NewPrinces S.p.A. ($NWL)

And Rocco Sergi, CFO. Before starting, I would like to introduce today's presentation with a short video. Sorry, just a technical issue, but it'll come up in a second. [Presentation]

Thank you so much. So before starting, I'd like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on screen. I also like to ask apologies. I don't see the presentation on screen in the webcast. So can you please put it up on -- thank you. So before we start, I'd like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on screen. And now we can get into the presentation. So as a first slide, we wanted to introduce you back to our investment case. We think it's changed significantly since last year, especially given the recent acquisitions, especially with our entry into retail. So getting into some of the highlights, we are now one of the only, if not the only vertically integrated food and beverage group in Europe. We have over 1,000 retail stores in Italy and over 30 plants from manufacturing plants. This allows us to be vertically integrated essentially from -- almost from farm to shelf, and that allows us to be very agile in the way that we introduce products into the market and the way we do business. Secondly, the backbone of our business is, of course, has always been manufacturing and also some of the strongest brands in Europe. We have leading positions in Italy, but not only in Italy, but also in the U.K. U.K. is our main market in terms of manufacturing and products sold with some categories having over 65% of average category share in their markets. A very important point of our investment case is the real estate floor. We now have over EUR 1 billion worth of real estate in our balance sheet, which has, of course, significantly increased following the acquisition of Princess Retail, so Carrefour Italia back in December. This is something that brings out more value because it's there and it's valuable in its tangible assets -- and that also brings our shareholder equity to over GBP 1 billion. Our story is a story of margin expansion. We've been able to execute and to improve our margins consistently throughout the years despite all the acquisitions and some acquisitions that could have been considered a margin dilutive. One good example is, of course, the one of Princess, which we completed last year. We've been able to consistently expand our margins, improve our operating leverage and really grow in that sense. We now have a target, which Fabio will take you through shortly, but we have a target to reach 10% EBITDA margin in manufacturing and 5% of EBITDA margin in retail in -- by 2030. A very important point that goes hand in hand with margin expansion is also our cash flow generation. We've been a highly cash-generative company ever since we listed, but also before our listing with consistent free cash flow conversions of above 60% or 70% in the last years. That is backed by -- that is actually something that propels our M&A strategy. The ability to generate cash, coupled with, of course, all the financial, let's say, agility that we have has helped us secure several acquisitions since our -- the company was founded in 2004. We've completed more than 20 deals in the last 22 years. And we've achieved a very strong improvement in revenues. So our revenues increased by 20x in the last 6 years since the IPO of Newlat Food. And lastly, we believe that the key point of our -- one of the key points of our investment case is the vision of the founder, who is the driving force of the business and is the one who drives the company. That is, of course, the most important part. But of course, we are backed by a very professional and highly experienced management team that helps us deliver the strategy long term. Now we wanted to kind of bring you back to our IPO back in 2019 and going through a little bit of the achievements we've made in the last couple -- last 6 years. So we listed Newlat Food in October 2019. At the time, we were a smaller business, around EUR 320 million in revenue. And we listed with the intention to grow via M&A. We had a midterm target to reach EUR 1 billion revenues. Throughout the years, we've completed several acquisitions. Centrale del Latte was the first one, but then we did several other steps such as we issued a bond. We completed the acquisition of Symingtons and Newlat Foods, which brought us to one of the most transformational acquisitions we've done to date, which is the one of Princess Limited now called Princess Group plc from Mitsubishi Corporation. This acquisition really step changed the group and gave us access to a wider range of products, but also to sizable markets such as the U.K. market. Lastly, 2025 was probably the most exciting year in our history, where we had several milestones. First one was the issuance of the second bond, followed by 3 acquisitions. So [ Gadi ] operations Italy being the first one, then Carrefour and Plasmon. And that was also followed by the IPO of Princess Group. So in less than a couple of months after we marked the first year of having Princess Group, we were able to list it on the stock exchange. The listing of Princess was very successful in the fact that it was the largest IPO in the U.K. market since 2021. It was also the first one of an Italian company being able to list on the London Stock Exchange. Now if we get into the other slide, we just wanted to kind of go through all the milestones in terms of revenue and EBITDA. So as I was mentioning, in 2019, we listed Nulat Food with EUR 320 million of revenues and EUR 28 million of EBITDA. We then progressively increased our revenues. In 2023, we were around EUR 800 million of revenues with EUR 72 million EBITDA. 2024 with the acquisition of Princess, we reached almost EUR 3 billion of revenues with EUR 177 million of EBITDA. And then lastly, we finished the -- we closed the 2025 year with pro forma revenues of EUR 6.5 billion. So that includes, of course, Carrefour -- so we can say that the last 6 years have been years of delivery of exceptional growth, which have resulted in our revenues growing by almost 20x, EBITDA growing by almost 8.5x and market cap, which has increased by at least 220% since IPO. So we've really created immense value for our shareholders and our stakeholders. Moving on to the next page, we would like to show you a little bit about the group structure. Of course, there have been many changes in the last few months. And we have decided strategically to separate the business into 2 sectors. So one is manufacturing on the left-hand side and retail on the right-hand side. The reason for that is because these 2 arms of the business are very complementary and synergistic. But of course, we wanted to value them separately. So one of the reasons why we decided to list Princess Group was actually because we raised, of course, capital to continue M&A in manufacturing and also wanted to allow a re-rating of both companies. So with their own -- with their own valuation metrics. So Princess Group being a U.K. listed company and New Princess being an Italian listed company. So 2 synergistic stories that go hand in hand and generate value for the longer term. Now we go over some of the highlights of 2025. As we already mentioned, we issued a bond, was very successful subscribed in 1 day. We issued EUR 350 million. And we also were able to increase our stock liquidity, and we saw huge improvement in the liquidity of the New Princess shares in the last 12 months. As I mentioned, the Princess LSE listing was particularly important. It was one of the major milestones we reached in 2025. And Princess is now listed on the FTSE 250, so a huge milestone for us. Aside that, we also have made great progress in the integration of Princess Group. As you may recall, when we acquired Princess, we announced that we were going to generate at least EUR 34 million in synergies. We've essentially achieved half of that in just 1 year, and we are on track to delivering more synergies through the further integration of Princess into the wider New Princess Group. Then just touching very briefly on the 3 acquisitions of 2025. Diageo Operations Italy is the -- is now called Princess Ready-to-drink. It is our alcohol, no-alcohol and ready-to-drink factory, which we acquired, of course, from Diageo, and it marked the entry into a new vertical of drinks, so of the alcohol sector, which we didn't really manufacture before. Carrefour Italia was, of course, the most transformational acquisition we have done to date and especially in 2025, we marked the entry into retail and really step changed our growth, both in terms of organic growth in retail, but also with the synergies we have in terms of commercial synergies among the 2 arms of the business. And lastly, a very, I would say, proud moment for us was the acquisition of Plasmon. Plasmon, as many Italians know, is a very well-known brand, the #1 baby food brand in Italy. And this allowed us to fully reunite the 2 manufacturing sites. So the [ Otzanatara ] site that we acquired back in 2015 from Kraft Heinz and the Latina site, which we acquired at the end of 2025. So it was an emotional year for us, filled with many important milestones, and we're now planting the seeds for what's coming ahead in the next few years. Just wanted to go very quickly through our financial highlights for the year. So we have reported consolidated revenue of almost EUR 3 billion, EUR 2.96 billion, which is an increase of 80% since last year. This is, of course, on a consolidated basis, so it includes the acquisitions of the Diageo side from the 1st of October and of Carrefour Italia from the 1st of December. Looking at the pro forma figure, we generated revenues of EUR 6.5 billion. That placed us among some of -- one of the largest companies in Italy, especially the second largest food and beverage company in Italy. Looking at some other metrics, adjusted EBITDA was -- again, this is consolidated adjusted EBITDA was EUR 240 million, which, of course, grew significantly. And we very importantly achieved our 2025 guidance in terms of EBITDA if we exclude the acquisitions we performed. So we have achieved EUR 210 million in EBITDA. Then we had some amazing growth in EBIT. If we look at EBIT, we, of course, have a, let's say, a benefit from the income from business combination of EUR 319 million. So EBIT was EUR 430 million on an adjusted basis, it grew more than 150%. Net profit, again, of course, benefits from this business combination, but it was EUR 383 million, which is a 140% growth, since last year. In terms of free cash flow, we had a very strong underlying free cash flow of over EUR 150 million, and net cash was EUR 319 million, excluding IFRS 16, with EUR 1.4 billion in current liquidity. Now I'll hand over to Fabio to discuss some of the financial performance. Sorry, we have to. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you, Benedetta. We can go through starting with the P&L analysis on the P&L, apart the strong and visible development of the top line, it's important to highlight the strong performance in terms of profitability starting from the gross margin. It's a performance that is something it's important to highlight very structural. We had and we still have in place a lot of actions to try to get efficiency and we work very well, not only on the procurement side, but we are -- we work and we are still working also on the productions to try to get efficiency plant by plant. This is a very deep process that we just started in the past months and that we will continue to get from this improvement also during the next year. Strong improvement, obviously, also on the EBITDA margin and EBITDA margin, as Benedetta already showed you, discipline on the financial part of the P&L despite the bond that we issue also last year. And the highest level ever of the net income with EUR 383 million that obviously remain the strongest so far but a starting point for a future development. The quality of the earnings are visible in our balance sheet, a very strong profile of the company starting from the asset side. We improved materially our tangible asset base with several investments in real estate that we made in U.K. and also considering the strong contributions from the real estate portfolio that we got from the Carrefour acquisition. We improved our position in terms of net working capital looking particularly at the industrial part of the business. And we closed the year with a very strong position in terms of cash available with more than EUR 1.3 billion of cash that is creating a very strong profile of the company that could face, I would say, the several new opportunity in the year with a very strong support from this position. And looking at the total shareholder equity is important to highlight the strong improvement with total shareholder equity close to EUR 1 billion. Substantially, what the balance sheet is showing is that after the huge number of acquisitions that we made starting from July '24, the company is today fully deleveraged and ready for additional acquisition and additional step forward. Generally speaking, the business is showing improvement everywhere despite the deflations that we face in some countries, we continue to deliver good growth. It's important speaking about volume to highlight the strong performance in Germany, where volumes have been reached this strong performance, plus 11%. And this is something that is going on also during these weeks and these first months of the new year. About the adjusted EBITDA, as you see, in terms of absolute value and in terms of profitability, we achieved a very strong performance everywhere. This is a slide that certify the high quality of the numbers that we reported. This is the free cash flow generation only for the like-for-like perimeter versus 2024. You remember that in March 2024, we gave the guidance of an EBITDA range expected for 2025 between EUR 210 million and EUR 220 million. And we got this range of guidance. And starting from only this part of the business, it's important to highlight how we continue during 2025 to achieve the goal in terms of net working capital improvement in terms of disciplinated CapEx spending. And despite the investments that we put in place, especially in real estate, we have been able to maintain our cash conversion ratio above 70%. This chart summarize different KPI of the company. In the first one, you can see the strong improvement in terms of revenue base followed by the EBITDA level reported. The second one, thanks to the free cash flow generation is showing how despite the new level of CapEx balance for the new sites of the group, the net financial position substantially is now to 0. All deleverage indications are close to 0. So the company is fully delevered. And despite the huge investments that we made in this year, you can see how, thanks to the deleverage, in particular, the return on capital employed increased materially this year above 12%. Here, there are the summary of what we expect in the next year, substantially in a couple of years, we expect to get the breakeven for the retail business and to go on in delivering an organic growth of 3% on which we have several additional opportunities coming from the synergies in terms of revenues inside the group. We expect to continue to deliver margin improvement also on the food manufacturing side of the business. And all in all, in 2030, we expect to have an average level of profitability at 7.5%. On the strategic side and in terms of M&A, it's important to say that M&A remains the key focus for the group and for the future development of the group. With a difference versus the past in the sense that today, the new strategic view of the group is based on 2 different souls that we have inside the same group. One focus on food manufacturing, the other focus on today, specifically on retail, but in reality, the strategic idea is to remain focused on all the potential opportunity that are complementary to the food manufacturing industry. On this basis, we already -- we're already working on other new opportunities. In particular, we have 3 process that are going on today. especially on the food manufacturing side, are 3 important on the strategic side opportunity for the group to continue to develop the portfolio, diversify also the presence in terms of geography and to continue to go on with what we believe is the most important point on our strategy that is to continue to diversify and to enlarge the industrial know-how that we have in our portfolio. These are the 3 very important strategic acquisitions that we made last year. Very important because they reflect the strategy, the entrepreneurial strategy of our group. The first one was the acquisition of Diageo operations in Italy that is today Princess ready-to-drink. This was important for the strong know-how that we acquired and the very high level of versatile plant that we have that substantially could produce everything inside the drink business. The acquisition of Plasmon was very important because we rebuilt after years the original perimeter of the company, putting together the plant of [ Ozanotaro ] that we bought from Heinz in 2015 and the other part of the perimeter, important brands like Plasmon and Nil in baby food, important brands in special products like Dieter, Biglut and others. And we put together the industrial know-how of Odzanotaro that we already have and Latina focused on homogenized product and bakery. And last but obviously not least, the acquisition of Carrefour Italy that is giving us the unique strategic opportunity to combine and put working together the food manufacturing and the food retail world. Now I leave Giuseppe to enter in the more specific details, industrial and commercial for this acquisition.

Thank you, Fabio. If I may ask for an applause for Benedetta, Fabio and Rocco and all the finance team, all the beautiful job they've done this year. Thanks a lot. Thank you. So I start with this slide that talks about what we already mentioned many times, is the acquisition of Plasmon, is a strategic acquisition because as Benedetta mentioned, we acquired already in November 2015, the first factory from Kraft Heinz in Otsotaro we acquired the major factory from Kraft Heinz that is the Latina factory. That is, for us, a really important milestone because it represents now the new Princess becoming the market leader in the baby food segment. It was founded almost 120 years ago, more than 120 years ago. We generate around 30% of market share, as said. And we have -- what is really important is that we have a spare capacity that is still around 51%. We can produce around 1.8 billion biscuits a year that I think it's a really important number. And we are on the biscuit segment, overall market leader with over 70% of market share. And we see a great opportunity of growth going forward in this segment. To give a bit more context concerning the plasma, why this is an attractive opportunity? First of all, because it's a really sizable market. Western European baby food market is worth EUR 5 billion with an overall growth of 3%. Only U.K. and the Netherlands that I want to remind everyone that we have all sales force in these countries even in Germany are leading the growth of over 4% over the next 3 years. So we see a great opportunity on the European market, but even on foreign market. Of course, we have a strong manufacturing scale and flexibility. We now sell around 450 SKUs, and we have still 51% of spare capacity. Again, a strong market share in 2 different channels. One is the retail channel and what we can say -- the other one is what we can call the specialist channel that is both, let's say, doctor and pharmacy. So we are present in different channels and of course, in the food service. We have a strong innovation and R&D pipeline. This is one of the characteristics of Plasma in the last years. That's why Plasmon beat the market in the last years because we've always been on top of innovation and new product development. And of course, there is a big opportunity in terms of clear expansion of margin because this category can easily -- can easily achieve around 15% of EBITDA margin level. Of course, there is another big opportunity that is on the export side. At the moment, we sell mainly in Italy, but we as Princess, we export in over 60 countries, and we are already looking to different opportunities that can be to develop more and more product on the market. Going back to the other -- going to the other acquisition we made this year, that is Princess ready-to-drink. These are 2 products that for the colleagues of Carrefour, maybe they are already known. We are launching already some product in our stores, 2 Spark Energy drinks, 250 ml, zero sugar and one with sugar and the other one that is our first Le Monchelo production that we do in our factory in Santa Vitoria Alba that will be launched between April and May 2026. What is really strong about Santa Victoria acquisition is that we have a new product development team that is really capable and really we can develop a lot of opportunities, both in business-to-business, co-manufacturing and retail development as well. We are working in all the markets where we are present already. So -- and what I want to underline around Santa Vitor is that we are talking about alcohol, nonalcohol cans, but we talk even about soft drinks that is a big, big market, always in big growth, and we have that capability as well, and we are well recognized on the market for this kind of product. I give you a bit of a commercial update. We are -- keep on winning new contracts across U.K. and Europe. Why? Not because of price, but because of credibility, first of all, because retailers know that they can build a 3-year, 5-year plan with us. So meaning that they see Princess as a potential reliable partner for long-term growth, and they want stability. So we are really strong in our new product development and innovation team that we continue to expand. We are -- we have a strong pipeline in each of every sector in which we are present. Of course, the strong manufacturing base. Most of the time, retailers are surprised when they see that we own 32 now 33 manufacturing sites across the group, and we can produce a lot of product internally. And of course, with the global sourcing expertise. We buy from all over the world. We buy from all the continents, raw material or finished goods, and Princess is really well known across the U.K. market, but even the international market for the expertise. These are just some highlights that I want to show to you. So last year, Napolina, that is #1 Italian brand in the U.K., a growth by plus 16% of value, double-digit growth. through new product development that I was mentioning before. So we launched some Napolina boosters. We launched the [ Pol Pain ] that we do in our factory in Forgia, some flavored oil that we manufacture in our site in Belvedere in the U.K. and a lot of new launches are upcoming now in the next season. Now we look for the tomato to come and to grow, and then we will come with new product development for September, October season. Then another strong brand that is in our portfolio is Branston. Branston is continuous growth. Now we see that, let's say, we are becoming the benchmark for all the other beans producers on the market because of our quality and all the positive comments we have our marketing campaign that is called the 5-star rating, where everyone is rating our Branston beans on a really high end. We were able to close new business opportunity on our main U.K. oil brand that is Crisp and Dry. We increased our sales by EUR 4.5 million, and we see a growth in drinks that is plus 2%. Then one thing that I want to mention is that is maybe smaller than what it is, is the Princess Jack Mackerel transition. So we were able to anticipate the market in terms of offer of Mackerel because the European market was short on Mackerel offer. We were the first to bring the Jack Mackerel from South America into the U.K. market. And this is giving us an advantage that is around plus 30%, 35% compared to the other Mackerel producer on the U.K. market. and some other opportunities that, of course, we keep on track and we think are really important. These are something -- some pictures of what we do in the store because we spend most of our marketing budget into shopper marketing. So we try to be decisive in the moment in which the consumer is on the shelf and is taking the decision to what product he wants to buy. And as you can see, these are aisle and gondola from all our brands, mainly Napolina, Brenston, you see some Princess, some co-branding that we do with products such as -- we do co-branding together between our own product such as Napolina Oil or Napolina Tomatoes, Pasta Napolina and Tomato Napolina, as you can imagine. So cross-selling and execution in the store is really important for our strategy. These are all colleagues on the left-hand side. I want to give the right importance to this slide because as you can see, Tesco, we received the Tesco Brand Development Award for [ Siemita's ] work on Tesco customer own brand for own baking. It is a big recognition, and we are getting it almost every year in different categories. This means that we are really important to Tesco. This is the major retailer in the U.K. We won an award as Max & Spencer Supplier of the Year because of the speed with which on deliveries during their cyber problem that they had on Ocado. And the Unitas is the biggest group -- the biggest group of wholesaler in the U.K. where we won Grocery Supplier of the Year. Last but not least, last year, we hosted the famous Tom Carriage that is one of the most important chefs in the U.K. in our field in Forgia to film their spot that will be on September 2026. So these are all initiatives that bring credibility and relationship with our customer base. This is my last slide that I think is really important. So this is the growth that we have done in Germany. You can see from the left-hand side was the management from Nestle of the sales. Since 2016, we started managing the sales by ourselves. In 2016, we were around 31,000 tonnes. And then in 2020, we went up to 42,000 tonnes because maybe I became the Managing Director of Nuraticambea. I'm joking, it's a joke. But what I want to tell is then we grow up to 50% -- it was helping all the situation. And what is really important to highlight is that during the year, we went through a brand change from Buitoni to Del Verde. So it was not so easy that the transition will go so well. And what is really important is that now this year, we closed with over 50,000 tonnes. So almost doubled our sales in Germany and continued growth. Thank you.

Thanks, Giuseppe. This was the most funny part of the presentations. Now we have to go back to something more boring and theoretical, but it's also important to highlight once again how we really believe that this integrated and vertical model that we are trying to put in place with the 2 souls that I described before, it's very important for our group. Creating a unique situation, especially for the food manufacturing side in which, for the first time, a food manufacturer could really work in relations with the consumer, thanks to the door that the retail business is opening. And this is very important because it could allow us to develop product knowing what the consumer are looking for, which kind of product could be more in line with the macro trend that we are seeing directly into the market. On the basis of this model, we have several different strategic priorities. For sure, on the food manufacturing side, we need to support the organic growth through product innovations and the acquisition of new opportunity because considering the industrial base that we have, it's clear that our business model is based on volume and scale. M&A, as I said, will continue to remain strategic for our group, and we aim to be able to announce soon additional acquisitions. We have also other important strategic actions in place to optimize for sure, the utilizations and the efficiency of the factory and also to create additional opportunities on the supply chain and the procurement efficiency. On the retail side, we have other important strategic key actions, in particular, linked to the relaunch of the brand and the transformation of the store to adapt the asset of the offer that we have in mind to recreate into the market. The vertical integration means also to give more space to the private label offer, also thanks to the advantage that we have working together with the manufacturing side and also learning to the industry, we would like to recreate an offer that could be more tailor-made, more flexible linked to the different requirement that we can experience from the consumer in different locations and different format. And the last one that is one of the most important for us is the evolution of the hypermarket format, recreating starting from the recreation of a combined offer inside the hypermarket space and developing a strong offer dedicated to the B2B. This is the schedule that we have in terms of initiatives starting from January '26 and getting 2028 that will be a key and important year for us also because in 2028, we expect the full rebranding of the network of the channel with the brand GS. We already implemented from January 2026 several commercial initiatives, promotional initiatives. We are working on the visibility. We expect in Q3 and Q4 also to have the launch of the new model with the improvement of the level of services, the monitoring of the business with a dedicated index and also to work on the new assortment. The new assortment that will be key in Q4 in all the format of the channel. And these are the 3 key points of the commercial model development. As we said, a new commercial model based on the differentiations, a better positioning and a sort of tailor-made offer flexible and different area by area, region by region to try to meet what the consumer are looking for. Revenue synergies that we expect across the group in 2 different areas. For sure, it is an opportunity for the food manufacturing side of the business to introduce the products that we already have in our portfolio, the branded products that were not present in the Carrefour network before apart small presence in the milk and dairy. This obviously is an important opportunity. We are already working on that, and we achieved important evidences in the first months of the year. But obviously, especially after the rebranding of the chain, we have the opportunity to internalize the production of all the private label of the distribution chain. And it's clear that this combined model offering us the opportunity to launch initiatives together and to optimize the activity of the both souls of the group. And this is an example related in particular to the hypermarket format in which we would like to start to introduce also the usual cash and carry offer to try to combine inside this big space, the offer dedicated to the B2B and the offer -- the usual offer for the retail and to have also the launch of a dedicated discount on buying. And these are is a summary of what I already mentioned before. We believe that across the group, we have the possibility to deliver strong synergies in terms of the introduction of new products and in terms of the combined actions for the internalization of the private label. These are example of this initiative that we already start in terms of the visibility, the introductions of our products. We have a plus 42% in terms of growth of demand of our product inside the Princess retail network. We are waiting for the introductions on the shelf of Carrefour of Princess Tuna that is expected for June. And I would say this is just the beginning. We have a lot of initiatives that are coming soon, and we believe that this remain for the strategy of our group, an important milestone on which we will be -- we will build up the future of the group. Now I leave Benedetta for the conclusion.

Thank you, Fabio. So we just wanted to quickly wrap up on the presentation, leave some key messages for today. So as we very well explained, I guess, 2025 was a very transformative year. It was the year that introduced a new vertical into our business, retail, and it is the year that our strategy was redefined and reshaped. 2026 will be a very important year for us in terms of integration, in terms of planting the seeds to be able to grow and to generate profitable growth in the next years. We expect 2026 to be the first year in which we will see some of those seats blooming and seeing some of the value that we are currently creating with the integration of the 2 arms and 2 souls of the group together. So as Fabio usually says, we think that the best is yet to come for our group. And we are now ready to answer any questions. So we'll first take questions from the room, and then we'll also answer any questions from the live webcast. Please, for the people joining online, can you please send any questions in the Q&A tab, and we'll be glad to answer any questions. Thank you.

Alberto Gegra from Equita SIM. My first question is on Carrefour. If you can provide us some details on the CapEx that you are expecting to spend this year for these initiatives? And in general, which kind of cash profile should we expect in 2026 from Carrefour? The second on the reported numbers because you ended 2025 with a net financial position that is much higher compared to your indication in December. So I wanted to understand if the positive surprise came more from the Carrefour free cash flow in the last part of the year or on the, let's say, organic side of the business? And my third question on the current trading. So what are you seeing in this first months of 2026 in terms of volumes and most of all, in terms of cost, considering this situation in Middle East and the potential impact that you may have on cost side?

Okay. Regarding investment we have at the moment the very strong commitment on the 2 different CapEx. The CapEx investment for the midterm yield regarding some strategic position in store. We have some investors are investing regarding to buy the strategic store in particular in main city or area where we're considering very strategic for our business. Also if you're considering in 2025, we invested the total increase in the store about EUR 40 million, including cash position. And in any case, remain a very strong net financial position on the group. Regarding the positive impact on the Carrefour, there is 2 points. The first point, I believe the analysts or the investors don't considering the real data to acquisition of Carrefour. My opinion is don't understand the total cash in action from Carrefour Group is plus EUR 700 million. This is up to EUR 240 million to cash in action in the group. Indirectly, we have also the extra impact comparable we in the transaction. The second point also on the net working capital management. We improve our strategy. Also on this side, we have the improvement internally of Carrefour Group, the positive impact. These 2 things I believe to give a strong contribution to this very positive cash situation. Regarding the cost increase in the last months, it's clear we have a good situation in the first 2 months from March, we registration some improvement on the cost side regarding the logistics. But at the moment, we don't have impact. It's clear we look at with very strong focus this direction because in any case, we advise our customer in case to remain this improvement cost, we transfer this cost at our customer. We advise all customers regarding this possibility, but I don't see any risk for the group because this extraordinary cost is very clear to explaining our customer. I don't see the risk to don't rebate our customer.

No, we cover all the points. I would like to add something on this last point, maybe also to answer to other questions that for sure are coming considering the uncertainty related to the war, et cetera. So it's important to say that in an inflationary environment, especially related to extraordinary situations like the war, for example, the food industry, in particular, always got important improvement on the profitability. And I think that it's important to remark that our group is getting and could show 2 important strong characteristics. The first one is that as part of the food sector, each time that there is something that is systemic all the industry is going to pass through and you have the possibility to transfer the cost. The second point is the profile of our portfolio. We have a unique, really stable portfolio that usually is benefiting from the down trade of the consumer. So if someone maybe for the general situations, the uncertainty, the economic cycle or whatever want to reduce the spending, there are no other choice below our products. So we have the cheapest protein. We have tuna and we have pulses. We have pasta. So it's a very stable portfolio. If we remember the situation in '22, '23, -- at the same time, we were increasing prices. At the same time, we were increasing also volumes because the downtrade of the consumer was creating benefit from our group. This is very important to be highlighted.

Yes. I want just to add another piece that, of course, concerning the U.K., the fact that we are a U.K.-based manufacturer, this is really important because we were in different customer meeting. And in this moment, of course, they are really -- it's really important to have supply from local producers. So they want the relationship with us to be is much more important because, of course, logistics inbound to the U.K. can be more hard. And so they want to leverage more on the relationship with Princess.

Massimo, Titan Capital. I would like to leave the main question to my colleagues, just 3, if you want more peripheral questions. The third one is particularly technical. Maybe we can discuss this later if it's too technical. First one is you have underlined the importance of your real estate in the group. If you can give some more information, how much is fully owned, how much is leased and the debt attached to the real estate. The second one is just a curiosity. When you show the result for Germany, is underlying plus 11% in volume, but basically the same turnover that apparently should show huge deflation or if there are other issues. The very technical one is simply -- it's not technical in itself, but ROCE has had a very, very big jump. And I guess there are accounting issues that explain at least in part, the improvement. I would like to know exactly how it's being calculated.

So about Germany, Germany was an example to show that despite -- in general, this is more visible if we analyze Princess Group plc reporting that the top line was impacted by the deflation, and this was just an example to say the deflation is there, but the underlying business is growing and is going on very well. In terms of the real estate, this is something that always characterize the approach of the group because you have to consider that our group is an entrepreneurial group, very pragmatic, very focused on tangible assets more than goodwill and other things that you can create maybe for 1 year because our brand is performing well. And this is what I highlighted before showing the balance sheet that if we analyze the asset part of the balance sheet, we have substantially real estate, which is already amortized. So the market value is much higher than the one that we have in the balance sheet and we have cash. So more tangible than this is difficult to find an asset base. If we analyze the situations for the industrial part on 33 plants, we have probably 2 plants that are still leased, and these are plants that we received from the acquisition of Symingtons. One of the 3 plants was bought last year. The other 2 remain leased. And probably in the future, if we have the opportunity, we can complete this. But for the rest, all the base of the plant is fully owned -- and last year, we also acquired the Royal Liver building. That is a very interesting example of our approach in the real estate. We were -- so Princess is in the Royal Liver building, since more than 100 years because in front of the Royal Liver Building, there is the Princess dock that is the site in which the company was created. They were always renting 2 floors, spending last year was -- the cost was roughly GBP 2 million. We bought the building. We obviously avoid to pay this EUR 2 million, and we are receiving roughly EUR 6.5 million of other rents for the other tenant that we have inside the business. So all in all, we have a 12% roughly of yield on these investments. This is the way we approach the real estate investments. In terms of the movement of the return on capital employed, it's clear that -- so there is nothing, I would say, accounting the way we calculate is, I think, the usual one in the sense that we consider the operating results, the EBIT and we consider the capital employed that to simplify at the maximum level, the calculations could be the net financial position plus the shareholder equity. It's clear that with the huge deleverage that we put in place this year, this effect despite we increased the asset base, but this huge deleverage was the main driver of the return on capital employed improvement.

Okay. So if there are no more questions from the room, we'll take the questions from the webcast. So the first question is from Jordan from Invervalue. He's asking, could you give us any guidance in terms of EBITDA and free cash flow for 2026 and following years, excluding net working capital? And how much CapEx do you project during 2026 and the coming years as the maintenance CapEx? And how much extra is needed to transform Carrefour into GS?

So in general, we didn't want considering that 2026, as we explained in the slide, it's a year of transformation. There are a lot of initiatives in place. We would avoid to give precise guidance. We gave the main, I would say, stones of the development of the business starting from 2028 and the target that we aim to reach in 2030, but we would avoid to give a precise number. What we can say, and we already also explained during the presentation of Princess Group Plc is that we want to continue to improve the operating profit on the industrial side and to maintain the free cash flow generations above 60% the free cash flow conversion above 60%. The CapEx spending on the industrial part remain roughly around 2% of the revenues because it's important to remember that we capitalize only the growth CapEx. The rest is a direct cost in the P&L. This is the reason why our CapEx on sales is on average lower than the sector. And on the Carrefour side, we explained before the initiatives that we have in place. It's clear that starting from 2028, the year on which we aim to get the breakeven, we will be able to deliver step-by-step also a positive cash flow generation also on the retail part of the business.

So the next question is Newprrint is trading an EV EBITDA multiples lower than its peers. How much of this gap do you think is related to limited visibility on the full run rate following the recent acquisitions? And what key milestones in 2026 should investors focus on as a potential catalyst for rerating?

It's also important to highlight that the both listed company we have into the group are trading below the shareholder equity. And this is something that is really unusual. Also if we consider that the net cash available is 1/3 of the market cap. So all these points together is clear that are making a picture of a company that is objectively is undervalued versus the peers, but also in absolute terms. I think that what is important to highlight and probably the investors need to be focused on is the discipline that we have in continue to deliver what we announced to the market last year, the margin improvement, the cash flow generation, the deleverage despite we continue to go on with the M&A strategy. And I think that combined, these 2 points are the key of the value generation of the company. Obviously, we cannot direct work on the share price and the share valuations. What we can only do is to continue to deliver. I think that today, the market is not considering nothing substantially about the Carrefour opportunity. And I think that the development of the strategy on this side could recreate visibility in coming quarters maybe to support the improvement of the valuation, but that's it.

Next question from Serge from Agria Capital is what range of free cash flow to EBITDA conversion is expected within Princess Retail in the medium term?

We have a very strong opportunity to improve the cash generation. It's clear that our expectation is the positive result after 2 years integration of the group. Our expectation is very strong because of the platform have a very good opportunity to grow in the business to deliver the very positive performance. Our expectation is totally positive from integration from changing model of the business also to repositioning the brand also our offer to our custom...

Okay. So next question from Russell at Fidelity. What is your approach to share buybacks given your liquidity and valuation?

We maintain the stable approach the buyback. Our data is on our website. We continue to stabilize any opportunity we look at regarding the level of the price. In the last 3 months, we invested about EUR 5 million in buyback. We believe this discipline to maintain support to share in case of the adverse condition of the market. In any case, we don't want to sell it without any particular reason to give support our value of the share.

Next question is again from S. How do you plan to enter the ORC market via Carrefour Italian OGS? And also what impact do you expect from opening on Sundays?

We believe in consideration that our hypermarket in particular is we have in some area with a very strong potential to deliver the activity in the ORC market. Our expectation is very positive. But the first step to start the next month, we are in progress with a new model where we're considering to deliver the first 5 hypermarket in the next 3, 4 months. We are sure this model to give the big opportunity to improve our volume and also to give a very high level of service our potential new customers.

Next question from Marc Gomez. So regarding real estate, any plan to IPO and bring Delhidden value to the group? Any info about capital deployment, quantity for M&A? And can we expect any share repurchases, which we already covered? So if you want to IPO real estate separately.

Sorry. It's clear in our last 6 year, we launched to IPO. We are 2 company to list. We believe at the moment, we don't improve this activity.

Then next questions are from Ariana Terzi, Intesa Sanpaolo. It's several different questions. So maybe we'll go through them one by one, so you have time to process them. So first question on 2025 cash generation, which came in ahead of market expectations and indications you provided to the market back in December. In particular, we noticed a sharp increase in other receivables by over EUR 100 million and payables now exceeding EUR 1.5 billion that I assume could be related to Carrefour. Could you quantify the contribution from Carrefour?

The total contribution of Carrefour regarding the cash in action, the net working capital contribution is up to EUR 350 million. And this is the Carrefour contribution. Other questions?

The payables?

The payables is in line with the increase because it's clear the Carrefour activity is different retail business where normally net working capital is negative. In any case, we have more space if you comparable the net working capital typically in the other retail group. If you're considering when we buy to Carrefour, the net working capital is very negative to Carrefour Group to make the cash in action to recover this negative difference.

So the second question from Mariana is what should we expect going forward in terms of inventory management and normalization? More broadly, could you provide any additional color on net working capital management to allow us better understand what a normalized net working capital to sales ratio should look like post integration? It could be helpful understanding how a commercial relationship with franchisees in terms of payment terms also.

Regarding to net working capital management remain with a very strong focus with the franchisee relationship introduction very clear policy where for us, it's very important the quality of the franchisee. We want to develop the business in this channel, but with strong commitment regarding the control to the payment of our franchisee because we don't want to maintain or to improve the risk regarding this activity. Our idea is to grow in this business without to improvement the risk.

The other question from Mariana is longer term, what can we expect in terms of cash generation in light of the midterm targets you provided with Pia breakeven in 2028, so retail breakeven in 2028. What should be the drivers behind this? And are you assuming same perimeter also in terms of proportion of leased and owned assets? And what level yearly CapEx for the Carrefour network can we assume to sustain this perimeter?

Long term, we can expect -- now the story of our group to the in the last year, we maintained a very strong cash generation. We believe on the industrial side, we don't see the different level of the cash conversion comparable to the past. Regarding the Carrefour Group, our 2026 remain stable without consuming excluding the property investment with our choice because now we buy some very strategic position regarding some store. But for the rest, our approach is to maintain the cash generation without impact on the CapEx of the rest. We want to maintain the neutral impact on Carrefour retail side. And if we consider this vision, we believe with contribution from plasm industrial side to improve the cash generation from Carrefour side, we are neutral. In this case, we remain very optimistic with very strong cash generation with every next year. In any case, the 2028, our expectation is the strong generation from -- to start the cash generation also from the Carrefour...

Yes. So the next question from Ariana is I would like to ask for some clarification on the income from business combination. If I'm not mistaken, this seems to differ from the indications you provided in previous conference calls. Could you please clarify the reasons?

This is the prudent approach because the data -- the preliminary data is compliant with previous information of the market some consideration when we have a very positive impact in business combination in the prudent approach to share with our some considering we prefer don't improvement the total amount of the business combination. We maintain the minimum level of the obligation level don't give on the -- we're excluding all immaterial -- not material business combination we have inside the group. Just to clarify, we eliminate any value regarding the goodwill, also if we have the goodwill internal for the group, we don't contamize any goodwill internal group. This is the excluding any future impact in case this goodwill is not total.

Then last question from Mariana is we understand that at Princess level, so Princess Group level, 70% of energy costs are covered. Can you comment on the possible impact related to the increase of energy, transportation and raw materials and price at new Princess level?

I believe Fabio to anticipate this answer. We don't see any risk because in our business, we can to pass through any real improvement of the cost. In the case at the moment regarding the energy, we have the cover, we don't have the short-term risk. It's clear if the general situation to remain in this direction with the war don't to stopping in the next 2, 3 months, there is a possibility necessity to improvements and price, all markets have this clear expectation, and we don't have any risk on our margin.

So we have a couple more questions. So we have about 10 minutes to go, so 8 minutes to go. So the first one is from [indiscernible]. Can you give us some guidance on the removal of Carrefour fees for brand and sourcing?

At the moment, the...

Carrefour Carrefour fees. I think he's referring to the central fees, I guess.

At the moment, we don't have the fee from Carrefour Group. We have adjusted TLA regarding the regarding the service, this conclude to finish at the end of the June. In any case, Carrefour Italy have the independent infrastructure we don't have the material impact regarding this service. It's a very low level. We don't see any material impact about this service. In any case, all service to conclude at the end of June.

Okay. So next question is from [indiscernible]. So I have a question regarding the lease agreements between parent companies, New Princess and CLI Italia on the Milk and dairy assets. I would like to know what does CLI pay to New Princess annually? And how is that structured? And does the New Princess have the intention to keep the agreement in place?

The level of intragroup lease is a very material number. If you refer the lease to milk business from New Princess which is CLI is a total of EUR 5 million is honestly, is not material internal group. We have the historical lease from new property, but this is a very -- from IPO new property to Princess. Princess Group regarding some factory, this data is also in this case, not materially comparable the total of the group. The 90% of the asset is owner at the moment, we don't see any material impact. Also regarding the current perimeter, we have a very high level of the owner of the property, including in the perimeter where we have the Princess property to close at the end of the year with very positive results.

So next question from Matilda. How are you planning to promote the Princess Cuna products in Carrefour, Italy? How are you planning to promote?

Yes, we promote -- I believe we started in June. Maybe just to know.

Yes. So we are promoting 11 new SKUs. We are doing some in-store activation that you have seen even in the presentation. Maybe, Benedetta, if you want, you can show the in-store, okay, just to show you. So second. Okay. Here it is 11 new SKUs, middle top positioning, visibility and extra visibility that we are doing into the stores. We will start with the hypermarkets and supermarkets. And of course, we will be the first tuna on the Italian market is 100% certified MSC. So we want to point out on our sustainability even in Italy, where sustainability on tuna is not a topic yet. So we want to be strong and deliver our products from our factory in Mauritius. Will be product both Skipjack and yellowfin, 100% stake premium range that we produce in our factory for the Italian consumer. There are 9 product in and 2 product in jar. So we will have filled tuna in 2 versions with Extra Virgin olive oil and in brine.

Then last question. Can we expect a faster pace of share buybacks or dividends if the price remains at this level?

At the moment, the buyback remains our strong commitment, in particular to support the -- if there is a particular condition of the market, but our to continue to buy back to maintain the good level to invest without to invest a lot of money to reduction to potentially to invest in M&A other activity. It's clear our cash position to give us the potentially comparable to capitalization to make the buyback to 20% without any impact because our capitalization is very competitive. But at the moment, we don't believe this is the best choice. It's the best choice to maintain the discipline to buy back without pushing without any reason to improvement our quota. Also like the main shareholders for me, maybe it is very interesting, but I believe this is not generally interesting for all investors. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay. So for everybody joining online, thank you for...