With that, let me turn it over to Jaime. Jaime Xinos: Thank you, Mark. When I look back at where we started at the beginning of 2025 and where we stand today, I'm struck by the incredible progress our commercial team has made in just over a year. We've built the foundation for a launch-ready infrastructure from the ground up while remaining lean and right-sized for our current stage requirements. We've established partnerships, deployed advanced analytics, created an AI-powered asset factory, and are positioning ourselves to execute at scale. I'm deeply grateful to the entire team who have been instrumental in bringing this vision to life. As a reminder, our commercial execution rests on 3 critical priorities: availability, or ensuring supply-chain readiness so that cytisinicline can reach the patients who need it; access to secure coverage and affordability; and awareness, which is educating the right patients and health care professionals at the right time about this transformative new option. Every initiative is data-driven, and every decision is tied to measurable impact with the goal of making cytisinicline accessible to the millions of Americans struggling with nicotine dependence. Now, I'll provide updates on each of our 3 priorities. First, let's look at availability. Implementation with our third-party logistics provider is well underway. We are on track with our state licensing and have secured more than half of the required licenses to date. Additionally, we have now completed the administrative and logistical setup with our specialty pharmacy hub partner. We believe these foundational steps will be critical to ensure patients can obtain cytisinicline and that prescriptions written are prescriptions filled. On the access front, our focus remains on securing rapid, broad, and affordable coverage for cytisinicline. In Q1, we continued discussions with prioritized payers to share our clinical data. Feedback from these ongoing discussions will be critical in finalizing our pricing, access, and contracting strategy as we move closer to launch. On awareness, our focus is establishing Achieve's reputation as a trusted, science-driven partner and shifting how patients and providers think about nicotine dependence. As Rick mentioned, we launched our Will Power campaign, which directly challenges the outdated narrative that quitting smoking is simply a matter of personal determination. The campaign featured visuals that reimagine vintage cigarette advertising, but instead of selling cigarettes, they're selling Will Power as a miracle product. It is deliberately provocative because the message is clear. Will Power alone is not enough. We will continue to strategically deploy this campaign throughout 2026 to drive ongoing conversation and awareness around nicotine dependence as a medical condition requiring a medical solution. Beyond this, we are leveraging technology and AI tools to generate rapid, evidence-based and regulatory-compliant content that will fuel our launch. To use a bit less marketing jargon, this means we are able to build things faster using fewer resources. Through our partnership with Omnicom, we developed a marketing engine designed to shave weeks off the development, review, and approval of brand messaging, promotional, and educational materials. This is just one example of how modern tech and data are improving our ways of working at Achieve. We've also established our unified data ecosystem and our custom-built marketing technology foundation to support hyper-targeted, personalized customer engagement and measurement. Finally, we've completed detailed customer segmentation to better understand how to reach and meet the needs of our future patients and prescribers. As we look ahead, we are building plans for optimizing sales deployment and non-personal promotion to key audiences at launch and beyond. We will look to deploy the Will Power campaign in select audiences, complete our data and performance-measurement capabilities, and finalize media channels and plans. We are confident in our ability to execute and scale effectively and deliver long-term value for patients, providers, and shareholders. I'll now turn it over to Mark Oki for financial updates. Mark Oki: Thank you, Jaime. Let me walk through our financial position and results. As of December 31, 2025, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $36.4 million. Total operating expenses for the 3 and 12 months ended December 31, 2025, were $14.7 million and $54.9 million, respectively, reflecting our ongoing investment in regulatory, clinical, pre-commercial, and commercial infrastructure activities. Our total net loss for the 3 and 12 months ended December 31, 2025, was $14.7 million and $54.7 million, respectively. As always, we continue to evaluate financing options and cash management strategies, and we will provide updates if and when appropriate. I'll turn it back to Rick for closing remarks. Richard A. Stewart: Thank you, Mark. In closing, I'm pleased with our regulatory, clinical, and go-to-market efforts, which underscores the momentum behind Achieve Life Sciences and our unwavering commitment to addressing the critical unmet needs of nicotine dependence. As we look ahead, I want to highlight 3 critical value drivers for our Company. First, receiving NDA approval and successfully launching cytisinicline for smoking cessation. This is our near-term priority, and the team is executing with discipline and purpose. Discipline is important to ensure there is a controlled and successful launch. Second, the growing recognition of the significant opportunity represented by our vaping indication. With the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher and the urgent public health need around e-cigarette cessation, we have the opportunity to be first to market with a treatment for an indication where no approved options currently exist. Finally, both of these are underpinned by our digital commercial platform, the AI-powered data-driven infrastructure we built that positions us to launch efficiently and scale rapidly with precision targeting and measurable impact. To the millions of Americans who are ready to break free from nicotine dependence, Achieve Life Sciences is not quitting on you. We are dedicated to this urgent need. The standard of care in smoking cessation has not evolved in 2 decades, and we are about to change that. I'm grateful to our patients, clinical investigators, regulatory partners, investors, and our incredible Achieve team for their unwavering dedication to this mission. Together, we're building something meaningful. We're not quitting on you. We will not quit until we deliver a treatment that changes the standard of care for nicotine dependence and helps people live free of nicotine. Lastly, we're limited in what we can say about our interactions with the FDA while the NDA is under review. And as I said earlier, the communications are normal for this stage of the review process. I look forward to updating you on our progress. Thank you for your time, attention, and continued confidence in Achieve Life Sciences. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Thomas Flaten from Lake Street. Thomas Flaten: Perhaps for Jaime, the launch timing for the first half of '27, can you talk a little bit about the critical path between a late June NDA approval and the first-half launch? Is this primarily scale-up on the commercial side? Is it potentially product supply? Can you just talk a little bit about that gap that's created there? Jaime Xinos: Sure. Thanks for the question, Thomas. So obviously, we need drug in order to be able to go to market. And so that is our first consideration is when can we get drug into the supply chain to get it out into the hands of patients. So everything that we need to do on the trade and distribution side will be ready to go as soon as we have drug. So we have our 3PL setup, as I mentioned during the call, serialization, our specialty-pharmacy vendor, all of those requirements for copay and access, all of those will be aligned and ready to go at launch. The rest of the time that we'll be spending over the next 6 months with a little bit of -- or the additional 6 months gives us an opportunity to get some additional data into the marketplace and to the scientific community, and also work on -- work towards additional partnerships with advocacy and potentially policymakers. So it does afford us a bit more time to get a few other operational things activated as well. Richard A. Stewart: If I can add to that, if you look at it from a strategic standpoint, given the scale of the market that we're actually addressing, we took a decision that we need to make sure that we have got all of the processes in place to maximize or optimize the product launch. So, I think Jaime and the team are doing a terrific job on that front and Craig on the manufacturing side is doing an excellent job. So I think taking time to get it right is critically important for the success of the launch. Thomas Flaten: And then with respect to manufacturing, you did mention the observations during the GMP inspection. And did you imply -- maybe perhaps I'm reading too much into it, that the manufacturer in the NDA will not be supplying commercial product rather Adare will? And then, what implications does that have for folding Adare into the process now during the NDA review? Richard A. Stewart: Yes. I think the critical part of this is that the PDUFA date remains the 20th of June of this year. That is what the FDA has set, and that's what we're working toward. But of course, any time that there's any observations, we've already made the decision to transfer manufacturing to the U.S. given the geopolitical situation. So, we basically just accelerated that. So, at the moment, the PDUFA date remains exactly the same. And I think, given the scale of this opportunity, it's prudent to ensure that we have contingency supply. It's prudent to ensure that we've got onshored manufacturers here in the U.S. Operator: Our next question today is coming from Jason Butler from Citizens Bank. Jason Butler: On all the progress in 2025. Two from me. Can you just talk a little bit more about where you believe awareness currently is with health care providers and what additional work you'll be doing in 2026 to continue to build awareness of cytisinicline and the data? And then second, is there anything you can say about FDA dialogue on the vaping indication since you got the CNPV? Richard A. Stewart: Jaime, do you want to address the commercialization? Jaime Xinos: Sure. Thanks for the question. Regarding HCP awareness, I would say it's not been a priority to date to do broad-spread awareness about the product. And a lot of that has to do with what you are allowed to say in a pre-approval environment. So obviously, disease state education is one channel that we can provide information in a regulatory-compliant way, but one of the decisions that we've made is that we understand that everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, and there's really not a huge need to go out and spread that message. And so what we've been doing is conserving our resources so that when we get closer to launch, we can do a stronger push from an educational perspective that is specific to data about the product and when the product is going to be in the hands of physicians so they can use it with their patients. So we're scaling it adequately based on the need to do disease-awareness education, or lack thereof, in a smoking-cessation indication. I think as we get closer to launch, we will be ramping up more opportunities, and you're already seeing us do that around some of the conferences where we will be presenting data and where we have. So, ATS is a huge opportunity that Mark mentioned, where we're going to have some new data that we want to get out into the hands of -- into the medical community and into the hands of physicians. So, it's something that we are scaling up as we get closer to launch, but we've been very conservative in our efforts so far in how we spend money prior to them having the solution in their hands to give to their patients. And then, Rick or Mark, I'll turn it back over to you to discuss FDA dialogue on vaping. Mark Rubinstein: Sure. So right now, to date, our discussions with FDA around vaping have largely been around approval for the protocol itself. And we hope to continue engagement as the study progresses. Richard A. Stewart: I think if I can add to that, we're already in site-selection. So, it is progressing at a pace. So I think the key is that we're anticipating a commencement in the first half of this year. So, yes, it's moving along at the pace. And I noted also the public forum that the FDA is putting together the 20 -- I think it's the 14th of June coming up. So, I think there's some debate around the validity of the CNPV. But for us, we think that the opportunity is huge as being the first-in-market for a vaping-cessation product. And that's clearly an underserved market, as there are no treatments there. But -- so I think that's going to be a real area of focus and interest. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is coming from Brandon Folkes from H.C. Wainwright. Brandon Folkes: Congrats on all the progress. So, just coming back to the manufacturing, does your U.S. commercial launch time line of 1H 2027, does that assume a June 2026 approval or potential later approval? What level of flexibility should we think about in terms of when in 1H '27 you may launch? Anything to read into in that broad time line? And then, maybe on a similar vein, are you looking to add Adare to the NDA before the June approval? Or is this potentially something to qualify them post-approval? Richard A. Stewart: I'll take the answer in reverse order. Yes, it's going to be post the June approval. I think the key now is to focus in on the approval and also to ensure that we put a stake in the ground, frankly, in terms of the first half of '27 for the product launch quite simply because of all of the activities that need to go into it to ensure that we've got product to go into channel to make sure that all of the commercial operations have completed their activities. So, I think there's nothing to read into it other than we got a couple of observations that our third-party manufacturer is currently addressing with the FDA. There's a little bit of opacity around that, of course, because it's a discussion between the FDA and the manufacturer. But as far as we're concerned, on the flip side, we're always in favor of transparency. So we'll keep you in the picture with respect to that as things move along. Brandon Folkes: That's very helpful. Maybe lastly from me, just given the lead time between a potential June approval and a 1H 2027 launch, how should we think about insurance coverage at launch? Should we think about this similarly to normal launches? Or could we have better than normal insurance coverage at launch, obviously, given the indication, but also given that lead time to have those discussions? Jaime Xinos: Thanks. I'll take that question, Rick. So regarding payers, yes, we have been out actively having conversations in the regulatory compliant pre-approval information exchange opportunities that we do have. So we've had about 40 touch points with payers in the first quarter. We've attended PCMA. We've actually had inbounds from payers who want to have conversations with us. So, we are obviously on the radar. They are very interested. They recognize the differentiated profile of cytisinicline and the clear unmet need. Obviously, we know there's still 25 million people who smoke in this country who need treatments that will help them stop. So, the ongoing conversations are very encouraging. We also know that the Affordable Care Act requires coverage of smoking-cessation treatments. So, that certainly helps in our favor at launch and beyond. And regarding timing, the actual clock really starts building for the demand when the drug is in channel. So, we will have more time to have more conversations, but we won't start building demand. Any initial restrictions to access, such as new-to-market blocks, those still will require a ramp period from time of drug being distributed and in hands of patients to the timing of the bleed out that it takes in order to get on formulary for some of those plans. So, we're still tracking a slow ramp for the initial 6 months of launch. Operator: Our next question is coming from Justin Walsh from JonesTrading. Justin Walsh: I'm wondering if you can provide additional color on the robustness of the raw plant material supply-chain. Are third-party suppliers able to meet expected demand if Sopharma is unable to do so? Richard A. Stewart: Excellent question, Justin. Yes, as I mentioned before, we have been stockpiling the starting material for some considerable time. And by the time we get to launch, we believe we'll have more than 3 years supply of starting material for the amounts required for in-market sales. So -- and we will continue to add to that stockpile. We don't really see the inventory going much below 3 years for the foreseeable future. We've been buying in for quite a few years now. And the starting material has a 3-year shelf life, but we basically will reprocess it as we -- as it's required to be used. Justin Walsh: And one more for me. I'm wondering if you can comment on the cytisinicline dosing schedule and if there's any concern that a potential pill burden could limit real-world compliance or commercial uptake. Richard A. Stewart: I'll hand that one over to Dr. Mark Rubinstein stage. Mark Rubinstein: Sure. That's a great question. We actually have found, just after completing our ORCA-OL, where people actually use the pill 3 times a day for up to a year, that not only did people not find it excessively burdensome, but our completion rate and the number of people who adhered to the protocol was incredibly high. A lot of participants reported that they felt that their highest cravings were around mealtime. And so actually, even though you don't have to take cytisinicline with meals because it's TID, it's perfectly -- it can be perfectly timed around meals. And they found that it was reassuring to take something to address their cravings right around the time periods that they would have their highest cravings. And again, our adherence rates in all of our trials and our OL trial, which was 52 weeks was incredibly high, over 75%. Operator: Next question is coming from John Vandermosten from Zacks. John Vandermosten: In December, there was an ICER report that came out that calculated some prices for cytisinicline. And I was wondering if you've seen that. And then wondering how that compares with your internal calculations and what prices you're thinking about when that comes about next year. Richard A. Stewart: Jaime? Jaime Xinos: We have definitely seen the report -- thanks for the question. Yes, we have seen the ICER report. We were involved in the process, providing information when requested that was appropriate for their consideration. I think, importantly, what it did highlight is that they have affirmed there is a substantial unmet need despite currently available treatments, and that payers should make cytisinicline immediately available. And as far as pricing goes, we're not going to comment on our pricing because we've obviously not set that yet, and we're not ready to have those conversations with payers on an exact price. So, we'll leave it at that, but we are pleased with the recommendation that ICER made. John Vandermosten: And then a few questions on manufacturing. I guess I wanted to frame it first. Where does it stand with a synthetic manufacturer of API? And then I believe there are 3 different entities, perhaps, that you're working with. There's Adare. I believe there's a European manufacturer and then there's Sopharma. How does that all fit together? Richard A. Stewart: Right. So, some pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Look, I think the key here is that the synthetic is an end process, put it that way. It's not an easy process, and I think I've stressed this before, we're making substantial progress on that front. But I think in terms of the 3 manufacturers, we start off with Sopharma. Sopharma was not included in the NDA because we had concerns over their FDA inspection-readiness. I was down in Sofia about 3 weeks ago, and Sopharma have made substantial progress with respect to their inspection-readiness. And we'd expect -- we're going to intend to add them to the NDA once it's approved. I think in terms of the third-party manufacturer, the key there is that, as I mentioned, we've got these observations that we're monitoring very, very carefully, and they're collaborating with the FDA to rectify any kind of observations and the remedial action associated with it. And then ultimately, the transfer of manufacturer to the U.S. has largely been driven by a desire to have contingency and redundancy in our overall supply chain. And given the uncertainty around tariffs in particular, and also MFN and that kind of stuff, we decided some time ago to actually move manufacturing into the U.S. So, timing-wise, we're anticipating that Adare should be available to be added to the NDA in the third quarter, that kind of time frame. So does that answer the question? Operator: Yes. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments. Richard A. Stewart: Well, I'd just like to thank you all for your continued interest in Achieve Life Sciences. We've made terrific progress this year. And I just want to put it into context, 15 years ago, Tony Clarke, who is the Co-Founder of Achieve and I have this idea that cytisinicline could do immense societal benefit with a desperate need for a new treatment for nicotine dependence for smoking cessation. At that point, vaping didn't even exist. Over the years, we've worked tremendously hard. The initial 8 years was Tony Clarke and I actually funding the company ourselves. And since we -- over the last 7 years, we've made fantastic progress to address this huge unmet medical need. And we really do believe that we're at this brink -- on the brink of actually great success and having the ability to treat patients who have got very few options to quit. So, I'd just like to say thank you for your continued interest in the company, and we look forward to updating you. Operator: Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
Laurence Tam: Good morning, everyone, for those who are based in China and Hong Kong; and good evening for those based in the U.S. This is the 2025 WuXi AppTec results call. My name is Laurence Tam. I'm a China health care analyst at Morgan Stanley. We're honored today to have the full team from WuXi AppTec to present the 2025 results in English. The format of the call will be 2 parts. First, I'll let management go through their prepared remarks. You can refer to the slides on the webcast. And then the second part will be a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. With that, let me now pass it on to the Head of IR at WuXi AppTec, Ms. Tang Ruijia, to introduce management and to start the prepared remarks. I'll pass it on to you, Ruijia. Ruijia Tang: Okay. Thank you, Laurence. Welcome, everyone, to WuXi AppTec's 2025 Annual Results Conference Call. We released our financial results last night and have posted the latest on our company website. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our predictions are reasonable, future events are uncertain, and our forward-looking statements may turn out to be incorrect. Accordingly, you are strongly cautioned that the reliance on any forward-looking statements involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. In addition, to supplement the company's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with IFRS, we provide adjusted IFRS financial data. We believe the adjusted financial measures are useful for understanding and assessing our core business performance, and we believe that investors may benefit from referring to these adjusted financial measures by eliminating the impact of certain unusual and nonrecurring items that are not indicative of the performance of our core business. However, these adjusted measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information under IFRS. All IP rights and other rights pertaining to the information and materials presented are owned by WuXi AppTec. Audio recording, video recording or disclosure of such materials by any means without the prior consent of WuXi AppTec is prohibited. This call does not intend to provide a complete statement of relevant matters. For relevant information, please refer to the company's disclosure documents and information on Shanghai Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the company's website. As usual, in today's call, there will be a Q&A session after our presentation. Please kindly share with us your name and institution before asking questions. With that, please allow me to introduce our Co-CEO, Dr. Minzhang Chen, to present our 2025 annual results. Minzhang, please? Minzhang Chen: Thanks, Ruijia. Good morning, and good evening. Thank you for joining our 2025 annual earnings call. We will begin on Slide #5. In 2025, WuXi AppTec beat full year guidance and achieved record performance in both revenue and profit. Total revenue achieved RMB 45.46 billion. Notably, revenue from continuing operations grew 21.4% year-over-year to reach RMB 43.42 billion. Our adjusted non-IFRS net profit grew 41.3% year-over-year to RMB 14.96 billion with non-IFRS net profit margin further improved 5.9 percentage points year-over-year to 32.9%. Next slide, please. The company remains focused on enhancing our core capabilities and capacity to better meet customer demand. With continuous capacity expansion by end of 2025, our backlog for continuing operations reached RMB 58 billion, growing 28.8% year-over-year. This does not include business operations we sold or discontinued such as clinical research services. Next slide, please. Slide 7 shows our diversified revenue streams of continuing operations. Based on customer headquarters, revenue generated from U.S. market grew 34.3% year-over-year. Japan, Korea and other regions grew 4.1%. Europe and China saw some decline, mainly due to fluctuations in project delivery timing. This diversified revenue structure reflects our global footprint and capabilities to enable health care innovations. We believe it will continue to underpin the stability and the resilience of our performance. Slide 8, please. So as an enabler of innovation and a trusted partner and contributor to the global pharmaceutical and life science industry, the company continues to drive sustainability, embrace initiatives with sustained recognition by leading global ratings. In 2025, we achieved our first MSCI AAA and CDP Climate Change A Rating, maintained CDP Water Security A, and EcoVadis Gold rating, and were included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook for the fourth consecutive year. And meanwhile, our near-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets have been successfully validated by SBTi. As a committed UNGC participant and PSCI supplier partner, we actively embrace global initiatives and are dedicated to integrating sustainability into our business strategy and operations. Next slide, please. For over 2 decades, WuXi AppTec has remained steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding customers' IP and adhering to the highest standards for quality and compliance. In 2025, we completed 741 quality audits and inspections from global customers, regulatory authorities and independent third parties as well as 60 information security audits by global customers. This means, on average, we welcome 3 quality audits per day and over 1 information security audit per week, all with no critical findings. Currently, 20 of our main sites are ISO and IEC 27001 Certified, covering all main sites in China. IP is a lifeline for both our company and our customers. We uphold integrity as our foundation and enforce a zero tolerance policy against any infringement. This is our core value and our highest responsibility and commitment to our customers. Now let's move on to the segment performance. So please turn to Page 9. WuXi Chemistry's CRDMO business model drives continuous growth. In 2025, WuXi Chemistry revenue grew 25.5% year-over-year to RMB 36.47 billion, benefiting from continued process optimization and enhanced capacity efficiency driven by the growth of late-stage clinical and commercial projects. Our adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin steadily improved 5.9 percentage points year-over-year, reaching 52.3%. Our Small Molecule Drug Discovery (R) business continues to generate downstream opportunities. In 2025, we have successfully synthesized and delivered over 420,000 new compounds to our customers. Meanwhile, 310 molecules were converted from R to D in 2022 (sic) [ 2025 ]. As we continue to strengthen the capabilities of our integrated CRDMO platform, we consistently enhance the internal conversion of molecules at different stages. Our Small Molecule D&M business remains strong, and the Small Molecule CDMO pipeline continued to expand. In 2025, Small Molecule D&M business revenue grew 11.4% year-over-year to RMB 19.92 billion. Meanwhile, the company continued to build small molecule capacity. In 2025, our Changzhou, Taixing and Jinshan API sites all successfully passed FDA on-site inspections with no single observation. By year-end, total reactor volume of small molecule APIs reached over 4,000 cubic meters. WuXi TIDES, our New Modalities business, sustained rapid growth. With the sequential ramp-up of new capacity released in 2024 and 2025, TIDES' revenue almost doubled to reach RMB 11.37 billion in 2025. As of year-end, TIDES' backlog grew 20.2% year-over-year. TIDES' D&M customers increased 25% year-over-year and its number of molecules increased 45% year-over-year. In September 2025, we completed Taixing peptide capacity construction ahead of schedule. The company's total reactor volume of Solid Phase Peptide Synthesizers has reached over 100,000 liters. Next page, please. So driven by Following the Molecule and Win the Molecule strategies, WuXi Chemistry's Small Molecule CRDMO pipeline efficiently converts and captures high-quality molecules and delivering sustained business growth. This reflects our customers' strong trust in our technical capabilities, our service efficiency and our quality system. In R stage, we delivered more than 420,000 new compounds in 2025, representing a significant scale. At the same time, the complexity of these molecules continue to increase, demonstrating the sustained demand from early-stage R&D customers for high-quality services. Building on this strong foundation, we continue to enhance the synergy between our R and D capabilities by strengthening the conversion of molecules from R to D. The new compounds synthesized in R stage serve as a continuous funnel, driving downstream demand for our D&M services. Moving to the D&M stage, we added 839 molecules to our pipeline in 2025 with 310 of them converted from R to D. As of year-end, our Small Molecule D&M pipeline reached 3,452 molecules, including 53 (sic) [ 83 ] commercial projects, 91 in Phase III, 377 in Phase II and 2,901 in Phase I and preclinical. Notably, commercial and Phase III projects increased by 22. As our late-stage pipeline grows, the complexity and the quality of molecules continue to grow. This deepens our collaboration with customers and lays a solid foundation for sustained long-term growth. Next page, please. Our TIDES business has maintained rapid growth over the past few years. So in 2025, TIDES' revenue grew a strong 96% year-over-year to reach RMB 11.37 billion, nearly double. We have been continuously enhancing our capabilities and capacity to better meet customer demand. Now I will hand over to our Co-CEO, Dr. Steve Yang, to talk about WuXi Testing and WuXi Biology. Steve, please. Qing Yang: Thanks, Minzhang. Please turn to Slide #14. In 2025, WuXi Testing revenue returned to positive growth, increasing 4.7% year-over-year to RMB 4.04 billion, of which revenue from drug safety evaluation service grew 4.6% year-over-year, maintained its leadership position in Asia Pacific. Adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin declined year-over-year as the impact of market pricing were gradually reflected in revenue through backlog conversion. However, with our differentiated capabilities and enhanced operation management, margins continue to improve sequentially quarter-over-quarter. We actively enable customers in global licensing deals, supporting nearly 40% of the successful out-licensing projects from Chinese customers since 2022. Our new modality business continued to expand with revenue contributions exceeding 30% in 2025, maintaining a leading position in multiple areas. Meanwhile, we continue to advance automation. Our DMPK team launched a proprietary all-in-one compound identification software solution, improved efficiency by 80% (sic) [ 83% ] in spectral interpretation and metabolite identification for nucleic acids and peptide test articles. Finally, in 2025, our Suzhou and Shanghai facilities successfully passed multiple regulatory inspections by FDA, by OECD, NMPA and PMDA. This underscores the high quality of our GLP operations and our quality systems. Let's turn to Slide #15, please. WuXi Biology follows the science, strategically builds differentiated capabilities in emerging areas, and we actively expand our global customer outreach. This allows us to efficiently generate downstream opportunities for our CRDMO model, continuously contributing more than 20% of our new customers. We efficiently enable global customers through our integrated in vitro and in vivo drug discovery capabilities for biology, the cross-regional collaboration, end-to-end point in emerging areas. WuXi Biology revenue resumed positive growth in 2025, growing 5.2% year-over-year to RMB 2.68 billion. The adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin was 36.9%, down 1.9 percentage point, reflecting market pricing dynamics. We closely follow market conditions with a flexible pricing strategy, maximize our value in generating downstream opportunities. Our revenue growth was driven by advancement in our comprehensive in vitro screening platform and enhanced in vivo pharmacology capabilities. Our non-oncology in vivo business maintained a competitive edge, serving as a key growth contributor to WuXi Biology. Our new modality business continued the momentum with the revenue contribution exceeding 30% in 2025, supported by rapid new customer expansion in multiple areas. Now I would like to turn the call to our CFO, Florence, to discuss our financial performance. Florence, please? Florence Shi: Thank you, Steve. Let's turn to Slide 17. We would like to recap on the company's financials. In 2025, we beat our full year guidance and achieved record high performance in revenue, profit and cash flow, all aspects. Thanks to the visibility provided by our CRDMO business model, we proactively planned our capacity and capabilities. As new capacity ramped up efficiently quarter-over-quarter, we timely supported the growing demand from late-stage clinical and commercial projects. Meanwhile, we continued to drive quality growth, strengthen our technological expertise and improve operational efficiency. In 2025, our adjusted non-IFRS gross profit reached RMB 21.89 billion. Adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin expanded to 48.2%, up 6.6 percentage points year-over-year. Adjusted non-IFRS net profit grew 41.3% to RMB 14.96 billion. Correspondingly, adjusted non-IFRS net profit margin improved by 5.9 percentage points to reach 32.9%. Net profit after deducting nonrecurring items grew 32.6% to RMB 13.24 billion and net profit attributable to the owners of the company surged 102.6% (sic) [ 105.2% ] to RMB 19.15 billion (sic) [ RMB 19.19 billion ]. Building on our robust business growth, we sharpened our focus on the CRDMO core business and continue to enhance our investment management capabilities. This resulted in pretax investment gains exceeding RMB 8 billion in 2025. further boosting our net profit attributable to the owners of the company. Consequently, our diluted earnings per share reached RMB 6.61 (sic) [ RMB 6.63 ], more than doubling year-over-year. Please turn to Slide 18. With sustained business growth, particularly the rapid increase in late-stage clinical and commercial projects, combined with enhanced operational efficiency and financial management, our 2025 adjusted operating cash flow reached a record high of RMB 16.67 billion, growing 39.1% year-over-year. This fully demonstrates the sustainable momentum driven by our high-quality molecules and projects. We continue to actively advance our global capacity expansion as planned with CapEx payment of RMB 5.54 billion in 2025. Now I'd like to hand over to Minzhang to share the company outlook. Minzhang, please. Minzhang Chen: Okay. Please turn to Slide 20. Okay. We remain focused on our unique integrated CRDMO core business, accelerating the growth of our global capabilities and capacity. We provide highly efficient and exceptional services to our customers, benefiting patients worldwide and driving long-term growth. We will also drive the O in our CRDMO model operations. By driving optimized management and operations, we aim to continuously improve, improving efficiency and strengthen organizational resilience to navigate dynamic market conditions. With customers' ongoing demand for enabling services, our CRDMO business model and management execution, the company is confident to sustain rapid business growth. We expect total revenue to reach RMB 51.3 billion to RMB 53 billion in 2026, with continuing operations revenue growing 18% to 22% year-over-year. By continuously driving quality growth, realizing scale efficiency and enhancing operational excellence, while proactively managing new capacity ramp-up and exchange rate challenges, we are confident in maintaining a stable and resilient adjusted non-IFRS net profit margin in 2026. Finally, CapEx for 2026 is expected to reach RMB 6.5 billion to RMB 7.5 billion. Along with business growth and efficiency improvements, we expect adjusted free cash flow to reach RMB 10.5 billion to RMB 11.5 billion. Next page, please. While accelerating the growth of our global capacity and capabilities, we remain committed to rewarding shareholders and actively upholding the company's value. The Board proposes a cash dividend distribution plan totaling a record RMB 5.7 billion in 2026. Specifically, we plan to maintain the 30% annual cash dividend payout ratio, expecting to distribute 2025 dividend of RMB 4.71 billion, while continuing our interim dividend plan of RMB 1 billion in 2026. To continuously attract and retain top talent, we proposed the 2026 H-share incentive Trust plan. Under this plan, no more than HKD 1.5 billion worth of H-shares will be granted if 2026 revenue reaches RMB 51.3 billion. An additional HKD 1 billion worth of H-shares will be granted if revenue reaches RMB 53.0 billion or above. This aims to strengthen management resilience and align our team for long-term shared growth. Importantly, all underlying H-shares will be purchased in the open market at prevailing market prices with no dilution to existing shareholders. Thanks for your attention, and we are now open for questions. Laurence Tam: Thanks a lot, Minzhang Chen, Steve Yang, Florence and also Ruijia. We will now enter the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] So let me start off with the first question. First of all, let me congratulate management on a fantastic 2025 and a very positive 2026 guidance. Obviously, this year, there's a lot of uncertainty in the markets and also, we have experienced a lot of volatility. Despite that, the company delivered a very positive 2025 and a continuing operations revenue growth range expected for 2026 of 18% to 22%, which means that the midpoint is 20% growth in 2026 for continuing operations, which gives investors a lot of visibility. One of the key concerns this year from investors for the CXO industry is the exchange rate. Year-to-date, the U.S. dollar has depreciated against the RMB. So the first question is, in the context of this renewed guidance, how does management think about the impact of currency exchange? And what is your outlook or guidance for each of the 3 business units? Ruijia Tang: Yes, thanks. We do consider the FX movement and the challenges. So I also would like to appreciate everyone who recognize, even with not only the FX, but with all the complexity and the volatility in the macro environment we are navigating, every company is navigating today, we still provide a very clear and narrow guidance range of our total revenue, which is only about like 3% of our top line, at the beginning of the year, which is pretty consistent with our historical practice. Basically, that reflects the strong visibility in our CRDMO business model and our confidence in our execution capabilities, same as the management capabilities on the FX movement as well. Laurence Tam: Thanks a lot, Ruijia. So the second question is a little bit on geopolitics. Obviously, the situation in the Middle East has escalated in recent weeks, and investors are worried about the rise in oil prices and the impact on raw material costs. Your margins improved significantly last year. And this year, the guidance is that margins would be stable. How would you think about the impact of geopolitics and oil prices on your margins going forward? Florence Shi: Yes, I will comment on the cost fluctuations that could be impacted. So first of all, our global operations are running smoothly as usual, okay? We acknowledge there are potential risk to certain upstream raw material costs, but it takes time to transmit through the broader supply chain. We haven't seen any direct or quantifiable impact on our operations or cost, but we will closely monitor the situation and the market dynamics as everyone did. We have mature and diversified procurement network in place in past 25 years. On top of that, we are constantly optimizing our manufacturing process, driving operational efficiency, which helps us focus on the certainty of meeting the customer demands in need and remain committed to deliver exceptional services. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Florence. So we get to sell-side and investor questions now. So I will first start with 2 questions from Goldman Sachs, Chen Ziyi. So his first question is the company continued to be highly committed to TIDES' CapEx. So he would like to understand a bit more on the pipeline behind the CapEx budget beyond injectable peptides, which has been a key driver in the past 3 years? And what would be the next key modalities that could potentially be the new focus, for example, siRNA, antisense oligos, oral peptides or any new modalities that biopharma is thinking about at the early stages? Minzhang Chen: Well, so right now, there are many modalities. It's a combination. So there is no single modality that can replace all. So we have small molecules, we have peptides, and we have oligos, and we have all kinds of conjugates. But currently, the demand for peptides itself is so high, so we continue to build the capacity and to meet the market demand for the peptides. At the same time, we're also seeing oligonucleotide is growing. And although the market is still small, but we see that there are many, many molecules in the pipeline, and also it's going from rare disease now to a very broad to general disease. So the growth will be fast. And also small molecule. Now the molecules became more and more complex. So to manufacture, in large scale, very complex molecules, needed very technical capabilities as well as manufacturing capacities to meet the market demand. So we are doing all this. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. So Ziyi's next question is there's been some debate on what will be the impact of pharma's announced big CapEx on building internal capacity, particularly in the U.S.? What is WuXi AppTec's view on that? Have you sensed any change on client outsourcing strategy in the past 6 to 12 months? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So in the pharmaceutical industry, historically, all the API drug products are manufactured internally. And then some of the work is done by the CMO, CDMO. And so this has a long history. So it's nothing new that the large pharma is also manufactured internally, nothing new. But we just committed continuously to improve our capabilities and to invest in capacities and provide the best service and meet the customer needs. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. So the next few questions are coming from Michael Luo of CLSA. His first question is, can WuXi AppTec give us some color on the current utilization rate of the company's 4,000 cubic meter small molecule API capacity? And also, do you still have any plan to expand capacity in this area this year? Minzhang Chen: Yes. Our current capacity is highly utilized. And we have the -- well, because we don't really talk about the capacity for the -- we are building the capacity for small molecules, but actually, we have the land and we continuously build the small molecule capacities to meet the demand. So we grow double digit, over 11% last year, to almost RMB 20 billion for the Small Molecule D&M. So that means a lot of capacity. And this year, we expect accelerated growing from the Small Molecule D&M. So there will be more capacity. So we continue to build new capacity for small molecules. And if you go to our Taixing site, we have the land and we continue to build the new plants all the time. Laurence Tam: And his next question is, beyond obesity and diabetes-related projects, can management highlight any pipeline products or areas that may become meaningful contributors to revenue growth in the next 3 to 5 years? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So our business model is a CRDMO business model. So we have a very broad pipeline. So for example, currently, our D&M pipeline for small molecules, we have more than 3,000 molecules. And so, as a funnel, we continuously have the project moving to the late phase and the commercial projects. And many of those projects are very high-quality molecules. Clearly, GLP-1 right now has the most demand in terms of volume. But also, we have quite a few very promising high-quality molecules into the late phase and the commercial stage. For example, the PCSK9 molecule, autoimmune molecule, pain, neuroscience. So we have a number of that. Just the number I gave in the Investor Day last year, 2024, the Drug Hunter named top 10 molecules, and we work on 8 of them. Again, just a few days ago, they published 2025 top 10 molecules, and we work on 7 of them; and the best-selling small molecules, the top 10, we work on 4 of them. So we work on many of the high quality as big large volume molecules. But of course, right now, GLP-1 is still the #1, no doubt about that. Laurence Tam: Thank you. His next question is, can management share how you're thinking about CapEx allocation this year, in particular, which business areas or capacity building are likely to be the key focus going forward? Florence Shi: Yes. I think the CapEx spending really reflects our business model and our global expansion strategy. So a majority of our CapEx spending will be put on the CDMO capacity expansion, because our business generates more and more downstream D&M projects. And also, we're accelerating our global expansion in U.S., Europe and also the Middle East in future. But at the same time, we are also expanding the capacity for both small molecule and new modalities in China as well. Laurence Tam: Okay. Thank you, Florence. His last question is, given the recent volatility in the Middle East, has the company's strategic approach to the region changed in any way? And also which types of business or operations, if any, do you see as potentially suitable for the Middle East over time? Qing Yang: Yes, our global capacity and capability building is our long-term strategy. Clearly, that will continue. And we have announced a memorandum of understanding with government agencies with Saudi Arabia late last year. And our strategic initiatives in Saudi Arabia continue to proceed. We are engaging with relevant stakeholders and develop tactical plans for the next step. So that continue. Our CRDMO business model and our globalization of our capacity and capability is really the key to our continued growth, and we will continue to build the global capacities. In terms of what suitable area in Saudi Arabia, we are going through a deep dive with the advisory of local strategic advisory firms to understand local regulatory requirement and what are the suitable capabilities we should localize. Based on our preliminary feedback, clearly, there are lots of opportunities. We will likely start in the discovery space and then gradually expand to other part of our global platform. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Yang. Next, we have 3 questions coming from CICC's Wanhua. First question is, what is the current capacity utilization rate of the company's solid phase peptide capacity, which now exceeds 100,000 liters? What level of utilization does the company expect to reach in 2026? Are there any plans for further capacity expansion? Minzhang Chen: Yes. The peptide capacity currently is highly used. So as a result, actually, we just started 2 new TIDES buildings, so for both peptide and oligo, we just started 2 TIDES building construction in our Taixing site. In the meantime, we also built a new plant in Singapore for TIDES. So in short, yes, our capacity is highly utilized right now, and we are building new capacities to meet the growing demand. Laurence Tam: Thank you, Dr. Chen. Her second question is, what is the progress of U.S. and Singapore sites? And is it currently in line with expectations? How will these new facilities coordinate with the company's domestic capacity? And has there been any change to the expected time line for commencing operations? Minzhang Chen: Both projects are on time, on schedule and on budget. So our U.S. plant, which is in Middletown, Delaware, is for drug products. So it will have both oral solid dosage and injectables once completely operational. So hope Q4 this year, we're going to start the operation of the oral solid dosage, and a year later, Q4 next year, we're going to start the injectable business. Yes, this is the U.S. plant side. For the Singapore side, it's also on schedule and on budget, and the first plant will be operational next year, '27, and that is for API. So this way, then we will have a dual supply chain for the customers, so they can either get made in China or made outside China, which is in Singapore, for API. On the drug product, U.S. side is mainly for the U.S., North American market customers. And we also have a drug product facility in Switzerland, which is mainly for the European market. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. Her last question is, the company has seen a significant increase in inventory. Is this mainly related to stocking for large orders? When are the corresponding orders for these inventories expected to be recognized as revenue? Florence Shi: Yes. I think this truly reflects our business model of our CRDMO business. Our inventory is being built based on the orders in hand. At the same time, as we have the capabilities to capture the high-quality molecules, which is more complex and takes longer manufacturing process, so that's why the inventory growth is higher than the revenue growth. I think that's a further validation of the high-quality growth trajectory of our business. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Florence. So next, we'll go back to Ziyi Chen from Goldman Sachs. He has a question on AI. So in the past 2 months, U.S. CRO company share prices have been hit hard by concerns on AI and how it could pose competitive pressure on pricing or volume for lab services and clinical services. What is WuXi AppTec's view on the impact of AI, particularly on its Testing and Biology segments? Qing Yang: So first of all, our Biology and Testing business remain robust, both in terms of the return to positive growth, as we reported, and also our outlook for 2026. We actually believe AI in combination with human intelligence could be a huge enabler, not only for our industry, but specifically for our company, and help us to increase efficiency, at the same time, increase our ability to anticipate and forecast the future in terms of customer needs and in terms of capacity utilization. This is an area we have invested heavily in terms of our ability to using operational data to make our animal room scheduling, study scheduling, reactor cleaning as well as other aspects of work become more efficient. The example we cited during the presentation on spectral resolution and interpretation for our DMPK team is a good sign. That situation is obviously very different from as we have seen in other sectors such as in enterprise software. Secondly, we do believe our wet lab capabilities to generate massive data and with high quality and consistency is actually very important for companies who are interested to build a new model and algorithms to increase their prediction capabilities. And we had opportunity to work with many leading companies in this space. And so while they may have models that have the potential to generate new hypothesis, at this stage most of those models require high-quality data, and we are uniquely positioned to provide those data. So this is actually a driver to more business for our Biology and Testing business. And finally, we believe, for our CRDMO model, with more advancement in ability to unlock either target space or come with new hypothesis to design molecules, it will only accelerate the flow of new ideas into project start, and that will ultimately benefit the funnel, the CRDMO funnel, in a world where research and discovery become even more globalized and decentralized. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Yang. So now we have 2 questions coming from Chen Chen of UBS. First, U.S. FDA has announced that it plans to drop the standard requirement of 2 Phase III or pivotal trials. Instead, the FDA's default position will be for Phase III trial for drug approvals. Do you think that it would accelerate drug approvals and benefit your new orders growth? Qing Yang: I will start and then invite Minzhang for additional comments. So first of all, any regulatory streamlined process will benefit from patients. Secondly, any acceleration in clinical development potentially will drive more demand and more timely demand for drug substance and drug product to supply clinical trial. And if that shortens clinical development time frame, it will help actually accelerate the commercialization drive. So we think all of those initiatives that shorten the time to patients will be beneficial for our CRDMO model. Minzhang, any additional comments? Minzhang Chen: No, I think that's well said. Laurence Tam: Thank you, Dr. Yang, Dr. Chen. So her next question is, one of your biggest clients announced a 10-year plan to invest USD 3 billion in expanding its oral dosage supply chain in China, focusing on oral GLP-1 manufacturing. And one of your peers, a CDMO, has received part of this investment, actually USD 200 million initially. Do you think you can also benefit from this multinational investment in China and to what extent? Minzhang Chen: Well, so we all know that GLP-1 drugs, no matter it's peptide or small molecule, has a huge demand and so this announcement, this investment just further proved that, yes, the demand is very high for the molecule. So because the demand is very high, and we are the major player in this field, so we believe we will benefit from the opportunities. I don't want to comment on the specific partnership or collaborations, but -- so the USD 3 billion investment, right now it's only USD 200 million, so we have to spend the rest. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. So the next question comes from Huang Yang of JPMorgan. What is WuXi AppTec's positioning in oral small molecule GLP-1 CDMO business? Minzhang Chen: Well, we had a double-digit growth last year, and we are accelerating the growth for the small molecule this year. And part of the contribution of this growth is from the GLP-1 small molecule. Laurence Tam: Okay. And his next question is, it seems that Small Molecule D&M business will have better growth in 2026 versus 2025. What would be the main drivers for that? Minzhang Chen: Well, it's just demand, high demand, because the drug will be approved this year, I believe. Laurence Tam: Okay. Next, we have 2 questions coming from an investor from Franklin Templeton. "Hi, this is Harry from Franklin Templeton. Congrats on the robust performance. So firstly, what is the revenue breakdown? What is the mix do you see? And how do you see the geographical mix changing? Growth, obviously, is very strong in the U.S., while Europe and China are showing some recovery." So let's first address this question. Minzhang Chen: Florence, do you want to comment on the mix? Florence Shi: Okay. Yes. I think because we follow the customer, follow the molecule, and follow the science. So the geographic revenue growth really demonstrates where the innovation comes from, where's the customer need, our capabilities and the capacities. We do see the strong growth from across all the regions, and we believe that we can better deliver and execute in 2026. Minzhang Chen: Thanks, Florence. Yes, we see the PO growth across all the regions for 2025. So we believe that's growth for all the regions in 2026, but particularly the growth was strong last year in U.S. So that's why the percentage of the other regions relatively becomes smaller, but we expect the growth for all regions this year. And the small decline in China and Europe last year was mainly due to the delivery schedule of some large projects, but the growth momentum is there. Florence Shi: Yes. I think that's basically proof we have very good position everywhere. And we continue to see the strong growth in U.S., in China, and Europe and all the other regions. Laurence Tam: Okay. And his next question is on the TIDES business. How do you see sustainability of its growth? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So the largest product that we are making, the demand will continue to grow in the next many years by market forecast. So the demand will continue to grow. We also are working on quite a few late phase, very promising projects, which potentially could be big products as well. One more step back, we are a CRDMO, so we have a very big pipeline, not only in small molecules, but also in peptides and also in oligonucleotides. We have a pipeline and that pipeline continues to funnel the projects into the late phase and commercial projects. And that's where our sustained long-term growth comes from. Laurence Tam: Okay. And on oligonucleotides, what is WuXi AppTec's differentiation from the other oligo CDMOs or manufacturers? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So like all other modalities like peptides small molecule, if you can find a place that has quality, speed, cost, technical capability and the capacity, you tell me. So I think it's the same. So we put all this together, and I think that's our unique advantage. Laurence Tam: And his last question is, can you give us some color on the general time line that it takes for a new facility to be built and to contribute in a meaningful way to earnings? Minzhang Chen: So in China, we can do that in less than 12 months from start to fully operational. Laurence Tam: So we have 2 questions next coming from Nomura's Zhang Jialin. So firstly, what is the range for the TIDES business gross margin? Do we calculate over 60%, is this about the right range? And how should we think about the margin trend for TIDES? Minzhang Chen: Well, I don't believe we disclose the margin for TIDES. Florence, can you answer that? Florence Shi: Yes. We don't disclose the specific margin. But I think the margin naturally reflects our capabilities, the capacities and the value creation to the customers. Laurence Tam: Okay. His next question is, how is the current Middle East situation or conflict impacting the company's investment view in Saudi Arabia in the midterm? Qing Yang: As I already mentioned earlier, we don't see any near-term disturbance changing our long-term strategy. Our long-term strategy is strengthen CRDMO model, build global capacity wherever there is a customer need. And we're continually engaging with stakeholders in Saudi Arabia and proceed with evaluation of different localization options. Those continue to proceed based on our plan. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Yang. So next, we'll go to Citi's John Yung. You initially guided continuing operations revenue to grow 10% to 15% for 2025, and you delivered 21% plus. Now the same guidance for 2026 is a range of 18% to 22%. Should we also expect this guidance to be prudent and that you are confident to beat it? Florence Shi: Rather than calling our guidance prudent, I would view it as responsible to the market, right? And I appreciate you track our records. We are navigating a lot of the complex and volatile macro environments today, but we do have the confidence to execute the guidance we provide to the market. Of course, we will closely monitor and give the updated time line to all the investors if we see any different situation. Laurence Tam: Thank you, Florence. So next, we'll go back to Ziyi Chen's question. So 2026 guidance has been very clear and exciting. He would like to understand the growth sustainability a bit more. What is the reasonable growth expectation beyond 2026, when the TIDES business will be slowing down given the large base and key product cycles. What could be the key growth driver beyond 2026? Florence Shi: I think we have the confidence to keep the sustainable growth. And basically, we follow the molecules, and the CRDMO model really gives us the confidence. We will continuously capture the high-quality molecules and follow the science. And we do have the capabilities and capacities to better serve our customers. Laurence Tam: Okay. And going back to Nomura's Zhang Jialin, he has a follow-up question. Can management help us understand the competitive landscape of siRNA CRO space and the growth outlook? How much will it contribute to the current TIDES segment? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So there are many players out there that have provided the CDMO service on the oligonucleotides, specifically, I think siRNA. And also siRNA has a very large percentage in our pipeline as well. Like I said, we continue to focus on the service we provide, and we continue to focus on both the quality service, the capacity, the speed and the competitive cost. So I think with our unique advantage, we just focus on providing the best service and win the competition in the end, just like we do in every modality in our business. Laurence Tam: So next, we have an investor question. WuXi AppTec has RMB 42-plus billion of backlog expected to be converted in 2026, but you're guiding for RMB 51.3 billion to RMB 53 billion of total revenue. So that means roughly an extra RMB 9 billion to RMB 11 billion will need to come from new orders signed and delivered within the year. In the current environment, with trade policy uncertainty, how confident are you in that year booking assumption? And has Q1 2026 order activity remained consistent with that trajectory? Florence Shi: Yes. I think you're right. You noticed. Actually, in our total backlog, it is expected to convert -- like 70% of our total backlog is expected to convert into the revenue in 2026, which is within the next 12 months. I think our ability to convert orders into revenue with speed and efficiency actually reflects our strong execution capabilities across our whole organization. And if you compare with the historical number, actually the percentage is significantly improved, which also demonstrates we have more and more late-stage clinical and commercial projects on hand. That really enhances the near-term visibilities and the certainty of our growth trajectory. As I mentioned, with all the efforts we are making, we do have the confidence to deliver our guidance. And of course, we always try to beat it, right? So I don't see there is any big concern about the new orders coming in the conversion. Laurence Tam: Okay. Great. Thanks, Florence. So last question, let me wrap up by touching a bit on geopolitics. We haven't really talked about the 1260H list from the U.S. Pentagon. Obviously, it was released shortly in February and then withdrawn within like an hour. And a lot of investors looked at that list and saw WuXi AppTec being on there together with a lot of big Chinese companies. Does the company have anything to say on that? Obviously, Sino-U.S. relations were moving in a positive direction in the months prior to that with obviously, the BIOSECURE bill not naming the WuXi companies. What is the company's view on relations between the 2? Qing Yang: Yes, I'll take that question. So as you mentioned that we have seen that in February the list was put on and withdrawn. So at this time, the final 1260H list for 2026 has not been officially published. And there's no definitive timetable at this time as to when this is going to publish, no one actually knows, and we won't make any prediction or speculations for the timing of the U.S. government's actions. At the same time, they are very confident that WuXi AppTec shall not be included in the 1260H list. We are a publicly traded company listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai with a transparent corporate governance. The company is not owned or controlled by any government or affiliated with any government or military organization. So at this moment, the company will continue to monitor the situation and take all necessary actions to correct any misinformation and clarify any misunderstandings. And in terms of BIOSECURE Act, you mentioned that -- we all know that the bill was passed as part of the NDAA at the end of last year. Since then, there's no recent development on the implementation. So we'll continue to monitor. Laurence Tam: Thank you very much. So we're coming up to the time limit. So let me pass it back to management to do concluding remarks. Minzhang Chen: All right. Thank you all for joining today's earnings call. So 2025 is the 25th anniversary of WuXi AppTec. So for the past 25 years, WuXi AppTec has been dedicated to lowering the barriers to R&D and advancing health care innovation worldwide. Entering 2026 with a sharpened focus on our core CRDMO strategy, we are accelerating the growth of our global capabilities and capacities, further improving production and operational efficiency and delivering greater value for customers and shareholders. Staying true to our founding aspiration, we will remain committed to doing the right thing and do it right, enabling our partners to deliver life-saving therapies to patients in need and advancing our vision that every drug can be made and every disease can be treated. Thank you all. Laurence Tam: Thank you very much to WuXi AppTec's management and the IR team. This will conclude the presentation. Thank you all for joining. Florence Shi: Thank you. Ruijia Tang: Thank you. Qing Yang: Thank you. Laurence Tam: Bye.
Zach Spencer: Good morning, and thank you for joining Comstock Inc.'s Full Year 2025 results and business outlook. I'm Zach Spencer, Director of External Relations. Today is Tuesday, March 24, 2026, we are streaming live and this session is being recorded. A recording will be posted shortly after we adjourn in the Investor Relations section of our website. Today, we filed our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and issued a press release summarizing year-end results. Both documents are available on our website. As a reminder, Comstock is listed on NYSE American with the ticker LODE. Joining me today are Corrado De Gasperis, Comstock's Chief Executive Officer; and Judd Merrill, Comstock's Chief Financial Officer. After their prepared remarks, we will take questions. We received more than 35 questions in advance of the call. If you have additional questions during the call, please use the Zoom Q&A window, and we will address as many as time allows. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties detailed in our SEC filings. Full risk disclosures can be found in our filings on the Investor Relations page and on the SEC website. With that, it is my pleasure to introduce our Chief Financial Officer, Judd Merrill. Judd you may begin. Judd Merrill: Thanks Zach and thanks for everyone being on this call. I have a few remarks, and then we'll turn it over to Corrado, but I just want to look at the company dashboard here and just announced from a CFO's perspective, 2025 was really a transformational year for Comstock. We really doubled the size -- doubled our asset base. We strengthened and simplified our balance sheet. We eliminated legacy debt and other legacy obligations and we fully positioned the company for its next phase of growth. And our balance sheet really is the strongest it has been and it's positioned to be even stronger as we monetize noncore assets, and it's giving us kind of a speed advantage on our recycling competitors. Our capital structure is also very clean and our shareholder base continues to strengthen. We continue our targeting and our outreach for what is still relatively a less known story. Less known metal story, less known financial execution and monetization priorities. And at the same time, we are beginning to see the early results of that investment, particularly in metals. Our commercialization efforts are moving us into a second more sophisticated phase. Here are some specifics that all freeing up cash and cash equivalents are stood at 56-point -- or approximately $56 million at March 20, 2026. And our common shares outstanding are 74 million shares at March 20, 2026. And this is reflecting the recent offering which ended up being really outstanding, if not transformational. It's a change in our shareholder base with significant Hood River, Gratia, MA Capital, those are just 3 that represent the top -- some of the top investors that we have an engagement with them and support has been amazing, including what we just recently announced enhancements to our Board. And really, all this is critical part of our foundation for building a global multibillion potential company and a testament of the capabilities that we have positioned. We did complete that second oversubscribed equity offering earlier this year, which brought in about $57.5 million gross proceeds, which was approximately $53 million net of offering expenses. And again, this was really driven by the demand from leading institutional investors. And what it does is it removes the largest single risk to the spend needed to capture the solar market. These funds allow us to deploy our first industry scale metals recycling facility without distraction. Secure and permit and fund facility #2, which positions us to corner the entire Southwest market right here from Nevada. We announced and build additional permitted storage sites like California, Ohio, Texas and others accelerate our refining solution and capability, including strategic partners and really position us for the best, fastest monetization of SSOF and our other noncore assets. When we look back when we started 2025, it was with huge developed potential, but really no capital resources and many, many counterparty obligations that we required to able to develop our platforms. We have effectively eliminated those obligations from our balance sheet. We did have revenues too. Comstock Metals had revenues for 2025 that was approximately $1.4 million compared to 2024 which was about $0.4 million. In addition to the reported revenue, we did generate additional billings, approximately $2.2 million in 2025. We call it deferred revenue and that's associated with our early operations. So about $3.5 million for all of 2025, just as we guided to. It's also important to note that our 2025 results included several nonrecurring items associated with the transformation of our balance sheet. These costs include debt conversion and extinguishments as well as noncash impacts from changes in the fair value of derivative instruments, which is all now behind us. So last year was a deliberate effort to simplify our capital structure and eliminate legacy obligations. And these actions, we believe, significantly strengthen the company going forward. And from a liquidity standpoint, we are in a strong position. We believe our current cash, combined with expected revenues from metals recycling later this year and priority asset sales and monetization, all that keeps us strong and in a leading position as we execute on the metals plan. And lastly, we are lining up and diligent seen and positioning more traditional nondilutive sources, which includes grants and industrial bonds, which we will qualify for and we'll have access to once our first facility is up and running this year. So those are my remarks. I'll turn it over now to Corrado to dive deeper into our metals progress and monetization. Corrado De Gasperis: Thanks, Judd. Thanks, everyone, for being here. We probably have a record attendance for this call. So I'm really -- I'm excited about the update. Let me start with the announcement that we made just after the market closed today, which for us is incredibly exciting and encouraging. As Judd mentioned, at the end of January, we had a robustly oversubscribed offering. We had tremendous quality of institutional investors. He named a few, Hood River, MA Capital, Gratia. I mean the list continues on down to a solid 25, 30 institutions that joined. What was even more encouraging was Steve Pei, Gratia, Craig and Mike Kaufman, the interest that was taken in the company is very, very high, including site visits, including reviews and tours of all of our assets and quite frankly, extremely constructive engagement about support and help for how do we position this company to be a truly global, truly dominant, metal recycling company. I think that reflects a view that our technology is differentiated. I think it reflects a view that we have a really, really early adopter head start. I think it reflects a view that we did make good progress with this balance sheet. If you go back to the shareholder letter from last January, it was a tough letter, but the message was we need to clean things up. We need to get recapitalized and we need to fund these growth businesses. So if people go back and look at that letter, we could say, wow, we made huge progress. But now we have that posture. So the hard work is now the execution. And how do you take a platform that's regional? Sure, half of the end-of-life market is in the Southwest region. United States, absolutely Nevada and these Nevada permits and platform positions us to capture it. But it's much bigger than that. The United States has over 1.3 billion panels deployed. They're coming end of life rapidly, and that's only 1/8 of the world. The world has just as big of a dilemma, 8x relative to the U.S. So the conversation was around expanding governance, expanding international business competency, accessing capital markets competency. So we're thrilled to announce the addition of 3 new independent directors. Donald Colvin, who has extensive and frankly, complex financial management background, but a very, very strong solar industry experience being the Chair and a Board member of a public solar manufacturer of global footprint and just the global public company governance posture from chairing boards to chairing audit committees. And then Steve Pei, as I mentioned, with extensive, I mean, quite remarkable capital markets background, entrepreneurial, what was intriguing was the notion of investing in smaller early-stage companies and watching them become national or international successes and watching those values increase dramatically. And then Bob Spence, who has an exceptional background in refining, in recycling and electrification recycling to boot, including international operations, 30-plus international sites in public and international governance experience, both from audit, from acquisition, from oversight. We really could have spent a couple of years working on the searching and recruiting and aligning and onboarding of our Board. We really jump-started that. So I think from a perspective of really, really strong platform that can really handle all of the things that are coming, sweeping across the U.S. We've got a really good plan for that. But this won't stop there. This market is just extraordinary. So we're welcoming our expanded Board. And I guess the final takeaway is when 2 of your top 4 investors are represented on your Board, that screams a lot. We couldn't be more thankful Steve Pei of Gratia. Michael Kaufman at MAK, Craig and the rest of the team that just worked so, so diligently to make all this happen for us. We thank you very, very much. And for 2026, that team, that governance structure, that capital base is aligned, right? We're aligned on these objectives, which is very, very much, first and foremost, to monetize our noncore legacy mining assets. We've gone from a few years ago talking to less than credible people to talking to marginally capable people to now being engaged with very, very serious mining counterparties that absolutely like what we have here, what we've maintained here, which is a great mining district, great resources. If there's any question about this decision, let me put everybody's mind at rest. Every dollar that we take from the mining assets and put into the recycling assets multiplies exponentially. And let's be clear, if we were going to mine these assets it would take $30 million, $40 million, maybe $50 million of capital to put a mine into production. That's with an existing resource and a permitted platform. There would still be a lot to do. So in that context, it's money that doesn't go to solar recycling. That's a nonstarter for us. It never was a starter for us, frankly. But every dollar that we can then pull out of that nonproductive asset and put into the recycling business, I think a few of you heard me say, our mining assets, which we believe have good value and are very attractive, have about 2.5 million ounces of silver in situ just in the Dayton resource alone. And yes, that would take 6 or 7 years to mine once the mine got up and running. 2 of our facilities in Nevada, which we now know where they're going to be and they're up and getting up and running, would produce that much silver annually, okay? That's just 2, not 7. So you can see the difference in throughput and cash generation from what you could call 2 different silver mines. We also want to monetize our noncore legacy real estate. I'm going to give you more transparency on that today simply because we finally came to sufficient progress, both with Sierra Springs' Board and company and with third parties that are very, very interested in these assets. The value is higher, the ownership is higher. So the amount that we're going to monetize here, hopefully, will be pleasantly higher than anyone might have been expecting. So we're going to do both of those things. Green Li-ion, we also want to monetize. It's less within our control. The company is making extraordinary progress, truly exceeded my expectations in terms of their journey to profitability. They have an operating facility in Oklahoma. We own 13% of the company. And they've announced that they're going to move into a public listing in Australia sometime later this year. So once Green Li-ion is successful in its endeavor to becoming a public company, then we'll have a much easier and clearer exit strategy for that investment. We've worked very, very hard on all these monetization items. This is the crux of the corporate objectives. We've had to put more capital into Sierra Springs but at great gain. That wasn't clear before because the deals weren't structured and they weren't announced, but they are now structured. And we've already taken effectively what was just under 17% of Sierra Springs to well over 36%, 37%. That number could end up easily at well over 50% for something that we think has hundreds of millions of dollars of value. We don't think that based on conjecture, there is monster engagement in Northern Nevada right now because if you're able to secure sufficient power to the land, it's in immediate demand. If you're not able to secure sufficient power to the land, there's no interest, okay? So we're on the verge of something very meaningfully here. I think 2026, credibly now, we'll see monetization of mining, monetization of noncore real estate. And frankly, timing couldn't be better. So we're really all about supporting the exponential growth of the metals business, not just for national dominance really for setting the global standard in this recycling business. We crushed it in '25. And when I say we, I mean the metals team, Fortunato, Paul, Kayla, I mean, they got the permits, first of its kind. Leo was absolutely instrumental in supporting us, one of our Board members in navigating through that regulatory regime. We didn't only get first-of-its-kind permits. We were held to what we originally thought was a ridiculously high standard. But now with hindsight, it looks like it will be very difficult for any existing competitor that we know of to even set foot in Nevada and even get permits within 2 years. So to the extent Nevada sits on 50% of the end-of-life market, certainly between now and 2030, now and 2035, wow, we're literally on the beachhead of a battle that doesn't see any competitors anywhere near of what we've positioned here. We don't want to stop in the Southwest region because that's only half the market. We want to get to the rest of the U.S., and that will come, as Judd said, with less resistance and much more rapidly. We also have designed the engineered process for recovering the metals from our tailings. I'll give you a little bit more color on that. But we did that with leveraging a handful of partners between universities and companies that have existing assets and existing infrastructure that allows us to take Fortunato's engineered design and very efficiently test up to a demo, which we hope to have here by the end of this year. So all that work in 2025 really positioned us to move fast, right? So what do we want to do? We want to get this facility up and running. Substantially all of the equipment has arrived. The ovens are arriving now and the ovens literally represent -- I just looked at the final truck schedules, represents 20 full 18-wheelers. So you start to get a sense of the magnitude of this process and these systems. Some of you have come and visited and I'll show some pictures of some of the equipment as it's getting assembled here. But it's all coming in, we're on schedule. It wouldn't be right to say that 3 or 4 weeks of slippage hasn't occurred, but that was already buffered in our schedule. So commissioning in Q1, operating in Q2 holds. We're very happy about that, bringing the thing online. And another thing that's happening is that we're starting to see -- it's almost like if you're in the fourth quarter of a football game, you're starting to see some of our competition, take a knee or move aside. Really, that's an analogy to say that our customers, the true utility scale companies that are now very seriously engaged in a very big end-of-life problem. They're almost only -- they're certainly not talking to the 2 or 3 people that we previously talked about as showing up most often. So there's a really good trend there. Something even more strategic is happening. Some of these institutions are either very, very large or part of even larger organizations, and they've engaged us for more strategic things. You've heard me talk about co-locating on one of the sites or venturing into a third or fourth site. This all ties to getting market share, right? So we want to dominate the market share. We're very happy with how those underlying conversations are going. And we've identified the second site. We are pinning it down, final stages. The permits actually have already been submitted. So we're excited about it. It will be in Clark County. It will be just outside of Las Vegas, exactly where we wanted to position the second site for this Southwest region. And California is permitted up and running. Ohio is coming up in line. Those right now are primarily either storage and/or transition activities, prep activities, logistics activities. There's no processing. There's no processing that we're planning at all for California, but certainly, Ohio would evolve into that, and we're looking as well at a specific site in Texas. So that side of things are moving very, very quickly and we're continuing all of those efforts. '26 is going to be -- as foundational as '25 was '26 is going to show the light. '26 is going to show the large industrial system running. It's going to show it turning profitable. It's going to show volumes increasing. And you're going to see revenue goes from $100,000 a month to $200,000 a month to $1 million a month to $2 million a month. That's our profile for 2026. And we don't see any reason why that isn't going to come together just like that. So we don't need to talk that much about silver demand. Every one of you that I've talked to seems to understand the supply and demand equation for silver and is very bullish on it. Even with some pullback, we're sitting at $70 silver, which is above anything that we've modeled in our process. As I mentioned previously, even at $60 silver, our offtake revenue isn't $125 a ton. It's $375 a ton. So we already have an enhanced profile given the current realities. You see the inside of 600 Lake in this picture, that was 7 months ago. Now when you look at the inside of 600 Lake, it's assembling equipment. That shine that you see on the floor there is an epoxy that we had to lay down that outlines perfectly the footprint of the large system. You can't see the ends of the footprint. It's extremely large, 80, 90, 100 feet of processing, fully integrated, fully automated. We are testing the robotic arms. We are assembling the front-end crushers. We are pulling together all of the equipment. And we're heavily finalizing the grading and the preparation. Fencing is going to go up next week for the storage. And it just gives you some context here. If you're looking at this picture, hopefully, that building there in the background is where our demo facility sits, okay? So we're talking about major -- I kept saying like this enormous expansion or massive expansion for storage, you're starting to get a sense of it. I was annoyed earlier, one of our investors posted 4 beautiful pictures. They must have been circling the site or something. I criticized my team and said, these guys are getting better pictures than I'm getting. So if you're on Twitter or X, you can see some even more elaborate pictures of this development that's happening real time. And the holy grail is not getting $125 a ton for tailings or $375 a ton for tailings. Those numbers reflect us capturing 50% or 60% of the silver value and leaving the silicon metal and leaving the copper and depending on the types of panel, leaving the gallium or the tellurium or the iridium behind, what we've applied it for a grant on and what we've already started the development work on is being able to capture the substantial majority, we'd love to say substantially all of the value from those critical metal recoveries from the tailings. So we've been ridiculously busy site preparing. We've been ridiculously busy receiving equipment. We've been busy expanding the market, and that would be satisfactory. But it's been exceptional that the team has made and forced the capacity to design this refining solution. We don't -- when we say we feel like we're a couple of years ahead in recycling, we're humble about that. We're not arrogant about it. We want to expand it. We want to assume we're 1 day ahead. We don't want to assume we're 2 years ahead. But we're talking about recycling. We're not talking about refining. We don't see anybody even talking about these types of refining solutions. And the reason this is so important, and I think the reason our capital base is so interested is 3.5 million panels last year would load one of our production lines. In 4 years, that number is going to be 33 million. We would need 10 production lines to do that. And I'm not sure if people appreciate it. One production line that $13 million of one production line can do 3.3 million panels a year. But that facility that you just saw, it was permitted for 2.5 production lines, really 3 production lines with the capacity of doing 250,000. So if this Southwest region does anything close to what we think it's going to do, it's doubling the capacity, 2.5x in the capacity of that facility will have literally 0 permitting lead time. 0 permitting lead time. It's already permitted. What it will require, of course, is equipment ordering lead time, which we can let the market tell us when to trigger that. And this is the old map that most of you have seen. But for any of you that haven't, here's Arizona, Nevada, California. These are the 1.3 billion, 1.4 billion panels that are deployed in the U.S. The fatter the circle, the older the panel. That's why these 2 facilities in Nevada are so critical and why we're going after this half of the market so diligently, so vigorously. But an enhanced metal value, you're not talking about $55 million or $60 million of cash flow from one facility running full. You're talking about $75 million to $80 million for one facility running full. And that doesn't consider the enhancement that would come with the refining solution. Now let me just spend a little bit more time on this monetization of noncore assets. Some of you may have seen previously a higher NPV that we calculated for our mining assets. That number was correct. It stays correct. But as I said earlier, these assets take some capital to put into production. As I said earlier, we're engaged with some very, very serious counterparties. They have capital. That's, I guess, the litmus test for me on, are they serious? They have capital. They have capital to deploy, and we're talking about a range of value of, let's say, $50 million or $60 million. We're not necessarily talking about all cash upfront, but we are talking about full monetization. What we would like to do is sell it for all cash or we'll sell it for cash with some very relevant or meaningful milestones. Any dollar that we pull out of nonproductive assets to put in our solar business, we believe, is a home run. With the Sierra Springs, we have been allocating capital to that. You'll see that it increased. But we have agreement now to convert that into ownership at extraordinary values. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit more. I'm going to give you a little bit more color. But I've been busy with this because it's super active, right? Nevada went through a monstrous hyperscale data center expansion. It's listed right now as fifth or sixth in the U.S. with projects under construction with 29 projects under construction, and it's every big name. We have an industrial park very, very close to us, not the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park. Everybody knows about that. Another one that's very close to us in Silver Springs that is out soliciting industrial lands for this purpose, and they secured access to power other than the grid. The grid is tapped out. The grid is not available until God knows when. So we secured similarly access to that power required some small financial commitment initially, a small bond, $1 million, $1.5 million of posting, which was easy, but it opened up the whole world for us. Now we've got -- I'll be very frank, like I'm behind in being responsive to them. And if that's annoying to you, it should be because it's annoying to me. But the dollars that we're talking about are not $45 million or $50 million like we talked about before. It's a couple of hundred million. And that doesn't include our properties that we own 100% and directly. So as you can see, it's in everybody's interest for us to prioritize and monetize these assets. The mining assets last year, we acquired the Haywood quarry. You see it right here, this Haywood target on the map. We also sold some of the northern properties, which are now taken off of this map. But in selling those northern properties, we also got these green -- there's about 240 acres that we added that fully support and surround both the mining of the Dayton asset and the processing for the Dayton asset. We have those 230 acres at no additional consideration. So between the Haywood property, which is ideal for processing Dayton and those other properties, which fully support the mining and the processing of Dayton, we've made this much more salable much more monetizable. And as I said earlier, we're fully engaged. When we first announced that Haywood purchase, some people were like, I thought we weren't interested in mining. I thought we were trying to monetize the mining. And I just want to make it clear, that's exactly what those moves were designed to position us for. And these properties, they're flat, they're expansive and they're very, very attractive to real miners. So we're really having productive conversations. Judd is getting very, very close, and I really appreciate that helping that support. Now just more transparency on Sierra Springs because there's approval on the Sierra Springs side, right? There is approval for Comstock to take the lead, for Comstock to drive this thing to the finish line, for Comstock to enable this bigger monetization. And of course, Comstock needs to benefit dramatically from that capacity. What where we are is we're sitting in the largest opportunity zone, if not the largest, one of, by far, the largest opportunity zones in the United States. It's not only an expansive amount of land sitting right by Lake Tahoe, the fact that it's 10 miles from the California border and maybe more importantly, 1 truck day away from 7 different states and 75 million people is one of the biggest reasons that all of these data centers and all of these manufacturing companies are locating here. The other reason is that it's the environmental climate is almost perfect for optimal cooling of these data centers. But it's even more than that. It's literally Nevada -- Northern Nevada is literally one of the safest places in the country when it comes to the hazard map or the disaster avoidance map. We don't have hurricanes. We don't have hailstorms. We don't have all of these impediments. And so it's not coincidence that Google, Apple, Microsoft Switch, Tract and at least 2 dozen more are locating here for mega hyperscaling. And for us, it was when USA Parkway was built from a nonexistent road to a dirt road to a 4-lane super highway, connecting Reno right down into Silver Springs where my better lucky than good comment keeps coming out. We were sitting right there ready to receive that ball. It's still somewhat pioneering 2 years ago. Everything was happening in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Everything is happening up in Fernley. And people kept saying, well, what about Silver Springs? What about Silver Springs? Well, if you look at the map this way, you see this connecting highway. Tesla's gigafactor is really what put us on the map, but the data centers are really what exploded the map. It comes right down to our properties. You see the Comstock load here just 30 minutes down the road, Highway 50, and then you see the congregation of this asset here. I haven't spoken about this much because we spend -- Fortunato and the team spent 110% of their time on Comstock Metals. I like to think I spend 50% of my time supporting Comstock Metals. I want that to be 90% of my time. Judd is handling the monetization of the mining assets. I'm handling the monetization of Sierra Springs. And I think it's also important to say I've never took a penny from Silver Springs. I've never gotten any compensation from Sierra Springs. I only own stock there because I bought it with my own money, and I've agreed to rectify that. Like we are going to align my interest only and solely with LODE. There is no even debate or discussion about it. I've already committed to it, right? What you're going to see with hopefully some foresight, but certainly soon with hindsight is that load investors own something very, very valuable here. As exciting as monetizing something that's worth a couple of hundred million potentially would be, what can be done with that money in solar recycling is a whole other level of excitement. You can read up all the articles about what's happening in Northern Nevada. It's very easy to see them. But what's really important to see is that -- when I talk about these values, I'm not pulling them out of the air. When we first started this thing, we were getting these properties for dirt. I mean, literally dirt cheap with almost like water rights coming for free. But Industrial Park was at $2 to $3, $4 a square foot. Then it was $4 to $5 a square foot. Then it was $6 to $8 a square foot. Then Microsoft lands and starts pushing $10 a square foot. Those are incredible numbers. If those numbers -- if we're even close to those types of numbers, my numbers will be understated. So when Tract CEO came out and said that they're going to invest $100 billion in the next 10 years in Northern Nevada. And that means from the Peru shelf right up here by Switch to right across the street from our properties in Silver Springs. There's 3 major developments that they're breaking ground on right now. If you don't understand it or if you'd like to see it, it will only take you 20 minutes for Reno to see Monster trapped platforms being built and positioned. So that only enhances the value like everything in this area. And if you look at this map, the airport being the blue center, everything else in color around us is part of our portfolio that I want to monetize for us, except the top of #11 here. That's where Microsoft came in. And then right alongside of it, Tract is coming in. So you go from literally being out in the middle of nowhere on the loneliest highway in America to USA Parkway plugging into us to track and Microsoft coming in across the street. I mean it's extraordinarily exciting, but none of it would mean anything if the he Great Basin natural gas transmission company didn't show up 4 months ago and say, we're going to spend a couple of billion dollars, and we're going to expand gas into this area, into firmly into Tri-Center, literally right into Silver Springs. If they didn't come out and say that, we'd still be talking about why the hell are we going to -- why can't we sell these properties. But with that power commitment, the game has changed dramatically, and we're going to see something really exciting happen. So it took a little bit longer than I was expecting. I apologize. But Zach, please let's just jump into Q&A. Zach Spencer: All right. Thank you, Corrado. As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, we received more than 35 questions prior to the call. And I can see that we have a number of additional questions coming through Zoom. And Corrado, you did touch on a lot of these questions that we have. So perhaps you can just provide a little more color. And pardon me if I do repeat the question. Okay. The first question is, how do you allocate your time versus Judd's time versus the rest of the team's time. Corrado De Gasperis: Yes. So I think right now, in fairness, Judd's spending -- obviously, you can see the time we spent from a corporate perspective on recapitalizing and funding and now over the last month or so on the governance. So that's really positive and took a little bit more of our time critically, critically constructive and needed. I think probably I will spend 40% to 50% of my time, and I expect Judd the same on monetizing these noncore assets, okay? It's a priority. And thank God, the metals team is full, and they'll spend 110% of their time. They do nothing but metals all day long and all night long. But I do feel like if we were directly just a solar panel recycling company, just a metal company, we would go from having a strong, capable, sufficient management team to overwhelming force. And so I think ultimately, we'd like to see 80% metals, 20% corporate. But that will only happen once we monetize the assets. So 50% ours, 50% corporate, but that 50% is heavily dedicated to monetizing these assets. And the prerequisites needed to monetize those assets. Zach Spencer: All right, Corrado, thank you for that. What is the pipeline of solar panels that will be available to recycle through the Silver Springs facility once it is open? Corrado De Gasperis: Yes. So that's one of the most major fronts of our efforts. We're signing master service agreements. We're signing master service agreements all the time right now. We've signed a couple of extraordinary ones with e-recyclers, the folks that have already established recycling businesses. That's about 10% to 15% of the market. We generally think about the major utilities as being 80% of the market. And so what's happening right now is we're signing up -- we're -- I don't -- I can't think of a major utility that we've had a setback on -- and that includes NextEra, Florida Light and Power, everyone is pretty familiar with RWE, Nevada Energy, which is a Berkshire Hathaway, Berkshire Energy company, Brookfield. Edison. I mean we're really making hay with signing these folks up, right? The second point is we're signing up. I think we may have just signed up. We're not yet allowed to release it specifically, but one of the largest, if not the largest e-recyclers in the country, right? So those are the people we want to engage. We've also signed up our first actual solar manufacturing company, which I was talking to Don about this as we were going through the Board process. But the solar manufacturers are not really our customers. They do have some amount of breakage and waste. So they're steady Eddie. They ship us a truck or 2 a week, but they're a very, very small part of the end-of-life market. Of course, they're the beginning of life market. But they also point us to their customers, and they also integrate us with their returns. And so that's all coming along. But to answer your question, locking in the customer is the most critical prerequisite, making sure that we're qualified through their audits and their certification processes. It's not a super long lead time process, but it's a pretty meaningful lead time process. So we've been doing that steadily for the last 2 years. And so as I think I mentioned earlier, and there is a breakthrough, too. There's a number of customers who -- their attitude is where you're certified, you're qualified, you're wonderful. When the big machine is up and running, we'll start sending more panels because we want our certificate of destruction pretty rapidly, okay? So but the profile should be a couple of hundred thousand dollars a month to $0.5 million a month to $1 million a month to $2 million a month. $2 million a month is $25 million -- $24 million, $25 million run rate of revenue that will be remarkably profitable, and then we just grow it from there. We still believe that by the end of 2027, Facility #1 will be running full. Facility #2 should be in the 20% to 30% capacity utilization range. But those are really rough estimates, right? Because we don't see a smooth linear up progression here. We see a lot of spiking. We see a lot of deferred maintenance. We see a lot of deferred recycling. So once we click in, then the spikes will be bumpier. We have the capacity to handle it, and then we have the storage to handle it. Now one critical point here. We are now being engaged by not just the largest utilities, but the owners of the largest utilities, very strategic discussions. There is a recognition here that they need to lock up some capacity, right? So it's finally coming through and those hope to have some very meaningful discussions this year. What I mean to say is we're having very meaningful discussions now, very meaningful outcomes this year in terms of what specifically that will mean, right, to forward volumes. It's coming, right? It's just -- it's slower than anyone would ever hope, but the -- setting the foundation is the critical thing. One of the ways I've described this to people is if our business this year was 20,000 or 30,000 tons, the same exact customer flow in 2030 would be 300,000 tons. Right? These are the customers who are going to see a 10x increase in their end of life. They may even be higher because they're going to lead that increase in end of life, the 3.5 million from last year to 33 million in 2030. So we're positioning for great -- almost organic growth. It's kind of a perverse or backwards way of thinking about it, but locking in the customers that really have the biggest installations means locking in the biggest end-of-life replacement scheme. Sorry for that. It was a little long-winded, but... Zach Spencer: This might be a short one for you. Where do we stand with the delivery of the first recycling facility in terms of timing and cost? Corrado De Gasperis: So we have -- I think we received all of our equipment and started to receive the components for the oven. I just -- It was mentioned it earlier, I just looked at the shipping schedules for the ovens. It's literally like 20 monster 18-wheel truckload containers. I was surprised at the magnitude of the logistics, right, to get those ovens to us. Those are starting -- the schedule said they start coming next week. They stop coming within 2 weeks, then we have everything. And then we've already started installation. We've already started testing and commissioning the equipment. If those ovens had arrived 4 weeks ago, they would be sitting around because the sequence is pretty precise in terms of what needs to be installed and tested and then processed. So in that regard, we feel again, maybe 3 or 4 weeks of slippage that was fully buffered in our plans, right? So we'll be up and running in Q2, and I think that's going to be a huge milestone. Zach Spencer: And speaking of Sequence, please review the timetable for the second recycling project. So its initial revenue and probable location. Corrado De Gasperis: Yes. Yes. It's going to be outside of Vegas. Clark County for sure. That's where all the infrastructure is. There's more infrastructure in Clark County in Vegas than there is in Silver Springs, frankly. We have a site. We're in final stages of locking down the terms. We've already submitted the permit because we know where the site is. I think the question is when do we order the equipment. Last time I asked Fortunato, he said as soon as we possibly can because the equipment lead times from -- when we first -- we raised the money in August, we ordered the equipment the next day. We were looking at a 5- to 6-month lead time. It turned out to be 7 to 8, okay? So if 7 to 8 is the real lead time, although I think there's some arguments now that we've gone through this process that it would be shorter, then we probably want to order the equipment sooner rather than later. So if you're quoting equipment in May, you could have it arriving in December, the process should look and feel maybe 3 months faster from a calendar perspective than the first facility or could mirror it very closely, right? Commissioning in Q1, operating in Q2. I'd love to see commissioning in Q4 operating in Q1. And as soon as we order the equipment, we'll be able to communicate that. Zach Spencer: Okay. And sticking with Comstock Metals, you've outlined a 7-facility national model with a central refinery hub. What is the capital requirement per facility at the scale you're targeting? Corrado De Gasperis: So we've always said recycling facility 12 to 15, okay? And really, that range is tied to if we're leasing a facility, it's $13 million. That's where we're ending up, right, with facility #1. If we had to buy a facility, you might have to put a deposit down, it might be $15 million, maybe $16 million at the most. So it's a nice tight range. It's not a lot. $12 million to $15 million, we'll stick with, maybe $13 million to $16 million is buffered. That's a good number. And that's for each facility. As you heard earlier, $75 million plus in cash flow and they're running full. So that profile is beautiful. The central refinery, though, is still conceptual, like we are certainly not going to build 7 refineries. Ideally, there could be 1 maybe very centrally located. For the math on that is if a recycling facility is taking in 100,000 tons and 10% to 15% are tailings, you're going to get midpoint, 12,500 tons of tailings per year per facility. If you have 7 facilities, that's 100,000 tons of tailings. That's a pretty good sized refining operation. You could start with one in Nevada, and that would be -- if you did that, you'd probably either have one big one there or you might have one on the West Coast, Nevada-based, one on the East Coast, then you'd have 2. We don't know the answer to that yet. We still need to get to FID on the engineering, but we're projecting the capital for one large refining operation like that 100,000 ton of intake level to be about $30 million, right? So in the scheme of -- in the universe of refining capital, it's low, right? When people talk about aluminum refineries and pyrolytic refineries and smelters, they think in the billions, like not in our scenario. We're very precise, very fine industrial tailing. So that's more what we're looking like. I hope that answers the question. Zach Spencer: Corrado, pivoting to SSOF. The values sound high. What are the prerequisites for monetizing these assets? And what's the time line? Corrado De Gasperis: Yes. So I think, look, there's probably 5 prerequisites. Let's just think them through. industrially zoned land, check, flat developable land, super check, water rights, check, fiber check, electricity, right? That fifth one is where as we sort of hit the wall, if I could give people context, right, the Great Basin Transmission Company came out with an open bid. This is a FERC-regulated utility bid. We committed to like 50,000 dekatherms a day. I think they got bids for 800,000 dekatherms. So if our number is 300 megawatts, their number is 15x that, 13x that. So that's real. That's certified. That tells you what's happening in Northern Nevada in terms of people needing, wanting and committing capital to power. So what we need to do is we need to close out on the land position. There's still some capital required to do that, close out on the land position, have clean title, clean and final environmental reports. We've already done Phase 1 previously, super clean, so no issues. You just need to be updated, right? Water rights certification we have thousands of acre feet of water rights. That allows for a lot of flexibility with the data centers. Some are -- there was a phase of all electric cooling, then the grids ran out of electricity. Now everybody is hell bent on the technologies that reduce water in data cooling, but you got to have water rights, right? So if we do those 3 things, right, just perfect the land, perfect the power, I feel there's a little capital there, but there is also administrative work, like probably 60 days' worth of work. That timing would be perfect, data room would open up and then 60- to 90-day process. So we're looking at -- we're absolutely looking at 2026, getting this done in 2026. Zach Spencer: Thank you, Corrado. We do have a question on Bioleum management. Please provide an update on the Bioleum team. Corrado De Gasperis: Absolutely. So I think most people appreciate that in March of last year, Marathon Petroleum invested directly into what was previously known as Comstock Fuels. And then in May, a large investor came in with another direct investment. It's about $35 million in total of, call it, Series A investment directly into the newly reestablished Bioleum Corporation. There's a really strong core group of founders, I say 10 people, David Winsness, Rahul Bobbili, but there's Chad, Michael Black. There's a strong group of founders there, but there's an even bigger group. There's probably 40 professionals. And let me just say this. Their whole claim to fame, they're equivalent of Fortunato's zero landfill, highly efficient thermal solution is their ability to unlock lignin in woody biomass. So we call it lignocellulosic technology. But that company's roster includes like Dr. Christian Dahlstrand from Sweden, Dr. Marcus Jawerth from Sweden, Dr. Colin Anson from Madison, Jordan Thutt from Wausau, Dr. Elvis Ebikade from New York, originally from Nigeria, Dana Hatch, Bob Rzmirek, Andrew Hell, these are all chemists and chemical engineers. And then you have Dr. Gregg Beckham at the National Laboratory of the Rockies, previously known as NREL, Dr. Yuriy Roman at MIT. Like you're literally talking about the top 10 lignocellulosic professionals like in the world. And what their coming out with here is the highest yielding lowest carbon ability to take waste into low carbon fuels. But it kind of -- people probably feel -- so that's the management answer, right? Chad Michael Black is the President. Chad is leading this incredible group, right, of primarily engineers and material scientists, right, to final investment decision that allows them to move into biorefining. We haven't gone stealth per se with Bioleum, but there was a concerted effort for them to be independent for them to have their own capital source, for them to ultimately go Series B and IPO. So as you hear me talk about monetizing assets, I don't -- I'm happy to be supportive. I'm happy to be helpful and I am intimate with what they're doing. But their success will be our success, right? We want to put our calories into growing a literally international dominant metal recycling business. Zach Spencer: Thank you, Corrado. Looking at our mining assets, what is the timing on the potential monetization of the mining assets? Would it be a JV deal or something different? Corrado De Gasperis: I think I'm hopeful that the timing is sooner. We are in pretty deep conversations. We are pretty specific around terms. And we're only talking to people that have credible and immediate -- not immediate, but credible and almost immediate access to capital. Like we're not talking about people who are blue skying possibilities here. So the people that we're talking to have done quite a bit of diligence, like, I would say, a tremendous amount. But just from a legal, administrative final processes, you're probably looking at 75 to 90 days. Is it guaranteed -- could something bust for sure, but we're feeling pretty good about it. Zach Spencer: Thank you for that. Pivoting again, is there any intention for issuing additional shares in the near term, resulting in any more dilution? Corrado De Gasperis: No. I would like to repeat, though, what I had said earlier. We had 7 or 8 years of excruciatingly poor access to the capital markets, bad structures, bad efforts, probably with hindsight, using a junior mining penny stock structure to capitalize to high-growth innovative technologies was not the smartest thing in the world. But at the same time, we did it, right? We created an incredible opportunity. And I think our investors that stuck with us and our new investors that came in are really, really, really going to profit from that scenario. If there's a perception that we enjoyed raising the capital that way or the dilution that resulted and even more painfully, the low valuation that comes from having other than intermediate and longer-term capital partners, we hated it. So just in case anybody is curious, like we hated it. But we did get this business launched, and we're running now. But what's more important is we have capital partners. We have capitalized and funded. And I think if we had no noncore assets, the positive of that would be that we would be more fully dedicated to metals. But the positive of having them is, as I said earlier, if we monetize those assets and redeploy them, if we monetize those assets and redeploy them, then we have a bonanza on our hands here. We are derisked from distraction. We are derisked from having to slow down. We see some of our recycling competitors struggling to raise capital. We've seen some take capital from very bad sources and do a 180-degree turnaround on their strategy. So we're just going to keep flying forward, and we don't see any -- we have no -- we don't see any reason looking forward, right, that we would have to raise money. If something unknown happened, and we can talk about it, but like we don't see it unequivocal, no. Zach Spencer: Thank you, Corrado. We're coming up on time, and I think we've covered several important questions. If we did not get to your question, please send it to ir@comstockinc.com. and we'll do our best to respond either directly or we'll post the response on X. For anyone who is not following us on X, our main account is at Comstock Inc. Please follow us. Corrado, before we wrap up, please give us some final thoughts for the final week of Q1 and the rest of 2026. Corrado De Gasperis: Yes. I'm super excited about our new Board members. They've already reached out wanting to start engaging and coming back out to visit. I'm super excited about the work leading up to the annual meeting in May. I think that if you can come to the meeting in person, we're going to take a bus down to Silver Springs. And on the way to Silver Springs, we'll go to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and you'll see about 10 million square feet under construction on the way to it. It's probably relevant to point out that 600 Lake Avenue, this incredibly ideal location for solar panel recycling and 800 Lake Avenue, the Monstrous like storage facility right next door, our Sierra Springs properties. Sierra Springs owning those properties allowed us to pivot very, very quickly into the solar recycling business. And I think with hindsight, speed is the winner in all fronts here. And then stay tuned for customer announcements, stay tuned. We're going to -- we'll be more active next week, the week after the week after and the week after with pictures of the ovens, the assemblies, the commissioning and then panels starting to go through the machine. We're really at the inflection point here of 3.5, 4 years of incredibly hard work. So pretty exciting. Zach Spencer: Thank you very much, Corrado. That concludes Comstock's year-end 2025 earnings call and business update. Thank you all for joining us. Corrado De Gasperis: Thank you all.
Jason Honeyman: Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Bellway's half year results. As usual, I'm joined by Shane and Simon. We've lots of our senior management team also with us today. If I could take you to the first slide. We delivered a good first half performance despite a softer selling period through much of 2025. Half year volume increased to 4,700 homes. That delivered an operating margin of 10.5%. We have an order book of 4,400 homes and a strong land bank largely unchanged at 94,000 plots. Now since the start of the calendar year, trading conditions have markedly improved with a notable pickup in both homebuyer interest and reservations. However, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East clearly has the potential to dampen customer demand and clearly increases the risk of higher inflation. That said, to date, we have not seen any material impact upon sales rates. And for FY '26, given our half year results and our order book, we remain on target to deliver operating profit in the region of GBP 320 million to GBP 330 million. The full year is likely to deliver a higher volume than previous guidance with an operating margin similar to the half year. And while margin headwinds may well continue delivering higher volumes will certainly drive cash generation, and that very much supports our program to be more capital efficient. I will provide the usual detail on ops and outlook later, but first, for our results and update on capital allocation with Shane. Shane Doherty: Thank you, Jason, and good morning, everyone. As Jason said, we've delivered a robust performance in the first half despite ongoing challenges in our industry, supported by the order book at the start of the year and despite subdued trading throughout the autumn, volume output increased by 2.7% to 4,702 homes. There was growth in both private and social output and the proportion of social completions was in line with prior year at around 21%. The ASP was up by 3.7% to just over GBP 322,000 and in line with expectations. The increase in the ASP was driven by geographic and mix changes with headline pricing remaining broadly stable. Turning to gross margin. There was a 20 basis point reduction to 16.2%. This slight reduction reflects the benefit of higher-margin land in the mix, which was offset by incremental incentive usage, the absence of any HPI and low single-digit build cost inflation. These factors are also reflected in our order book and combined with the expected contribution of bulk sales in the second half, we currently expect gross margin in FY '26 to be similar to that achieved in the first half. These margin dynamics, together with embedded cost inflation carried in our work in progress are likely to remain a headwind to margin, at least in the near term. And there are clear risks of potentially higher build cost inflation stemming from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. We'll be in a better position to comment on the potential impact of FY '27 when we report in our June trading update. Looking further ahead, we are working through our WIP balance and growing proportion of our output will benefit from newer high-margin land. With a stable market supported by a more favorable HPI BCI dynamic as seen in previous cycles, we are well positioned to drive ongoing improvements in our margin in future years. In line with our strategy to invest across the group to deliver greater efficiencies and long-term growth, the admin overhead increased to GBP 86 million, and the full year number is expected to be between GBP 170 million and GBP 175 million. Our investments include our new timber frame factory, combined with strategic investments across IT and strength in commercial and finance teams, which means we now have the right structure in place to effectively deliver on all of our strategic priorities. We expect that, that level of increase will not repeat in future years, whilst obtaining operating leverage from it as we drive towards 10,000 units if market conditions improve into the medium term will obviously be a key focus also. The effect of the increased overhead investment, together with the movement in gross margin led to a 50 basis point reduction in the underlying operating margin to 10.5%. Underlying PBT was slightly higher at GBP 151 million, and I'm pleased to report that the interim dividend has been increased by almost 10% to 23p per share. This slide has covered the group's underlying performance. Adjusting items shown in more detail in the income statement in Appendix 1. These include GBP 300,000 to admin expenses relating to the previously announced CMA investigation. The other adjusting items relate to build safety, which I will cover later in the presentation. Turning to our balance sheet. It is robust and well capitalized with a strong land bank and WIP position at its core foundation. These are key focus areas for our capital efficiency drive and critical to our plans for increasing cash generation. I will cover this in more detail shortly as part of our capital allocation strategy. First, to highlight the key balance sheet movements, reflecting our largely land replacement only land strategy, the land balance of GBP 2.5 billion has reduced slightly by around GBP 38 million since the year-end. During the first half, we entered into new land contracts on deferred terms totaling around GBP 130 million, and settled line creditor payments of around GBP 180 million. This led to period-end land creditors of GBP 290 million, representing 12% of our land balance. As previously guided, and as part of our strategy to run the business with a more efficient capital structure, there will likely be an increase in the use of land creditors over the medium term. The range is expected to be between 15% and 20% of land value, which is similar to historic norms. Jason will cover our land bank in more detail later. The work in progress balance, which includes site WIP, show homes and part-exchange properties reduced by GBP 39 million to GBP 2.3 billion. Breaking that movement down into 3 component parts. Firstly, the value of show homes remained flat, reflecting our broadly stable outlet position. The value of part-exchange properties rose by just over GBP 20 million. Part-exchange is an important selling incentive for customers. And whilst its usage increased, it has remained disciplined and represents a relatively modest 6% of our completions. Finally, site WIP reduced by GBP 61 million to just over GBP 2.1 billion. And this highlights some good early progress with our capital efficiency drive, which we spoke about to you in detail last October. To finish on the balance sheet, as you will see from the bottom of the slide, our adjusted, our adjusted gearing, including land creditors, remains low at 10.3% and our net asset value per share has now risen to just over GBP 30. We've continued to make good progress on build safety, and I'm pleased to report that the overall provision remains broadly stable. With regards to movements in the provision, in addition to the GBP 6.5 million adjusting finance expense, which was in line with previous guidance, there was a very modest net increase of GBP 4.2 million in the build safety provision through cost of sales, which relates to the refinement of overall cost estimates. We have now completed the terminations on all of our legacy buildings in England and Wales in accordance with the joint plan. Our provision is based on robust assumptions and prudent cost estimates for both internal and external works on the 457 buildings in scope for remediation. We have started our completed work on 172 buildings with the majority of spend expected by FY '30. We've spent GBP 212 million on legacy build safety since the start of the program, including GBP 21 million in the first half of FY '26. The strengthened team at our dedicated Build Safety division is focused on completing works as promptly and as efficiently as possible. For FY '26, we continue to budget for total spend of over GBP 150 million, although I must caveat that this level of spend remains dependent on receiving requests for payment from the government for works carried out on our behalf for the build safety fund totaling around GBP 90 million. I think it's important to point out today that for prudence, our shareholder returns capital allocation modeling assumes significant disbursements around build safety over the next 3 years. The provision at the 31st of January '26 was GBP 507 million, and I'm confident that we are well provided for the remediation works required across the legacy portfolio. In terms of recoveries, we've recognized GBP 81 million to date. We do, of course, continue to actively pursue further supply chain recoveries. But as these are not virtually certain at the balance sheet date, no additional reimbursements have been recognized. Turning next, just to remind you of our priorities for capital allocation, which we covered in detail last October. In short, it is a flexible framework with our strong balance sheet and well-invested land bank as the foundations of the business, which support our balanced approach to continue to invest for growth and delivering enhanced returns for shareholders from increased cash conversion and generation. As part of our strategy, we are sharply focused on driving greater efficiencies and our WIP balance presents a significant opportunity for much greater cash generation, which I will cover next. We generated good operating cash flow in the first half. The cash flow bridge chart shows the movement from a small net cash position to ending the period with modest net debt at GBP 72 million, in line with our plans to run a more efficient balance sheet and increase returns to shareholders. To run through our key movements, you can see the decrease in total WIP that I referenced earlier amounted to GBP 39 million. In relation to land, the monetization of land through cost of sales was GBP 283 million. This was slightly lower than the cash spent on land and together with the movement in land creditors, this led to a GBP 38 million decrease in land on the balance sheet in the period. After other working capital movements and tax, the operating cash generated before investment in land, build safety spend and distributions to shareholders was GBP 314 million. As a result, the conversion of operating profit to adjusted operating cash flow was 2x. As I highlighted in October, we are aiming to maintain the conversion level at a minimum of 2x over the 3 years to FY '28. As I've said previously, adjusted cash flow is the fuel for future investment opportunities in the business and ultimately, greater value creation and returns for our shareholders. In this regard, we invested GBP 302 million in land, including settlement of land creditors and dividend payments and share buybacks totaled GBP 105 million. We also spent GBP 21 million on build safety, which I referenced earlier. After taking account of all of these disbursements, we closed the half year with net debt at a modest GBP 72 million. I will now cover our cash generation targets for the second half, which I think is important in the context of what we're discussing this morning and the tougher trading backdrop that may emerge, together with our longer-term ambitions in the context of driving shareholder value against this potential backdrop. As I've said many times, driving WIP efficiency is a key area of focus across all of our 20 operating divisions and a significant opportunity for the group to deliver cash generation. We've increased our volume guidance for the year by between 100 and 300 units on our original volume guidance of 9,200 units. And the combination of this increased monetization with tighter controls around WIP spend will see us increasing our operating cash flow conversion targets significantly year-over-year. As the chart shows, operating profit will grow by between GBP 20 million and GBP 30 million year-on-year in FY '26. But we expect operating cash flow will increase substantially more than that by between GBP 100 million and GBP 150 million year-on-year. This leaves the company in a strong position to drive future value for shareholders by continuing to drive volume appropriately against this tougher trading backdrop. This will provide greater opportunity to invest in more high-margin land and potentially returning more excess capital to shareholders. Overall, we are targeting adjusted operating cash flow of between GBP 750 million and GBP 800 million for the full year. Looking beyond FY '26, we have a greater proportion of units at an advanced stage of build than a couple of years ago, which should support a faster monetization of our WIP balance. This drive for improvements in WIP turn and to lower our WIP balance will enhance asset turn and support cash generation. This will help fund our build safety disbursements, further land investment and returns for shareholders. We'll maintain our underlying dividend cover of 2.5x, and this will be supplemented by returns of excess capital. In this regard, we are making good progress on our GBP 150 million share buyback launched in October with around GBP 64 million completed so far, and we have a clear intention of returning excess capital in future years. To finish my section, a summary of guidance for FY '26. We, of course, recognize the risks to inflation and customer demand from the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Notwithstanding this and supported by a robust first half and our current order book, we are well placed to deliver FY '26 underlying operating profit in the range of GBP 320 million to GBP 330 million. So for guidance, we are targeting volume of between 9,300 and 9,500 homes, the final outcome of which is dependent on completions from our bulk sales pipeline. The average selling price will be around GBP 325,000 with the increase over FY '25 driven by mix. It's important to point out when we give that guidance, we are not in any way giving that guidance in the context of any potential negative impacts that it might have on FY '27. It's all based on the strong work that we've been doing, monetizing our WIP and broadening the pipeline of opportunities that we see both in private sales and potential bulk sales. The admin overhead will be between GBP 170 million and GBP 175 million. We currently expect the operating margin to be similar to the first half level at around 10.5%. The finance expense will be around GBP 20 million, and adjusted operating cash flow is expected to be strongly ahead of prior year at between GBP 750 million and GBP 800 million. Finally, land spend is expected to be in the region of GBP 500 million to GBP 600 million, reflecting our largely replacement-only land strategy. Despite the headwinds facing our industry, I'm confident that our self-help and drive for capital efficiency will mitigate the impact on our strategy to increase cash generation and value for shareholder returns. I'll now pass back to Jason, who will cover the operational review and outlook. Jason Honeyman: Thank you, Shane. But now for trading. In the first half, we achieved a private sales rate of 0.47 with January being our strongest month at 0.6, and that momentum has continued to build into the start of the spring selling season. With regard to the mortgage market, improved affordability and changes to lending criteria have both contributed to those better trading conditions. That said, recent increases in mortgage rates due to the events in the Middle East clearly has the potential to impact upon future demand. And that brings me on to current trading. In the first 6 weeks since the 1st of February, we have achieved a private sales rate of 0.66 and bulk sales made an additional but modest contribution of 57 homes. And from a geographical and mix point of view, the picture hasn't really changed much with Scotland, the North of England and the Midlands all remaining stronger than the South. But those regional differences are quite pronounced with Midlands and upwards all delivering a strong sales rate of around 0.75, significantly higher than the 0.5 being achieved in the South. Headline pricing remains firm, although incentives are full at 5%. And we find that prices for houses are more robust or more resilient than those for flats. And as I referenced in my introduction, the last 2 weeks of our current trading period have coincided with the conflict in the Middle East. Both of those weeks have delivered a consistent sales rate of 0.65 or the equivalent of 155 private homes per week. We continue to progress bulk sales to support both this year and next. We are over 85% sold for FY '26, hold an order book of over GBP 1.5 billion or 5,300 homes as at the 13th of March. The next slide shows our land bank totaling some 94,000 plots, half of which are owned and controlled and half are strategic. Now I'm happy with the size and the shape of the land bank. It supports our short-term growth ambitions. We are still buying land but with caution. In the period, we contracted on 4,700 plots across 15 sites including 1 site in Scotland for 1,900 homes that was converted from our strat pipeline. And strategic land continues to play an important role in our growth ambitions. Within this financial year, we will have 80 strat planning applications or around 17,000 plots in the system. And to put that into context, that has increased threefold in just 2 years. And that is a significant change in our business. And these strat plots will support both margin recovery and outlet numbers from FY '28 onwards. Overall, we have detailed planning consent on over 95% of our plots to meet our volume for FY '27. And as a consequence, we've got good visibility on outlets. We're on target to open 55 outlets this year and a further 55 to 60 next year. And we expect average outlet numbers to hold at around 240 for both this year and the next with growth up to 250 in FY '28. With regard to planning, I would describe planning reform as positive rather than perfect. Overall, and outside of London, the planning environment is generally supportive. Moving on to costs. Overall, cost inflation remains modest at around 1% or 2% and we currently have no issues with regard to availability, either labor or materials. That said, we are very mindful of the heightened inflationary risk caused by the events in the Middle East. And as a consequence, our focus on being more cost efficient seems ever more relevant today. And I'll give you a few examples of our approach to saving costs to support margin. Firstly, we intend to phase out the Ashberry brand as it is proving too expensive to fund a separate brand to sell just 9% or 10% of our volume. We plan to adopt a single brand approach that will play on our 80-year history. It will be clearer to the customer, a digital-first approach, less expensive and without any overall impact upon outlet numbers. Secondly, we will shortly launch our new house type range, the Bellway Collection, which has been designed to be timber-frame friendly. And by that, I mean, optimize panel widths and ceiling heights to improve both speed and efficiency and also reduce waste in the process. And with our new house type range, our single brand approach, we have the perfect platform to personalize homes and offer extras and additions on a much greater scale to drive incremental revenue and profit growth. And thirdly, we successfully opened our timber frame facility, Bellway Home Space back in January. And we have already started delivering timber kits to our divisions. Our investment in technology that supports Category 2 closed panel systems is hugely important as I firmly believe that Cat 2 is a key part of the future of housebuilding. And one final point before outlook, build quality and customer service. I'm pleased to report that we are rated as a 5-star housebuilder for the 10th consecutive year. But more important is our position with HBF's new scoring system, which has been designed to be more challenging. Housebuilders are now measured by their customers at both 8-week and 9-month intervals and based upon both quality and service. Bellway have achieved an overall score of 4.38, the highest of any national listed housebuilder, a phenomenal effort by our ops teams and a direct result of their hard work. And finally, outlook. We're on track to deliver a volume of 9,300 to 9,500 homes. As you've heard from Shane, regardless of the wider backdrop, we have a sharp focus on improving cash generation, and we expect to deliver a significant increase in operating cash flow this year. And should we find ourselves in a prolonged turbulent period. Our business is in good shape. We have a flexible capital allocation framework and a strong and experienced management team and are well able to navigate our way through any challenges. Thank you. Now happy to take questions. Allison Sun: Allison from Bank of America. Two questions from my side. So first, if the -- let's assume the market activity will be muted given all the impact. Are you guys ready to give out more incentives or not? I think are we expecting maybe incentives will go beyond 5% for the rest of this year? And the second question is what type -- what kind of inflation assumption you put in your fire safety remediation work? Jason Honeyman: Sorry, I didn't get the second question. Allison Sun: The inflation assumption you have for the fire safety remediation work. Jason Honeyman: So I'll take the first and you take the second. With regard to incentives, it was our intention at the start of the year to tighten up that incentive level to support margin growth into '27. Today, that looks a little bit too optimistic. But no, I don't have any plans to increase incentives. They're at a level that we're happy with, and we're delivering a sales rate that we're quite comfortable with. Can I hand over to you? Shane Doherty: Yes, 3% on the inflation, [ build ] safety. Aynsley Lammin: Aynsley Lammin from Investec. Just two for me, please. Just trying to understand the change in guidance a bit more, more volume and obviously less margin. Is that driven by kind of changing view of the market, what you expect going forward? Or is it just more opportunities to do some bulk sales and you can release some of that WIP? Any color around that would be quite interesting. First question. And then just on the second question, I guess, a bit more color again last couple of weeks, have you seen any change in cancellation rates, the vibe on the ground in terms of the sales rates? Is it kind of beginning to feed through in confidence what we're seeing in the mortgage market? Jason Honeyman: Thanks, Aynsley. Shall I'll start with the last question and I'll hand back to you. No, sales rates, Aynsley, have held up and likely to hold up through March. And when I think about it in a little detail, it's probably not too much of a surprise. If you're planning to buy a home now, you probably made a decision a month or 2 ago, and you've already got the benefit of a mortgage offer, which probably looks quite good value Aynsley at the moment. So no -- we've seen no immediate impact. And I think our buyers and customers in the market have got a little bit of crisis fatigue. We've been through Brexit and pandemics and Ukraine and Middle East. So there's a bit more resilience amongst our buyers. But I would expect that sales rates to soften into April, not now because you'll see the impact of the margin increase. And I don't think it will be material. I just think it will dampen a little bit. And all that's caveated to what's going on in the Middle East. But you'll probably see a softening into April, but not significant. Shane Doherty: Yes. In terms of the guidance, it's probably along the lines and what we flagged when we came out in early February. It's very much probably reflective of what we were seeing in the first half of the year. It's probably easy enough to forget that now because I like the crisis fatigue. That's what it feels at the minute. But the run-up to the budget was a difficult time for everyone. And what we did in the run-up to the budget was we traded appropriately in relation to the value creation thesis that we set out last October, which is that we will drive pricing as appropriately as we need to. But sales rates in the run-up to Christmas were less than 0.5% across the sector. So what you're seeing is the margin uptick that we're seeing coming through is really just reflective of the fact that with good visibility with good forward order book coming into the year, sales rates have picked up. And whilst the kind of 50 basis point margin reduction seems quite significant, those margin reductions become exaggerated, unfortunately, in a market like this where there is very little HPI for the reasons that Jason has outlined and you have kind of BCI running even at 1% or 2%, that is going to hit you to the tune of about 50 basis points on your margin. So that's all you're talking about. It's probably GBP 2,000 per unit in overall terms. It's a pretty small number. The market has picked up quite significantly in the early part of this year across all of our divisions. And if that sales rate was to maintain, I think it's important to make that point, notwithstanding the caveat we put around the emergent situation, that sales rate was to hold at kind of 0.65. We will be looking at a kind of -- we never gave formal guidance into next year, but we did talk about the fact that we were going to get to 10,000 units. So if you storyboard that from the original guidance that we gave, 9,200, 96,000, maybe 10,000, we would have assumed off the current sales rates that we would still be forward sold to the tune of probably 35% of getting to a 9,000, so a flattish volume next year, notwithstanding the emergent situation. So that volume uptick that we're seeing is not at the expense of the overlying market growth opportunity that's still there. And it's very easy to kind of talk yourself into a doom loop because of what might happen at the moment. But the broad reality is as you look out beyond maybe whether it's the end of this year or beyond next year, the demand-supply imbalance still holds. Jason talked about the strat land margin coming through. There will be good, strong underlying margin progression coming through our business. And we've got good volume opportunity, and we've got 20 outlets. So really, what you're seeing at the moment is just us trading appropriate through what has been a challenging environment and emerging from that with little debt and the ability to return capital to shareholders. Zaim Beekawa: Zaim Beekawa, JPMorgan. The first is just to come back on the incentives. Can you give some indication on the cash, noncash portion? And then secondly, in light of the mortgage volatility you sort of alluded to and potential impact, what's your view on your own shared equity scheme like some of your peers? And then third, if I could go on the bulk sales, sort of any indication on the discount on those bulk sales compared to maybe a year ago or 6 months ago? Jason Honeyman: Should I start with? Shane Doherty: Yes. Jason Honeyman: Sorry, on incentives, it's mostly cash and some additions. I did want to set out a chart to show you the regional differences across -- because you can understand there's probably more in the South than there is in the North at the moment. But nothing surprising in what you see regarding incentives. And in terms of -- shall I do shared equity products. We don't think they're a big part of the market. I get a little bit frustrated because they can confuse customers when you've got a whole series of schemes across the industry. And I've always preferred a housing association on something government backed that people can trust and look into. So we look at it and watch with interest to see if that market moves, but I've got no ambition to bring out a bespoke shared equity product at the moment. Sales are good enough. Shane Doherty: What I'd say in relation to bulk is -- I'm not trying to dock the answer. What we do is we tend to take an NPV approach to bulk pricing, and that's kind of using a 10% hurdle rate because whilst you may need to reduce your baseline pricing, you will find savings in other areas, not least your sales costs will be lower and also your running cost as a site can be lower as well, and you may have forward funding opportunities. So looking at it through all those lenses, when we baseline that against private pricing and sales rates and if it has -- and using a hurdle rate of 10%, if that's NPV accretive, then we'll go after that deal. What I'd say in broader macro terms in terms of buyer appetite, it's a lot stronger now than it was 12 months ago, insofar as a lot of the indicative pricing that probably was coming back 12 months ago was reflective of where interest rates were, and you could be looking at maybe 20% discounts on pricing, which is not something that we'd be interested in. But certainly -- and it's not reflected in the numbers at the moment, but it's certainly reflected in our pipeline of opportunities. The gentleman sitting in front of you there is actually living and breathing it at the moment, the 2 actually. We've got a significant pipeline of bulk opportunities, and we'd be confident that we'll see some of that coming through between now and year-end. Jason Honeyman: Can I just add to that? So there's lots of questions here about incentives. But from a bulk point of view, we did about 600 homes last year. This year, we'll probably do something similar. It's not a major part of our business. And incentives across the board, we've got a strong order book. Our sales rates are good. We were very well organized as we come out into January in the new year. So we've maximized what opportunity is there in the market. And I've got no intention to start discounting properties and being desperate. We can make good decisions. We're in a good place. So I think we're fine at the moment. William Jones: Will Jones from Rothschild & Co Redburn. Three as well, please. First, around build costs, if that's okay. Just what you've heard from manufacturers since Iran kicked off, visibility you've got generally and whether you have any framing of how you might look at your build cost basket in an energy context, any sensitivities around that? Second, on the balance sheet and the returns, helpful guidance on the operating cash flow for the full year. Do you have any view at the moment as to how that might shake out, net cash net debt, please? And when you think about the ongoing buyback, hopefully, beyond the current year, how would you think about the sensitivity of that to -- broadly speaking, to a lower profit environment if it came through? Or do you think that actually continuing to optimize the assets would mean that, that buyback can carry on? And then the last one just around Ashberry, just a reflection there. What, I guess, proved different to your expectation to make it too expensive? And any implications do you think on sales rates as that winds down? Jason Honeyman: Okay. I'll pick up build cost in Ashberry and I'll hand back to Shane, Will, if that's okay. On build costs, most of our supplier agreements are fixed from the start of '26 and generally last for around 12 months. If it gets really bad, Will, that counts for nothing. We know that we've been through the pandemic. All we've seen to date is lots of suppliers asking for increased delivery charges, haulage costs, fuel surcharges, those sorts of things, which is all manageable. What has got our interest is where you've got high energy-dependent materials such as bricks, blocks, concrete chips and those sorts of things. So that's where we'll keep an eye on to see if there's any movement there. And like everyone, Will, we look every morning for a quick resolution to the problems in the Middle East to hope they don't transpire, but time will tell. So at the moment, mostly delivery and haulage costs is what's coming our way. And on Ashberry, we did a thorough review of our brands. And I don't want to suggest for a moment that a one-brand approach is better than a multi-brand approach, but it certainly is for Bellway because Ashberry, after our research, our customers were confused with the product. And some people in this room used to get confused when you ask me about what is Ashberry and what does it do? And I found that Ashberry was confusing our customers because it was asking for or selling the same product on the same site, and it was more expensive. So we decided to refresh that Bellway brand. We're going to offer 3 tiers of specification going up to Bellway premium. It's going to be very digital focused, both in our sales offices and on the Internet. And we think we'll make savings and be less confusing to our customers and deliver the dual outlets where we can. And you must remember, Will, we don't have lots of large sites. We've got handfuls of them where we can offer a dual outlet without making any sort of serious impact on outlet numbers. Shane Doherty: So in terms of net debt, I mean, I anticipate at the moment, like it's probably worth just saying stripping out the build safety component, if I just assume that's constant, even though I expect that might come in slightly lower, even allowing for that, I think our net debt figure is probably going to be in the region of GBP 100 million, GBP 120 million type range between now and year-end. And that would probably see the buyback running at probably close to maybe GBP 100 million, GBP 120 million by year-end as well. So you have a decent clip of that coming through within that. So we're in good shape from a cash perspective. The only thing, as I say, Will, I could bring that down would be if the build safety spend is lower. But I think it's important to talk about it in the context of it being at normal run rate. So I think that gives us a lot of confidence in terms of the fact that the capital allocation strategy is working against the backdrop of kind of 2 tough economic events running in the background and lower margins, we're still throwing off cash, and that is the underlying strategy going forward. We'll have plenty of cash to buy land. We'll buy land probably -- I won't quite say on a net replacement basis. We may make some incremental investment if we do it, though, it's because it's a compelling opportunity. So we'll be very much focused on the returns to shareholders, I think, in the context of the cash that we'll continue to generate. And the fact that we've identified between 100 and 300 units this year, that's effectively ring-fenced upside from an operating cash perspective, even if it's not necessarily coming through on profitability. But as we all know, the share price is trading at a fundamental discount at the moment to what its net asset value is. And we look at our strat land opportunity. We look at the land margin upside that's coming through. And so it's very compelling for us to continue to look at buyback opportunities in that context. Rebecca Parker: I'm Rebecca Parker from Goldman Sachs. Just 2 questions. In terms of your outlet opening program, just wondering if you could talk to a bit around why you're expecting, I guess, outlets to be flat into '27. And I think the guidance for '28 has slipped by about 10 outlets there. And then secondly, on that increased proportion of higher margin land coming through, when do you expect that contribution to have more of a material impact? Is that more into 2028? Or can we start to see that come through in '27? Jason Honeyman: Rebecca, I'll start on outlet numbers. The growth -- let's start with '28, we'll go back to '27. So the growth is a product of our strat land coming through the system. Those 17,000 plots. So if that comes good, we'll get a natural increase in outlet numbers. Outlets are flat this year and next, probably because we had a big jump back in '23, '24, where we opened 80 outlets in 1 financial year. And we've just been buying replacement land. So it's difficult to see how we can grow outlets without that strike coming through. So we've held them flat. And then as long as we get a decent run through the strat planning system, then we're likely to see a little bit of growth again. Shane Doherty: In terms of margin progression, again, it's probably easier to talk about that in the context of how we were planning this before. And we have to take note of what we're hearing at the moment in terms of all the stagflation risks that are there in terms of potential BCI risk and interest rates going up. But we know that, that can also change quickly. So therefore, I think to answer your question most effectively, it's probably worth just talking about what the underlying margin upside that we were seeing coming through on the land bank. So in simple terms, gross margin this year is going to be around 16.3%. We had in our head that, that could be probably getting up to 18%, maybe even 18.5% over the next 2.5 years as you get to FY '28. So you would have been looking at margin progression of probably 17% and then 18%. And I think the big question, Rebecca, that we're all asking is what impact is that 17% now coming under as a result of what's happening globally. I think the comfort that you can take today is that hedging, it seems to be order the day at the moment. Everyone is talking about hedging in the context of BCI and stuff like that. I think our land margin uptick that you're seeing coming through is an effective hedge for what's potentially coming down the track in terms of higher interest rates and potentially higher costs. So that's the most effective way I can answer that question at the moment for you. Jason Honeyman: Can I -- sorry, Rebecca, can I just add to that because we've taken a more sober view of the outlook. We take the view that even if the war stops in the morning, there's still going to be a ripple of cost inflation in the system. That's already in existence. It's unlikely that the trading environment is going to change from a deal led market. So there's no house price inflation in the market. So we've just taken a more cautious realistic view of what's happening in the world. And then we see margin progression probably feeding through back end of '27 into '28. That's a sensible view to take today. Alastair Stewart: Alastair Stewart from Progressive. A couple of questions, please. First, in terms of the trading over the last 2 or 3 weeks, I think we're on week 4 now from what I hear. But in terms of that, you've been clear in terms of the weekly sales rates been holding up. But in terms of anecdote from sites, if there is any reticence anywhere among your potential buyers, is there a trend? Is it more traders up are more comfortable than the first-time buyers? And is there a regional disparity in terms of comfort about the situation? That's the first question. In terms of the second, it's more of a sector-wide question. You're chasing the supply chain for recoveries. Everybody says that. But in terms of the bigger picture, are you and other housebuilders chasing -- do you see more upside in terms of recoveries from, say, big materials groups who have strong balance sheets, but also very strong lawyers? Or is it from the supply chain that probably have very little legal status, but no balance sheet to depend on really? Jason Honeyman: I'm just going to start recoveries with Simon, who can talk -- turn around without a microphone it would be fine. Simon Scougall: Hear me now? That's better. So it's aimed at not just the supply base and their insurance, of course, it is also aimed at the larger suppliers and manufacturers. So we're very actively considering our options there. And there's quite a bit going in that space. I can't say any more at this moment in time, but we are very determined to secure as much recoveries as we can from as wide a pool as possible. Alastair Stewart: But just if you had to take one side of the divide, the big guys, the small guys, who do you think you've got most chance to get? Simon Scougall: Well, it's a real mixed bag because even the small guys as it were, we're looking at them from their insurance position. So it's big guys behind them. So it's a real wide pool that we're looking at. But just to reassure, there's lots going on in that area. Jason Honeyman: And I'll come back to your trading point, Alastair. And I'm not sure I was surprised, but there's certainly resilience amongst our buyers because they have got crisis fatigue. It seems to be -- it's just too often, but I'm not naive enough to think it won't come and get them in the end, but everyone is very sensitive to the news at the moment. So I certainly think that March will continue with -- until we get to the end of March, there will be some decent sales rates we'll deliver. And there's new spring buyers coming to the market, there may be a little more caution where people take the view, well, I might just wait for this war to end because mortgage offers are going to -- mortgage rates are going to come down. So there will be more caution in the market. I don't think significant, but I think it will just take the gloss off the very good sales rates that people in this room have been delivering so far this year. Christopher Millington: Chris Millington, Deutsche. First one, just following on what you just said there, Jason. If we're going to see a slowdown in April, do you think you would have seen anything in inquiries, visitor levels? Is anything happening to that extent at the moment? Well, let's go one at a time. Jason Honeyman: Yes. We've just noticed visitor rates slowed down this week, which leads me to think that's not inquiries. It's what passing traffic. So serious buyers are still there, Chris. So just starting to moderate. And when you say sales start to slow down, I don't think we're going to move back to 2025. I just think the gloss will come off ourselves. We've been working quite hard to deliver that sales rate. But it seems to me it's a little bit inevitable unless something changes in the news, Chris, in the short term. That's my view. Christopher Millington: Next one is about buying land. I mean as you say, you're on replacement, but you're still expending a lot of money. How do you deal with kind of the price cost inputs when you're going through trying to work out whether or not you should be committing to this stuff in times like this? Jason Honeyman: I think that's a very good point. And last October, I spoke to you about we're going to adopt a replacement-only policy, Chris, for land because that was going to help Shane's capital efficiency program. I'm not sure we'll ever do that this year. That's the level of caution. And you're quite right, until I can understand what that ripple of cost inflation that is almost inevitable going to come into the market, it's probably best to buy as little as possible or just the good deals that you've got on the table. That's probably my approach. Christopher Millington: Sorry, I've got 2 more, but one is pretty quick. Affordable. Any sign that market is starting to wake up at all? Or is it still pretty? Jason Honeyman: Yes, murmuring. And certainly, the new grant round that comes into play now and next month has got the housing associations more active. I mean we'd like to materially move that market and start delivering more affordable homes and get building, Chris. But it's moving better. It was stuck. It's now got some life in it. Christopher Millington: And sorry, my last one. Just about this land bank evolution. You've hopefully given that slide about pre-'24 plots, post '24 plots. Perhaps you can give us a little bit of help with the margins in each category or just talk around kind of what benefit that would have given you. Jason Honeyman: Well what I was going to do in -- I might get Simon to do a presentation to you on strat land in October, so we can show in a bit more detail. But sometimes on strat land, there's lots of hope. So I'd like to see those 17,000 plots come through the system. So that crystallizes the land value and the margins, Chris. So certainly, it's margin accretive. I'm not sure we can spell out today what that all means. Can you add anything on that, Shane? Shane Doherty: Simon, do you want to? Simon Scougall: I'll add one quick one there. Back to the margin point that Jason was talking about. Strat land obviously has the benefit to us because you get a discount to market value in the option terms we agree. But the other benefit is that we're not agreeing land value until we've got planning permission, a detailed planning permission. So half of our land bank there hasn't got a land value yet ascertained, which clearly benefits from what we're talking about with the risk in Middle East and build cost inflation, et cetera. We'll agree a price relevance at the time. So it would be better margin protection as well as a consequence of that. Charlie Campbell: Charlie Campbell at Stifel. Just one actually, just on the WIP and obviously, well plans in place to reduce that. And as you said, you've made good progress. Does that get more difficult in a slower sales environment where buyers are more choosy, more careful and maybe want to see more finished stock on the ground. Just wonder how you juggle the WIP reduction in a more difficult market. Jason Honeyman: Can I start? May be you can look at the headlines. Yes. We put the properties on the market, Charlie, that are more advanced. So that's what's for sale. So we're not particularly selling anything other than stock. So we engineer what we sell on those sites. And I wouldn't describe today's market as bad. A selling rate in 2/3 of the U.K. at 0.75. It's not bad at all. It's in the South of England and the Southwest of England, where we're probably a little bit more sensitive to the investment in WIP and sales rate. Are you okay to talk about the headline numbers, please, Shane? Shane Doherty: Yes. Well, I mean, I think you've probably answered the bulk of the question insofar as, look, clearly, there's a volume correlation in terms of how many units you're selling. That's the tightest control you can have around WIP. But we have put a lot of hygiene -- additional hygiene controls in place around WIP spend in itself as well. So clearly, if we're in a situation where unit output wasn't where we anticipate it's going to be next year, that would actually have an impact on with monetization. But we are well set up to manage our WIP spend proactively in relation to that. And we can see that in terms of KPIs that we have in place around a number of foundations, number of unreserved production. All of those percentages are substantially lower than where they were a couple of years ago. So if we maintain those at that level and run our business that way, you will see a commensurate reduction in WIP spend vis-a-vis what you're monetizing. But clearly, the opportunity to get to 10,000 units and doing that without overspending on WIP is where the significant cash monetization opportunity is. Kate Middleton: A few from me, if possible. So Kate Middleton, Panmure Liberum. The first one is just on timber frames and vertical integration. So just wondering how many of the business units are currently utilizing timber frames and whether the rollout is phased or more discretionary and perhaps how that will link in with the new house types that you're bringing in? The second is on cancellation rates and if you've seen any movement on those since the beginning of this year? And just finally, I know you've alluded to no real house price inflation, but just wondering whether on a regional perspective, you're seeing any underlying variation in ASPs at all? Jason Honeyman: Okay. I'll do those. On timber frame, we've started on our journey, and we've got 7 divisions out of 21 feeding into our facility. And we'll -- until we get up to speed and more proficient at it, we'll keep it with just those 7 surrounding the factory. The next step for us was to scale it up within the factory, work 2 or 3 shifts in a day and possibly in the future, build another factory somewhere else in the U.K. That's our thoughts. In terms of cancellations, we've not seen anything yet. Who knows what's going to happen in the month of April? I certainly don't. And sorry, your third question was on. Kate Middleton: Whether you're seeing any regional underlying movements in ASPs? Jason Honeyman: No, we haven't. You always get a good site that's selling really well that you might be a bit braver on. I think the market is sensitive. It's deal led. Our next step won't be to push house prices. It will be to reduce incentives, which is sort of the same thing, but you're keeping your headline the same. So it will be in those better selling areas in Scotland and the North of England, we've discussed as a team, should we reduce incentives down to 2%, for instance. I'm not quite brave enough to do that just yet, but maybe across the spring, early summer. Is that okay? All done? Thank you very much, indeed. Thank you. Shane Doherty: Thank you.
Operator: Good afternoon, and welcome to Fractyl Health Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results and Business Update Call. [Operator Instructions]. I'll now turn the call over to Brian Luque, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Fractyle. Brian, you may now begin. Brian Luque: Thank you. This afternoon, we issued a press release that outlines the topics we plan to discuss today. The release is available at www.fractyl.com under the Investors tab. Joining us on the call today are Dr. Hartih Rajagopalan, Chief Executive Officer; and Lara Smith Weber, Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we make forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We provide a comprehensive list of risk factors in our SEC filings, including the annual report on Form 10-K filed today, which I encourage you to review. Any forward-looking statements on the call are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, speak only as of the call's original date, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of the statements, even if subsequent events cause the company's views to change. It is now my pleasure to pass the call over to Harith. Harith Rajagopalan: Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. Millions of Americans are starting GLP-1 therapy. Most of them will stop within a year. Data show that when they stop, the weight comes back, approximately 10% of their body weight within 6 months and approximately 15% within 12 months. Every one of those patients faces a moment with no durable off-ramp, no alternative to either resuming chronic pharmacotherapy or accepting the risk of regain. Revita is being built for that moment. For those of you who are new to the Fractyl story, Revita is our lead asset. It's like LASIK for obesity, an endoscopic procedure designed to durably maintain weight loss after GLP-1 discontinuation. And Rejuva is our smart GLP-1 platform targeting long-term metabolic remission from a single dose. Today, I want to tell you where we stand in the development of Revita for post- GLP-1 weight maintenance, what we have learned since we last spoke to you about the clinical data and share new favorable feedback we have received from the FDA on our filing strategy. I'd like to start by naming something directly. In January, we reported 6-month data from the REMAIN-1 Midpoint cohort. The past several weeks of analysis have given us a level of precision about which patients benefit most from Revita and at what procedural profile that we did not have before. This clarity has strengthened our conviction in Revita and has helped us finalize the pivotal study's key design elements to ensure we are set up for regulatory and commercial success. Today, we will share what we now know and why the picture is both more precise and more compelling than the headline p-value initially suggested. Let me walk you through 4 key pillars that give us conviction in the opportunity in front of us. Number one, the clinical signal is real. Number two, the pivotal is built to succeed. Number three, the path from data to commercial value is clearer than ever. And four, we have the runway to get to the definitive pivotal data without any planned incremental capital raise. Now let's start by discussing the clinical signal. You will recall that the Midpoint Cohort was a pilot randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study that enrolled 45 patients with obesity who were GLP-1 naive. They were started on tirzepatide to achieve at least 15% total body weight loss and then randomized 2:1 to Revita versus sham. This 45-patient study was designed as an interim read to validate the design and the powering assumptions for the REMAIN-1 pivotal study, not as a powered stand-alone efficacy study. Nonetheless, the 6-month Midpoint Cohort data did not look as strong as the 3-month data. Early analysis that we shared at the time of data release was that site level heterogeneity appeared to account for the attenuation of the clinical signal in some patients. Further investigation has revealed that the site level heterogeneity is, in fact, differences in ablation length or treatment dose at early clinical sites and that these differences in ablation length are a key driver of efficacy differences between patients. Critically, we have not identified site level operational issues. What we did find was even better, a strong dose response relationship between ablation length and weight maintenance after GLP-1 discontinuation. This is a strong positive signal for the Revita mechanism of action and for the potential success of the pivotal study. We have long understood from our work in type 2 diabetes that Revita's treatment effect is proportional to the extent of duodenal resurfacing. Our first-in-human feasibility and dose escalation pilot study in type 2 diabetes was published in Diabetes Care in 2016 and prospectively demonstrated a clear relationship between ablation length and glucose lowering. Since that time, we have been systematically optimizing the procedure profile across successive clinical studies to deliver longer ablation length from 9 centimeters in the first in human to over 16 centimeters on average in REMAIN, and have seen greater potency in our studies without compromising patient safety. And because of this experience, our pivotal study already prespecified an ablation length dose response secondary endpoint. When we applied this dose response analysis to the Midpoint Cohort 45 patients, we observed a statistically significant p less than 0.05 monotonic and clear relationship between ablation length and weight maintenance treatment effect at 6 months. Participants who received more than 14 centimeters of ablation regained approximately half the weight of sham, whereas those individuals with subthreshold ablations accounted for the apparent narrowing of treatment effect between month 3 and month 6 that we saw in our January data release. This finding is consistent with our prior evaluation of ablation length on patients with type 2 diabetes, and it makes sense biologically. The duodenum is lined with enteroendocrine cells that drive key metabolic signaling pathways. The density of that cell population is distributed along the length of the duodenal mucosa and duodenal dysfunction from high fat high sugar diet extends along the length of the entire duodenum in animal models. A longer ablation resurfaces a greater proportion of that signaling surface, producing a more complete metabolic effect, which is exactly what our dose response data confirmed. In the REMAIN-1 pivotal study, we trained physicians to ablate from the ampulla of Vater to the ligament of Treitz, which are anatomical landmarks toward the beginning and the end of the duodenum, respectively. Based on our work in type 2 diabetes, we aim for an ablation of at least 10 centimeters, but encourage physicians to ablate more if they deemed it appropriate. In the pivotal study, the mean and median ablation length are more than 16 centimeters, providing ample opportunity to demonstrate an enhanced clinical signal reflecting more complete duodenal ablation. Notably, all pivotal investigators were successfully trained to achieve more than 14 centimeters of ablation, confirming procedural scalability and feasibility across diverse operators and patient anatomies. So taking a step back, what we have is a clear monotonic dose response, which is exactly what you would expect to see from a true biological intervention. All drugs and all procedural therapies that work like drugs should show a dose response relationship. That's what biological activity looks like. And ablation dose is a specific, measurable, controllable and standardizable metric for repeatable outcomes in a broad population. So having established ablation length as a key procedural driver of Revita's potency, let's turn to patient selection. The scientific community has long understood that the magnitude of initial weight loss on GLP-1s is proportional to the magnitude and speed of weight regain upon discontinuation. So we designed REMAIN-1 with a greater than 15% total body weight loss threshold at run-in, specifically because we expect the treatment effect to scale with the degree of pre-randomization weight loss. Midpoint Cohort results at 6 months confirm this relationship. Participants with greater than 17.5% weight loss showed an early, sustained and compounding separation from sham through 6 months. The pivotal has enrolled a population that is built to capture a large effect size that scales to the magnitude of initial weight loss as well with a mean run-in weight loss of 18.3% in the Pivotal Cohort. So when we now consider the right dose in the right patient, we observed the signal to be strongest among participants with higher weight loss who received longer length of duodenal ablation. And in these individuals, Revita-treated patients experienced only 2.9% weight regain at 6 months compared to 9.9% in the sham arm, approximately a 70% reduction in post GLP-1 weight regain. Like ablation length, the treatment effect scale monotonically with the magnitude of weight loss as well. Another way to think about it is that in this optimized patient cohort in the midpoint study, patients retained about 88% of their body weight loss on tirzepatide compared to only about 60% in the sham arm at 6 months. We believe this degree of weight loss maintenance will be highly compelling to key commercial stakeholders. It is a prospectively definable, commercially significant population. It is the exact population that the pivotal study has enrolled and will enable efficacy endpoints in our pivotal study later this year. This is also classic translational pharmacology applied to a procedural therapy, identification of the right patients and the right dose to optimize the clinical profile and achieve a large treatment effect. Turning now to the pivotal study statistical analysis plan and operational progress. Our plan was always to analyze the 6-month Midpoint Cohort to inform our understanding of the key drivers of effect size and then to use this information to prespecify the Pivotal Cohort statistical plan. The pivotal SAP, which we will file with FDA shortly, incorporates these parameters as prespecified analyses, and this will enable clarity on effect size and durability as a function of treatment dose and patient selection in the pivotal study. I also want to provide clarity about our endpoint structure. REMAIN-1 has 2 co-primary endpoints. The first is percent body weight regain in the Revita arm versus sham at 6 months. This is the data we expect in early Q4. The second co-primary is the proportion of Revita-treated patients who maintain at least 5% total body weight loss at 1 year after GLP-1 discontinuation. Both co-primaries are required to be met at p less than 0.05 for overall study success and we believe the pivotal is well powered at over 90% to achieve that result even under conservative assumptions. In addition to these co-primaries, we will present a comprehensive set of secondary endpoints, including a dose response analysis, a high responder population analysis, cardiometabolic markers and patient-reported outcomes, including reduction in cravings for sugary foods. In February, we completed randomization in the full study of the Pivotal Cohort with over 300 participants across more than 30 sites and over 20 operators across the United States, making this the largest sham-controlled GI endoscopy pivotal trial ever conducted. Every operational metric that predicts pivotal success is tracking favorably. Retention exceeds 95%. Medication resumption rates are below our model assumptions. The blinded adverse event profile remains encouragingly consistent with what we have seen in prior studies. And we remain on track to deliver top line 6-month primary endpoint data in early Q4 2026. Turning now to regulatory progress. Earlier this month, we received favorable FDA feedback on our De Novo classification request. You may remember that we aim to get that feedback in Q2, but our most recent discussion with FDA revealed that they have reviewed safety data to date, and they acknowledge that Revita's safety profile is consistent with a Class II device classification or a moderate-risk De Novo device. With this positive feedback now in hand, ahead of schedule, we are on track for De Novo submission in late Q4 2026 with 6-month pivotal data in hand. There are several advantages to the De Novo pathway compared to the PMA pathway. It is a more capital efficient, faster and strategically superior path. So now let's turn to the commercial opportunity because the landscape is evolving in ways that reinforce the urgency of what we are building and the path from clinical data to commercial value is becoming clearer and nearer than ever. With an anticipated filing via the De Novo pathway at the end of this year, we're also preparing ourselves for our potential commercial launch. There is a large and growing population on GLP-1 drugs with estimates projecting over 30 million users in the next several years. We estimate that as newer agents become more effective, more than 50% of patients are expected to lose more than 17.5% of their total body weight on GLP-1s and more than half of these are likely to discontinue. As a result, the post-GLP-1 unmet need is intensifying rather than abating. A large study published in BMJ Medicine last week following over 330,000 patients showed that GLP-1 cardiovascular benefits erode rapidly after discontinuation with the authors coining the term metabolic whiplash. Resuming treatment did not fully restore lost benefits, underscoring the need for durable maintenance solutions. Meanwhile, the payer landscape is shifting. CMS has expanded Medicare coverage of GLP-1s, driving a massive increase in the addressable patient population, but also intensifying the economic pressure on payers who are now grappling with the long-term cost of chronic therapy. This creates an unprecedented window for Revita, the first FDA breakthrough device designed for post-GLP-1 weight maintenance as a potentially durable, cost-effective solution that gives people an off-ramp from chronic pharmacotherapy while preserving the metabolic benefits they work so hard to achieve. On reimbursement, we now have a clear and validated pathway. We plan to file a Category III CPT code application this summer with a code expected to be effective in the summer of 2027. The payment economics work for hospitals from nearly day 1. Transitional pass-through payment by a CMS provides a separate incremental mechanism to cover the cost of the Revita disposable device on top of the facility rate, ensuring that hospitals can maintain a positive contribution margin while offering the procedure to patients. Revita is the only potential procedural therapy in development for post-GLP-1 weight maintenance, and we believe the commercial infrastructure will be ready to move quickly upon clearance. Briefly, let's turn to Rejuva, our smart GLP-1 platform targeting long-term metabolic remission from a single dose. We submitted clinical trial applications for RJVA-001 in type 2 diabetes to regulators in the EU and Australia, and we anticipate regulatory feedback in Q2 2026, expect reporting first-in-human dosing and preliminary data in the second half of this year. The Rejuva program is advancing within a disciplined spending framework that does not compete with Revita for capital, and we will share more on the platform at an upcoming Investor Day. Let me frame the anticipated catalyst-rich path ahead before I hand it to Lara. In Q2, we will see 1-year REVEAL-1 open-label data and receive CTA regulatory feedback on RJVA-001. In Q3, we will see 1-year REMAIN-1 Midpoint Cohort randomized data, and we expect to be able to demonstrate continued compounding treatment effect and durability at that time in a randomized data set. In early Q4, we will anticipate seeing top line 6-month randomized data from the REMAIN-1 pivotal study. This is the single most important catalyst in our company's history. And in late Q4 this year, potential De Novo marketing application submission for Revita in post-GLP-1 weight maintenance. In the second half of this year, we will also see human dosing of RJVA-001, subject to CTA authorization and preliminary safety and PK data. Each of these milestones move us closer to delivering the first potential procedural therapy for maintenance and weight loss after GLP-1 discontinuation, and it is a catalyst-rich year ahead. Lara? Lara Weber: Thank you, Harith. Research and development expenses were $16.5 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, compared to $20.3 million for the same period in 2024. The decrease was primarily due to our strategic reprioritization in Q1 2025, resulting in lower personnel-related costs and reduced costs associated with the pausing of the REVITALIZE-1 study, partially offset by continued investment in REMAIN-1 and Rejuva. SG&A expenses were $6.8 million for Q4 2025 compared to $4.9 million for the same period in 2024. The increase was primarily due to underwriters commissions associated with our August 2025 financing. We reported a net loss of $43.7 million for Q4 2025 compared to $25 million in Q4 2024. However, the $20.2 million of the increase was a noncash accounting change in the fair value of our warrant liabilities, which does not reflect a change in our underlying operating performance. Stripping that out, our operating expenses for the quarter were $1.9 million lower than the same period in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $21.2 million for Q4 '25 compared to negative $22.1 million for Q4 2024, reflecting the decrease in operating expenses. As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately $81.5 million cash and cash equivalents. Based on our current business plan, we believe this cash position, combined with the $4.1 million subsequent proceeds from warrant exercises received in January 2026 will fund operations into early 2027. Importantly, this funds the company beyond the anticipated REMAIN-1 pivotal data readout in early Q4 2026 and through a potential De Novo submission in late Q4 2026. With that, I'll turn it back to Harith for one specific item on capital strategy and a few closing remarks before we open for Q&A. Harith Rajagopalan: Thank you, Lara. Before we open Q&A, I want to address capital strategy directly and remove any ambiguity. We have closed our ATM facility, and we do not have plans to raise capital before we have pivotal data in hand. Our runway extends into early 2027. This is a deliberate commitment grounded in conviction. We expect the pivotal data will be positive, and we will operate with discipline within our existing capital envelope as a signal of management's alignment with shareholders through a key moment. A few final comments. First, we believe the clinical signal is real with a strong dose response and a clear GLP-1 responder target population. Second, the pivotal is built to win with strong powering on the full cohort and enrichment in an optimized cohort of patients with high running weight loss and longer ablation lengths. Third, we see a clear path to commercial value with favorable De Novo feedback and a large, defined and growing market opportunity. And lastly, we are funded to the key pivotal value inflection point without planned incremental capital raise between now and then. We have the science, the runway and the team to prove it. We look forward to sharing more data this summer and into the fall. I want to express my deep gratitude to our employees whose dedication and focus through a challenging year has been nothing short of extraordinary, to the physicians and investigators who believe in the science and bring it to patients with skill and care to the patients who trust us with their health and their hope and to you, our shareholders, whose conviction fuels everything we do. Operator, we are ready to take questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions]. And our first question comes from the line of Whitney Ijem of Canaccord Genuity. Angela Qian: This is Angela on for Whitney. Can you guys just remind us how the ablation length is determined again, is that it's after the patient is already like during the procedure, right? And so yes, I guess like how is that length determined? And then it sounds like 16 centimeters is the cutoff now like going forward, is that the target minimum ablation length? Harith Rajagopalan: Yes. Great question, Angela. Happy to clarify this point because it's important to how we think about standardizing this procedure as we go forward and how we are going to analyze the pivotal data as well. When we looked at the type 2 diabetes patient population, we saw a dose response where ablation was defined as the length of the total amount of duodenum that was ablated. When we did our first-in-human study, we saw that about 10 centimeters of ablation had more glucose lowering efficacy than 3 centimeters. We are seeing the same thing now in obesity, but at higher lengths of ablation. Our ablation balloon is 2 centimeters long. In the procedure, we count the number of ablations that are performed longitudinally along the length of the duodenum, and that allows us to calculate the ablation length. What is clear is that the ablation length for weight effects is greater than or equal to 16 centimeters. That will be our operating standard going forward and will be built into the key secondary endpoints in our pivotal study. And in those patients, we see a clinically meaningful and compounding treatment effect in the Midpoint Cohort. We believe this to be the reason for heterogeneity that we saw back in January, and we're very gratified to have the data to be able to give us clarity on the precision of what is needed in order to deliver benefit to patients. Angela Qian: Great. Maybe just a quick follow-up. I guess, does this impact how doctors are going to be trained in the future in terms of length of ablation? And was it -- were they conducting less ablation because they were less comfortable with it? Or if you could just provide more color around that? Harith Rajagopalan: Well, in the pivotal study, we advise patients -- doctors to ablate at least 10 centimeters and from the anatomical landmark at the beginning of the duodenum towards the end of the duodenum. But it was less to the physician's discretion how much ablations to perform. In that study, everyone was trained to be able to successfully perform greater than 14 centimeters of ablation across the board. And so we believe that we can easily train physicians to do that consistently now that we have the data to support that length being the efficacious dose. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Michael DiFiore of Evercore ISI. Michael DiFiore: One on the De Novo pathway. It seems that you're increasingly more confident that the FDA could accept your De Novo submission based on early feedback. And I guess my question is, to what extent does efficacy play in the final determination here? Or is it all about safety? And then I have a follow-up. Harith Rajagopalan: Well, I think the De Novo pathway determination versus, say, a PMA determination is principally a safety consideration because what the FDA is thinking about is whether this is a moderate risk device in De Novo versus a high-risk device in a PMA. And then the efficacy threshold for PMA and De Novo are also nuanced -- have nuanced differences. The efficacy threshold for PMA is valid scientific evidence, whereas the efficacy threshold for a De Novo is reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness. Michael DiFiore: I see. That's helpful. And then just back on the ablation length. I think I and a lot of other folks were under the impression that this was already standardized. But now you made it clear that in the pivotal studies, physicians were instructed to ablate at least 10 centimeters. And I guess my question is in the real world, based on the average patient, is 16 centimeters readily achievable? Or is the average patient's anatomy more conducive to less centimeter ablations? Harith Rajagopalan: In the Pivotal Cohort, mean and median ablation length was greater than 16 centimeters and is readily achievable by all of the investigators that we've trained, and we believe that will be translatable to the broader population. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jason Gerberry of Bank of America Securities. Chi Meng Fong: This is Chi on for Jason. Maybe a follow-up on the ablation length. Can you provide more color on the post-hoc analysis for the midpoint data set? More specifically, can you remind us the ablation length and GLP-1 induced weight loss from the Midpoint Cohort and how that compares to the metrics you provided for the Pivotal Cohort? And secondarily, how much variability in the ablation length you saw in the Midpoint Cohort compared to the Pivotal Cohort? And I guess, ultimately, how does this post-hoc analysis impact your confidence for the pivotal readout later this year? Harith Rajagopalan: Well, this is a post-hoc analysis in the Midpoint Cohort. It was already a prespecified analysis in the pivotal study and is consistent with prespecified studies we've conducted on dose in type 2 diabetes in the past. In the Midpoint Cohort -- sorry, in the Pivotal Cohort, mean and median ablation length are greater than 16 centimeters and the average ablation length is longer than it was in the Midpoint Cohort. And we feel confident that we can train physicians to perform longer ablations in the pivotal. All of this translates to a high degree of conviction in the pivotal study. Number one, we are very well powered at well over 90% for the full cohort, and we have key secondary endpoints that we have prespecified that will interrogate patients who receive more than 16 centimeters of ablation and in patients who receive -- who have more running weight loss on the GLP-1. And we are confident that each of those independently and collectively will drive larger and compounding treatment effects in the pivotal study and will provide clarity on how Revita can be used in which patient and at what dose in order to achieve a clinically meaningful signal that can translate to commercial utilization. Chi Meng Fong: Got it. So the ablation length for the Pivotal Cohort is what you have observed is longer than the ablation length in the Midpoint Cohort? Harith Rajagopalan: That's right. Chi Meng Fong: Okay. And given you have already fully randomized the Pivotal Cohort, basically, is it fair to assume that all the ablation had already occurred and you're talking about ablation length you have observed for all the procedures that conducted? Harith Rajagopalan: Yes, that's locked. And I think we're saying that we're more than 1 month out from the last randomization now. And the safety signal in our blinded analysis continues to be very encouraging. And so we feel quite confident that the efficacy is the question in the pivotal study and the data that we're sharing with you today meaningfully increase the probability of success on the efficacy angle as well. Operator: Our next question comes from line of Mike Ulz of Morgan Stanley. Michael Ulz: And maybe just another one related to ablation. Just curious how long it takes to sort of train these physicians to be able to do the procedure to ensure adequate ablation. Is that something that's fairly quick? Or how much experience does it take to kind of make sure that they're hitting that mark? Harith Rajagopalan: This training that we've built is -- works very well. It takes less than 3 to 4 cases to train a physician to perform ablations. The shorter length of ablations that we sometimes see in the Midpoint Cohort and the Pivotal Cohort are often reflective of the first couple of cases that the physician is performing and yet very soon, they get very comfortable with it and then are consistently delivering longer ablations. The huge advantage of a prospectively defined dose response in the pivotal is that it allows us to standardize the treatment -- the training regime and the treatment recommendation in commercial use. And I think that's going to help standardize real-world outcomes. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Cohen of Ladenburg Thalmann & Company. Jeffrey Cohen: Sorry to be redundant. So on the -- in Q3, when we see the 1-year remain Midpoint Cohort, will we see further analysis by length as far as the data that you're reading out? Harith Rajagopalan: Yes. Jeffrey Cohen: Got it. And then could you talk a little bit about the energy delivery and the temperatures involved? Has anything changed as far as the delivery from the generator between the Midpoint Cohort and the Pivotal? Harith Rajagopalan: No, nothing has changed. And I think one point that you should take confidence in is that even though we went from a small number of sites in the midpoint to a much larger number of sites and operators and patients, the treatment that we've been able to train physicians to perform has been remarkably consistent and standardized over the course of time. The only difference that we are sharing with you now is that we can give specific guidance on what length of duodenum to aim for in obesity. And that is very useful information. We're glad to have it. Jeffrey Cohen: That's helpful. And then can you talk about the CPT code. So as I understand it, if you file during the midpoint somewhere in 2027 that, that could or would take effect January 1, '28. Are you also suggesting that it's possible that you'll have a T code that would take effect sometime in 2027? Harith Rajagopalan: We're anticipating filing for the Category III CPT code in June of this year. It's reviewed in September and should go into effect in the summer of '27, July 1. And we are also intending to file for a transitional pass-through payment through CMS immediately upon FDA authorization, and that's a quarterly review cycle. So that can go into effect very quickly upon launch. That's why we said that there was essentially no daylight between potential clearance authorization in the United States and reimbursement authorization for hospitals to begin to use it. Jeffrey Cohen: OOkay. And I'm assuming you'll also take on payer discussion late this year, commencing late this year as far as payer discussion? Harith Rajagopalan: That's right. And when you think about it, we will have a fully formed clinical profile by early Q4. 12-month randomized data from REMAIN-1, 12-month open-label data from REVEAL-1, 6-month randomized data from the full Pivotal Cohort of 300 patients. That's a fully derisked clinical package that we could then use to inform our payer discussions and drive towards our regulatory submission calendar. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Joe Pantginis of H.C. Wainwright. Joseph Pantginis: So my first question is shorter, but maybe a more complex answer. So first, with the De Novo filing positive feedback, how would we view the totality of regulatory submissions over the next -- over the next year or so with regard to is it a multistep process? Or is it similar to a rolling BLA? Or how should we view it? Harith Rajagopalan: There are 3 main packages to the regulatory submission. There is a design history file, which is the device design. There's a manufacturing file, which reflects how we manufacture our systems. and then there will be clinical data. We will have a full package of 6-month data by the end of this year. There's -- we will also be ready to submit 12-month data in the first quarter of 2027, should that be necessary. Joseph Pantginis: That's great. And then if I heard you correctly, correct me if I'm wrong, it sounded like you're going to be filing the SAP relatively soon. So with regard to the ablation length that we've been discussing today, and it's very intriguing data, by the way, how would you look at -- and you mentioned it's a prespecified population. How would that factor into the statistical analysis plan and also the role of the secondary endpoints that you mentioned and the hierarchy of them? Harith Rajagopalan: Great question. Obviously, details on the hierarchy are going to be pending our conversation with the FDA, and we'll share that with you when we have it. I would make 2 points right now. Number one, the sweet spot of the enrollment and randomization of the pivotal study are exactly the patients in whom Revita appears to be working best. The mean ablation length was more than 16 centimeters, which is where Revita's efficacy is very clear based on the midpoint cohort. And the mean run-in weight loss was over 18% total body weight, which is where Revita's efficacy is also very clear. So the right down the middle of the fairway of our pivotal enrollment is exactly the sweet spot of where we are seeing efficacy. And so we're confident in that. And we have designed key secondary endpoints in order to be able to demonstrate that very clearly. Operator: Thank you. I'll now like to turn the call back to Dr. Rajagopalan for closing remarks. Harith Rajagopalan: Well, thank you, everyone. The science is working. The pivotal is on track and we look forward to delivering the definitive data this fall. Thank you all very much. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good afternoon, and welcome to the BioCardia Year-end 2025 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. A webcast replay of the call will be available approximately one hour after the end of the call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Miranda Peto of BioCardia Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Miranda. Miranda Benvenuti: Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in today's conference call. Joining me from BioCardia's leadership team are Peter Altman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and David McClung, the company's Chief Financial Officer. During this call, management will be making forward-looking statements, including statements that address BioCardia's expectations for future performance and operational results, references to management's intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses and current expectations. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with developing new products technologies and obtaining regulatory approvals. Forward-looking statements involve risks and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. For more information about these risks, please refer to the risk factors and cautionary statements described in Biocardia's reports on Form 10-K filed with the SEC today, March 24, 2026. The content of this call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, March 24, 2026. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect events or circumstances that occur after this call. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Dr. Peter Altman, BioCardia's President and CEO. Peter, please go ahead. Peter Altman: Thank you, Miranda, and good afternoon to everyone on the call. BioCardia's mission is to develop and enhance therapies to treat cardiovascular disease. We are doing this today with 3 primary platforms, our CardiAMP, autologous minimally processed cell therapy, our CardiALLO allogeneic off-the-shelf mesenchymal cell therapy and our Helix transendocardial biotherapeutic delivery system, which is used by both our CardiAMP and CardiALLO cell therapy programs. Our lead program remains the CardiAMP cell therapy for roughly 1 million patients in the United States and 150,000 patients in Japan with ischemic heart failure of reduced ejection fraction. These are patients who've had coronary disease may have had a heart attack and have subsequently developed heart failure characterized by a larger dilated heart that unfortunately pumps inefficiently. Cardiac therapy includes CD34 and CD133 cells that have long been recognized as endothelial progenitor cells that promote new capillary formation. Preclinical data also provides support that these cells reduce fibrosis in the heart. Based on these mechanisms to effectively treat microvascular dysfunction, CardiAMP cell therapy is introducing a new therapeutic modality to the significant unmet need in ischemic heart failure that is primarily managed today by neurohormonal modulation. The clinical outcomes with this approach have been excellent. We now have complete and final data from 3 clinical trials of the CardiAMP therapy with the latest results from our Phase III CardiAMP HF trial presented as a late-breaking clinical trial at the Technology and Heart Failure Therapeutics Meeting this month. The presentation was titled Autologous Cell Therapy may occur pathological ventricular remodeling in chronic ischemic heart failure of reduced ejection fraction patients selected for favorable cell characteristics. The key takeaway from these new results is in this title. The Cardiac HF echocardiography clinical results, which measure heart chamber sizes over time, by a truly blinded world-class echocardiography core laboratory, show reductions in left ventricular volume disease when the heart ventricle is fully dilated with a p-value of 0.06 and when the heart is fully contracted with a p-value of 0.09. For the prespecified subgroups of patients having elevated biomarkers of heart stress, the differences between the treated and control patients were both clinically meaningful, greater than 20 milliliters per meter squared and 15 milliliters per meter squared, respectively, and statistically significant with a p-value of 0.02 and p of 0.01, respectively. This echocardiographic data further supports our previous results of reduced fatal and nonfatal major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events and improve quality of life in the treated patients. They are similarly strongest in the prespecified subgroup of patients having elevated biomarkers of heart stress. When considered together with the significant reductions in left ventricular end systolic volume, and left ventricular end diastolic volume in the treatment group versus the control group, these results provide a basis for linking intramyocardial mononuclear cell therapy with suppression of pathological ventricular remodeling and beneficial clinical outcomes. This trial result is also considered consistent with observations from other heart failure of reduced ejection fraction therapies showing an association between suppression of pathological ventricular remodeling and improvement in mortality. This data is consistent across all 3 of our clinical studies, which saw reduced major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events and improved heart function. I also note that 2 of these trials were randomized, double-blinded clinical trials, which provide the greatest scientific rigor and the least investigator bias to study outcomes. This is the data we will soon be discussing with the Food and Drug Administration in the United States and which we have been discussing with Japan's Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency or PMDA, regarding potential for approval with the rigorous post-marketing studies to collect further evidence with respect to both safety and efficacy. We expect to soon submit the Q-sub request on approvability of the CardiAMP system to FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, based on the safety and compelling signals of patients benefits with elevated biomarkers of heart stress from our 3 clinical trials. This discussion is expected to focus on our already FDA-approved CardiAMP cell process platform to extend existing labeling from in vitro diagnostic use to a therapeutic indication for ischemic heart failure of reduced ejection fraction. The dedicated Helix transendocardial delivery catheter has a presubmission actively under review by FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health. In Japan, we expect to soon have our formal clinical consultation to align with PMDA on the acceptability of the existing clinical data from our 3 trials to show -- to allow us to submit the CardiAMP system. If PMDA determines that existing clinical data is acceptable with respect to safety and efficacy, submission for Shonin approval would likely soon follow. BioCardia is not alone in seeking approvals to provide therapeutic options to these patients and the physicians who care for them today. Japan has recently granted conditional approval to another allogeneic cell therapy for ischemic heart failure that involves the placement of sheets of cells on the surface of the heart in a surgical procedure. A U.S.-listed company has announced that they will be filing for a biological licensing application for their allogeneic cell therapy to also treat patients in a surgical setting. We expect a third company will also soon be applying for approval for surgically delivered cells. The need here is great, and we wish each of these peers and potential future delivery partners every success ahead. In parallel to these efforts, to wrap up the CardiAMP HF trial and seek approvals based on this data, we have initiated the CardiAMP HF II confirmatory clinical study. CardiAMP HF II focuses on the patients who are the greatest responders in CardiAMP HF and applies all of our learnings with regard to endpoint and trial design. In October and November, University of Wisconsin at Madison and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan and enrolled their first patients in CardiAMP HF II, respectively. Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia has also been activated as a study site. With Morton Plant Mease in Clearwater, Florida, there are 4 centers actively enrolling in this study today. If FDA supports an earlier approval, there is potential the trial design will be modified and become our post-marketing registry. There is also potential the CardiAMP HF II trial may benefit from the previous trial and a shorter pathway to approval be identified. We will have clarity here soon. We have made progress on our CardiAMP cell therapy clinical program for chronic myocardial ischemia and for our CardiALLO allogeneic cell therapy for heart failure. The status of these efforts is in our earnings announcement today. There could be significant upside from these clinical efforts in the near term. We have 4 catalysts before us in the next quarter. First, the FDA CardiAMP Heart Failure Q-submission for approval pathway under breakthrough designation has been drafted and is under legal review. We are targeting submission as soon as possible. Second, we have a formal clinical consultation scheduled with Japan PMDA on approvability of CardiAMP cell therapy. Third, we have an FDA substantive feedback meeting scheduled on approvability of our Helix transendocardial delivery system via the de novo pathway. And fourth, we have an abstract on CardiAMP and chronic myocardial ischemia that has been accepted for oral presentation at EuroPCR in May. I will now pass the call to David McClung, our CFO, who will review our fourth quarter 2025 financial results. David? David McClung: Thank you, Peter. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll now provide an overview of our financial results for the year ended December 31, 2025. Total expense accretes approximately 3% year-over-year to $8.3 million in 2025 and compared to $8.1 million in 2024. The primary driver of this change, research and development expense, increased to $5 million in 2025 compared to $4.4 million in 2024. The 13% increase was primarily due to the cost of closeout activities in the cardiac heart failure trial. Inception of enrollment in the CardiAMP HF II trial during the year and regulatory activities to advance CardiAMP in Japan. We anticipate R&D expenses will increase modestly in 2026 as we continue advancing our therapeutic candidates in both the United States and Japan. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased 10% in 2025 to $3.3 million as compared to $3.7 million in 2024, primarily due to lower professional fees coupled with reduced share-based compensation expense. We expect 2026 SG&A expenses to remain close to these 2025 levels. Net loss increased modestly to $8.2 million in 2025 from $7.9 million in 2024. Net cash used in operations was approximately $7.5 million during the year into 2025. That's down from $7.9 million in 2024. The company ended the year with cash and cash equivalents totaling $2.5 million, very comparable to the $2.4 million as of December 31, 2024. We expect our cash burn will be relatively consistent in 2026, continuing our track record for carefully managing the use of resources and capital. This concludes management's prepared remarks. We are happy now to take questions from attendees. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And the first question will come from Joe Pantginis with H.C. Wainwright. Lander Egaña-Gorroño: Hello, everyone. This is Lander on for Joe. We have a few. So let me start with the echo data presented at THT. So I wonder if you can provide some color on the p-values for the diastolic and systolic volumes in the complete population? And how do you think this data can support the narrative you're presenting to the PMDA? Peter Altman: Thank you for the question, and I really appreciate your eye on the Echo data. So this data is remarkably lovely data. And just -- I'll start off for everybody, typically, in these trials for all these therapies, very few companies have long-term truly blinded echo data. It's a very rare thing, and we have it in this trial. And the Core laboratory at Yale University is world-class. And so your question, Lander, was across all patients, the p-values are not statistically significant, but they're approaching it but to even see that kind of trend is wonderful. So our expectation is that our approvals both in the United States and in Japan will not be for the full cohort, but will be for the subgroup with elevated NT-proBNP. And because those patients -- NT-proBNP is a marker that's released when the heart is under stress. And so when you have high stress in the heart, it continues to dilate. And so what we're seeing is that those patients who are decompensated and are continuing to dilate, the mononuclear cell therapy appears to stop that process. So that's what's exciting about this data. So we see it across the full population with a p-value just above the key 0.05 threshold. But in the subgroup, we're looking at p-value of 0.02 and 0.1 for echo measures. And these are large magnitude changes that were presented at the THT conference. Another value proposition above and beyond just talking to regulators with respect to this data, Lander, is this data is compelling to cardiologists who are trying to advance therapies for their patients and the patients that we have treated are on guideline-directed medical therapy. So the patients in this trial have already been advanced on everything that's available to them that's not extremely invasive and they still are dying at a rate of approximately 10% per year. The big limit in heart failure is that nothing is changing mortality. And here, we're seeing a therapy that not only appears at a high level to be reducing mortality in MACE, but it's also showing these changes in left ventricular volumes that have a long history of being correlated with reduced mortality as well. So I think there'll be a lot of excited in the cardiology community, and that will translate into excellent enrollment in the CardiAMP Heart Failure II trial when we put our full weight behind it. Lander Egaña-Gorroño: Perfect. That's helpful. Yes. And do you have an estimate of the CardiAMP submission to the FDA if everything goes according to plan? And how are you thinking about the potential requirements for post-marketing studies and their execution? Peter Altman: So for CardiAMP HF, we are -- as I shared in my remarks, we're imminently going to file for a discussion on approvable pathways. So they already have all of the data from the trial. We will be providing other analyses that have been done, but that's imminent. I expect the time line will be, because this has FDA breakthrough designation, it will be under a standard Sprint discussion, which I estimate is roughly a 45-day turnaround. And then the subsequent -- if they're supportive, it will take time for all of the details regarding a submission to be put forward. And there's 2 approval pathways. Even though it is regulated by CBER, it is a device system. And so the approval pathway, again, CBER, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The device pathway has both the PMDA and the de novo pathway. And because of the safety profile we see with CardiAMP, it actually could go down the de novo pathway, which is really interesting. De novo is for devices that are safe. And there's no safety issues that I'm aware of right now with respect to CardiAMP. So if that's the door that's open and we decide to pursue it, it could be a very short time line. and relatively straightforward to secure approval. But if it's a PMA pathway, which has certain strategic advantages, it could be a little longer. The key question for FDA and for Japan PMDA, is this data acceptable for safety and efficacy for market release. Now your second part of the question, Lander, was, how do you think about the post-marketing study post-marketing studies, you cannot have patients come in and not have an option to therapy can't truly randomize. So we would expect these to be relatively extensive studies on many hundreds of patients that we would follow over time, and we will be collecting long-term survival data potentially echo data, potentially biomarker data, it's something to be discussed with respect to the agency's guidance on this from each area. Those measures I just identified are standard measures. So it wouldn't necessarily put an enormous undue burden on BioCardia, echo measures and NT-proBNP measures and understanding survival could be done relatively cost effectively in an open-label setting. So that's how we think about it. Clearly, it's a partnership with the regulatory bodies on their past experience and securing their support based on this data is really the focus. Lander Egaña-Gorroño: Perfect. That makes sense. And you already talked about this a little bit, but how do you see CardiAMP HF competing or not with other cell therapies for heart failure that are currently in regulatory discussions? Peter Altman: So with respect to what I called the 4 pillars of therapy in heart failure are the patients that's guideline-directed medical therapy that's established. All of the patients in our CardiAMP HF and in our CardiAMP HF II trial are already on guideline direct to medical therapy. So it's not instead of but really it's in addition to, and we're seeing these benefits in addition to. With the newer cell therapies that are seeking approval in the United States, they're all surgical delivery so far. I believe that they've all expressed interest publicly on pursuing different approaches for minimally invasive delivery such as we are pursuing and we could be helpful to them there. I see the competitive landscape as one where at the end of the day, I think CardiAMP will always remain one of the leading therapies because of how straightforward it is and how cost effective it will be. At the same time, this is the nature of waves of therapy development. There will ultimately be head-to-head trials for different therapies and it's good for patients if they have different therapeutic options and they're well studied. My sense is from an efficacy perspective, I actually think the CardiAMP therapy is amongst the most robust therapeutic data that's out there. If you look at the magnitude of changes we're seeing compared to all of the pivotal trials for the guideline-directed medical therapy, the magnitudes are compelling. And so it's going to be interesting. I think the key thing is to continue to collect data for evidence of both safety and efficacy. And like all great therapies, things will evolve solely over time. But I'm not concerned about the competitive issues. I think it's great for these patients that there's a number of folks pursuing therapies because the need here is enormous. In the United States, just in our indication, it's 1 million patients. So that's how we see it. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question will come from James Molloy with Alliance Global Partners. James Molloy: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the enrollment in the HF II trial. I know a few patients enrolled. Talk about sort of how the how that's building any anecdotal sort of stories from the enrollment, the challenges they're facing or maybe the challenges you are facing? And what's sort of the best centers best practices are using to sort of get folks into this HF II trial? Peter Altman: Yes. No, great question, Jim, and I really appreciate you being on the call. So if you actually look at our updated corporate presentation that we just came out a little while ago, we have pictures of 3 of clinical teams at these sites for CardiAMP HF II. And we put the pictures in there, first off, because it's really these centers that do all the work. But second, because you can see everybody's smiling after these procedures. And that's the signal of how well it's going as we're doing these procedures and also the relationships around doing this work. Enrollment numbers right now, we haven't detailed, but we're starting this enrollment slowly because almost all of our clinical team is focused on the efforts, enormous efforts in taking a Phase III trial data set through for regulatory submission. But all of that is coming to a head. And the beauty of this effort is that, that data will be a primary driver in enrollment ahead. So our expectation is as soon as we complete these conversations with PMDA and FDA, we'll know whether or not the CardiAMP HF II trial should continue to be a randomized double-blind trial or should be migrated to a potentially open-label post-marketing study, and that impacts our efforts. And second, if it stays a randomized trial, our team will have the strength of this data set which will help on the enrollment side. So we have quite a few sites that are interested in getting involved in the study. It's primarily a bandwidth and a resource basis for why that has not gone faster, but that will come soon ahead. So I hope that answers your question, Jim. James Molloy: It does indeed. And then maybe moving over to the CMI. We're looking for the 6-month data here at the EuroPCR in Paris in May. What sort of good that equivalent, which should we be looking for as that data comes rolling out? Peter Altman: So I think that the data is as we've shared sort of a top line. I think you'll get more visibility into the physician and patient experience in that in that trial. And I think the interesting thing about the CMI trial is, right now, there's not a lot of options for patients with CMI. And the main value of -- we're right now not driving forward aggressively in enrolling the randomized portion of that trial, where we sort of put it on pause to focus on the heart failure program but from a business development perspective, it effectively doubles the market potential of CardiAMP HF. And so if we had resources, we could very easily advance the CardiAMP CMI trial all the way through its pivotal cohort. But those are some of the things that we're talking about in business development settings. James Molloy: And how would you characterize the environment for potential partnerships currently? Peter Altman: That's a big question. Right now, there's a lot of folks focused on different things. I'll keep you posted. I think in the past, we've been rather forthcoming on all the conversations we have with respect to our various assets and platforms. And I think what will happen, Jim, is with the first cardiac cell therapy approved in Japan on the 19th of February. This is still pretty brand-new stuff for all of those folks in business development who we're used to looking at years of runway with cash flow, I think there will be great interest. I think the interest in CardiAMP CMI will primarily be driven by the interest in CardiAMP HF. And my sense is with CardiAMP HF on a path to potential an early approval in the U.S. or in Japan, there will be great interest and support in CardiAMP CMI as well as in cardio. Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Peter Altman for any closing remarks. Peter Altman: Thank you, Nick. Our efforts advancing our cell-based therapies for ischemic heart failure are showing important benefits for patients through the treatment of microvascular dysfunction. Our base plan remains to complete the confirmatory CardiAMP HF II trial while we engage with FDA and PMDA on potential near-term approvals. On behalf of our entire BioCardia team, I thank all shareholders for their continued support as you make our efforts possible. Thank you. Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Glass House Brands Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. Matters discussed during today's conference call may constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to the risks and uncertainties relating to Glass House Brands future financial or business performance. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in those forward-looking statements. The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in Glass House Brands' periodic filings and registration statements. These documents may be accessed via the SEDAR+ database. I'd also like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded today, Wednesday, March 24, 2026. On today's call, we have Kyle Kazan, Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Glass House Brands; and Chief Financial Officer, Mark Vendetti. Following prepared remarks, management will open up the call to analyst questions. Also joining for questions is Graham Farrar, Co-Founder and President. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kyle Kazan. Kyle Kazan: Thank you, operator, and a hearty hello to all of you for joining today's call. For greater detail on results, please refer to our fourth quarter and full year earnings press release and full year financial filings. I am pleased to be speaking with you today. 2025 was a year of great progress and achievement for the U.S. cannabis industry and our company. It was also a year of challenges due to the events of this summer. Our entire team continues to rise to meet those challenges. And because of that, I am confident that we have built a stronger foundation for future growth. I am excited for the days to come. Our first half 2025 results and particularly those of the second quarter represented a new high watermark of execution across numerous key metrics, including biomass production scale, cost of production and operating cash flow yield. This strength provides a blueprint of achievable results for this company, and those results are just the beginning. 2025 was also the first full year of our strategic pricing model. This model is highlighted by our everyday out-the-door $9.99 price, including tax for a Farm Fresh 1/8 oz of our Allswell branded flower. The pricing model, combined with our team's strong execution, allowed our retail stores to consistently outperform the California market with same-store 10% year-over-year sales growth versus a 5% state decline in sales according to headset. Meanwhile, Allswell became the top-selling flower brand in California by volume. California remains the world's most fiercely competitive cannabis market. So our strength in flower and particularly our Allswell brand is something that we take great pride in. No one anywhere matches Glass House flower on price and low-cost quality. In 2025, we took steps to solidify our balance sheet and improve our financial flexibility and future cash generation. In March, we secured a new $50 million 5-year senior secured credit facility to replace our existing higher interest debt, while in July, we refinanced our high interest rate Series B and C preferred equity with the creation of a fully subscribed Series E offering. The Series E preferred equity carries a 12% interest rate paid annually, which replaced the 22.5% cumulative rate for the Bs and the Cs inclusive of the payment in kind function. In total, these financings meaningfully derisked our balance sheet without diluting investors and ensured that future capital raises would only be for strategic additions to the business. We also commenced a collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley to explore hemp-related research with aims that include the development of novel medicinal products. To our knowledge, this is the first and only collaboration of its kind in the industry, and we will leverage the experience gained as we proceed with our commercial hemp strategy and participate in any future CBD reimbursement programs. Unfortunately, our second half and full year results were impacted by unexpected events and the ongoing response to those events. As most on this call are aware, 2 of our farms were raided by federal agents on July 10 as part of a broader immigration crackdown for the California agriculture industry. In response to those events, we made the hard decision to completely revamp hiring and staffing practices for both employees and third-party labor contractors moving forward. We did this voluntarily and the resulting practices go well above and beyond what is required by both federal and state law. As outlined in prior calls, changes made and the resulting temporary staffing shortages prompted our scaling back of new planting and production in the second half of the year. Inclusive within the production, we had to delay some processing, which resulted in deteriorated product being available for sale. In the fourth quarter, we sold off the last of this older inventory. Fourth quarter and full year results reflect the impact of this temporary scale back. Fourth quarter revenue was $39 million, while in line with guidance and our expectation, this was down meaningfully from $53 million last year during the same period. Full year 2025 revenue was $182 million, down from $201 million in 2024. For both the fourth quarter and full year, the wholesale segment was where we suffered the significant drag to results as we produced reduced volumes and quality of biomass per sale. For the fourth quarter, we produced 159,000 pounds of biomass ahead of expectations, yet down from the 165,000 last year. For the full year, we produced 666,000 pounds, roughly 20% below where we were tracking at the start of July. Average fourth quarter selling price was $146 per pound, down from $220 in the fourth quarter last year, while full year average selling price of $177 per pound compared with $245 in 2024. I refer to our glasshouse selling price in these comments. It's important to note that while California pricing remains challenged, year-over-year declines in state pricing moderated in the second half of the year. So the weaker sales prices I referenced reflect our deteriorated product being available for sale and an unfavorable shift in our genetic strain mix. When we turned the farms back on for planning, our strain selection criteria was focused on those that we could quickly scale and not our usual eye on yield. For 2026, our post-harvest processing process has returned to normal levels. Meanwhile, these temporary conditions also caused an elevated cost of production. Fourth quarter cost of production was $129 per pound, up from $110 last year, while full year 2025 cost of production was $111, above our annual production cost target of $95 per pound. Lower selling prices and higher cost of production in wholesale dragged on our overall margins, resulting in a total reported gross margin for the fourth quarter of roughly 35% and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.3 million. Both were well below seasonal and recent levels. For the full year, gross margin was 42%, while adjusted EBITDA was approximately $17 million. For comparative purposes, at the end of the second quarter on a full year basis, our full year results were tracking well above our 2025 guidance at the time of $225 million in revenue with an adjusted EBITDA in the mid-$40 million range level. Looking ahead, Mark will provide explicit guidance, but I am pleased to say that these short-term hurdles are today largely behind us. We anticipate very strong growth in 2026 with progressive revenue scaling during the course of the year. Growth comes before factoring in the potential benefit of any sales outside of California for our cannabis plants, something that we continue to believe is achievable in the near term or any contributions from hemp sales. We have hemp plants growing and anticipate an initial harvest in the second quarter. We ended 2025 fully planted in each of our legacy greenhouses and with the first 1/3 of greenhouse 2 planted, giving our cultivation team the most acreage planted in Glass House's history. That acreage is now yielding at nearly full capacity, and you will see the full benefit of that scale reflected initially in products sold within the second quarter of 2026. The cultivation team led by Graham Farrar, has done a remarkable job of getting the greenhouses back on track to full capacity in a short period of time. In the 3 months following the raid, the number of cannabis plants in the greenhouses dropped 60%. Since bottoming out in early October, we have now roughly 20% more plants compared to early July, thanks to Greenhouse 2 and expect to add another 40% when Greenhouse 2 is fully planted by the end of the second quarter. In addition, we accelerated expansion plans with the build-out of the remaining 2/3 of Greenhouse 2 and the CapEx light retrofit and build-out of Greenhouse 4, our first commercial hemp endeavor. With current planting, we will harvest at roughly 1/3 capacity for Greenhouse 4 and will expand in the second half of this year. The second 2/3 of Greenhouse 2 will contribute to second half results while Greenhouse 4 is now planted. We expect the first crops to be available for sale this summer with plans to supply international hemp and smokeable CBD markets in the second half of this year. We are in active discussions with customers. And while we are not ready to provide explicit guidance on hemp contributions this year, we are confident that product will be sold at favorable prices relative to those currently achievable with California cannabis. Long term, we plan for greenhouse 4 production to be an eventual supplier to the reimbursable CBD market while also planning for the development of our final greenhouse, which is Greenhouse 3. Meanwhile, even with the staffing changes and more stringent controls we've implemented, our long-term cost structure remains intact. There has been a learning curve for both new employees and third-party labor contractors, but staff gain valuable experience every day. And based on the progress seen, we do not foresee a meaningful change in the cost of labor moving forward. I remind you of our $95 long-term annual target level for cost of production. We expect to be below that level in total for the final 3 quarters of 2026. Our low-cost production capabilities stem from our consolidated scale of capacity, the skill of our seasoned leadership team and favorable weather conditions in California. We will never have to pay the high and growing energy bills of indoor peers nor do we rely on third-party water supply. It is these benefits that have sustained us despite challenging California cannabis market conditions and will further separate the company whenever prohibitions are removed to open new markets. In addition to our operating results, there were many positive developments in our industry during 2025. On December 18, President Trump signed an executive order to reschedule cannabis to a Schedule III classification and authorize the development of a pilot program for reimbursable TBD products for Medicare participants. This order represents the most significant progress on drug policy reform in the past 50 years and reflects a longer overdue common sense acknowledgment of the beneficial medical and therapeutic properties of the cannabis plant. We are extremely pleased with these advancements as rescheduling and the reimbursable CBD program will permit greater normalization for the industry. Importantly, it should allow us to sell California grown production outside the state for the first time, greatly expanding our addressable market and allowing us to achieve more favorable pricing dynamics. As we continue to await Attorney General Pam bondi's final execution of this change, we are actively preparing for the opportunities ahead. We have meaningfully expanded our total cultivation capacity. We understand the reclassification of cannabis to Schedule III under the current administration can provide opportunities to export medical cannabis into international markets. As such, we have signed an agreement with a good Agriculture and Collection Practices or otherwise known as GACP consultant and are progressing towards a compliance audit. We anticipate that GACP will be a requirement for producers supplying the growing EU medical market and see it as a place where we can be strategically well positioned. We are also in active discussion with distribution partners in a number of countries for cannabis and hemp. Also in anticipation of the final ruling on rescheduling, we have established a special committee within our Board of Directors. The committee consists of Graham, Directors, Jay Nichols and Jocelyn Rosenwald, along with the newest addition to our Board, Alison Payne, the CMO of Heineken USA, along with me. The committee is tasked with oversight of new product and business opportunities beyond our legacy California cannabis business and immediate expansion areas, including the development of ongoing and future partnerships with companies in more traditional industries, including tobacco, alcohol and cosmetics. We believe widespread adoption of cannabinoid products within traditional consumer product industries is coming, and we are in active discussion to ensure that whatever form that takes its Glass House produced cannabinoids inside ensuring greater distribution and speed to market. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark Vendetti, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our financial results for the quarter in detail. Mark? Mark Vendetti: Thank you, Kyle, and welcome, everyone. As Kyle highlighted, fourth quarter revenue was $38.9 million compared to $53 million in the same period last year. The decline stems from wholesale segment challenges that came as a result of stepback decisions made in the third quarter. We finished near the top of our revenue guidance for the quarter of between $37 million and $39 million, and would have exceeded it, but unexpectedly had to switch our CPG distributor in December, which decreased sales for several weeks and hurt revenue by between $0.5 million and $1 million. In addition, we had a loyalty program points adjustment in the quarter, which decreased retail sales by approximately $0.5 million. These decreased gross margin by a similar amount. For full year 2025, revenue was $182 million compared to $200.9 million recorded in 2024 as we produced at a lower overall scale. We produced 159,000 pounds of biomass in the fourth quarter, ahead of our 145,000 pounds of guidance, but down from 165,000 in the prior year period. For the full year, production was 666,000 pounds, up roughly 10% from full year 2024 levels, but down meaningfully from the 800,000 pound level we were tracking to going into the summer. Because of the reduced production volume and related inefficiencies, production cost per pound was $129 in the fourth quarter, roughly flat sequentially, but up from $110 last year. For the full year, cost of production was $111 per pound. We sold 155,000 pounds of wholesale biomass in the quarter, down from 165,000 pounds in the same period last year. For the full year, we sold roughly 643,000 pounds, up from 568,000 pounds in 2024. The average fourth quarter selling price for biomass sold was $146 per pound versus $220 last year, while the full year selling price was $177 per pound. Year-over-year price declines reflect continued California pricing challenges. However, more significantly, the sequential decline can be attributed to an unfavorable mix shift from flower to trim within the production mix and the product quality issues Kyle mentioned. For the full year, flower mix was in the high 20% range, while under normal conditions, it would have been expected to be in the high 30%. As a reminder, we have been selling higher levels of trim this year on account of improved cultivation practices which allow us to harvest and sell trim material that would have previously been disposed of. This has the effect of lowering our ASPs as the additional material is predominantly trim, which garners lower average selling prices. The greater trim volumes though were exacerbated in the second half of last year due to deterioration in product that was available for sale because of delays in processing as we faced temporary staffing shortages. As we move forward and bring on Greenhouse 2, we expect a new normal flower percent of sales in the mid-30% range. Fourth quarter consolidated gross profit was $13.2 million and gross margin was 34%. The gross margin compared to 43% in the fourth quarter 2024 with declines stemming from the lower average selling prices and higher production costs in the wholesale business. Gross margin within our retail segment improved year-over-year as a reflection of continued strong execution with our retail stores and despite a loyalty true-up. For the full year, 2025 gross margin was 42%, down from 48% in 2024, which equals the level we were tracking to heading into the summer. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was negative $3.3 million, in line with the prior quarter, but down from $9 million in the fourth quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA reflects the factors that impacted our gross margin performance as well as a modest increase in operating expenses. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $17 million, less than half of 2024 reported adjusted EBITDA and the mid-40 level we were guided in reporting first quarter results. Fourth quarter operating cash flow was negative $3.7 million, while for the year, operating cash flow was $11.4 million. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended 2025 with $23.4 million in cash and restricted cash compared to $29.8 million last quarter and $36.9 million at the end of 2024. Inclusive in cash spending was roughly $2 million in CapEx, which funded the continued build-out of Greenhouse 2. Additionally, the final cash number included approximately $2 million raised from the use of our outstanding ATM and $2 million received from ERTC tax credits. In addition, we paid roughly $2 million in federal income tax. For the full year, we received roughly $10 million in ERTC tax credits and have roughly $3 million in anticipated receipts outstanding. We do not have clarity on the timing of any subsequent ERTC tax credit receipts. In December and early January 2026, we completed our outstanding ATM receiving net proceeds of approximately $22 million. The shares were primarily issued to existing long-term investors with proceeds from the raid primarily going to fund the build-out of the remaining 2/3 of Greenhouse 2 and our greenhouse 4 expansion. Turning to guidance. As Kyle discussed, we ended the year back to being fully planted with legacy greenhouses and planted the first 1/3 of Greenhouse 2, giving the cultivation team the most acreage planted in Glass House history. The expanded cultivation and production will begin to be reflected in results during the first quarter, and thereafter, we are posed for meaningful growth based off our increased scale. Additionally, results will reflect incremental contributions from the final 2/3 of greenhouse 2 within the second half of the year, while we will also see initial contributions from our hemp commercial initiative with initial hemp plants expected to be harvested in late second quarter and contributing to results beginning in the third quarter. I remind that in total, Greenhouse 2 is capable of producing at roughly 300,000 pounds annually of biomass once fully operational. Our hemp greenhouse, greenhouse 4 will produce at a lesser scale given our prioritization of speed to market over greater efficiency. In time, we will further enhance the greenhouse to enable greater production capacity. We anticipate first quarter revenue to be approximately $39 million as we produce approximately 138,000 pounds of biomass, reflecting typical winter seasonality and the partial first quarter contribution of ramp scale. First quarter average selling price for wholesale biomass is assumed to be approximately $167 per pound, down from $192 last year, while cost of production will be approximately $161 per pound versus $108 last year. As Kyle referenced, starting in Q2, we anticipate our cost of production will be below our long-term annual target level of $95 per pound over the remainder of the year. As a result of the higher cost of production and lower sales price, we anticipate Q1 gross margin to be approximately 29%, which compares to 45% last year. Full year 2026 revenue is forecasted to be between $235 million and $245 million. While importantly, we note that for the second half of the year, we anticipate the company will be operating at almost a $300 million annual revenue run rate. Full year gross margin is projected to be roughly 48% this year and full year adjusted EBITDA is projected to be in the high $40 million range. Within our assumptions, full year wholesale biomass production is forecast to be approximately 1 million pounds of biomass, which is a 48% increase to 2025. We expect Q2 production to increase high single-digit percent versus Q2 '25 and production in the second half of 2026 to be more than double the second half of 2025. With the increased production, we expect the cost of production of approximately $100 per pound, which is a 10% decrease to 2025. Full year average selling price is expected to improve to the mid-180s per pound from $177 in 2025 as we expect quality and mix to improve versus 2025, particularly the second half of the year when compared to 2025. I remind you that anticipated hemp contributions are incremental to our forecast at this time, we are still deciding on the appropriate end market for supply. We anticipate no matter the end market, pricing dynamics for hemp to be favorable to the cannabis prices achieved in California. We expect first quarter ending cash to be approximately $27 million, while we forecast 2026 full year ending cash to exceed $50 million as we generate meaningful operating cash flow in the final 3 quarters this year. The forecast includes approximately $20 million CapEx to complete the full retrofit of Greenhouse 2, including adding new high-efficiency low-energy lighting and a CapEx-light retrofit of Greenhouse 4 for the hemp production. It also assumes we continue to pay the dividends associated with the preferred equity Series D and E totaling $11.6 million in 2026. And with that, I turn the call back to Kyle for his closing remarks before opening up the call to Q&A. Kyle Kazan: Thank you, Mark. As many of you know, last year, we lost George Raveling, a valued member of Glass House's Board of Directors, the Glass House family and someone who had a measurable impact on my life. While I could not be happier with the initial contributions from our newest Board member, Alison Payne, I miss Coach Dearly. Coach joined the Board when we went public in 2021 and brought with him extensive experience in marketing and corporate governance learned during his Hall of Fame basketball coaching career and time as a senior executive at NIKE. Additionally, Coach had a long and sought-after career as a motivational speaker and one of his favorite topics was resiliency and the importance and power of having a team or workforce that can be steadfast and productive in the face of challenge. I think of this topic as I reflect on the incredible effort put forth by the entire Glass House family to come back from the events of last summer and to expand in scale and business capacity. We could not have done it without each and every one of you from our team members and workers to customers, business partners and investors. I thank you for your support and look forward to the days ahead. While we applaud President Trump's signing of the executive order to reschedule cannabis, we appeal to him to pardon those many people sitting in federal prison right now for nonviolent cannabis offenses. As President Trump pardoned our current partners are Alice Marie Johnson and signed the first step Act into law, we believe that he will give these people their lives back. I am proud to work with my friend, Weldon Angelos and his Project Mission Green to release Parker Coleman and Ali or otherwise known as Jose [indiscernible] Jr., among many others. Finally, I remind everyone that we once again are planning to hold our annual investor session at the Camarillo Farm. This year, we have scheduled the event for Thursday, June 18, and I genuinely hope you can make it and we can meet you in person at the farm. Thank you again, and I will now ask the operator to open the line for questions. Operator? Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Frederico Gomes with ATB Cormark. Frederico Yokota Gomes: I want to ask about the opportunities you have outside of California. You mentioned hemp, you mentioned smokeable CBD, you're trying to get JCP compliance. So there's a lot going on. Can you help us frame those opportunities, starting with, I guess, what is it that you can do today? And what is it that depends on regulatory changes with rescheduling or even the intoxicating hemp ban and the framework there? Just so we understand what is it that the immediate opportunity that doesn't rely on regulatory catalysts and what is it that relies on those catalysts happening? Kyle Kazan: So Frederico, thanks for always asking those good questions. We've got a lot of optionality. Graham, you want to jump in on this one? Graham Farrar: Sure. Yes. Frederico, thanks a lot for the good question. And you're right, there is a lot going on right now. It's a part of the challenge and also part of the excitement. So right now, what we're growing just for clarity in greenhouse 4 is smokable CBD flower. So that is flower that is compliant with California, existing federal farm bill as well as would continue to be compliant if the new, I'll call it, the McConnell language in November comes into play. So it will be at 30 days pre-harvest less than 0.3% total THC. So compliant across the board, both today as well as if the more restrictive regulations are put in place. Target for that is predominantly -- or it's exclusively outside of the U.S. I don't think there's a domestic market for smokeable CBD, but there does appear to be a good market predominantly in Europe for CBD flower. I think they do a number of things over there. Some people use it as a tobacco alternative, some people fortify it by adding hash and other components to it. Pricing, we're investigating. We've got our first crop in the greenhouse right now. Expect to harvest towards the end of April, early May with product -- finished form product by the end of May, early June is probably the time frame we're looking at. Predominant target for that is really just to figure out and explore the markets there. Obviously, you're talking about Switzerland at 1%, Spain, U.K., Germany, all our markets over there. That is green light regulatory point of view from today forward. And again, even if the farm bill language gets more restrictive, would still be compliant. The other things we're looking at is potentially what happens with the farm bill if those regulations get put out -- pushed out as there some rumoring there are. We're not expecting that counting on that or planning on that. But if it does happen, we have continued to express our interest in THCA flower markets both domestic and rest of world. Then you have the Schedule III stuff, which we're also all waiting and watching for. In that world, I believe that there would be a path from California to other medical markets. Obviously, some steps in the middle there, and that's something outside of our control. So if you come back to it, you look at smokable CBD flower we're doing now, eyes on the THCA or farm bill market, looking at Schedule III and then the final one is the Medicare CMS projects. Some information just starting to come out on that. The way that, that would work is that we could be a supplier to accountable care organizations of products that meet the farm bill requirements. So another place where what changes in the farm bill has an impact. We've got a BOM that we are really liking or getting fantastic feedback on, I think it could be helpful for those seniors. So getting that into that framework and/or other tinctures that are compliant with the farm bill either today and tomorrow are the targets there. Kyle Kazan: And Frederico, following up on that, you can imagine just from what you heard from Graham, we see a lot of different options depending on how things go. If things don't go our way, we still see options, just fewer, but it should not impact our ability to continue to grow in greenhouse 4. Graham Farrar: And a reminder, as Mark mentioned, nothing in any of our numbers include any contribution from greenhouse 4 or hemp. So whatever happens there would be accretive above the forecast we provided. Frederico Yokota Gomes: Got it. I appreciate that color. And then just a second question for me. Just your perspective on California pricing potentially improving. It doesn't seem like it's meaningfully priced into your guidance. So I guess it would be upside to that. But do you see that pricing -- a potential improvement in pricing this year or maybe next year? I mean, how are you looking at the outlook for pricing in California? Kyle Kazan: I think a lot of this is -- it's our best estimation, and I would always rather underpromise and overperform. Because, as you know, some of this is a little bit of kind of sticking your finger in the air. You just -- you don't know what you don't know. And in the past, we've been surprised where it shoots up. We're rarely surprised when it doesn't move up. So I think we're just being cautious, but we're hopeful that we will start seeing some improvements. A little bit of that is TBD, what happens with the Strait of Hormuz moves and inflation and things like that. So there's a lot going on in the economy in California and everything. So I think it's better for us to just be cautious and hopefully underpromise. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity. Luke Hannan: I wanted to follow up on that topic of pricing, Kyle. I know you mentioned a lot of it is just you sort of stick your finger in the air and see where the wind is blowing. But can you frame up for us, I mean, what -- I know in the past, you've talked about how long these sort of down cycles last and then also have talked about Canopy that's exiting the market. Has there been any abatement in the pace of either the price declines or Canopy exiting the market? Kyle Kazan: I would say that was quarter 4 pricing. Mark, question about licensing, do you want to take that because I know that's something you track just for fun. Mark Vendetti: Yes, sure. Luke. Kyle Kazan: Real quick. By the way, Luke, I always love talking to you. Notice you didn't say anything about congrats on our big hockey win. Luke Hannan: Nor will I. Kyle Kazan: Too soon. I apologize, Luke. Go ahead, Mark. Mark Vendetti: So we've -- I'm going to say the second half of 2025 and just looking at the first 2 months of 2026, the number of active licenses in cultivation has actually remained pretty stable. And so I think we're at a point where the big shakeout has happened and the people who are left competing in California are the better operators. And at this point, it feels like we're in a bit of an equilibrium at this point. So I don't think we'll see significant decreases in the number of active licenses going forward, and we're not thinking that happens. So we're planning on, again, a tight market and a market that -- I'm going to say our numbers don't anticipate a rebound. And if they do, as Kyle said, it should be upside. Kyle Kazan: And one more thing, Luke, I would add, part of the reason why we are so focused on greenhouse 4 and watching different legislation breaks. If we get a few of those breaks, I would imagine that we're going to step on the gas in exporting outside the state of California. We certainly appreciate the results we've been able to accomplish in a pretty -- I mean, in an extremely difficult market. But that's one of the main excitement. One of the things that makes us most excited are the opportunities that we're seeing outside of California. So -- but I think you got your answer from Mr. Vendetti. Luke Hannan: I did, and then so if we frame up just 2026, super high level then as it is, if we think of the delta between '26 and '25, it's basically all driven by just more biomass production. You talked about the lower cost of production also for the final 3 quarters of the year being -- basically in our model, I think we basically have to get down to $90 a pound. I mean, is it fair to say that that's kind of your new long-term sort of target now after you've done all the work to change your cultivation? Kyle Kazan: Well, I would say real quick. I would say if you think of one of our big investors Mr. Codes named our grower, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was never satisfied with 4 titles or 1 title or even 5 titles. And I would tell you that M.J. and his team, I don't know if I would say, hey, this is where we hope to go at the end of the day. Remember, right now, we grow -- I'll let M.J. tell you how many strains we grow, but in a much more national marketplace, it's highly unlikely that we're not growing just 1 or 2 strains to really launch efficiency. So we're not at that point with interstate commerce in a big way at this point. But you'd have to think that there -- wherever M.J. is now, there's more titles ahead in a much more focused agriculture market. M.J., do you want to throw in? Graham Farrar: Sure. Thanks, Coach. Yes. So I think we really had kind of 3 targets. One is you can't get good until you get going. So we want to get back on our feet, get all the greenhouses replanted after 2025. We finished 2025 with all that square footage replanted and actually we have the most acreage under cultivation that we've ever had in Glass House history. We started harvesting through that in kind of week 6, week 7 of this year, so partway into Q1. And then at the same time, we launched into finishing the expansion of Greenhouse 2, which adds roughly another 700,000 square feet. That's the second 2/3 of that. And then we also planted Greenhouse 4, our first hemp greenhouse. It's about 300,000 square feet, and we're working on retrofitting the remaining 14 acres in that greenhouse as well. So then the next step is to bring back the efficiencies. So first, we rebuilt the labor team. We've got the greenhouses replanted, and now we're bringing the efficiencies back to get us back to where we were. And then we'll look at using and leveraging that scale to get even better than that in the future. Operator: The next question comes from the line of [Mark Cohodes] with [indiscernible]. Unknown Analyst: So I could take this a number of ways, but let's start with the changes in anticipation of Schedule III you guys have made, whether it's negotiations, work on uplisting, partnerships, international changes and things you've implemented and worked on since the December 18 executive order, then we'll move on from there. Kyle Kazan: So thanks for your question, Mark. Number one, when we -- and we announced it, but we put together that Board committee with Jay, Alison and Jocelyn. I would tell you that it's bearing results better than we'd hoped. So we're super excited about that. We have signed up some folks with deep Rolodexes in Europe, in hemp, hemp testing so that we have aligned interest in folks based on our success. So we're really excited about that. I'll let Graham talk about some of the great things that he's doing at the farm since the executive order announcement. Graham, do you want to -- or should I say, Michael? Graham Farrar: Mark, thanks for the question. Yes. So obviously, the announcement on the 18th was really exciting on a number of fronts. The fact that we had a President in the Oval office talking about the medical value of cannabis is something that all of us have been waiting for a long time. We're a decade in the glass house now, and that was always the thesis that the truth was going to happen. So even just to see those words uttered was a big deal. Of course, having the President Direct Pam Bondi and company to reschedule things from Schedule 1, which means no known medical value to Schedule III, which means it does have medical value and a low potential for abuse is huge. Looking forward to her actually putting that into effect. We're doing all the work that we can now to be ready for that to happen. Those are the things like Kyle mentioned, the GACP, which stands for good Agricultural and Collection Practices certification. That's a feed into what they call GMP or good manufacturing processes, and that allows you to feed into medical markets potentially in the U.S., but probably first in the rest of world where they already have approved medical cannabis. I think we fit in real well as a producer under the Schedule III rules or existing framework. I don't see any reason that we can't be registered as a bulk manufacturer under the DEA rules. Probably it would be a Form 225 registration that would allow us to work within that model and then export outside the U.S. into other medical models. Also, of course, a reminder of our partnership with Berkeley, where they have quite a few strains that are specifically targeted around minor cannabinoids, CBD, CBDV, THCV, EBG, lots of things that are not on the tip of people's tongues, but when you start talking about Medicare and therapeutic uses and improved outcomes for patients, a lot of things there that have a lot of value, both on a kilogram basis as well as to improving people's lives. So we're working on getting those set up. And then, of course, we've got the things coming outside with hemp and the other potentials in those markets where some of those products are already allowed. So we might be able to develop things that could be both used for Medicare here in the states as well as exported into other countries that already permit their use. So a lot of exciting stuff, and we're trying to lay the groundwork for everything soon any of those lights turn green, we're ready to jam on the gas. Kyle Kazan: And Mark, one other thing in those -- for those noncannabis companies that are in other industries that are looking over their shoulders knowing cannabis is coming. The nice thing is what we've built over the last 10 years is actually the world's biggest supply chain. And as cannabis becomes a normalized industry, we are in the unique position to be able to expand that supply chain, both outdoor and in greenhouse. And those companies recognize that, and we can do it at prices where you'd expect that those industries are used to commodity kind of pricing, and that's what we can absolutely deliver. So those conversations are really exciting, and it's nice to be in the position that we've been waiting so long for. Graham Farrar: Yes. actually want to build on that one more second, Mark. One of the things as we've been talking, as Kyle mentioned, to these other companies is historically, I think we've looked at California a little bit as a box, right? We're limited to California. But if you look around and think about where things are potentially going with cannabis, all of a sudden, that turns into a strategic advantage, right? A number of these companies the Sanofi and whatnot of the world, they cannot currently play with THC. We live in the world's largest THC market anywhere on the planet in the form of California, a $4-plus billion market where we can deliver high concentration THC to consumers with customer demographic data that would make a typical CPG company jump up and down, right, where we're actually looking at license registration level data, right, being able to say, here's the best thing for people who are 6 feet tall and 42 years old. Here's their favorite product, right? We have that ability and the ability to lead that market by being able to develop products that can handle THC before the broader market can, I think, is a real advantage that we can work with. We've got a product development platform that is better than anywhere else in the world here in California with our chain of 10, 11 and possibly growing retail stores. that's something that any CPG company will value who's looking towards the future and wanting to have products that exist when these lights turn green rather than just start working on them when the lights turn green. Unknown Analyst: Okay. Final 2 questions are, where are you guys in working on uplisting when the green light on Schedule III happens, i.e., how fast can that happen for you? And two, could you talk about the range of pricing you're seeing and expect to get in hemp, both out of state and overseas? Kyle Kazan: So I'll take the first one, and I'll let Graham talk about the second because it's the second one is pretty exciting. The first one, what I would tell you, Mark, is that there are a few companies, if everybody on this call does a ChatGPT to see what a company needs to do to qualify to be able to uplist to the NYSE or NASDAQ in regards to pricing, market cap, all that kind of good stuff. You'll see there are a handful, including Glass House that do qualify. And while it's not explicit as to whether the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will take us, I would tell you that the good thing that we all know is that NASDAQ and NYSE are in good competition with each other to list companies and neither of them want to miss out on this industry if the other one goes ahead and takes them. So we are excited at the possibility. And at that point, I'll leave it at that. Unknown Analyst: And the pricing? Graham Farrar: Pricing, I mean, really, what we're doing here is market research. So we've got pricing all the way from better than California to really exciting. The real piece that we're working on now is actually having some product in hand to explore those markets. We've talked to a number of folks who are interested in willing to basically contract all the supply we expect. That's not our plan on this is because we want to see and do some price discovery out there. So once we have this first harvest sometime kind of mid-late June, I think we'll have a better resolution on that, but there definitely does seem to be a market. We're exploring how big it is, and then we'll be able to scale to fit that. We'll also redirect future planning based on the genetics and form factors that people are most interested in. But where I was somewhat skeptical on the CBD -- smokable CBD market, I've become more convinced based on the conversations that we've been having and excited to learn more about it. Kyle Kazan: And Mark, for what it's worth -- sometimes it's nice just to see words and actions. Graham and I are booked to -- in April to be at ICBC in Berlin and Spannabis in Spain. And so we are taking our time to -- and making the effort to go to Europe because we absolutely see an opportunity there. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. That concludes our Q&A session and today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Greetings. Welcome to Xiaomi's 2025 Annual Results Announcement Investor Conference Call and Audio Webcast. Today's conference will be recorded. If you have any questions or objections you may disconnect at this time. [Operator Instructions] Now we will have Mr. Xu Ran, General Manager of Group Investor Relations and Capital Markets Department to start. Ran Xu: Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the investor conference call and audio webcast for the company's 2025 annual results. Before we start the call, we would like to remind you that this call may include forward-looking statements, which are underlined by a number of risks and uncertainties and may not be realized in the future for various reasons. Information about general market conditions comes from a variety of sources outside of Xiaomi. This presentation also contains some unaudited non-IFRS financial measures, which should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for the company's financials prepared in accordance with IFRS. We have William Lu, Partner and President of Xiaomi Corporation; and Mr. Alain Lam, Vice President and CFO of the Corporation to talk to us. Mr. Lu will share recent strategic and business update. Thereafter, Mr. Lam will review the company's financial performance of 2025. And then after that, we will have the Q&A. Mr. Lu, please. Weibing Lu: Good evening. Thank you very much for coming to the 2025 full year call. Now this evening, I'll be talking about 3 points. First of all, review our main achievements in 2025. Second, share of breakthroughs in hard-core tech, in particular, in AI and embodied intelligence. And thirdly, we'll look ahead for the strategic direction focus in 2026. First of all, in 2025, some of our outstanding achievements. Well, in the year, our Xiaomi Group maintained high growth with both annual revenue and net profit reaching all-time highs. Total group revenue reached RMB 457.3 billion, surpassing the RMB 400 billion mark for the first time, up 25% year-on-year. Adjusted net profit reached RMB 39.2 billion, up 44% year-on-year. By segment, first of all, Smartphones. According to Omdia, in 2025, our global smartphone shipments ranked top 3. Market share was 13.3%, remaining global top 3 for 22 consecutive quarters. In Latin America and Southeast Asia, shipment ranking rose to second. In Europe and Africa, third. According to third-party data in Mainland China, our smartphone sales ranking rose to second. On premium models. In 2025, premium models in Mainland China accounted for 27.1% of total smartphone sales, up 3.8 percentage points. In RMB 6,000 to RMB 10,000 price bracket, our market share rose by 2.3 percentage year-on-year. We solidified our high-end base domestically and are making continuous breakthroughs in the RMB 6,000 to RMB 8,000 ultra-high-end market. By end of February 2026, we launched our first Leitzphone for global markets, priced at EUR 1,999, a new milestone in our overseas premium strategy. We'll continue achieving top-tier pricing in mature international markets and elevate our premium overseas sales to new heights. For IoT business in 2025, revenue surpassed RMB 120 billion for the first time, reaching RMB 123.2 billion and 18.3% year-on-year growth, hitting all-time high both domestically and internationally. For the home appliances revenue, it reached 23% plus growth with record shipments. Wearables ranked first globally, TWS earphones ranked second. Tablet shipments grew 25.2% year-on-year, ranked fifth. Our AI glasses released in June '25 ranked third globally and first in China. We continue to drive full category premiumization at home and abroad with overseas high-end products, achieving stellar performance. On premium strategy, in '25, our tech home appliances entered the European market already covering Spain, France, Germany, Italy and more. For autos, Xiaomi Auto delivered 410,000 units in 2025, far exceeding the 300,000 units target set at the year's start. February 13, '26, cumulative deliveries surpassed 600,000, and we are fully committed to delivering 550,000 units. In March 19, we officially launched a new generation SU7. It features major upgrades inside and out, including across the electric powertrain chassis, electronics architecture, et cetera. Within 34 minutes of launch, locked orders for SU7 exceeded 15,000, surpassing 30,000 orders after 3 days. For this year's MWC, we also showcased our Vision GT concept car, not just a concept car, this is Xiaomi Auto's latest exploration of design innovation built on hardcore technology. We are the first Chinese brand invited to participate, and it represents recognition by the world's top simulation driving platforms. For China's auto industry, it shows that in terms of design and innovation, Chinese automakers can already compete on par with the world's best. For hardcore tech, in '25, our R&D investment exceeded RMB 33 billion. For '26 we plan to invest over RMB 40 billion with more than RMB 16 billion for AI, embodied intelligence and other innovation fields. These investments build our solid product capability defenses. And for AI in 2025, we achieved breakthrough progress. For AI, it is an era of truly useful AI, undergoing historical leap from usable to truly useful, a paradigm shift from single tasks to complex tasks processing, from passive to active planning, from tool attributes to ecosystem attributes, and for us with rich terminal products and use cases across smartphones, cars, home appliances, IoT, real data value of AI far surpass the single category companies. Two, our foundation large models enter the leading global open-source tier. In March of the year, we released 3 models, Xiaomi MiMo-V2-Pro, MiMo-V2-Omni and MiMo-V2-TTS, completing our technical foundation for the Agent Era. MiMo-V2-Pro surpasses 1 trillion parameters, supporting 1 million token context windows and ranking 8th globally in Artificial Analysis Large Model Intelligence Index, fifth by global brand. During closed beta and public launch, these models rank first in weekly calls and held first place for many days on OpenRouter, single days as much as double in second place. And we will keep upgrading our foundation models as we move towards general intelligence. Three, we are poised to lead AI in the physical world, deep integration of AI in the physical world as the next frontier. We control over 1 billion hardware access points for its ecosystem. In March '26, our phone AI Agent, Xiaomi miclaw entered limited testing. We're the first OEM to attempt deploying [ launch ] Lobster on phone terminals, exploring the delivery of true AI phone and ecosystem to users. For auto, the new SU7 is equipped with our XLA Cognitive Large Model, achieving mall parking, navigation, complex scene understanding and voice control, improving both driving and experience. For SU7 Ultra, it's equipped with super shell AI, a smart cockpit and advanced AI. For the home in November '25, we launched our Miloco smart home solution, giving smart homes eyes and brains and hands and feet for the first time, a pioneering real world application of Xiaomi MiMo, laying a new vision for next-generation smart homes. Fourthly, for our AI is now Xiaomi core innovation engine in '25 with our tech-forward, about 2/3 of the winning projects used AI, reimagining work across fundamental materials, chipsets and OS, intelligent driving, tech home appliances and more, backed by China's strong AI industry. The coming decade belongs to China. And also Xiaomi is well positioned in person, car, home ecosystem. We'll invest RMB 60 billion in AI over the next 3 years. And in this era, we are confident that we'll place a new trade for Chinese AI. For embodied robotics, it is the ultimate integration platform for AI chips, OS and manufacturing capabilities, a high barrier field. In 2026, we launched a haptic-driven precision grasping, fine-tuning model, core tech for robotic dexterous hands. Shortly after, we open-source a Xiaomi Robotics VLA large model, Xiaomi-Robotics-0, achieving several new SOTA results. In March, Xiaomi embodied robot began internship in our car factory, achieving 90.2% deal size site simultaneous installation success for self-tapping nut workstations, meeting production line cycle times as quick as 76 seconds with 3 hours of auto operation. These are just starts. Over the next 5 years, we believe large numbers of embodied robots will work in Xiaomi's factories. And robots will break brown boundary between virtual and physical worlds. But there are challenges such as cost increase, et cetera. In the short term, there may be some pressure on our business. But on the other side, we will be steadfast in our strategy so that we will continue to have breakthroughs in AI, chips, OS and embodied intelligence. We are committed to scaling our global business model and advancing Chinese tech worldwide. This person, vehicle, home ecosystem is not just a product combination, but the platform for understanding users' full scenario data. We'll firmly seize the opportunities of AI era, and we are filled with endless possibilities and imagination. Alain Lam: Well, thank you, President Lu. As shared by Mr. Lu, in 2025, we have achieved historical leap. Our total revenue reached a record high of RMB 457.3 billion, setting a company best. This year, we achieved a year-on-year increase of 25%. Revenue in the fourth quarter is a new single quarter record. Overall, gross profit margin was 22.3%, up 1.3% year-on-year, historical high also. The second half of 2025 was more challenging for the first. For the full year, our smartphone times AIoT segment revenue was RMB 351.2 billion, up 5.4% year-on-year, which is also a new annual high. The smartphone times AIoT segment gross profit margin also reached a record 21.7%, up 0.5% year-on-year. For smartphones, for the year, revenue was -- sorry, RMB 186.4 billion, accounting for 40.8% of total revenue. In '25, our global shipments reached 165 million units. Our high-end strategy had significant results of continued product strength enhancement. Third-party data shows that in 2025, our high-end smartphone sales in the Mainland of China accounted for 27.1% of our total smartphone sales, up 3.8% year-on-year. In that, RMB 4,000 to RMB 6,000 price segment, our market share reached 17.3%, up 0.5% year-on-year. For RMB 6,000 to RMB 10,000 segment, our market share was 4.5%, nearly doubling year-on-year. According to third party in 2025, our global smartphone shipment volume ranked top 3 with market share 13.3%, maintaining a top 3 position globally for 5 consecutive years. In 58 countries and regions, our smartphone shipments ranked top 3. And in 70 countries and regions, we ranked top 5. Despite rising memory prices in 2025, our smartphone gross margin remained relatively healthy at 10.9% for the year. For IoT, for this year, our revenue and gross margin both performed remarkably. 2025 revenue from IoT grew rapidly by 18.3% year-on-year to RMB 123.2 billion, a new record. And both for domestic and international sales, it was at all-time highs, thanks to product structure optimization and improved product strength. For gross profit margin of IoT, it was a record high of 23.1%, up 2.8% year-on-year. By category, large smart home appliances performed exceptionally well with revenue up 23.1% year-on-year, a record high. Our wearable devices maintained rapid growth and an industry-leading position. Our wearable band ranked first in global shipments and TWS earphones ranked second. Tablet products continue to grow fast, ranking fifth globally with shipments up 25.2% year-on-year. Internet services. We continue to expand our user base. In December '25, our global MAU reached 750 million, up 7.4% year-on-year. Of these, Mainland China MAU reached 190 million, up 10.1% year-on-year. In 2025, our Internet service revenue hit a record RMB 37.4 billion, up 9.7% year-on-year. And of this, just in the fourth quarter 2025 alone, Internet service revenue reached RMB 9.9 billion. Throughout 2025, our Internet gross margin remained relatively stable at 76.5%. Advertising continued to drive Internet business growth with annual revenue of RMB 28.5 billion, a record high. Overseas Internet service revenue grew by 15.2% to a record RMB 12.6 billion, accounting for 33.8% of total Internet service revenue. Next, on EVs. Our EV and AI and innovation business segment, annual revenue for the segment reached RMB 106.1 billion, surpassing RMB 100 billion in less than 2 years, up over 200% year-on-year, accounting for 23.2% of the group's total revenue. Of this, Smart EV sales revenue was RMB 103.3 billion, with other related revenue at RMB 2.8 billion. For the year, gross profit margin for Smart EV and AI, innovation business segment was 24.3%, up 5.8% year-on-year. In 2025, the segment achieved positive annual operating profit for the first time, recording an operating profit of RMB 0.9 billion. We delivered a total of 411,082 new vehicles in 2025. In the fourth quarter alone, 145,115 new vehicles were delivered, a single quarter record high. The average post-tax unit price for the year was RMB 251,171, up 7% year-on-year. Next, over the past 5 years, our cumulative R&D expenditure was RMB 105.5 billion, up 37.8%. '25 alone, R&D expenditure was RMB 33.1 billion, up year-on-year, and we estimate starting from 2026, our cumulative R&D expenditure over the next 5 years will exceed $200 billion. For net profit in '25, the group's adjusted net profit was RMB 39.2 billion, a record high and up 43.8% year-on-year. For CapEx for '25, our CapEx reached RMB 18.2 billion, up 73% year-on-year. And of this, Smart EV and AI innovation accounted for 66% and over. We continue to enhance our shareholder value and we actively repurchased shares on the open market. In '25, our share repurchase was approximately HKD 6.3 billion. Since early '26, our share repurchase totaled about HKD 4.7 billion. In January '26, we announced an automatic share repurchase plan for a cap, with a cap of HKD 2.5 billion, demonstrating our confidence in our company's long-term future. We actively practice sustainable development. In low carbon initiatives in 2025, our group purchased more than 40 million-kilowatt hours of green electricity, over 10x of last year. In '25, our [ PV ] electricity usage in our auto plant exceeded 13 million-kilowatt hours, reducing carbon emissions by nearly 10,000 tonnes annually. On ESG ratings in '25 for CDP Climate Change and Water Security Survey, Xiaomi received a management level B score. Also, in March '26, we achieved our best-ever score of 81 in EcoVadis gold medal, marking another recognition of our ESG efforts. We will continue to follow a robust and enterprising operating strategy and look forward to an even greater achievement for 2026. Thank you so much. This ends my report for this evening. Next, we can have the Q&A session. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Morgan Stanley. Andy Meng: Greetings both. First of all, congratulations for 2025, revenue and profits have reached new record highs. I have two questions, one on memory. We see that memory prices have been rising significantly. Investors, what's most concerned about this for the segment of smartphones. And we noticed that there are already some smartphone selling price hikes in order to offset this memory prices hike. But your smartphone sets are still the same in terms of pricing. So perhaps in supply chain management and in inventory, you are better than your competitors so that in this challenging situation, you exceed your competitors in performance. Perhaps Mr. Lu can explain to us for your new thoughts concerning smartphones and what are your responses to this year's challenges? Weibing Lu: Right. For memory, yes, for each quarter, you have always been caring and concerning about this. And in different occasions, I have also talked about my views on this. In the past, I have said that this is a period that we are going through, and we have to look at 2027. And there may be high price hikes and we have done our work in this regard. But on the other hand, my own feeling is that the cycle of hikes may be longer than I had expected. First of all, there is the AI-led demand. And also for memory, the cost hikes magnitude, I think, is going to be higher and much higher than I had expected. My expectation in the industry was already forward, but I think it's going to be even higher in terms of price hikes for this. So it is longer cycles and the price hikes is going to be higher than I had expected. So for all the consumer items, it is going to impact greatly, not only for smartphones, which we are more concerned about. But for some categories, for some smaller capacity, categories with smaller memories, units, there is a situation where there is a cut in supply even. So this is an actual situation that's facing us in reality. The impact of that, we have a calculation which is very simple, and that is we look at the memory and it's part of the product. The more it is as a part of this product category, the more it will be impacted but less -- of course, it will be less impacted. And in our categories, smartphones, tablets, notebooks, they are more in terms of proportion. But on the other hand, there are some, for example, high-end smartphones. Relatively speaking, it is less for memory part. So for a company, if the products will have more memory as a part of their product then, of course, the impact will be higher, less will be less impact. So this is a very simplistic way of calculation I'm looking at it. In the past 2 weeks, looking at the memory price hikes, we already see some competitors raising their mid-priced smartphone prices. And I fully understand that. I think for annual smartphone manufacturer, if they do not unload to the consumer, it is very difficult to sustain this kind of price hikes. But I think it is inevitable for this. And for Xiaomi, our pressure is very, very large indeed. But as I say, we will try our very best to digest this to protect the consumer. And when we can do this no more, we will have to hike our smartphones prices, and we hope that our consumers and our customers will understand this. Yes, we are slower in price hikes, but it doesn't mean that we are immune from it. There are some competitive advantages for Xiaomi, which I can tell you. So for example, in home appliances, the category, for this category, it will be less impact. For smart cars, EVs, it would be higher because the memory part of that is higher. But on the other hand, compared to the proportion in smartphones, it will be lower. So with our variety of product segments, this is how I see it. And through this, I hope we will be able to better resolve this problem. For smartphones, tablets and notebooks, we are a company -- we are globally leading and also in EVs as well in the past few years. And for the memory suppliers around the world, we have built a very good relationship, mutual trust, and we have long-term supply contracts. So at this point, I do not feel that we have any risk of nonsupply or stopping of supply. So this is our competitive advantage compared to our competitors. The third point is that in my previous expectation, I was more pessimistic about memory price hikes. And therefore, I have been making more aggressive preparations. So in that case, our inventory sufficiency was higher. But overall speaking, for our terminal products cost, it is highly impactful. So this short-term pressure is definitely in existence, it is there. Andy Meng: Mr. Lu, this is very clear. My second question is about our vehicles. For the new generation of Xiaomi vehicles, there had been a successful announcement. And in the investor interaction, I noticed that some investors feel that we -- that Xiaomi doesn't -- no longer talk about or announce the data, but only for the unit data, well, and this is more negative. But for Xiaomi, what is the sale? I think it's going to be stable and it will be positive, and this is how I see it. Can you talk about these 2 investors' point of view? Unknown Executive: Andy, let me just answer that question. Well, for the announcement of sales from the users side, we see some phenomena. The first phenomenon is that for the first 3 days of sales, we already have achieved significant sales, 34 minutes, 150 locked-in sales. And after 3 days, it was over 30,000 units sales, and we have lived up to our commitment. And that is for the delivery starting from the fourth day of launch, we have already started delivery because we have already made preparations for the manufacturing of cars. And also, with some of the problems of the previous batch, they had to wait for a long time and before we could deliver to our users, those who have locked in their purchases. So we have absorbed our experience, and we had a new iteration. Well, as you have mentioned, why do we only disclose our locked-in contracts. We think that this is more fair. So it is not about preordering or big ordering. It is locked orders. Locked orders are solid, and that is the buyers are going to take delivery of these vehicles. And this governs our manufacturing cycle as well. So we think that's locked contracts or purchase is a fairer way of looking at it, and that is why we made the change. And in the industry, I'm sure people have their different practices, but this is what we maintain is the right way. So this is the first point. And also using this particular opportunity for our -- concerning the locked in contracts, let me share some information. So for the first point, it is that a lot of investors have asked about the locked orders. Buyers, are they from our previous buyers or new buyers or most of them we know are new buyers. For the locked orders, they come from new buyers. So it is not the original owners who are changing to -- changing from -- [ 2 Euro ] cars. For iPhone, about 50%, it is first generation. And for 60% of the new buyers, they are iPhone users. So for our locked contracts, the progress is faster than our first-generation users. So compared to the previous numbers, these locked orders are bigger. And also, you are very complementary of our allocation. About 60% of them are using the paid choice, the paid options. So compared to the previous generation, we think that the penetration is better. For example, female buyers, iPhone users penetration and also choosing different options of colors, for example, all these have been performing better in penetration than the last generation, the previous generation. Thank you for your question. Operator: Timothy Zhao from Goldman next. Timothy Zhao: I have 2 questions concerning AI. First of all, concerning in the past 2 years, there are some models and including the foundation models. So for AI capabilities in the ecosystem, what is our capability? And also for miclaw and also for the IoT, how is miclaw positioning? And how do we see it done with IoT? And how is miclaw going to be significant? And also, I would like to know how we consider AI in its users and also developers and internal to Xiaomi and its commercialization? In LLM, what are some KPI considerations for your team? You once said that in the next 3 years, there's going to be a RMB 60 billion expenditure? And how is this on OpEx and CapEx, the allocation, please? Unknown Executive: For 2023, we have used a lot of energy to consider our AI strategy going forward. So we have faced it. First of all, the infrastructure for AI, algorithm, et cetera. And out of the infrastructure, we had an exponential growth in terms of its application. And last year, we had already said that '26 was an explosive use of AI era. So from virtual, AI has moved into the physical world. And this is true to my earlier prediction. And with this prediction coming true, we will be developing our AI/LLM. We started investing in '24 and in 2025 in [ MiMo ] LLM or large language models, we have made a lot of progress. And we have been very clear last year in saying that this year, '26 will be the year of explosive use of AI. And last year, we were more considering about agents, AI agents. So in individual terminal, how can AI have a bigger usage so that people are able to do things that they were not able to use before. With OpenClaw, it's allowed us to very quickly roll out miclaw in testing. So at present, from the responses of our testing, it is very, very positive. And going forward, there is a huge market, and that is AI going to the physical world. So it will be in driving, in robots, in humanoids, et cetera. So in this area, Xiaomi has already made the deployment. And at the end, I think it will have to serve our entire ecosystem of Xiaomi. So this is a direction. This is a large direction, and we will continue to strategically follow that. And also, you mentioned miclaw. And for miclaw, this AI agent of Xiaomi, this is our own developed and it is an agent and it is going to test our modeling capability and also our limitation, and also, it's going to test how we are able to deeply integrate and also our data capability. And at Xiaomi, we will do our own integration with our own data from our users. So we will also be using cloud-based data. And also there will have to be certain integration into the system and also safety, we will be good in protecting safety. So for Xiaomi miclaw, it is going to be the prototype for the future AI agent. Now this is still early on. We do not have some specific commercialization model. And I don't have any KPI for the team yet because only when it is mature will the team has a certain KPIs. So as for the RMB 60 billion that you talked about, yes, my colleague will answer that question. Unknown Executive: That's right. For the [ RMB 16 billion ] and 3 years -- RMB 60 billion, it is -- it includes R&D and also CapEx. But of course, in R&D, it also includes the distribution from previous year's R&D. So it is our present period R&D and also our previous R&D and also CapEx. So there will be 3 parts. If you look at the 2026 [ RMB 16 billion ], most of it is R&D expenses, the present period. So it's a 70% present period R&D. So if it is CapEx plus the previous years, it would be the rest. So the next 3 years, every year, our CapEx will have some previous CapEx, which had been detained into this year. So it may be lower than the 70%. So it is for this period as well as a portion from the previous year's CapEx or amortization from previous year's CapEx. Operator: China Capital, Wen Hanjing next. Hanjing Wen: I have 2 questions. First question concerning our IoT business. We see 2025 IoT performance have been very, very good from revenue and also in progress and advancement. So for this year, there are 2 concern points. They are positive. And for home appliances, new highs reached. But some investors are concerned that with the domestic situation, what do you say the economy ramping down a bit? How do you see this? And also, what about IoT going overseas? What is the planning? And secondly, for vehicles in 2025, overall, for EVs, it is already profitable. And also for future planning for the entire year, how do you see profits for the entire year for vehicles? Weibing Lu: I'll be talking about IoT, and then Alain will answer the other question. For IoT for this business, because we have a number of different categories. I'll be talking about China market and overseas markets. For China market, I think there is an opportunity, and that is premiumization of IoT. For IoT business for us, even though it is very large scale, but our ASP is low. Last year, we had major progress made, but it is still far from our goal. Our watches, our, for example, our hairdryer, et cetera, I think still the average price is relatively low. So in R&D, with our investment in that, I think this year, we are going high end. I think there will be a lot, a lot of positive progress. So I think this is a huge opportunity. So for major home appliances, for our washing machines, our fridge, and it is 4 points. And for aircons, it is 10 points. So for ESG, I think there is still room for pricing. And for our IoT business, overall, last year, it is already at a very high level of AIoT as we will continue to do so. As for overseas business, I think there is a huge space for development because our market has always been the -- in China. If going to the North American market, it's going to be 3x of our original market size. And it's -- so that is to see it's going to be 6x if we reach our potential. It's going to be 6x or at least a few times our domestic China market. So there is a lot of empty room for us to fill in terms of overseas markets. We will send people. We will send our products. And with our IoT development, there had been a lot of overseas and information and testing, and there is huge room for overseas growth and development. So for our high ASP products, this is a high area of growth potential. So this is our overseas plan. Last year, it was 4.5 shops and it's going to grow to 10 or 10,000 shops. And I was in London in Xiaomi Home, I was able to observe that most of the products were high-end product selling. So you think that actually, our categories are very full in range, and these overseas markets, for example, in the U.K., they are selling at high end. So I think there is huge room for development in the overseas market. For the vehicle question, last year in 2025, we have delivered over 410,000 units, far exceeding the 300,000 unit target we set at the year start. So at the year start for this will be 550,000 units for this year's delivery target for 2026. So '26 compared to '25, there is growth. But for the overall situation in '26, there is pressure. So for our expectations, et cetera, we are still very confident that we'll be able to reach our target. As for our target profit. You would know for this category, it is AI and new business segment. So that would include our AI investment and also new development areas. So you cannot just look at the segment as just an auto segment. It includes other new businesses in this segment. But at present, the new businesses are still in the investment stage. As I've mentioned, in AI, for example, this year, we will continue to increase our investment in AI, including in robots. Robotics, we'll increase our investment there as well. So you have to look at 2 areas. One, auto in this segment. And secondly, AI plus new business investment. So for this particular segment, last year, it performed very well. For this year, as auto growth and also in other areas, the kind of fruit that we're going to pick from them, the results, this is going to be an encouraging segment. Operator: Kyna Wong, Citibank. Hiu King Wong: Can you hear me fine? Unknown Executive: Yes. We can. Hiu King Wong: I have 2 questions. First of all, I would like to know for the Middle Eastern situation recently, I don't know whether for the overseas business, including IoT, handsets, has it impacted you? Are there certain logistics and also cost of raw materials had presented issues to you? And also another question concerning your gross profit margin. For this year, for handsets or smartphones, is there a principle, let's say, under what kind of profit level will you be keeping it or making certain choices for adjusting the price. So for smartphone handsets to protect your profit margin, gross profit margin? And also for vehicles, there may be some pressure, as you have mentioned before. And how do you think this will be making your performance better than your competitors? Are there certain safeguards for profits and also AI, IoT because premiumization is a strategy of yours, you did say that for this kind of premiumization. What is your plan for AIoT, please? Unknown Executive: First of all, for Middle Eastern conflict, it's nothing that we want to see, certainly. I hope that there will be a solution for it because it's going to impact industries and economy around the world, it's going to impact big way. As for Xiaomi business, the Middle Eastern overall situation, for revenue from that part, it is not so much -- it is only in the single digits as a contribution to our profit. So in terms of the market from the Middle East, it's a small proportion of our overall at Xiaomi. So it is controllable from that regard. But at the same time, we also see that the oil situation from the Middle East, we already see some pellets, plastic pellets, and the raw materials is influenced or impacted. But overall speaking, it is still controllable. So that's for your first question. Second question, concerning cars, IoT and also smartphone handsets, the gross margin and what is our pricing strategy, well, for this, I would say, first of all, for memory, for memory components, we are to quantify that. I would say in the past, for a quarter, for example, we expect it to be at a certain high price, but actually, it's going to be at an even higher price, rising even higher. So we are very -- it's very hard for us to quantify that even for a small increase, it may because it is such a big part of the product, it will be impacting the cost of the product a lot. So it is very difficult to foretell early on, like what we had been able to do before. But for smartphones for this category, I think given our size and also our market share, it is very important for us. So if you say whether there's a principle, it would be that we hope. We try our best to make some balances. So my consideration is that we want to maintain our market position. That is very important to us because for smartphones, there are very few listed companies in this category. So I'm not being able to get a lot of accurate data from the industry competitors. But from my years of experience, I know the following. For example, in vehicles, the absolute number as a part of the overall car price, it is less in terms of its impact, but not as big as a smartphone part. For IoT, it is even -- it is also even lower in terms of memory, internal memory price impact. So different categories will have different impact. What is big impact would be smartphone, notebook and also tablets, less so for smart cars, less so for vehicles that is, and even less so for IoT. Operator: Next question, Citic, Xinchi. Xinchi Yin: I have 2 questions. First of all, on AI business. Miclaw has been introduced. And I was fortunate to have joined the launch. That was excellent. Can you give us more guidance? And that is at what point of maturity would you in big model or miclaw to commercialize them? And how would that be like in revenue? That's the first question. As for the second question for this year for chip, for example, do you think that you can have some progress to update us? Unknown Executive: For miclaw, I have already talked a lot about it, and I'm sure as a user, you will have felt this product, and you were there at the launch, and it's given us a lot of nice surprises, but it's a new product. And we still have a lot of -- there's a lot of room for improvement. And I, myself, also have gotten a lot of responses, so we have to improve on it. But I think the iterations will be very fast, and it will be a new version in a few days. So it's going to be -- it's going to have high speed iterations. For Xiaomi overall speaking, for AI, it's still going to be contributed to our users. For the commercialization of AI, I would say, at this point, it is still too early. Even though our large model, efficiency is high, our token commercialization, for instance. But from absolute numbers, it may be a little bit high. So at this point today, I would say commercialization is too early to talk about for us. And also, we already see our XLA model, XLA model. This is the XLA model, which is a cognitive large model. And SU7 is equipped with it from -- at present internally from our testing, it is very, very good in performance. So for these 2 models of cars, I am a user. And I personally would use -- if I use them, and if I have any questions in terms of use, I will put these cases to the team. And I personally experience these auto driving functions. It will be going forward step by step. And also our auto driving, whether the models or chips, we already have some deployments. So integration terminal to terminal, and when we have this ready, it's going to give a lot of new experience to our users. I don't know whether you've been driving our cars. Yes, watch out for its progress as we integrate more and more of our models into them for automotive. Operator: Because of time, this will be the last question from Zoe Xu of UBS. Zoe Xu: A lot of questions have already been asked by others. I have 2 questions to ask concerning new business investment and also IoT. For new business, with the models iterations faster, and you said that there will be more investment into AI. So for expenditure on new business, is chips side will be adjusted? Or do we see that there will be new chips introduced? Second question on IoT. Just now it's been mentioned for tablet and notebooks, there will be some cost impact. So will there be something like smartphones pricing strategy and that is to emphasize the experience for users, please? Unknown Executive: Well, for this year, we have increased a lot of R&D expenses. But for chip, it is a long-term strategic capability of ours. I have already said that this is a platform capability chip because it's going to provide capability for a lot of profit -- product types and product categories. So even though in AI, we have increased our investment, but we have not slackened our investment in chips. Actually, some of the chips, many of the chips. They are part of our big AI strategy. So we will definitely be steadfast with it. As for PC and tablets, we will follow more or less the same strategy as for smartphones. But please also notice that for the notebook that we have just launched, the Xiaomi NoteBook, after 4 years of development, it is selling very well. And it is the demand is even higher than we had expected. When we launched this NoteBook, we already knew that the memory part will be increasing in price. But on the other hand, the response has been so encouraging because of the product strength is good, even though it is more expensive, the users will be able to adopt it and they'll accept it. So I think product innovation, technological capability, these are important, even though memory is hiking in prices. But still, we will have ways to make our products attractive. In 2022, through our efforts, I think our company and our management team will still be able to deliver good performance for everyone. Operator: Thank you. We end the meeting here. Thank you very much for your participation. Thank you for your support for the company, Xiaomi. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Transgene 2025 Annual Results and Prospective for 2026 Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Lucie Larguier. Please go ahead. Lucie Larguier: Well, thank you, Nadia, and hello, everyone. So I'm Lucie, Chief Financial Officer at Transgene, and I'm with Dr. Alessandro Riva, our Chairman and CEO today. We will review the progress over 2025 and answer any questions you may have. Before I turn the call over to Alessandro, I'd like to remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements which are subject to multiple risks and uncertainties. [Operator Instructions] With this, I now turn the call over to Alessandro. Alessandro Riva: Thanks, Lucie, and good morning, good evening, good afternoon, everyone. So 2025 has been a year of meaningful clinical progress for Transgene. As you all know, we advanced our individualized neoantigen therapeutic vaccine, INTV, TG4050, supported by compelling clinical and translational data in head and neck cancer that reinforce our confidence in its potential to prevent relapse in patients. I would say that there were 3 crucial moments this year that confirm our conviction that the myvac platform can bring benefit to patients. First of all, our Phase I data being presented already at ASCO in the same section as 2 Phase III trials in head and neck cancer. Second, the immunogenicity data that we present at the SITC conference in November in the United States of America; and third, the completion of EUR 105 million fundraising that provides financial visibility until the first quarter 2028 to support our priority programs. With these 3 major achievement, Transgene is on track to continue building the scientific and operational capability to execute our strategy. Now on Slide 5. TG4050, the first INTV based on our myvac platform is currently being evaluated in international randomized Phase I/II clinical trial in the adjuvant treatment of HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a setting with significant unmet medical need as more than 30% of patients relapse after 3 years despite the recent advances in the innovation with checkpoint inhibitors. At ASCO, we presented Phase I data showing that all patients with HPV-negative cancer who received TG4050 after surgery and the standard chemo radiotherapy remained disease-free after at least 2 years of follow-up. Importantly, the trial met all endpoints for both safety and feasibility. This 100% disease-free survival rate compared with 3 relapses observed in the control arm provides the first clinical evidence supporting TG4050 potential to prevent cancer recurrence in early head and neck cancer patients. In November, at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting, we presented a compelling translational data that further strengthened the clinical proof of principle for TG4050. In particular, the data showed that TG4050 induced neoantigen-specific T cell responses in 73% of evaluable patients. Importantly, these responses were durable, persisting 24 months after the start of treatment and showed cytotoxic and effector phenotype markers up to 1 year after the end of treatment. Together, these findings demonstrated that TG4050 can generate potent and long-lasting immune responses capable of targeting and eliminating tumor cells contributing to the prevention of relapses. In January 2026, a comprehensive analysis of the Phase I clinical and translational data was published on the preprint platform of [ Med Archive ] and is currently under review by peer-review journal. I'm on Slide 6 now. Let me now turn on the ongoing Phase II part of the Phase I/II trial. The randomized Phase II part of the trial is in the same setting as the Phase I. All patients are close to being randomized, and this will be a key operational milestone for the program. The primary endpoint on the Phase I/II study is 2-year disease-free survival that is very well recognized by the health authorities being an important and critical milestone, and we expect this efficacy readout once all patients reached 2 years of follow-up from randomization. In second half 2026, we also expect to share the first immunogenicity data from patients from the Phase II cohort of the Phase I/II study. For the Phase I part of the study, we plan to report 3-year follow-up data on disease-free survival in second, third quarter 2026, followed by 4-year follow-up in second, third quarter 2027. Beyond head and neck cancer, we are working to broaden the spectrum of opportunity for myvac across additional solid tumor types where significant unmet medical needs remain. The platform, as you know, is designed to generate individualized neoantigen therapeutic vaccine tailored to each patient's tumor mutational profile. As mentioned, we are currently in the start-up phase of the new Phase I trial in a second not yet disclosed indication in early treatment setting, and our goal is to initiate this trial in 2026. We are actively optimizing our manufacturing process, improving turnaround time and preparing for increased production volumes. Importantly, part of the proceed is dedicated to advancing industrial and regulatory readiness, including the alignment with the FDA and the EMEA requirements as we move toward late-stage development. Now turning on Slide 7, BT-001, which is our intratumor administered oncolytic virus developed with our partner, BioInvent. At ESMO 2025, we presented a poster data evaluating BT-001 in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced refractory tumors. This data shows positive abscopal and sustained antitumor activity in both injected and non-injected lesions. The immune-mediated tumor shrinkage observed is consistent with our mechanistic hypothesis. BT-001 in combination with pembrolizumab can convert cold tumors into immunologically active hot tumors. This data supports further development of BT-001 and you should be hearing from us about this development in the next couple of months. Now I would like to turn over to Lucie for the financial update. Lucie? Lucie Larguier: Thank you, Alessandro. So if we look at our financial position and what happened in 2025, we can definitely say that the most significant financial event of the year was the successful fundraising in December 2025 and through which we raised approximately EUR 105 million. And together with the conversion of EUR 39 million debt with TSGH into equity, Transgene strengthened its balance sheet, reduced its financial liabilities. The company is now virtually debt-free, and we are now ready to move and fund it until early 2028. If we look at our cash burn over last year, it was approximately EUR 38.2 million. So it reflects the investment in our Phase II trial, the fact that we manufacture and enroll patients into this Phase II in head and neck cancer. So I think that -- and I'm convinced that with the budget that we have, the money that we have, we have funded to deliver on key milestones, which include the development of 4050, the myvac platform, the planned Phase I trial in the second indication and also the work on manufacturing and process optimization, preparing late-stage development. So Alessandro, if you want to comment on outlook. Alessandro Riva: Yes. Thank you, Lucie. As we look ahead, our priorities as you know, are very clear. We remain focused on TG4050, our first INTV vaccine from the myvac platform. We intent being to continue to establish Transgene as a key player in the INTV field that is growing across the community, and it attracts a lot of interest. With the progress we have made so far and with the finance sources that Lucie just mentioned, we believe that we have what do we need to execute on the next phase of development. So overall, when we look at the next 24 months that are covered by our recent fundraising, we see a clear path of execution, multiple meaningful milestones and the financial visibility, as mentioned to support them throughout early 2028. Before opening the Q&A, let me also mention that we'll be participating in investor access events in Paris on April 9 and to the Life Science Conference in Amsterdam on April 16. And we would, of course, be very pleased to meet with those of you who may be attending. With that, the team and I will be happy to take your questions. Operator, please up to you. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And now we're going to take our first question. And it comes from the line of Chiara Montironi from Van Lanschot Kempen. Chiara Montironi: I actually have a couple. So the first one, how should we be looking at the 3 years DFS data that are approaching in Q2, Q3, given that the primary endpoint and the benchmark are 2 years? What do you expect to see here? And what will be a good result? And the second question is on the immunogenicity Phase II data in H2 '26? At which follow-up will be those data, we'll be able to see the induction of the immune response also to understand that these immune responses are durable? Alessandro Riva: Thank you, Chiara. So first question is on 3-year disease-free survival data. First of all, we plan to send an abstract for the ESMO conference in Q3 2026. And what we should expect, of course, we don't know because we have not analyzed the data. I mean the base case scenario is, of course, that we continue to see that the 2 curves stay separated throughout the additional follow-up. So that's the base case scenario. The best case scenario, which is which is not good for patients that have been randomized to the observation is to serve more relapses in the arm that did not receive the TG4050. And therefore, this scenario will show a larger magnitude of the separation of 2 curves. And that's what -- and of course, there is a worst-case scenario that is that we start to observe relapses in TG4050. So -- but in the base case scenario, in best case scenario, this is going to be quite good for the program and of course, for patients. Then in terms of the immunogenicity data of the Phase II study, we expect to start having the first set of data by the end of 2026. And of course, we will start to analyze the patients that were randomized first, right? So therefore, we expect that those patients have at least 1 year kind of follow-up with the potential to show durability over 1 year in the Phase II study. And of course, this will be important to start also to strengthen the data that we have presented earlier in 2025 with the Phase I. Hopefully, this is clear. Operator: And the question comes line of Dominic Rose from Intron Health. Dominic Rose: It's Dominic here. I've got a couple as well. My first question is, how do you think the GMP manufacturing reconfiguration will change the ability to get a deal done towards the end of the year? So how impactful is that versus getting new data? And my second question is what, if anything, do you hope to learn this year from the Moderna data readouts? Alessandro Riva: Okay. So the first question is around the GMP manufacturing. So as you know, it is important to continue to optimize manufacturing for an individualized antigen therapeutic company like Transgene. So we plan to have full GMP manufacturing by 2027, Q3 2027. And of course, having a full GMP manufacturing is an important value creation for myvac program and, of course, we strengthened the [indiscernible] from pharmaceutical companies for the simple reason that having a GMP manufacturing allow us or the potential partner to move forward to a potential pivotal trial. So that's the reason why we are investing significantly on the GMP. Again, it is critical to succeed in the individualized neoantigen therapeutic vaccine. And then the second question was around Moderna data. I mean, I guess you're referring to the Phase II that they've already published, but also the potential Phase III in adjuvant setting melanoma. So first of all, I mean, the long-term follow-up data set that they have published just recently, I would say, confirm what they've already published a few years ago in terms of the efficacy of their INTV in adjuvant setting melanoma. And of course, they clearly say that they will disclose the Phase III data always in adjuvant melanoma by the end of the year, beginning of 2027. And of course, for the INTV community, the Phase III data will be quite important because if the data is positive, the data will continue to derisk the INTV approach. And of course, if the data is negative, then as you know, Transgene has a different technology with a different vector. And we think that we will have to wait our data set in head and neck, specifically the randomized Phase II study before making any conclusion because, again, our technology is different from Moderna one. But of course, for patients for the field, we hope that the melanoma data, Phase III is going to be positive, right? So -- but of course, we have to wait. So -- and from a bio and tech point of view, right? So as you know, they are doing some changes in their leadership and they have recently also announced that they plan to close their Phase II trial in the [indiscernible] cancer because the competitive landscape has changed significantly. And therefore, what they said, of course, they do some reprioritization and now they are staying focused on pancreatic cancer and colon cancer, and we don't know the data, the studies are still ongoing. And again, of course, we hope for all it will be there for all the studies that are in the INTV field in early setting because, again, all the data points will help to continue to derisk the field and, of course, for biotech companies to continue to accelerate the development. Lucie Larguier: So we have received a few questions on the chat. So I'll take and read [indiscernible] question, [indiscernible] from Biomed Impact. So the question is regarding the new indication, TG4070 program as shown on the website, could you give us more information, solid tumors as far as I understand, will the population of patients be homogenic or will you address several types of solid tumors, single or multiple injections? Alessandro Riva: So this is going to be one indication. It's not a basket protocol. It's going to be randomized Phase I study in a new indication that, I would say, very similar to what we did in head and neck, same type of methodology, but in another indication, where the medical need is quite significant. And the indication will be very different from head and neck from a biological standpoint and also in terms of the potential of being immunogenic tumor. And I cannot disclose exactly what we are going to plan. So we are in the kind of waiting for the regulatory feedback on the final protocol. And as soon as we have, of course, the approval from the agencies, we're going to disclose the indication and the time lines associated to. We're very confident that this study can start this year. Lucie Larguier: So we had a question from [ Jamie Land ], but I think with [indiscernible] from all investment, I think we've answered it given the current landscape. I also have a question from Martial Descoutures, ODDO BHF, which is, as you expand myvac platform, thanks to the additional tumor types, how do you see the long-term value? Could we think that you will look for partners in the future? Or could we think that you will continue alone for the long term? On TG4050, what level of efficacy could you consider as clinically relevant in the Phase II? Alessandro Riva: So let's start from the last question perhaps. So everything that is similar to what we have observed in the randomized Phase I makes a lot of sense for patients. And you know what we have disclosed and the disease-free survival curve. So having a flat curve without any relapses by itself is very important for early setting head and neck cancer patients. So we hope that we are going -- as I said also answering the question from Chiara, we hope to see the same kind of shape of the curve, the same type of separation and of course, the same durability of the plateau that we are observing in the Phase I study. So in terms of the long-term strategy for Transgene related to myvac, so I would say that, first of all, our priority is to continue to create value for patients. So -- and of course, by doing that to stay very open on potential opportunities in terms of having a kind of constructive dialogue with the scientific community with the pharmaceutical companies. And we think that, of course, as we generate more data in terms of Phase II, in terms of optimization of the manufacturing, in terms of showing that we are able to do a second indication with a manufacturing process that is even better than what we have used in the Phase I and the Phase II study. So all this kind of value creation activities and catalysts will help significantly to attract the interest of pharmaceutical companies. So the objective that we have is ultimately to bring the organization to a kind of starting block for launching a potential pivotal trial. And we hope that if we demonstrate that in the next 24 months, we can generate interest from potential partners and working them together to launch a potential Phase III trial. So value creation first dialogue in parallel with the industry and third potential collaboration to continue to accelerate our program. Lucie Larguier: Okay. We have a quick few follow-up questions from [indiscernible] from [ All Invest ]. So any update on the media conference where you plan to report Phase I data, particularly the 3-year survival. Should we assume it's ASCO? Should we expect Phase II patient randomization to be completed during Q2 2026? And finally, how should we think about the timing for initiating a Phase I trial in a new indication this year? Alessandro Riva: So I mean the 3 years survival data for the Phase I study of TG4050 will be potentially that's our plan presented at ESMO. And of course, this requires that ESMO accept our abstract. So we plan to submit it and then we'll keep you posted whether this is accepted and ultimately disclosed and presented at the ESMO meeting. So that's your first question. So the second question related to the randomized Phase II trial. So I mean, the randomization will -- I mean, will be completed certainly by Q2, right? So that's our plan, right? So -- and of course, we will obviously sign an announcement as soon as we have this milestone completed, but we are kind of optimistic that really we are close to the final recruitment. And then the third question, there was another one. Lucie Larguier: How should we think about the timing for initiating a Phase I trial? Alessandro Riva: Yes. As we mentioned, it's going to be in 2026. As soon as we have the formal approval from the health authorities, we're going to move forward. Lucie Larguier: And I think that we have at least -- I don't have additional questions, a few wins. Thank you very much, everyone, for your questions. Alessandro Riva: Thank you for the questions. So just to close, I mean we think that 2025 was a year of strong progress for Transgene. As I mentioned, we continue our journey to continue to establish Transgene as a key player in this field of individualized neoantigen therapeutic vaccine that can be potentially transformative for patients and can, as you have seen, can go beyond one single indication. Looking ahead, we are confident in our strategy in the transformative potential of the myvac platform. And with the financial visibility until early 2028 and a clear path to clinical readouts, so we are very well positioned to deliver meaningful value for patients and shareholders alike. We are grateful for your, of course, continued support and looking forward to keep you updated on our progress. With this, I would like to conclude today's call. Have a great rest of the day and talk to you soon. Operator, please? Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.
Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Tuas Limited Half Year Financial Year 2026 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Richard Tan, CEO. Please go ahead. Richard Tan: Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm Richard Tan, Chief Executive Officer of Simba Telecom, the principal operating entity of the Tuas Group. Also on the call today are Mr. David Teoh, Executive Chairman of Tuas Limited; and Mr. Harry Wong, Chief Financial Officer of Simba Telecom. It's a pleasure to present the financial results for Tuas Limited for the half year ending 31st January 2026, covering the period which started 1st August 2025. Let me briefly outline today's agenda as shown on Slide 2. We'll begin with Harry, who will walk through the financial performance and key metrics for the year. I'll then provide an update on our operational progress, status of M1 acquisition and outlook for FY '26. We'll conclude with a Q&A session to address any questions you may have. Please note that all financial figures discussed today are denominated in Singapore dollars. With that, I will now hand over to Harry to take us through the numbers. Harry Wong: Good morning, everyone. My name is Harry Wong. CFO of Simba Telecom. I'll be presenting the financials of the Tuas Group. On Slide 3, you'll see that we achieved a notable improvement in the financial results during the first half of FY '26 when compared to that of FY '25. Revenue for the half year is $91.9 million, up from $73.2 million for the same period last year. Pre-acquisition costs amounting to $10.5 million was incurred. Excluding this, the underlying EBITDA increased 27%, up from $33.1 million to $42.1 million. We achieved a half year positive statutory net profit after tax of $8.2 million, which is a significant improvement on the prior period's profit of $3 million. Next, we look at the revenue and EBITDA on Slide 4. Revenue for the half year ending 31 January 2026 increased 26% compared to that of FY '25. With increased scale of the business, EBITDA margin has improved to 46% of revenue. Gross mobile ARPU for the year was 9.61%. The key driver of the EBITDA uplift is the increased subscriber base for both the mobile and broadband products. Our mobile plans include generous roaming data at every price point and broadband plans provide exceptional value including premium Wi-Fi 7 routers and home phone lines as part of the package. Slide 5 shows our sustained mobile subscriber growth since FY '23. As of 31 January 2026, we had about 1.412 million subscribers, representing a 13% increase over the past half year. Slide 6 shows the broadband subscriber base. As of 31st January 2026, we had approximately 46,000 active services. We have gained traction in this segment, and we have added 20,000 subscribers over the past half year. We proceed on cash flow on Slide 7. We continue to show positive cash flow. Opening cash and term deposit balance was $80.7 million. Net cash generated from operating activities was $50.1 million. The main cash outflow comes from acquisition of plant and equipment and intangible assets of $18.9 million, largely mobile network and some fixed broadband infrastructure. We raised funds from capital markets of $260 million in support of the M1 acquisition. This brings the ending cash and term deposits to $478 million as of 31st January 2026. Again, positive cash flow after CapEx for the year is a welcome achievement. I should note that pre-acquisition costs that have been accounted for in this half year has not become liable for payment during the first half or since then. This explains a good portion of the positive cash flow outperformance compared to EBITDA. With this, I will let Richard proceed with the business updates. Richard Tan: Thank you, Harry. Singapore's mobile market remains highly competitive. And over the past financial year, Simba has continued to focus on delivering stronger value across all price points. This strategy has clearly resonated with consumers, as reflected in our robust subscriber growth. We have further enhanced our mobile offerings by adding 2 popular roaming destinations, Japan and Australia as inclusions in the APAC tier to our higher-value plans. This enhancement is an important part of supporting our continued growth in the mobile segment. To serve our expanding customer base, Simba continues to invest in network coverage and overall user experience. I am pleased to share that we have achieved another significant milestone. We have surpassed IMDA's regulatory benchmark of 95% 5G outdoor coverage, well ahead of the 31st January 2026 deadline. Slide 9 highlights the reasons behind the strong momentum in our fiber broadband business. The accelerated growth is driven by a clear, simple and compelling value proposition through 10 gigabit per second symmetrical speeds complemented by a premium Wi-Fi 7 router, modem and the home phone line included as standard. We are also proud to share that Ookla has awarded Simba, both the fastest download speeds and most reliable speed titles for the second half of CY '25. Most listeners would have used Ookla to do a speed test on your connectivity and they are widely regarded as an accurate global leader in Internet testing and network intelligence. This recognition is a testament to our engineering excellence and our unwavering commitment to delivering the best possible service experience for our customers. Moving to Slide 10. We appreciate shareholders' patience as we await IMDA's decision on our proposed acquisition of M1. This is a significant transaction involving critical national infrastructure and on a combined basis, it will create Singapore's second largest mobile customer base. Both Keppel and Simba continue to work diligently through the regulatory process and we remain fully committed to securing the necessary approvals. And finally, the business outlook. The first half of the year has established a solid platform for us with sustained growth across both our mobile and fiber broadband segments. In line with this expansion, Simba's stand-alone CapEx for the full year is expected to range between $50 million and $55 million. We will continue to prioritize margin optimization and maintain disciplined cash management as we scale. I'll now hand back to the moderator for the Q&A session. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from [ Raj Ahmed ] from Citigroup. Siraj Ahmed: It's Siraj Ahmed. Can you hear me okay? Richard Tan: Yes. Siraj Ahmed: Just I have maybe 3 questions. The first one just on the -- maybe a multipart question on subs momentum. Pretty strong pickup in momentum in the half. Just keen to understand what drove that from your perspective, especially given your advertising and marketing spend is actually down year-on-year? Richard Tan: Okay. So obviously, the momentum has been strong for the first half. And in part, I think, it was -- you could say that it was due to our announcement of the M1 acquisition because people are seeing us in different light. They know that we are a serious player and we are here to stay, and we have been delivering very good value for -- across all of our service plan. So this has resonated obviously across the -- our customer base as well as people who have not come aboard yet. So we saw a very strong momentum for the first half of the year. Siraj Ahmed: And Richard, just because I'm into the stock as well, just in terms of first quarter versus second quarter, is there some seasonality or some sort of events that supports 1Q? I know 1Q is quite strong. 2Q is strong as well, but it was down quarter-on-quarter. Is this something that impacts from like a seasonality perspective? Richard Tan: This is the typical seasonality effect because, as you all are well aware, the November and December traveling period is always very strong in terms of people leaving Singapore for their holidays. So a lot of people will sign up prior to that. And then they will return. Everyone goes back to work and school back in January. So you are obviously noticing the seasonality effect. Siraj Ahmed: Right. Actually, that's a good segue for my question on -- just in terms of the current environment with fuel and everything like that. And given that traveling is a big part of your value prop as well. Are you seeing any sort of -- anything that you can call out based on current trends that you're seeing on that impacting... Richard Tan: The trends will be very similar to previous years. And we expect second year to -- second half of the year to continue to exhibit good growth as well subject to the usual seasonality effects that we have seen over the past 3 to 4 years. Siraj Ahmed: All right. Helpful. Last one. In terms of just the gross margin, it seems like the network, the COGS has gone up quite a bit. Gross margin is down year-on-year. And is there some one-off in that, that we should be considering? Richard Tan: Well, the -- what we have been focusing on more is the EBITDA margin and the EBITDA margin has actually grown by 1 percentage point. So I think that's the main thing to focus on. Operator: Your next question comes from Darren Odell from Peloton Capital. Darren Odell: Congratulations on a strong result again. Just in relation to -- on the cost, the $10.5 million one-off cost in relation to M1 acquisition. I was just wondering -- it was quite large. I was just wondering if you're able to break that down in more detail, please? Richard Tan: We are not providing any breakdown as of now, but it is a mixture of legal due diligence, tax due diligence, financial due diligence and financial advisory. So I think in the -- considering the size of the transaction it is actually very, very reasonable. Darren Odell: And just in relation to just broadband connections, which have obviously been very strong in the last half. What's the sort of backlog look for that? Or do we expect the same sort of momentum to continue in number of subscribers or to be increasing? How should we be thinking about that in the future? Richard Tan: What I can say right now is that we are working very, very hard to build on the momentum that we have established and the fact that Ookla has given us the award, puts us in a very, very good position to build on that momentum. Operator: Your next question comes from James Bales from Morgan Stanley. James Bales: I guess I'd like to build on those questions about the acceleration in mobile and the strength in broadband subs. You talked about it being a question of brand awareness, durability, value that is in the consumers' mind. Should we extrapolate that the acceleration that you've seen in the first half is sustainable throughout the year and into FY '27. Richard Tan: So to be specific, are you referring to mobile or fiber broadband? James Bales: Well, I'm referring to both. So I guess I'm a bit surprised on broadband, where there's a 2-year term. It's a commoditized product, all selling the NetLink service. How you've managed to scale that so fast and whether we should expect that, that continues in the same sort of way. Richard Tan: So I think you will have seen that our value proposition is very strong. We have included a lot of value and the router that we are offering, it's a really good relative product, no compromises because, for example, it has a true 10 gigabit a second Ethernet port. And we have also added home phone line as well. So with the awards that I've mentioned from Ookla, that puts us in the very good position and people have been signing up through word of mouth. They have experienced very, very good service from both Simba, and the performance has been great. And obviously, we've been spending on marketing as well to ensure that the awareness is built up across the board. So with that with that foundation laid, that has put us in very good standing in terms of continued growth for broadband. Mobile, I think we are very well established across all segments. And we have seen good gains in these different segments, which I have alluded to, and these include, for example, the mass market and foreign [ router ] segment is something that we have always been very strong in. So without a doubt, our penetration is now deeper. Our growth is more broad-based, so that gives us also a good foundation for continued mobile growth. James Bales: That's really good context. And then I guess the other question I had was around M1 deal completion. This has taken a lot longer than you thought. Can you help us understand the -- in your mind, what's changed? And you would have expected that this deal completed last year or in January when you first announced it. Can you help us understand why it's taken longer and whether your confidence in closing it has changed at all? Richard Tan: Well, as I've indicated in my presentation it is an important transaction. What I did not say for example, is that this is the first time that the market is undergoing consolidation. So obviously, there are all aspects of the matter that IMDA will need to weigh upon. So I'm not surprised, and we are -- both parties, meaning Keppel and Simba are working diligently to gain regulatory approval as we go through the process. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is a follow-up from [ Raj Ahmed ] from Citigroup. Siraj Ahmed: It's Siraj again. Just, Richard, just on a follow-up to James' question on the time line. Is there any sort of indication that's been given to you on potential completion time lines? Or is it just open-ended from your perspective? Richard Tan: I don't think it's appropriate for us to set any expectations with regards to the time line. All I would say right now is that the engagements on a joint basis with the regulator, they are ongoing. So I think that's very important in terms of keeping the dialogue going. Siraj Ahmed: Okay. Got it. On that as well, there was a -- I think there's a 6-month sort of agreement with Keppel in terms of the deal completing. Is that -- I'm guessing that's -- I think that in sort of end of March, I think, I'm guessing that's been extended. Is that fair, given both of you are talking with IMDA? Richard Tan: We are aware of it, and both parties are working to extend it. Siraj Ahmed: Okay. Last one, just on CapEx. I know that sometimes there is seasonality. I think first half was only $19 million. You're reiterating the CapEx guidance. I'm just wondering whether -- is it sort of -- you're keeping the second half seasonality because of the deal -- impending deal? Or is it just timing related? Richard Tan: A lot of it is timing related because we initially spent more on CapEx, for example, building out our 5G coverage. But obviously, we are keeping in mind the need for us to continue to support our growth, and that is why we're keeping to the $50 million to $55 million CapEx expectation for the financial year. Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Tan for closing remarks. Richard Tan: Thank you all for your time and for engaging in our business update. The Board and management of Tuas Limited deeply appreciates your continued support. We look forward to delivering further value and growth in the months ahead. Thank you. Operator: That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Walter Hess: So good morning, everybody, here in Zurich and at the webcast. It's a pleasure for us to present our full year results 2025. With me today is Daniel Wuest, our CFO. My name is Walter Hess. I'm CEO. Let's go straight to the highlights of 2025. We delivered on our promises, and we met the financial targets 2025. We achieved 11.1% of revenue growth and minus 48% adjusted EBITDA. And with that, we achieved our guidance. The growth of Rx was 33.2% and of non-Rx, 7.1%. The digital services with a growth of 110%, so a remarkable growth rate again and a significant profitability contribution, it's a contribution margin free, which is more than 50% already of the total company. Our AI Health Companion, which we have started to launch in October last year as a beta version in our app has been adopted really very fast. Already every third app user is utilizing this AI health assistant. And with the strong liquidity position of CHF 160 million by end of the year, we are very confident to execute in 2026 and 2027 according to our plans. We are fully aware of the challenging and also critical market environment. However, we today focus on the future on our successful transition and on our path to breakeven and to cash generation. We do that by giving you an update on our strategy first, followed by a business update and then the financial update and outlook given by my colleague, Daniel, before we come to the Q&A session. There are some real important megatrends in health care, which have a big impact on our business. And we see us at the sweet spot of the 3 major megatrends. One is the demographic change, which gives a structural shift towards prevention and longevity, but mainly also towards a higher chronic care demand. It's the growth of the pharmaceutical market, a market which is not dependent on the business cycles as we see right now in this difficult environment worldwide. Last year, the market size in Germany of pharmaceuticals reached already EUR 62 billion. It's a huge potential for us being captured with electronic prescriptions. And the third megatrend is the digitalization in health care, which is even accelerated now by AI. And also there, we are at the forefront with our digital and AI health platform. How our response to these megatrends looks like, we would like to show you with a short video. It's a video about our health companion, which is live in the app already since last October. [Presentation] Walter Hess: As you can see, we are evolving from a transaction-led retail business into a health platform that orchestrates and covers the full customer and patient journey. By merging the online pharmacy with a marketplace not only for products but also for health services, digital health services and telemedicine orchestrated by the AI Health Assistant alongside with a state-of-the-art retail media business, we have created a platform which is unique and it's a novelty in Europe. This trustworthy and integrated platform with more than 12 million active customers, more than 1,000 marketplace sellers and more than 6,500 established doctors in Germany allows us to capture the full value of the entire journey. It makes our business fundamentally more defensible and less dependent on linear retail market growth. With the structural foundation now firmly in place, we are ready to ignite the platform flywheel and accelerate our scale at low marginal cost. And with that, let's move to the business update now. And of course, starting with Rx. What you see here is the sustained quarterly growth of our Rx business. And I can already confirm now that this will continue in Q1 2026. Last year, we achieved a growth rate of -- a growth of 33%, which leads to a 1.8% higher revenue in Q4 last year compared to the first quarter in '24, just when eRx started in the German market. If it comes to the quality of the eRx customers, I have to mention that the European and the German Court of Justice last year they confirmed -- reconfirmed that we are allowed to give bonus to our customers and patients. Therefore, we have restarted to do it in July last year with the result of increased retention and higher order frequency of new and of existing customers. And this led to a 3x higher retention rate and order frequency of customers that they are getting now also bonus with eRx compared with the customers, the previous customers that sent to us the paper prescriptions. Also, the average order value is growing quarter-by-quarter. In Q4 last year, the average order value of an eRx order was already at EUR 128. And just a few days ago, we have waited a long time. The doctors and insurance associations communicated that they have agreed now on a chronic care flat rate for doctors, and they will start 1st of July. But it's limited to a few diseases and to specific customer segment groups. In our view, it's a good start. It's a start in the right direction, in the direction of a more efficient and a more customer-centric health care in Germany. And it's a start of a catalyst, which is called repeat script, which we have already integrated in our product as we speak right now. It was important that in the first 5 to 6 quarters, we could -- we invested in creating awareness for the CardLink solution, the solution that customers, patients can read in prescriptions digitally. We have seen that the incremental cost of new customers that we had to find and to acquire via upper funnel channels like TV, out-of-home or radio were ineconomic with regard to the relation of customer acquisition costs to customer lifetime value. Therefore, we have started to shift, and we have done it in Q4. We have shifted and we have reduced the marketing spend into the Rx acquisition. And we have started to prioritize on performance marketing channels to ensure that we remain in the economic zone, which you see on the slide, it's the green zone with our customer acquisition costs in relation to customer lifetime value. But in addition, we have a growth lever, which is the direct bonus and the exemption from co-payment, which in combination, gives us the right mix to continuously grow with our eRx business. Let's come to the non-Rx business now. Here, you see we grew by 7.1% last year. If we talk only about the OTC and BPC business, the growth was 4.8%. But this growth came with the discontinuation with Zur Rose brand, which accounted for 2% to 3%. So effectively, the growth of the OTC and BPC business last year with the remaining brands was between 7% and 8%. It also came with an improved marketing performance, leading to higher customer retention and better customer lifetime value of our OTC and Beauty Personal Care customers. The digital services continue to grow remarkably with 110% on revenue growth with continuous really attractive margin. Both will go on also this year and beyond. On Slide #13, you see that our core brand, DocMorris, accelerated really rapidly last year and grew by more than 20%. So this shows a clear proof point for the successful execution of our brand strategy that we have defined at the beginning of last year. At the same time, our sub-brands, Medpex and Apotal were managed well and kept at a slight growth, contributing positively to the overall platform performance. Let's deep dive a little bit in the 2 parts of the digital services, as a TeleClinic, the telemedicine platform and the Retail Media business. TeleClinic first. The number of treatments in 2025 was 2 million, which is a growth year-over-year of more than 50%. A patient in an average had a doctor on the screen, in the app within 5 minutes. That's amazing. Imagine how long it takes until you have an appointment and you see a local doctor if you have an emergency. TeleClinic is available 24/7 with GPs and specialists. And almost half of all the treatments have been done outside the opening hours of the doctor practices that shows the importance of this telemedicine pillar as part of the health care of the standard health care in Germany, but also in other countries. As said before, so the number of doctors already reached more than 6,500 and is continuously growing. But the most important and the key success factor for TeleClinic is the strong partner network, which is secured by long-term contracts. It's with insurance, digital health providers and doctor associations. To expand this partner network is the most important key strategic priority in TeleClinic also for this year and the years after and also expanding the services they give to these partners, be it insurance companies or doctor associations. In 2025, TeleClinic achieved a revenue of EUR \26 million. But please be aware, this EUR 26 million, that's not comparable with retail revenue. Retail revenue with relatively low margins. Here, we talk about take rate revenue with much higher margins and a complete different value. TeleClinic is the leading platform for statutory and private health care in Germany. And telemedicine is a key pillar also for the new ministry in Germany. It's part of the coalition agreement. And now as they are preparing the digital -- the new digital strategy, so TeleClinic is part of the primary care, but also of the emergency care solution of the future regulation. You see it's still a huge potential for telemedicine in general. The market penetration of telemedicine is still below 0.5%. So we are still at the very beginning and already now EUR 26 million of take rate, mostly take rate revenue. In '26, we expect a mid-double-digit revenue growth and a further increase of the EBITDA margin. Our Retail Media business, we started with it 3 years ago, and we are meanwhile the leading retail media health care platform in Germany. We could prove to the advertisers and their brands, the brands you all know that by using our retail media platform, they can strongly increase engagement and strongly increase conversion and achieving really attractive RAS metrics. Last year, -- with Retail Media, we generated a double-digit euro million revenue with really high margin, even higher than with the telemedicine platform. And also in the upcoming years, '26 and further, we expect continued strong and profitable growth of our Retail Media business. So let's come back to the health companion, where we have launched our AI Health Assistant in last October in the app. Right now, we are rolling it out in all our web applications. So during March and April, you will see more and more visibility of the assistant also in our web. The health assistant is the central intelligence of our platform. Here you see on this slide, Slide #17, 3 specific use cases of our health assistant. In the area of the transactional AI commerce, we integrated conversational intelligence in our search bar in order to give personalized responses and recommendations to every customer and patient using our app. In the center, you see the AI assistant, providing AI-generated advice-oriented insights and becoming more and more a trusted health adviser for our customers and patients. And on the right-hand side, -- the assistant acts as proactive health orchestrator, seamlessly guiding the user, for example, from having a symptom to a doctor, be it the local doctor or a telemedicine doctor from TeleClinic, of course, or guiding them to a skin check service. And there, by the way, within only 2 months that we have this service live, we could detect already more than 200 skin tumors and melanomas with our service and our digital health assistant. So by managing health in one place as we do, the AI assistant helps to maximize the patient and customer lifetime value and accelerates our transition to a digital and AI health platform. So on Slide #18, we are really very proud that today, together with Google, we could announce an incredible strategic partnership. We have chosen Google in order to leverage on their cutting-edge AI capabilities and infrastructure. Google has chosen us in order to combine their most advanced technologies with our deep digital health care and pharmaceutical expertise. Together, -- in this partnership, we are defining and delivering new seamless health products in the future in order to make health care better and more accessible. One point which was really important for us and which we secured is that we keep the full sovereignty of our data while meeting also the highest requirements for data privacy and security. Let me conclude this first part with the strategy and the business update. We have spent the last few years in building this platform engine. Now we have started to drive it. Our strategy is set. Our positioning is unique, and our priority is on relentless execution, just to unlock the full value of our DocMorris platform. And with that, I would like to hand over to Daniel for the financial update and the outlook. Daniel Wüest: Thank you, Walter, and also a very warm welcome from my side to the people here in the room and the ones on the webcast. First of all, I want to provide you with some further insights on the financial performance of '25, but then much more important also to provide you with the outlook and the guidance and specifically how we will achieve EBITDA breakeven in the course of '26 and then subsequently, free cash flow breakeven in the following year, meaning in '27. Let's start with a quick look back on the financial year '25. As Walter already have mentioned it, we could secure comfortable and good top line growth of 11.1 percentage in local currency. And I'm very proud that all the business lines have contributed to this growth. Of course, Rx and Digital Services had the lion's share of the growth with Rx growing more than 33% and digital services above 110%. Reported revenues, which are the revenues without Apotal showed even a better performance and grew with 12.4% in local currency. There, you already see that the growth of Apotal was below the average of the group and also to a small part, also the growth of the segment EU. I'm very proud also that the gross margin of the group increased by 90 basis points to 22.2% despite the reallocation of marketing expenses from marketing into bonus and co-payment, which had an impact that will be directly deducted from sales and therefore, has a negative impact on the gross margin. And therefore, the 90 basis points are even more remarkable. As you know, we only started with the co-payment and the bonus basically from Q4 onwards and until Q3, we did a lot of additional upper funnel marketing spend. Let's quickly deep dive into the 2 segments, where I will focus on segment Germany because that's the lion's share of the contribution. You see segment Germany a growth rate excess of the group of 11.7% also fueled by Rx and digital services. Even here, the gross margin is even developed a little bit better, 10 basis points more with 100 basis points in addition and that also with the reservation that the payment of bonus and the co-bonus will have a negative impact on gross margin, but will then be reversed on the CM3 level contribution margin 3 level because it's just a reallocation of direct marketing spend to bonus and co-payment. Segment EU, a modest growth. I think we would have expected a little bit higher growth, but they managed also to improve the gross margin by 40 basis points. But unfortunately, given the low growth and the indirect cost base that didn't manage then to have a positive effect on the EBITDA level, while that's the reason why that segment EU is still slightly EBITDA negative. With that, let's come to our KPIs, which all look very promising and which kind of pleasant in our view. Let's start with the active customers. For the first time, we have also included the TeleClinic customers because that's a significant number of customers. But let's, first of all, stick to the online pharmacy customers, which showed a substantial increase of 700,000 from 10.3 million to CHF 11 million. You remember Walter said told you that the discontinuation of the Zur Rose brand, and you can assume that a few hundred thousand customers have been lost. We have not adjusted for that. And without that, the number would even look better. But we are very pleased what we see here. Also, TeleClinic increased the customers on the platform by 300,000 from 0.9 million to 1.2 million, and both numbers are on an ongoing basis, increasing. Also in relation to the app downloads, I think there's an active tracking of the app downloads. I think it's an indication, but definitely not the one and only. But also here, you see a decent increase of 200,000 app downloads compared to '24, and we reached 2.1 million app downloads in '25. Now let's come to the average order values or the basket sizes. First of all, on Rx, you see an increase of EUR 4, which is by itself already a remarkable increase. But you have also seen a few slides before that in Q4, the average order size was EUR 128. And you see really that in the first 3 quarters, the average basket size was much lower compared to Q4, where we really started our efficient and dedicated marketing, and that also tells you something about the quality of the newly acquired customers. One remark, please note that our basket size is calculated excluding VAT -- just for reasons, if you compare other baskets, you always have to make sure that if it's with or without VAT, given that the VAT in Germany is 19% that makes pretty some difference. If you gross it up our basket, then it would be much higher than the [ EUR 114 ]. On OTC, Walter mentioned it, we focused also on economic and customer lifetime value and the economy of the customers. Therefore, slight decline from 42% to 41%, but basically almost stable and nothing to worry about it. The order frequency also here, good development from 3.9 to 4.0x. OTC remained flat with 2.0 orders per year. The repeat order rate, which was already extremely or very high and decently high at 76%, further increased to 77%, which is also a very good value. And just all in all, shows the quality and the quality of our existing, but also of our new clients, which we have acquired during the last year. Now let's quickly talk about a few highlights or perceived lowlights based on the first reactions. I do not want to go you through line by line through the whole P&L. I think the top line and gross margin, we have discussed. Let's focus on the different cost pillars. Personnel expenses, there, I'm very pleased we could lower the respective ratio by 50 basis points. That's the first -- showing the first positive impact on our managing the indirect costs, which are basically to 100% personnel costs, but also shows the improved efficiency where we really go through the processes and kind of automatize and also using KI to better allocate resources, and that has already a very nice impact in '25 on the personnel cost ratio, and there will be some much further leverage in the coming years. Marketing expenses, as mentioned, rose by over CHF 11 million. And there, we are talking only direct marketing expenses. We have said we shifted basically from direct marketing, not completely, but partially to indirect marketing, which you see as a decline or lower revenues. And therefore, it's not only the CHF 11 million, but you have to add a small single-digit million to really see the full additional marketing impact, which has been done in '25. Distribution expenses, there, the ratio unfortunately went into the wrong direction. On an absolute level, that shows the increase of the -- the orders, which come with higher distribution costs. But on top of that, we have seen a substantial increase of logistic costs, transport costs, given kind of the high demand for logistic services, but we think that, that should be come to an end. And otherwise, if it will be ongoing, and we have already started with that, that we have to pass it to the clients with different models that either they pay for earlier delivery or other models just to kind of compensate for any potential further distribution and logistic cost increases. I think reported EBITDA was CHF 1.6 million lower than the adjusted EBITDA, where the adjustments come from. We have a net restructuring cost with the closure of -- that's net minus CHF 1 million because we could also sell the property, and therefore, it's only net minus CHF 1 million. We also adjusted CHF 2 million positive EBITDA contribution through the sale of the Swiss properties. And then we made additional provisions for legal cases in the magnitude of CHF 2 million. I think in our business, that's business as usual and nothing to worry because you notice that every second week there, someone is kind of putting a claim against the online pharmacies. And therefore, we have kind of just for the corporate practice some legal provisions in the amount of CHF 2 million. On the net financial result, that also seems to be kind of going completely into the wrong direction with CHF 12 million additional net financial result. But just to call you down, it's the CHF 12 million are all noncash. It's CHF 5 million FX impact on our intercompany loans. You know we fund those in Swiss francs and give the intercompany loans in euro to our companies. And at the end of the year, we have to kind of compare it then with the actual euro value. And as you all know, the euro substantially devaluated against the Swiss franc. There, CHF 5 million from that side. And last year, we had a positive effect of CHF 4 million. If you add it up, then you are at CHF 9 million. And the other CHF 3 million, which would then add up to the CHF 12 million, and that has a cash effect, but it will level out. That was the early repayment and repurchase of the '26 convertible bond because, as you remember, the offer was 103.5%, and we had to take that as a financial expenses. But on the other hand, we will save more than the CHF 3.5 million in this year because we do not have to pay the coupon of 6.875% of the '26 convertible bond anymore. So therefore, if you deduct the CHF 12 million, basically exactly the same net financial result. And just for your information, going forward, we have now redeemed the CHF 26 million fully 250 million outstanding, 3% coupon, 7.5% and then you have to add CHF 4 million to CHF 5 million of IFRS 16 financial expenses, and that brings you to roughly CHF 12 million of real cash out interest financial expenses for the coming future. Also on tax, you have seen we have not paid, but recorded CHF 12 million tax -- negative tax burden. Also there, no cash at all. There's 0 cash has gone out. It must be also somehow logical because we have recorded still a loss. The reason for that is that the deferred tax assets where we have tax loss carryforwards of several hundred million. And given a little bit lower growth in Rx and in some of our subsidiaries, that's just a manual thing, and we had to devalue the deferred tax asset, the positive ones, and that was this booking of this CHF 12 million, no cash effect at all. And given that it's based on a 5-year plan, the next year, we most likely have to do it the other way around, and then you will see there a positive contribution, but also with no tax effect. So far to the P&L, the balance sheet, I keep it very short. I think as a CFO, I'm very relaxed with this balance sheet. It has been substantially strengthened in last year with the rights issue in May, but then also with the partial refinancing of the '26 convertible bond so that we now have a very strong liquidity base of CHF 160 million. The net debt has been reduced to CHF 138 million and the equity ratio, which was strong already before, is now even stronger and amounts to 50%. As you may have read, we had redeemed the remaining CHF 22 million of the '26 convertible bond by beginning of March. And that's what I said as from now on, we only have the CHF 50 million and the CHF 200 million convertible bond outstanding, which are the only financial and interest-bearing debt besides the CHF 4 million to CHF 5 million lease payments, which we have also to pay on an annual basis. Let's have a quick look on the indirect cost and the net working capital. Indirect cost, everything goes into the right direction. From my view, not -- the arrow is not yet steep enough, but it will definitely steepen 7.2%. That's nothing you can be or I as a CFO can be proud of. But as I said in the past, you can be assured that this ratio will become significantly below 5% in our midterm plan, and you will see on an annual basis, further improvement on that area. Net working capital, also there, maybe -- that's because the liquidity position was so comfortable or is so comfortable, maybe not that focus by the end of last year. We had some overstocking of CHF 11 million, but that was based on a very strong Q4, which already started by the end of Q3, and we had really to overstock and the flu season also was kind of skewed towards the end of the year. We have done it a little bit too much. I think definitely CHF 5 million could have been less stocking. And then what's kind of -- I do not like very much is the CHF 9 million accounts receivable there, let's call it, sloppiness and I take it on my part, but that is also a nice asset to reverse in this year and the coming years. So far, everything on the cost, net capital and indirect cost side on track. And now let's go into details how we will achieve EBITDA breakeven in '26 and then subsequently free cash flow breakeven in '27. And we heard some complaints that we have now introduced CM3 contribution margin 3. I would say, okay, maybe the analysts have not yet in the spreadsheet, but I think it's the highest transparency you can really get from our end and what is CM3? CM3 is the last line of operating profit. You only have to deduct indirect costs and then you are at EBITDA. And I think that's definitely kind of, in our view, how we steer the company and how we -- and that's really the basis and the fundamental of our target and our mission to become EBITDA breakeven, and that's the reason why we want to share that with you. As you can see in '25, and you see the value of digital services, basically 3/4 or even more than 3/4 of CM3 contribution came from digital services, while the online pharmacy, that's Rx and OTC, BPC, including EU are keeping up substantially in the second half. That's the green part of the bar. For '25, we are very open and nice and even put the number on it, slightly grounded, but nevertheless, a very good indication. And then you see where -- why we are so confident that we will reach EBITDA breakeven. There will be a substantial contribution from digital services. As you know, they grow top line. And as Walter said, it's basically take rate equals gross margin, more or less the slight reduction equals EBITDA. But also the online pharmacy is substantially keeping up in '26. You see that the green bar, and they are almost on an equal level in absolute terms with digital services with the CM3 contribution, okay, they are on the top line much bigger, and that should not be a surprise. But having said this, in '26, even Rx, and that's really exceptional, will be CM3 positive. That's due to our very focused and increased marketing efficiency, which has been substantially double-digit negative still in '25. And you see the same pattern goes on for the first half in '27 and the first half '22. We will increase the CM3 margin by more than 300 percentage by 3 percentage points and more than double the CM3 contribution in absolute terms in 2026. And you see there will be -- there's not the end that will be ongoing also into '27. I think that's really important because if you now have CM3, you deduct the indirect cost and then your EBITDA level. And how that looks, we go even further into the detail on the next slide. That's the -- that's really kind of to the heart of what the CFO usually not any longer in Excel, but in sheets keeps and does not share with anyone. But here, you see the phasing of our EBITDA ramp-up. The basis is Q4 '25. In Q4 '25, we had still a negative EBITDA, but it was in the area of minus CHF 7 million, which is a huge positive development due to the rights issue, we had to report Q1 '25 EBITDA, which was minus CHF 16 million. Q4, we were down at minus CHF 7 million. And Q4 is really the run rate for our journey -- EBITDA journey in '26 with Q1 being somewhere in the area of Q4 because we see the same trends, the same patterns, the same dynamics, improvement in Q2, which is usually the first 2 quarters are not the best ones. It has some seasonality in our business, but not too much because there is additional measures included. Then Q3, we are, at this point in time, confident that we will reach EBITDA breakeven and Q4 will then be EBITDA positive. And this altogether, you will see first half the lion's share of the negative EBITDA contribution and the second half of the year, there we will hopefully see kind of a positive EBITDA contribution. And that leads us -- that's a little bit that will come now later to our guidance, but you see that it's minus CHF 10 million to minus CHF 25 million is our guidance for the EBITDA. As I said, -- it's CM3, that's the bridge, the minus CHF 48.2 million. Then the CM3 contribution, I said more than double. That's -- we haven't put the numbers there, but you also have something to calculate. And then the indirect costs where we are really working hard and try to bring them down, but that's according to budget, still some negative contribution, and that will lead us to the EBITDA guidance, which you see on the screen of minus CHF 10 million to minus CHF 25 million. I think CM3 is a very important pattern to get there, but also in combination with operational and marketing efficiency. And then we will also very tight CapEx management and also on the indirect costs. You see we have many layers where we can play and really optimize to get -- to achieve our target, first of all, in '26 to become EBITDA breakeven in the course of '26. But then with the same patents and instruments, we will become free cash flow positive also in the course of '27. That brings me now to the guidance for First of all, for '26, the short-term guidance, we have pretty broad guidance on the top line, mid-single digit to low teens. Reason for that is that we achieve EBITDA breakeven also with relatively modest growth, which is more the left side of the mid-single digit. But we also see patterns that we could even become EBITDA breakeven with accelerated growth. And that's the reason why we just want to keep the flexibility to play EBITDA versus growth, especially on the marketing side, and that's one explanation for the rather broad guidance. And as you know, we try to definitely come out at the right end of the guidance. But given, let's say, the different patterns, we will then have to narrow it during -- in the course of the financial year '26. As a soft guidance, how does that translate into kind of the business segments? Rx will be around 20%, which is kind of basically in line what Walter showed before. We cut the 20% noneconomic customers that comes with kind of a little bit lower but much more profitable growth on Rx. OTC, we stick to the mid-single digit as we have been before and as we have demonstrated that, that's possible. And digital service, there we will see mid-double digit growth as digital service combined and with a substantial increase of the EBITDA margin of the already very high EBITDA margin, but there will be further appreciation of the margin. I talked about EBITDA, minus CHF 10 million to minus CHF 25 million. That's kind of -- that also needs to be said an improvement of 300 basis points or 3 percentage points of the EBITDA margin. That's coming from the wrong direction, but I think it's still substantial, such kind of relative increase. And then CapEx, roughly CHF 30 million, maybe rather at the high end and we are positive that could be maybe slightly lower as we have seen in '25 with CHF 27 million. That will lead us to our ultimate goals, EBITDA breakeven and free cash flow breakeven in '26 and '27. And with this 2 years, taking into consideration that we have to really drive profitability, maybe a little bit against growth. The midterm guidance, we are very pleased that we basically can confirm the midterm guidance, which we put out in -- ahead of the rights issue. Of course, it's not 20% CAGR anymore. It's 15% CAGR anymore. But I think the most -- the best or the most impressive thing in my view is that we can keep the 8%. We can even stay more behind it because given that the relative growth of Rx goes down, and that makes the relative weight of digital service even bigger at the back end. And therefore, the business mix is really in favor of us with kind of having OTC, which is very important also for customer acquisition for Rx, but also for our TeleClinic and Retail Media business. Rx, which is decently growing and then digital services with high EBITDA contribution and high growth, which will have a higher relative share at the back end of our 5-year business plan, meaning that this is true for 2030, basically covering 5 years. CapEx has also been reduced by CHF 5 million. I think we are comfortable with CHF 30 million average CapEx rate. And I think that's basically the guidance where we are -- what we are aiming for and where we are kind of being measured to. And before I hand over to Walter because he's already jumping up, just 2 subsequent events, which you have seen on the convertible bond, I've already talked about. The closure of Ludwigshafen, which we announced also today, just some -- I cannot say, highlights, but some financials to that. We will have onetime restructuring costs between EUR 3 million to EUR 4 million. If you take the midpoint, then you should be at the right spot. But these are we are talking euros. Out of this [ EUR 3 million ] to EUR 4 million, EUR 2 million have an impact on EBITDA because these are severance payments and the remaining part is below EBITDA. That's kind of onerous contracts because we have lease agreements which we have to -- due to IFRS immediately to write off, but that will be an impairment between EBITDA and EBIT. We will adjust for that, roughly EUR 2 million. But I think the very positive effect is that we will have at least from '27 onwards, EUR 2 million -- in excess of EUR 2 million annual recurring savings because we are moving the 3.5 million parcels from Ludwigshafen to Heerlen, where we have ample of capacity. There will be better capacity utilization in Heerlen. The handling and packaging is 2x more efficient than in Ludwigshafen because we are in Helen fully automated. And therefore, I think the EUR 2 million is a baseline annual savings, but there is definitely potential for more to come. And then last but not least, current trading, I said, we have seen the positive trend from Q4 ongoing in Q3. Everything is according to plan, meaning budget. And also, I think that gives us a lot of comfort to kind of handle and managing this challenging but very exciting times ahead of us until we are free cash flow breakeven. Thank you very much for your attention, and I'm happy to hand over to also again. Walter Hess: Yes. Thank you, Daniel. So just before we close and open the Q&A session, -- in the last 2 years, we have not only built the platform engine, as shown before, we have also built a high-performing leadership team, as you can see here on the slide, a leadership team that bridges the gap between traditional retail excellence and disruptive health tech and AI innovation. And I can assure you also in the name of the whole team that we are fully committed to execute the defined goals and to transform our platform into tangible shareholder value. It's not only at the level of the management, it's also a change which is mirrored at the Board of Directors. And therefore, we have informed that we nominate 3 new members of the Board that we will present to the AGM. It's Thomas Bucher, a well-known, seasoned CFO with a lot of experience in listed and private companies. It's Nicole Formica-Schiller. She's an expert in AI and digital health transformation, but also regulation on a European and the German level. And she has also a wide network in Germany, in the health care sector and a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape in Germany. And it's Thomas Reutter, an experienced corporate and capital markets lawyer. So these board nominations ensure that management and Board is perfectly synchronized with the company's vision and AI-first platform strategy and also shall provide the necessary stability to the company. And with that, we are at the end of the presentation. We had to tell you a lot to give you a lot of information. But now let's immediately move to the Q&A session. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Walter Hess: Okay. We will share the mic. Laura Pfeifer-Rossi: Here is Laura Pfeifer, Octavian. I have a question on your sales outlook for this year. So what is the primary swing factor within your guidance range? Is it mainly driven by uncertainty around Rx growth? Or is it rather related to OTC performance? And maybe specifically on OTC, could you elaborate on what you are currently observing in terms of competitive dynamics? Walter Hess: To the first and second part. Daniel Wüest: No, I think, Laura, the swing factor is definitely Rx, which -- and as I said, we have kind of -- we play operating profit against growth. And given that the co-payment and the bonus, which have been developing not in the entire group because we only did kind of a pilot with some selected Rx customers developed very well in Q4, and we rolled out kind of this concept to the whole DocMorris just recently. That really is kind of the swing factor and also the reason for the wide range of the guidance. I think you can assume that OTC, BPC, that's the mid-single digit, meaning something between 3% and 7%, not much deviation. Also, the absolute volume is high. The digital services, double-digit -- mid-double-digit growth and -- but on a relatively low revenue -- absolute revenue level and the swing factor is really Rx, whether that's kind of let's say, 10% or 40%. But that's not that you take that as just to show you what kind of the volatility could be on Rx. Walter Hess: Yes. And you mentioned the competitive landscape and the price pressure. I guess you meant there, in the course of last year, we have adapted our pricing strategy, improved our strategy. You have seen the improvement in the gross margin. That's a result of it. But in general, we don't see now a change on prices or price levels in the market. In our market, pricing, the pressure is always on, but not now a big change with new market entrants coming in. Urs Kunz: Urs Kunz Research Partners. Regarding midterm, is that around 2030. And then on your midterm growth target of 15%, I still find that a little bit high, the OTC part is growing at mid-single digit, I guess, in your outlook in midterm. And I guess on the digital service side, I don't know if you can have this mid-double-digit range also percentage range all the way in the midterm future. So that -- if I then go back to the Rx that should be higher than 20% Rx growth to reach this 15%. Am I right about that? Daniel Wüest: Yes, you are perfectly right. And I think what you need to really consider given EBITDA breakeven and free cash flow, as said that we have to limit the growth and really play on our marketing efficiency. And that's also why we stated in the guidance that the fine print in the [indiscernible] that it's back-end loaded in '26 and '27, you will definitely see lower Rx growth than what will then come again from '28 to '30 onwards. And if you said it's substantially about 20%, and I will -- I can sign into that. But it will be 20% in the first 2 years, but then we will substantially be keeping up again. Urs Kunz: And where do you take how this belief that it's higher than 20%. It's just that you put in more marketing again then or you see the market growing faster after 27% in online? Daniel Wüest: Yes. I think it's really kind of the -- that we then have other or once we are free cash flow positive, we can then really also not that we fall back in the old patterns that you won't see then kind of us spending all of a sudden CHF 30 million in TV again. But I think with the bonus and the co-payment that's a very strong instrument. But as said, at some point in time that you are in balance with growth and profitability, we have, for the time being, still certain limitations and there, you can definitely kind of play that even more aggressive. Walter Hess: And sorry, what we also will see is a platform dynamic kicking in. So you have seen the partnership also with Google. So where we have joint development teams also with them, developing new services, adding services to the platform. And this will drive traffic, will drive engagement, will drive loyalty. So we will see the effects there definitely within even 1 to 2 years already. Urs Kunz: Midterm is 2030 or? Daniel Wüest: 2030. Sibylle Bischofberger Frick: Sibylle Bischofberger, Bank Vontobel have 2 market questions. First, I remember the market share of online pharmacies was about 5, 6 years ago, about 1.3% in Germany. How has it developed? How much is the market share now? And how much do you want -- how much growth do you expect in the next couple of years? And the other interesting market, telemedicine, you mentioned 0.5% market share. Where do you expect it to be in the next couple of years? Walter Hess: So on the Rx, yes, it was 1.3 5, 6 years ago. It went down before eRx started to 0.75%. And since eRx was available now also for online pharmacies, it went up to roughly 1.7%. And where will it go? That's the 1 million question. So we have, for our assumptions, taken a really conservative view in our midterm plans of 5% to 6% in 5 years. But frankly speaking, we think it will be more. It will ramp faster. But in our plans, we did not go now more aggressive than 5% to 6%. And on telemedicine, so yes, the share as shown, the penetration is lower than 0.5%. TeleClinic is roughly at 0.3% so has about 60%. And where will it go? So it depends on how fast the digital strategy of the ministry will be defined and will go live and how prominent telemedicine will be in this different kind of future care pillars. And it's too early to say where it goes. But anyway from 0.5, it will definitely go northwards, definitely. And remember, it's -- we have 2 kind of businesses. We have a retail business, but we also have a digital service business with completely different metrics, valuation, et cetera. And there is a strong growth really already going on and will continue. Daniel Wüest: And I think if you are interested, I recommend you to read Page 175 of our financial report where all the details in relation to the goodwill impairment is, which we honor past. But there you have kind of the assumption, the current market share of telemedicine and Rx and what our underlying assumptions are. It's in Rx 1.7% and in 2030, 5%, 1.7% to 5%. And that's the overall market share. I think then for the whole market. And telemedicine, it's even more astonishing, 0.5%. And in 5 years' time, the penetration should be 1.6% -- that's what we base our goodwill impairment test, and you could also assume that, that's basically then somehow reflected in our business plan. Walter Hess: So no more questions here in the room in Zurich. So let's move to the webcast and adding questions from there. Operator: We have one question from Gian Marco Werro from ZKB. Walter Hess: Yes. Hi, Gian Marco. Please go ahead. Gian Werro: Hello. Thank you. I hope there's no echo on your side. So first question is the growth outlook for TeleClinics. You mentioned mid-double-digit revenue growth. Why not 80% or 90% again this year because the penetration is still so low? Do you not do more marketing also there? Because in my view, it's really so such a comfortable way to get a doctor appointment in Germany, and there must be a huge demand from the doctor and from the patient side. So from a top line perspective. And then the profitability of the overall services business, is that still fair to assume that you are meaningfully above the 55% EBITDA margin for this business? And you mentioned you want to increase the margin for TeleClinic, but can you give us a bit more detail about your margin improvement target also for the whole services business, that would be interesting. And then just a third question, if I may, if I have the opportunity, the logistic cost is just something -- I mean, you already elaborated on it. But don't you see risk of patients ordering then less or if they have to pay really then for even more for the delivery services, especially considering your growth expectations in Rx and OTC. Walter Hess: To the first question, the growth rate. So you can consider that the growth in absolute values remains at more or less the same level. And then you have to take in consideration that you always have to integrate new network partners, larger ones. And once you integrated them, the growth curve starts to slow down and then you integrate new ones. At the moment, the regulator is justifying the new digital strategy. And for example, the doctor associations -- we talked to several of them. They are ready, but they just want to wait until they know now what the regulator regulates -- and so this is the dynamic of the growth that we have predicted for this year. If it comes to the margin, you mentioned 55%. So some of the services are even higher. Some of the services are below this 55%. And I think -- yes. Daniel Wüest: I think on the margin, not sure where this 55% are coming from. I think as of currently, TeleClinic has margins in the low 30s that will substantially increase over time over the next 5 years to the figure you -- you mentioned, I would say that's kind of 45%, 50%, that's kind of a reasonable run rate. And on the other hand, Retail Media, that's also very highly profitable. That one is already on higher EBITDA margins, but will also kind of in a balanced model will be somewhere around 50% EBITDA margin. And I think that's the mix. You will see this year an overproportional increase of EBITDA contribution given that we do not have a triple-digit growth at TeleClinic. And I think it's always kind of 1 year, a little bit less growth, but then substantial improvement of profitability. The next year, strong growth, maybe a little less profitability than 1 year of consolidating everything, increasing margin. And I think that's -- but the overall pattern and growth pattern is very strong, but it's not a linear line. It's kind of some years with a little bit hold back on the top line, but push the bottom line and therefore, even faster. Walter Hess: And your third question about logistics, do you refer to what to the closing of Ludwigshafen or... Daniel Wüest: No, to the logistic costs. And I think there, Gian-Marco, it's not that we say, I think we do it a little bit more professional, not saying that you have now to pay EUR 2 more. I think you have definitely other measures. First of all, kind of not reducing, let's say, the order that you can say, okay, if you order until 5, you get it next day, you can even lower your logistic cost if you say, okay, if you order until 4, then you get it next day because that has already another price tag on the -- with the carrier. And you could also play then with the basket size, which is kind of then free of shipping just to balance this logistic cost. And we see it in the whole market. You see, for example, DM free of delivery charge is EUR 60, our friendly competitor and -- and thus, we are much lower. But I think you have many things to play and to optimize your logistic costs. And it's not a problem of DocMorris, it's kind of the whole online and not even Rx and OTC online, but the online industry, and we will just follow the market and to not getting -- being hit by higher logistic costs. Operator: And we have one more question from Jan Koch from Deutsche Bank. Jan Koch: Two questions. The first one is on your 2026 guidance, which essentially only implies less than 4% sequential growth per quarter. Why is this the case? And given that your group guidance is quite wide this year, is there a scenario where you accelerate Rx growth in 2026? And then secondly, you mentioned a strong liquidity position of CHF 160 million. But if I take the CHF 160 million at the end of 2025 and consider that you paid back the CHF 20 million convertible and consider a negative free cash flow in probably in the mid- to high double digits in 2026, you will start 2027 with probably less than CHF 100 million. Free cash flow is still expected to be negative next year, and you might have to refinance your 2028 convertible next year as well. So how do you plan to achieve this? Are you open to sell a minority share in TeleClinic? Walter Hess: Yes. Let me take the first question and then Daniel, the second one. So on the sequential growth, as we have shown before, the guidance, we have given us some space so that we can maneuver between growth and marketing spendings. And this is also what we see in the first quarter that it goes in a really good direction already. And -- if it continues like this, so we can go more to the upper end, but we want to be flexible in reacting. And for us, the priority this year is completely on becoming breakeven in the course of the second half year, possibly on the second half year in total. And therefore, we need this flexibility and we take for us this flexibility. And on the second question. Daniel Wüest: Yes. I think just to start top down, you're right with the CHF 160 million, you have to deduct the CHF 20 million or CHF 22 million, but let's deduct the CHF 20 million, that makes it easier for calculation. That's CHF 140 million. And you are also right that you can assume for this year and next year, negative free cash flows, but they will be substantially even already this year lower than last year and in '27 that the indication that in the course, of course, we aim for as low as possible negative free cash flow, but that should be not kind of the 2 figures added up should still leave us with a very comfortable remaining cushion of liquidity until we will become then for the full year free cash flow positive in '28. In relation to the refinancing of the '28 maturity, I think once we have demonstrated and shown that we are on the right path, -- that's then something which we will tackle by then. It's clear that we do not fully redeem the CHF 200 million, and it's also clear that it does not make sense from just -- at least that's what I learned at university, okay, acknowledging that was some time ago, but that the fully debt financed balance sheet is definitely not an efficient balance sheet. And I think let's take it one step after the other, and we have ideas. And you referred to kind of -- if I'm right, selling a minority stake of TeleClinic. And I think, of course, that it's a very valuable asset, which we have in our hand, but it's extremely valuable within our platform and therefore, definitely not any or the first priority to monetize TeleClinic at this point in time. Jan Koch: Understood. And one follow-up, if I may. Are you going to report EBITDA in Q3 and Q4 this year again so that we can track your progress? Daniel Wüest: Let's see. I think could well be. I think that -- and I think it would be important that at least we give you a very good indication where we are heading to. And I think this nice picture, which we draw in our presentation, you can basically on a quarter-by-quarter basis, track us and see whether the 2 guys in front of you have not only overpromise, but also deliver on that. But we have to see, but most likely, yes. Walter Hess: Okay. Then we come. Daniel Wüest: I just want to say that's the benefit of lunchtime. Walter Hess: Last question. Unknown Analyst: Not going to look. No. On the AI companion digital assistant. As I understand, you're not getting any money for it. Marketing and any plan that on later stage you get some money out, because you mentioned these 100 people they got saved from cancer. At the end, I think somebody is happy to pay something.. Walter Hess: Did anybody say we do not get any money out of it? I cannot remember. No, it's what we see and we measure very carefully, of course. We see an impact -- a positive impact on traffic already. We see a positive impact on engagement already. We see the conversion rates going up as soon as we can take someone by the hand and guide through the platform. And we see a significant increase of conversion rate. And this brings us already additional money. And as you have seen on the platform, the marketplace, this marketplace is a marketplace also for health services. And on a marketplace, you want to earn money. And we are filling this marketplace also with health services, and we will get additional margins, revenues and margins from there as well. Okay. So with that, we come to the end. Thanks a lot. It was a little bit long. Sorry for that, but we had a lot of information for you. Thank you for joining, and we wish you all a pleasant and happy day. Bye-bye. Thank you.