Ebiquity plc (EBQ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Welcome to the Ebiquity plc Investor presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to the management team. Ruben, good morning.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Charlie. Thank you to everyone who's joining us live today and those who are watching on demand afterwards. My name is Ruben Schreurs. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Ebiquity, and I'm presenting our H1 2026 results alongside our Chief Financial Officer, Kayte Herrity. I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you to our clients for the trust that they place in us. Thank you to the Ebiquity team around the world for the hard work and discipline that sits behind these results. And thank you to our shareholders and analysts for your continued engagement with our journey. These are results that reflect a business executing against a clear plan. We said we will restructure, refocus and rebuild commercial momentum, and that is what we have done. The numbers today are evidence of that progress. Let me briefly introduce who you will be hearing from today. As I said, my name is Ruben, Chief Executive Officer. I took over as Group CEO 22 months ago in November of 2024, and I am the largest individual shareholder in the company. My interests are fully aligned with those of the rest of our shareholders. Kayte Herrity is our Chief Financial Officer. She joined in 2024 -- 2025, apologies, and has been central to the financial discipline and cost management that underpins the progress that you will see today. We will take you through the results in 2 parts. I will cover the strategic highlights and the growth road map. Kayte will take you through the financials in detail. We will then open the floor for questions. Let me give you the headline picture. The first half of the year of 2026, revenue was GBP 36.1 million, down 5% year-on-year, but in line with our plan. The decline reflects primarily client losses that we inherited and have been working through. It does not reflect the direction of travel that we are now on. What matters more at this stage of our plan is profit delivery. Adjusted profit before tax increased materially to GBP 1.8 million and adjusted operating profit was GBP 2.3 million. The statutory position improved materially year-on-year as well. These are the outcomes of deliberate cost discipline and a sharper, more focused operating model. We delivered approximately GBP 1.5 million in cost savings in the period, and those savings are structural, not one-off. They are embedded in how we now grow the business. Client satisfaction reached an NPS, a Net Promoter Score, of plus 72, which puts us firmly in the top quartile of our category against a category average of around plus 48. That number matters because satisfied clients stay, grow and refer. In the Americas, our win rate improved by 21 percentage points and new business conversion improved by 23 percentage points. That is a meaningful commercial shift in our most important recovery market. Plan is in motion. We are on track, and we are confident in delivering and even beating our full year 2026 profit expectations. Restructuring was necessary. When I joined, Ebiquity had a fragmented service structure, an inconsistent client experience and a commercial model that was not set up to win. We have addressed all that. We have moved to a unified One Ebiquity model built around 3 clear service pillars: Transform, Govern and Grow. We have sharpened our sales focus and rebuilt our commercial disciplines from the ground up. The impact of that sales focus is now building. We are winning new business at a higher rate. We are converting pipeline more efficiently, and we are doing it with better cost controls than at any point in the recent years. Not all of the client losses we inherited going into 2026 are fully offset in the first half. We knew that would be the case. The revenue line reflects that reality, but our visible revenue is growing, the win rates are improving and the margin trajectory is moving in the right direction. Our profit in July and August, for example, was up year-on-year. We are confident in the build back and in our ability to deliver on or beat full year profit expectations. And Kayte will now take you through the financials in detail.

Thank you, Ruben. So at our full year results in April, we said the year had begun encouragingly, and that GBP 10 million and more in new contract wins were providing us with positive momentum going into 2026. And at our Capital Markets Day in June, we set out a directional ambition of 2% to 5% annual revenue growth. Looking at this half, we can see the impacts of legacy 2025 client losses still working through the revenue line and new business wins building but not yet fully visible. The cost discipline is clear, however, particularly with regards to our staff costs. The significant restructuring that we undertook in December last year is complete and has left the business leaner and better focused. And although revenue is down compared to 2025, we have largely mitigated this with regards to the impact on adjusted operating profit. The cost actions we took last year are working and our focus on cash continues, with our net debt marginally lower than at the same time last year. Turning to the P&L. H1 revenue was GBP 36.1 million compared to GBP 37.9 million last year, a reduction of 5% or GBP 1.8 million with net revenue margin after profit cost -- project costs broadly flat at 91%. Staff costs were GBP 24.3 million, down from GBP 25 million in H1 '25, a reduction of GBP 0.7 million flowing both from the December 2025 restructuring and a disciplined approach to H1. Other operating expenses were reduced from GBP 7 million to GBP 6.2 million, driven by lower property, audit and tax costs plus a lower foreign exchange impact. Adjusted operating profit was GBP 2.3 million, down from GBP 2.6 million with adjusted operating margin at 6.5% compared to 6.8% last year. In total, the adjusted cost base reduced by about GBP 1.5 million, with the revenue shortfall largely mitigated by the cost actions we took in the second half of last year and by the robust cost discipline that we maintained throughout this year. On a statutory basis, operating profit was GBP 1 million against a loss of GBP 6.8 million in H1 '25, with the prior year figure driven by the GBP 8.3 million goodwill impairment charge. No goodwill impairment has been incurred in H1 this year. Net finance costs improved from GBP 2.2 million to GBP 0.6 million. The prior year figure included a GBP 1.2 million noncash foreign exchange loss on intercompany loans compared to a GBP 0.3 million gain in H1 this year. And in H1, we have also benefited from both from our lower average debt balance and from lower interest rates. Our adjusted tax charge of GBP 1 million was broadly flat year-on-year, and our statutory charge of GBP 0.8 million was slightly down. We incurred a statutory loss after tax of GBP 0.4 million against a loss of GBP 9.9 million in H1 '25. Adjusted diluted EPS turned positive at 0.45p compared to a loss per share of 0.4p last year. The next slide shows how our revenue chunks down by geography and service line. So the right-hand donut shows the geographical analysis of our revenue. U.K. and Ireland was the largest region at 43% or GBP 15.6 million. Continental Europe contributed 29% at GBP 10.5 million. The Americas, 17% at GBP 6.1 million, and APAC 11% at GBP 3.8 million. The left donut shows the segmentation of our service mix and Transform, Govern, Grow is the way that we now look at the product offerings that we bring to our clients. Transform maps to our media management service line, where we work strategically with clients to help them to select, appoint and manage their agency relationships and internal operating models. Govern maps to Media Performance and Contract Compliance, and gives clients control and visibility over their advertising investments by benchmarking, tracking and auditing, checking that their money is working well and that they're getting value for their investments. Grow maps to our marketing effectiveness service line. It helps our clients to understand whether their marketing is driving business growth, which channels and campaigns are working and which are not, and how to allocate their budgets to maximize returns. So by service line, Govern remained dominant at 77% of revenue or GBP 27.9 million, of which Media Performance was GBP 24.2 million and Contract Compliance, GBP 3.8 million. Grow contributed 12% at GBP 4.4 million, and Transform, 10%, at GBP 3.7 million. If we look at the performance of each geography, U.K. and Ireland revenue was GBP 15.6 million against GBP 16.6 million last year, 6% lower. This reduction was driven by legacy losses in 2025 that Ruben mentioned earlier, with the automotive and pharma sectors impacting the Govern offering, although these impacts are beginning to be replaced with new client logos, particularly in the CPG and travel and hospitality sectors. Contract Compliance in the U.K. is showing steady growth of 4% due to securing clients in the CPG, technology and telecom sectors. It was a mixed picture in Continental Europe, which was broadly flat at GBP 10.5 million, with strong performances in Italy and Spain, offset by softer trading in the Nordics, in France and in Germany. The Americas remained a more challenging region, with revenue of GBP 6.1 million against GBP 6.9 million last year. This reflects, again, the impact of legacy client losses from 2025 and reduced spend across automotive, retail and technology and telecom within the Govern offering in contrast to the strong growth we are seeing within the Transform and Grow service lines. As we discussed at the Capital Markets Day, the Americas is the region with significant potential, with new leadership now firmly in place and a number of new contracts signed. But in H1, these are not yet at a scale that offsets the prior year losses. Continued focus on Americas recovery in H2 '26 is a high priority for us, and we're increasingly seeing good momentum there. APAC revenue was up 3% to GBP 3.8 million, with a strong Australian performance, up 51% and Singapore up 12%, partly offset by lower Transform and Govern revenues in China, which were driven by competitive pricing pressures. If we look at our revenue by service line, Transform generated revenue of GBP 3.7 million against GBP 3.9 million last year, with strong growth in APAC and the Americas, driven by new logo wins, offset by lower one-off client pitch work in Continental Europe. As our largest service line, Govern revenue was at GBP 27.9 million, a reduction of 5.4% against GBP 29.6 million last year. The majority of this reduction was in Media Performance, with revenues of GBP 24.2 million against GBP 25.6 million last year, with the Americas accounting for most of the reduction. Contract Compliance was GBP 3.8 million against GBP 4 million, ticking down due to non-annual audit cycle clients in Germany, the U.S. and China, but partially offset by scope expansions with existing clients and new logo wins in Australia and the U.K. and Ireland. The Grow service line at GBP 4.4 million was in line with last year. However, significant new wins towards the end of '25 and into 2026, particularly in the Americas, are providing good momentum going forward. So the pressures on the business are real, but we are renewing and winning new business against our pipeline at good rates. Moving on to the balance sheet. Net assets of GBP 24 million remained broadly stable since 31 December with an increase in debt, offset by a higher net working capital position. The higher net working capital balance was driven by a seasonal pattern of the customer cycle with higher accrued income, which typically builds during H1 when more projects are initiated and in progress, and which unwinds as these projects are finalized and billed in H2, and lower deferred revenue, which typically builds up again towards the end of the year. Free cash flow was an outflow of GBP 1.8 million in H1 2026 compared to an inflow of GBP 0.7 million in H1 last year, with adjusted EBITDA at GBP 3.9 million against GBP 4.3 million last year. Working capital was an outflow of GBP 2.2 million versus an inflow of GBP 0.3 million in H1 '25 and the primary driver of the year-on-year free cash flow movement. The outflow is driven by the impact of the seasonal customer cycle I just described, which typically reverses in the second half of the year. And as I've mentioned previously, the prior year H1 inflow was supported by a onetime benefit from the collection of elevated trade receivables last year. Cash outflows on highlighted items were GBP 1.5 million, up from GBP 0.7 million, reflecting the settlement of severance accruals from the December 2025 restructuring, the cost of the banking facility amendment in April and implementation costs relating to a new consolidation system. Finance costs paid amounted to GBP 0.8 million, and our cash tax line shows an inflow of GBP 0.4 million, resulting from refunds relating to prior years. CapEx of GBP 0.9 million or 2.5% of revenue was within that 2% to 3% typical range I spoke about at the Capital Markets Day and adjusted cash conversion of 75% against 176% in H1 2025, the prior year ratio being higher due to the working capital inflow. Net debt increased from GBP 13.1 million at year-end to GBP 14.9 million, but was slightly down on GBP 15.1 million (sic) [ GBP 15 million ] at H1 last year. The expected increase in net debt since the year-end was driven by the restructuring-related cash items I've described, the severance settlements, consolidation system costs, the banking amendment costs together with the seasonal working capital impact. Earlier this year, in April, we amended and extended our revolving credit facility with Barclays and NatWest. The facility was reduced to GBP 28 million, runs to October '27. And at 30 June '26, we had GBP 22.65 million drawn. The RCF carries a variable rate at SONIA plus a margin of 2.75% to 3.35%, depending on our leverage, and the group remains fully compliant with all covenants. In conclusion, at the Capital Markets Day in June, we set out a clear direction: revenue growth of 2.5% per annum alongside 5 identified drivers of margin improvement. Nothing in the H1 results has changed that picture. And if anything, our cost performance has given us more confidence, not less. All 5 of the drivers we talked about at that day are in motion. Operating leverage is already working. Staff costs are down and incremental revenue will drop through at a higher rate. The Americas are in recovery with new leadership, new wins, and we are structured to build on this well throughout H2. Staff cost discipline is in place across every division, with our staff costs down significantly year-on-year. ERAbot, our proprietary AI tool, is deployed across the business, and our focus is on a revenue mix shifting towards recurring, higher-margin work. Improving our FCF and our net debt provision remains a key priority for us, with our debt down versus the same time last year in spite of the significant December '25 restructuring program and our focus on both cost control and working capital discipline remains constant. H1 '26 was where we expected to be at this stage of our journey post 2025, and we have a lot more to do and are very conscious of that, but we can see that our plan is working and that we're on track to meet or exceed market expectations from a profit perspective. Thank you, and back over to Ruben.

Thank you very much, Kayte. Kayte has now confirmed that the plan is working and that we are on track to meet or exceed expectations from a profit perspective. The 5 margin drivers she described are in motion. And I want to now show you what is driving the confidence from a commercial and strategic standpoint. I will provide an update on our road map to growth. This section covers 4 things: the commercial momentum we are building, the competitive advantages that underpin our market position, how we use technology and AI to amplify those advantages and how we translate all of that into sustained profit growth. Let me start with where we are commercially. In December 2025, we secured more than GBP 10 million in aggregate contract value across 3 separate 3-year marketing effectiveness commitments. These are multiyear strategic engagements in our highest priority service area, effectiveness or Grow. Those wins are significant for 3 reasons. First, the contract duration. 3-year commitments provide revenue visibility and reduce churn risk. Second, the service type. Marketing effectiveness sits at the intersection of our proprietary data, our analytical capability and the growing demand from CMOs for evidence-based marketing budget decisions. And third, the client profile. Winning at this level confirms that our proposition is competitive at the very top end of the market. This is our plan in motion. These wins do not happen by accident. They are the result of a focused commercial model, a stronger sales team and a differentiated proposition that is increasingly hard for competitors to match. The Americas was our primary area of commercial difficulty in 2024 and 2025. I've been very transparent about that. We lost clients, we lost momentum, and we needed to reset. We brought in new leadership in midpoint of last year. We restructured the commercial team. We introduced clearer accountability and a more disciplined approach to pipeline management. And the results are showing. In the first half of this year, our Americas win rate improved by 21 percentage points. The new business conversion improved by 23 percentage points. These are material shifts. They tell us that the reset is working. Revenue in the Americas is still down year-on-year. Recovery takes time, but the leading indicators are moving in the right direction, and the commercial momentum we are seeing now gives us confidence in the trajectory. Before I get into the detail of our growth road map, I want to ground you on what makes Ebiquity's position defensible. We have 4 key competitive advantages that are genuinely difficult to replicate: independence, proprietary benchmark data, an integrated service offering and the depth of client trust that we have built. And I will take each of these in turn. Independence, especially in our industry, is increasingly valuable. The advertising and media industry is dominated by large groups and facing consolidation with, at times, significant conflicts of interest. Ebiquity has none of those conflicts. We do not own media. We do not buy media. We do not sell media technology. We have no financial relationship with any media owner or platform that could influence our advice. That independence means our clients receive analysis and recommendations that are genuinely in their best interest. And in a world where media complexity is increasing and marketing budgets are under scrutiny, the value of unbiased advice is rising, and clients know this. It is one of the reasons that we retain relationships with more than 75 of the world's top 100 advertisers based on their global ad spend. Independence is a true differentiator. It is also one that cannot be acquired or manufactured by a competitor. You either have it or you don't. Our second competitive advantage is our proprietary benchmark data, and this is one of the most strategically valuable assets that we have. We analyze more than $100 billion in annual advertising spend across more than 500 clients globally. That data set is unique. It has been built over many years, and it cannot be replicated quickly or repurchased. When we assess the client's media investment, we are not comparing it against a theoretical opinion or anecdotal evidence. We are comparing it against the actual performance of hundreds of real advertisers across markets, channels and categories. And that is a fundamentally different quality of insight. The value of this data also compounds. Every new client adds to the benchmark, every new analysis improves the models and combined with AI, the rate at which we can generate valuable insight from this data is accelerating. I will come back to that point shortly. This is intellectual property that sits in our business in a way that does not show up in our traditional financial metrics in full. It is a long-term structural advantage. Our third differentiator is the integrated nature of our service offering. We structure our work around 3 stages of the advertising life cycle. We help our clients Transform, Govern and Grow their business. We act as the client's impartial partner through every one of them. Transform is where we help brand advertisers build future-ready marketing organizations. That means defining the right operating model, the right agency ecosystem, the right data strategy, technology approach and the best ways of working to support long-term success. Govern is where we help clients create transparency, control and accountability across their media investment. We improve contracts, remuneration models, media quality, partner performance, compliance and investment efficiency. In short, we make sure that the money clients are investing is working as hard as it should. And Grow is where we help advertisers materially improve the business impact of their marketing. We bring effectiveness expertise, advanced analytics and econometric modeling, and performance insights to identify what truly drives incremental business returns. We help them optimize budget setting and allocation, and strengthen both immediate commercial performance and long-term brand equity and success. These 3 stages are designed to work together. A client who starts with Transform is naturally positioned to move into Govern. A client in Govern generates the data and the controls that makes Grow even more possible. The relationship deepens over time. And under the One Ebiquity model, we present this as a single coherent proposition. Clients deal with one team, one account structure and one strategic relationship. That simplicity is commercially important. It reduces friction, it improves retention and it creates natural pathways for revenue growth within existing accounts. This go-to-market model is now fully implemented, and the early evidence is that it is working. Our fourth competitive advantage is the client trust that we've built over more than 3 decades of servicing this industry. We have a very specific measurable way of tracking it. As I said earlier, our Net Promoter Score in the first half of this year was plus 72 at an average client satisfaction rating of 9 out of 10. The category average is approximately plus 48. Top quartile performance begins at around plus 60. So we are comfortably above that threshold, and we continue to push upwards. The Net Promoter Score matters to us for a straightforward commercial reason. Satisfied clients don't leave. They expand their engagement and they refer new clients. In a business like ours where relationships are long term and switching costs are meaningful, Net Promoter Score is a leading indicator of revenue stability and growth. Our score of plus 72 reflects the quality of our people, the rigor of our analysis and the consistency of the experience we deliver under the One Ebiquity model. It also reflects the client -- the value that clients place on independence. They trust us because they know we are working in their best interest. And that trust is difficult to build and easy to lose. We protect it through the quality of our work and the integrity of our advice. I now want to turn to technology and AI, and specifically address what we are doing right now, how it is working and why it matters for our competitive position and our margin profile. The investment we have made in technology and AI is really beginning to compound. Our technology investment is designed to amplify the advantages that we already have. We are not building technology for its own sake. We are building it and deploying it to make our proprietary data more powerful, to make our analysis faster, to make our people more effective. The goal is to deliver better insight to more clients at a lower cost per unit of output. We have a very clear principle. We invest in technology where it reinforces our structural advantage, where it makes our benchmark data more valuable, where it makes our independence more demonstrable and where it makes the client experience more compelling. The result is a compounding effect because better technology makes our data more useful, more useful data wins more clients and more clients add to the data, and so the cycle continues. ERAbot is our proprietary AI platform. It is deployed across the business and embedded in how our teams work every day. The adoption curve is steep. In the first quarter of '25, ERAbot processed approximately 37,000 messages in the quarter. By the second quarter of 2026, that number had reached more than 80,000. That is more than a doubling in 4 quarters with consistent quarter-on-quarter growth of approximately 25%. Now what does that mean in practice? Our analysts are accessing insights faster. Our delivery teams are producing outputs more efficiently, and our client-facing teams are spending more time on interpretation and advice and less time on data processing. That is a direct improvement in the quality of our client engagements and a direct improvement in the economics of delivery for the business. And we are moving fast. Our development cycles are measured in weeks, not months. We are iterating, learning and improving ERAbot continuously. The platform today is meaningfully more capable than it was just 12 months ago. I want to now connect what I have described, the competitive advantages, the commercial momentum, the technology investment to the financial outcome. The question is simple: how do all of these things translate into sustainable profit growth? Our independence and our benchmark data are the basis for new incremental revenue streams. The benchmark data is particularly important here. We have more than 500 clients contributing to a data set that tracks over $100 billion in annual advertising spend. That data has always been central to the value of our advice. We are now moving into being able to commercialize that also as a stand-alone service. And the logic is straightforward. The data has high intrinsic value. It is unique. It is continuously updated and the cost of producing it is largely fixed. We are already collecting it as part of our existing client work. Packaging it as a stand-alone accessible product generates revenue at a very high operating leverage. There is no proportional increase in cost. And this is one example of how we are building higher-margin revenue within the existing business. The independence advantage reinforces this. Clients know that they can trust the data because they know it comes from us, comes from Ebiquity. And that trust is what makes the data commercially valuable for our client base. Our commercial model is self-reinforcing. Transform is where our client relationship typically begins. We help the advertiser build a future-ready marketing organization, the right operating model, the right agency ecosystem, the right ways of working, and that work surfaces the need for ongoing controls and visibility, which is exactly what Govern provides. Govern is recurring, high retention work. We give clients transparency, accountability and confidence over where their media investment is going and whether it is performing. That sustained visibility over time generates the data and the appetite to do more, that is when Grow becomes the natural next step. In Grow, clients use effectiveness expertise, analytics and econometric modeling to drive incremental returns and sharper budget allocations. And as that work deepens, it often surfaces new structural questions, which brings the loop back to Transform. Each stage creates demand for the next. The relationship evolves and as it evolves, revenue per client rises, switching costs increase and the value we deliver compounds. And today, only 15% of advertisers are using effectiveness data to inform their budget decisions, which means that 85% of the market, the vast majority of the world's largest major advertisers, either cannot access the data they need, do not know how to use it or have not yet made the transition from intuition or efficiency-based to evidence-based effectiveness-linked investment decisions. This is a structural gap in how the industry operates, and it is one that Ebiquity is uniquely positioned to close. We already serve more than 75 of the world's top 100 global advertisers, and that gives us a credible established presence at the top of the market. But even within that group, there is significant room to expand the scope and depth of our engagements. And beyond the top 100, the addressable market is substantial. The 85% figure is a major opportunity. Every advertiser that moves from intuition to evidence is a potential Ebiquity client. And the direction of travel, driven by Board-level scrutiny of marketing spend, shareholder pressures and the increasing availability of data is clearly and firmly in that direction. We are positioned at the right place at the right time with the right proposition. Kayte outlined 5 margin drivers earlier in this presentation, and I want to reaffirm them from a strategic perspective. Operating leverage is real and improving. Our cost base is largely fixed. And as revenue grows, margin follows. The cost actions we have taken have reduced the fixed cost base, which means that the leverage point is now significantly lower than it was just a year ago. The Americas recovery is underway. Win rates are up, conversion is improving. The revenue recovery in that market will contribute meaningfully to margin as it comes through. Staff cost efficiency is improving. We have restructured how we work. We have removed duplication, and we are using AI to make our existing teams more productive. That is a structural improvement and not just a one-off saving. Technology and AI are reducing our cost per unit of output. ERAbot is processing more queries per quarter, and our delivery cycles are faster, more reliable. Our analysts are spending their time on higher-value work, and that improvement will continue. And the revenue mix is shifting. Marketing effectiveness is a higher-margin service than some of our legacy offerings. As that mix improves, margin will follow. And these 5 drivers are also not independent of each other. They reinforce each other. They are all moving in the same direction. We are firmly in execution mode. The restructuring is far progressed. The strategy is set, the commercial model is in place, the technology investment is delivering and the financial trajectory is moving in the right direction. Our approach to growth is organic, deliberate and funded from within. We are not taking on significant additional inorganic risk. We are building on a strong foundation with discipline and with a clear view of where we are going. I'm confident in our progress. The plan is working. We are on track to meet or exceed full year market expectations from a profit perspective, and the 5 margin drivers that Kayte described give us a clear path to improving that performance further. There is more to do. Of course, there always is, but the direction is clear. The team is executing and the evidence of progress is visible in the numbers. Now before we open for questions, I want to acknowledge 3 groups. To our clients, this first half of the year reflects real progress, and that progress is built on the trust that you place in us every day. For shareholders, we are in execution mode. The plan is working, and we remain focused on delivering what we have committed to you. Thank you for your continued support. And to our people, the results that you have heard and seen today are yours. I'm proud of how this team has performed through a challenging period of real change. We are confident in the path ahead, and we will now take your questions.

Perfect. Thank you, Ruben and Kayte, for updating investors today. [Operator Instructions] And for your reference, a recording of today's presentation will be available on the Investor Meet Company platform shortly after the meeting has ended. Guys, as you can see, we have received a number of questions during today's presentation. So at this point, if I could just hand back to the team to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.

Great. Thank you very much. And I will start at the top with questions that have been submitted prior. Kayte, maybe you can mute yourself until you start talking because there is a bit of an echo. Thank you. The first question, the company's performance in the Americas has been very disappointing in recent years. Have the recent management changes brought about improved financial returns and business growth? I believe we have firmly answered that in the presentation. Thank you for pre-submitting your question. The short answer is yes, and we are very confident in recovery in that market. The next question is, given the previous problems you experienced with proprietary systems platforms, can you update us, please, with what investment in such systems you have made in the last year and what return you are expecting from them? Again, thank you for your question. We've moved from investing more deliberately in proprietary technology. The company in the past had primarily relied on licensed third-party technology, which is helpful at times where it adds immediate value and where the cost of developing something in-house or proprietary would not be offset by the value it delivers to the company long term. However, we've shifted that position, and we now have a very robust internal infrastructure that is fully AI-enabled in a secure, fully audited manner, owned by us, and we control the road map, the developments and the way that we engage with our technology, data and artificial intelligence. I think you have seen in the presentation that our CapEx allocation sits between 2% to 3% of our revenues, which is very carefully built up. Every pound we invest is scrutinized because we are focused on cash conversion, but we believe at the investment level that we are putting in, we are delivering outsized returns versus the rest of the industry in terms of what we have delivered and continue to deliver in terms of proprietary technology and value that, that brings. The next question is, can you explain more fully how your marketing effectiveness products and services work and how you promote them to your corporate clients? Of course. Our marketing effectiveness services and the underlying platforms and products we use to deliver them are primarily using econometric modeling and marketing mix modeling. What we do is we take the investments in marketing of our different clients, and we model them against the profits, the revenue, the volumes, the market share that they have delivered across certain periods. We then model out through regression analysis and econometric modeling exactly what has driven the growth. So which portion of their revenues and profit is attributable to their advertising. This allows our clients to identify where there are opportunities to accelerate growth, what their reach curve looks like, their effectiveness curve looks like, the curve, as we call it, of diminishing returns. And very importantly, because we benchmark all of our outputs, clients know what their returns on their investments are in a proven way versus category players and the wider industry. And this allows them to identify where in terms of investing in certain channels, they are behind and therefore, need to make an investment and a deliberate effort into optimizing their activity within that. Well, how we represent it to our clients or how we promote it to our clients is very effective because we're able to show them the expected returns in terms of real incremental profit, revenue, but also shareholder value, for example, as a result of the EV/EBITDA multiple and the valuation acceleration that, that drives. We're able to help them build the business case for their investment in working with Ebiquity. And we prove as we work with them structurally what the net returns have been of working with us. I hope that answers your question, and thank you for submitting it. The next question is, are there any new revenue areas that you are exploring while still remaining independent that may have been overlooked in the past? It is a good question. And first and foremost, our independence is central to our position in the market and also one of the key reasons why we have the data and the insights that we have. We are, of course, exploring new ways to monetize our insights, capabilities and data within that scope of independence and within the client base that we can serve in a way that does not create a conflict. I hope in the presentation, one of those examples was clear with regards to providing syndicated access to a data stream of our benchmarks fully anonymized and aggregated as always, in line with our code of conduct, but in a more self-serve way that gives access to clients with smaller budgets to the valuable utility that we bring. I hope that makes sense and answers your question. The next question is, what were the main legacy customers that were lost and why? Are they customers that can never be re-won? We don't give the specific clients, as you can imagine. But the reasons why are a combination of, well, unsatisfying client experience and issues with management and client partnering on those clients, as well as a lack of belief that Ebiquity at that time, was able to capture the newer contemporary challenges around, for example, effectiveness or digital media measurement and capabilities. We've made incredible progress in that regard in resetting our position, bringing together Ebiquity into a more easy-to-sell, but also very importantly, more easy-to-buy commercial model of One Ebiquity. And to your question, can they never be re-won? Absolutely not. We're doing all we can to win them back, show them a new Ebiquity, the value we can drive, and we're making progress on that point is what I can say for now. Who are your main competitors? And has Ebiquity lost market share in a market forecast to grow 3.6%? Now this is a very interesting question, and thank you for submitting it. We have different competitor sets in different parts of our business. And we operate as One Ebiquity. We are the only company in the market that does what we do all in a legitimate, credible and fully integrated way through Transform, Govern and Grow. There is no company in the space that offers that proposition the way we do backed up with the benchmark data that we hold. I want to make that very clear. On each of the individual parts, such as, let's say, the Grow or marketing effectiveness part, we compete with companies such as Kantar, in some cases, Ipsos, TransUnion, Analytic Partners. And in other parts of our business, we have different competitors, such as Transform, where we increasingly come up against companies like BCG, Bain, McKinsey, and we are able to win business because we are subject matter experts on marketing and media. And that is an increasing priority in transformation work and strategy consulting requirements of our client set. I hope that answers your question. And to the question, have we lost market share in a market forecast to grow 3.6%? I don't know where that growth number comes from or which market that relates to because, as I said, we operate in different markets and are -- over the last few years, especially '24, '25, we -- as a result of our revenue declines, declines have given some of that share unnecessarily to some competitors, but we're claiming that back and we're returning to growth. The main reason for the increase in working capital in the first half of the year in 2026 was a GBP 2.48 million reduction in trade payables. What did that represent? I'll hand to Kayte.