PPC Ltd ($PPC)

[Audio Gap] to present our FY '26 results, marking the completion of the first 2 years of our Awaken the Giant turnaround strategy. Two years of progress and consistent execution, translated into strong financial results. Two years of exceptional performance and value creation. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our shareholders, investors, board members, employees, members of the media and other stakeholders joining us today. Your support and confidence in PPC are critical, as we advance to the next phase of our journey with enthusiasm and ambition. Brenda Berlin, our CFO, and I will take you through the FY '26 financial results. The key highlights of the year and the progress we have made in executing our strategy. After that, we will open the floor for questions. Please remember that you can submit the questions throughout the presentation. It has been over 2.5 years since I took over as CEO of PPC. At the time, PPC share price was ZAR 2.6, and nobody believed that an improvement in PPC was possible unless there was a significant turn in the construction sector in South Africa. At the time, almost everyone, investors, analysts and even within PPC team, believe that PPC internally was doing perfectly well and that all the problems were caused by only external factors. I still remember the beginning of my first road show when an analyst asked me, what I was going to do because previous management team was leaving the company in an outstanding condition or an investor telling me that I was telling them the same old story that they have heard many times before. It has been 2.5 years of deep personal commitment to reveal PPC. It has been a very demanding personal journey for all of us but undeniably, a successful one. Today, PPC is a position of strength because we confronted with absolutely -- absolute clarity encourage years of decline. From the beginning, I made a conscious choice to redirect, transparent and apologetic about the realities of our company and the cement industry. The conversations were uncomfortable. The diagnosis of PPC was not easily accepted, internally and externally. In fact, some of the external misconceptions about the industry, our business model and potential still persist today. PPC was not underperforming because of the market only. It was underperforming because of how the business was run, how performance was measured and how decisions were made. The change in PPC has not been driven by market tailwinds or chasing volumes. It has been driven by strategic clarity and relentless execution. It has been driven by putting the right people in the right roles by resetting targets, by building reliable data and by leveraging off the fundamentals of cement business. These are not empty slogans. It is visible in our results compounded over 2 years. We had to replace comfort with accountability and excuses with execution. That is the real transformation of PPC. The outcome today is clear. PPC is a stronger business, and we are building the platform for sustained performance and value creation. In this slide, the numbers speak for themselves. These are the results we are proud of. From the outset, we have communicated the metrics that reflect quality earnings and value creation. These were EBITDA, EBITDA margin, cash flow generation and return on invested capital. Delivering on those metrics could ensure value creation for shareholders. Our performance has been driven by a step change in all these metrics. EBITDA increased by 28% in FY '25, an additional 31% in FY '26 to ZAR 2.1 billion, up from ZAR 1.2 billion in FY '24. This is not a cyclical change. It is a structural. Margins tell the same story, and it is even more remarkable. EBITDA margin expanded around 4 percentage points in the first year. And as a proof of the consistency of the turnaround, another 4 percentage point to 20.3% in the second year. This is a significant shift in margins, demonstrated improved competitiveness and operational leverage. Importantly, these results are consistent across our 2 core businesses: South Africa and Zimbabwe Cement, we jointly represent 99% of our business. Cash generation from the operation has made a significant step change too. Just 2 years ago, it was at ZAR 260 million, both to over ZAR 1 billion in FY '25, and a further increase to ZAR 1.3 billion in FY '26. Once again, it talks to the quality of the earnings with a significant improvement in our cash conversion rate. Critically, improvement in this metric has translated into returns. ROIC, excluding the new RK3 plant, increased to 16.7%, up to from 6.5% in FY '24. A clear signal that capital employed is value accretive. The Awaken the Giant turnaround strategy is delivering and there is more to come. If I had to define our journey in one word, it could be consistency. Consistency in our message, consistency in our plans, consistency in our execution and most importantly, consistency in delivering results. First, rebuilding PPC require resetting the fundamentals of the company, organizational culture, accountability and performance standards. This was a decisive shift to restore credibility internally and externally. Secondly, introducing a robust strategic turnaround plan, the Awaken the Giant, a strategy grounded in the internal value unlock, clear metrics and well-defined vision. It was designed to be executable and to reshape the trajectory of the business with a relentless focus on margins, cash and returns from our core cement business. This plan was based on a deep knowledge of the market dynamics and competitive landscape changes. Thirdly, executing. We translated the strategy into actions. We reset target, a strengthened leadership teams, and embedded data-driven decision-making. Fourthly, building the future. This has never been about short-term wins, will never be. It has always been about creating a platform for sustainable growth. We are building a more capable and competitive organization to position ourselves to deliver growth and performance in the long term. In addition to a sharper commercial approach, better operational performance, a leaner cost base, we are also adding the most competitive asset to our portfolio, RK3. Moving forward, a new integrated plant in Zimbabwe. Today, PPC is a structurally stronger. This strength is reflected in our financial performance. More importantly, it gives us confidence in the next growth phase of PPC. I would like to provide a clear recap on where we stand across the 3 pillars of our strategy. It matters because it only reflects the results we have delivered. The hard work behind them and the difficult decisions we have taken, but also the significant value still ahead of us. The first pillar is the organizational culture reset. We took deliberate actions to entrench a culture of discipline and accountability, aligned performance to outcomes and to appoint the right people in the right roles. A strong management team with deep business knowledge has been instrumental to the performance of the past 2 years and remains central to rebuilding of PPC. It is essential to have a fully committed team obsessed with detail, understanding cost, technology, logistics and market dynamic at a granular level. This talks directly to value-driven decision across pricing, capital expenditure, growth and efficiency initiatives. The focus is always to enhance quality returns and strengthen the long-term competitive position of PPC. We have made progress, but we must do more. Quality decisions need to be made deeper in the organization, reducing reliance at the top and reinforcing accountability where it belongs. Moving now to the 4 key pillars of the Awaken the Giant turnaround. Progress is visible across all 4 areas. But as you can see, there is still room for improvement. Two areas have developed faster and continue to gain traction. The less is more and cost mindset have delivered substantial value and will compound additional gains going forward as we streamline processes, increased internal agility and maintain strict control over non-core assets expenses. The operational turnaround is progressing, but unevenly. This was anticipated. It required upskilling people and implementing routines and controls that were not there previously. We have raised the performance standard through our planned performance improvement plan, establishing industry benchmark metrics, clear targets and robust action plans. The supply chain area is more advanced and continues to drive significant results. I will provide more details in the business performance section, but the logistic cost reductions achieved has been remarkable, an important driver of the result of the past 2 years. As I mentioned before, the commercial side is progressing with our competitiveness evolution alongside the improvement in distribution channels and sales mix. The third pillar we set PPC apart from competition and unlock the next phase of profitability and growth. The new Western Cape state-of-the-art plant, RK3, remains the most significant project. We entered FY '27 in the critical phase of the plant construction, keeping the project on time, on budget and safely. The solar project in Zimbabwe is also a strategic priority, since it directly address both the cost and the availability of electricity. The partnership with Sinoma Overseas initially focused on South Africa has now been extended to Zimbabwe. This new cooperation agreement also expands the scope focusing on improving current plans, performance and output while laying the ground work for a new integrated plant. In our optimization CapEx pipeline, we are also performing an important upgrade of the cooler of our SK9 Slurry plant. At this stage, the newest in the country. This will enhance better performance and higher production at the lowest cash cost plant across PPC until RK3 runs. Lastly, we have additional strategic options under evaluation for future value creation. It is clear we have delivered meaningful progress, but what's -- it's equally clear is the scale of the opportunity ahead, and that is what creates a real sense of excitement and focus for the next phase. I will hand over to Brenda now to cover the financial review. After that, I will deal with the business performance review and the strategic update and outlook.

Thank you, Matias, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Matias has already touched on some of the key metrics. But as usual, I will start with reemphasizing some of the key features of the consolidated group, followed by some more detail on the SA & Botswana Group and then Zimbabwe. I will close on capital allocation, capital expenditure and returns to shareholders. Moving on to the consolidated group key features. Group revenue increased by 3.9% to ZAR 10.3 billion. I will go into a little bit more detail later as to the split of the revenue across South Africa and Zimbabwe. The increase in trading profit of 50% to ZAR 1,473 million is due to 3 things: the increase in revenue, containing cost of sales increased 2% and further reduction of 19% in admin and other operating expenditure. The above results are also reflected in the 45% increase in the pro forma HEPS. The pro forma adjustment relates to adding back a pretax amount of $148 million realized and unrealized foreign exchange losses on hedging instruments taken out to derisk PPC's balance sheet from rand weakness when constructing RK3. The group continued investing in this equipment and spent ZAR 413 million on maintenance CapEx during the year. This excludes spend on RK3, which I will deal with separately later. Free cash flow from operations, again, before spend on RK3 increased by 24% to ZAR 1,295 million. All of the above has enabled a dividend of ZAR 0.302 a share or ZAR 469 million, which is a significant 72% increase on the prior year dividend. I will also come back to this later on as to how it is built up. This slide sets out the key line items of the consolidated group income statement. I will cover both the South Africa and Botswana Group and Zimbabwe in a bit at the EBITDA level. The absolute increase in EBITDA of ZAR 486 million is reflected in the increase in trading profit, an increase of ZAR 491 million. Both EBITDA and trading profit include ZAR 139 million profit on the sale of a non-core property by Cement SA. Moving on to some relevant items below the trading profit line. The fair value and foreign exchange movements include the ZAR 148 million I referred to of ForEx losses, ZAR 78 million of this was unrealized at year-end. Translation of foreign currency denominated monetary items for PPC Zimbabwe and PPC Botswana contributed a ZAR 56 million loss. There was a small specific asset impairment reversal on one of the aggregate plant that had been impaired empowered in FY '23. To remind you, the ZAR 181 million impairment last year was due to the cessation of mining activities at Dwaalboom being replaced by better quality limestone from Riebeeck. Net finance costs reduced from ZAR 106 million to ZAR 82 million due to a full year of better interest rates on facilities that we restructured in September 2004 and lower JIBAR rates during the current year. The effective tax rate is 31%, which is slightly below our usual guidance of 33%. The reason it is above the statutory rate is due to withholding taxes paid on dividends received from Zimbabwe and certain nondeductible costs incurred in PPC Limited. Closing this slide with HEPS. We have adjusted the HEPS for the ForEx losses on the RK3 hedges as these are not part of normal earnings and gains or losses will only realize for another year. This is the final slide on the consolidated group. As usual, it depicts the contribution to both revenue and EBITDA by the South Africa & Botswana Group and PPC Zimbabwe, respectively. The numbers inside the wheel to pick the current year percentages with the prior year shown on the outside. As can be seen, the relative contributions to both revenue and EBITDA have stabilized over the last 2 years, with the South African entities, contributing consistently some 65% of group revenue and some 45% of group EBITDA. I will move on now to give an overview of the South Africa & Botswana Group followed by Zimbabwe. The South Africa & Botswana Group is an aggregation of 3 components with the main driver being SA & Botswana cement. The materials businesses comprise ready-mix, ash and aggregates with PPC Limited and other being essentially a listed company overhead. Matias will go deeper in the business review. So just -- I will just touch on some key features on this slide. Dealing with the South Africa & Botswana Group cement fast across all metrics. Revenue increased by ZAR 82 million or 1.4%. The focus remained on contribution margin and cost efficiencies resulting in a very sound 42.9% EBITDA growth. EBITDA includes the ZAR 139 million on profit on sale of the noncore asset. And excluding this impact, EBITDA would have increased by 26.3% and the EBITDA margin would have increased by 3.5 percentage points to 17.3%. The Materials segment shows a significant, but not material decline in EBITDA. Dealing with PPC limits and other, the focus remained on stringent cost control, which reduced the costs associated with the segment by 24% in the current year. I will deal with the cash flow bridge for the SA & Botswana Group shortly, but overall, the SA & Botswana Group remains in a net cash position for a second year in a row. RK3 expenditure is in various places in the financials. And this slide attempts to bring together the overall picture for you. The total expenditure for the year is ZAR 1,084 million. Before dealing with the location of the expenditure, I'd like to touch on the hedging. As we have mentioned several times, PPC has hedged the entire dollar portion of the total cost of ZAR 3.1 billion. The consequence is that regardless of rand strength or weakness, the total spend will be 3.1 billion. However, some will be in CapEx or the asset and the balance positive or negative, will be in retained earnings. In the current year, in the environment of rand strength, this started to happen and ZAR 148 million being realized and unrealized foreign exchange losses in the year or in the income statement with the balance of the ZAR 1,084 million on the balance sheet as follows: ZAR 712 million sits in CapEx or assets under construction and ZAR 224 million since in trade and other receivables. Thank you, Paula. Dealing now with the SA & Botswana Group cash flow. What is shown on the slide is the waterfall for the current period, up to, in the first instance, net cash generated by the core business of ZAR 446 million. Dealing with this section first, what you can see is strong operating cash flow before working capital changes of ZAR 150 million, a small working capital release of ZAR 55 million, bearing in mind the ZAR 410 million reduction in working capital for the year ended March 2025. Taxes, CapEx and other core operational business activities are then depicted to arrive at the net cash generated. What is shown after net cash generated on nonoperational items, with the material items being essentially the proceeds received for the sale of the non-core property of ZAR 140 million. The investment in RK3 of 709, which I dealt with earlier, this excludes unrealized ForEx losses and the goods in transit, that have not yet been paid for. Dividends received from PPC Zimbabwe of ZAR 595 million. This is PPC share of $36 million paid in the current period. Distributions to shareholders in the current period of ZAR 274 million being the $0.176 per share declared in respect of the FY '25 year. Overall, cash increased by ZAR 200 million and debt increased by $48 million, which was a drawdown on the new trade facility for RK3. Set out on this slide are the key metrics for Zimbabwe. We keep this slide in U.S. dollars so that you can see the numbers in PPC's Zimbabwe's functional currency. The Awaken the Giant turnaround gained traction in the current year with a 4% increase in earned legal production and cost efficiencies. Volumes sold were a tale of 2 halves, with H1 up 25% and H2 up 12% due to the gearbox breakdown. Nonetheless, EBITDA was up by 19.1% and margin virtually flat at 27%. Cash holdings were at $8.1 million at the end of the year, of which 99% is in hard currencies, and this is after paying record dividends during the year of $36 million. Moving on to capital allocation now. On the left-hand side of the slide, you can see the actual CapEx spend for the group over the last 3 years. The forecast spend for FY '27 is also shown. The reduction of the total group spend in FY '26 to ZAR 413 million from previously guided ZAR 450 million is all due to strict capital allocation in South Africa. The cash spend on RK3 commenced and is shown in the black bars -- the previous forecast spend in FY '26 was estimated at ZAR 920 million. And as you can see, this reduced to ZAR 660 million, mainly due to timing of payments for goods already in transit that we're not yet due for payment. The ROIC calculation remains consistent and was positively assisted by the 31% increase in EBITDA. In the current year, ROIC increased from 10.6% to 16.7%, a healthy 6.1 percentage points. This calculation excluded the ZAR 184 million expenditure on RK3. This will remain the case for 1 more year, and then the calculation will include the full assets of RK3 and enhanced EBITDA from this project. ROIC remains a key focus area, and all expansion capital has to meet stringent criteria. Thank you. Thank you, Paula. Thank you, sir. Lastly, before I close, I'd like to deal with PPC Group's capital allocation model for dividends to shareholders and explain the buildup of the current dividend declared in respect of FY '26. Firstly, for the purposes of dividends, we manage capital in 2 distinct pillars being the SA & Botswana Group and Zimbabwe as separate entities. For the SA & Botswana Group, we determined what the post of available cash is for dividends. How we do this is to determine what cash is available from either cash holdings or debt facility headroom such as the utilization of the cash and/or drawdown with the debt would leave our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio in a range of at or below 1.3 to 1.5x on a 12-month forward-looking basis. Importantly, the cash we look at here excludes dividends received from Zimbabwe. Expansion CapEx that meets our capital allocation criteria is included in the forward-looking cash outflows. The Board has approved a dividend from the SA & Botswana Group of ZAR 0.023 per share or ZAR 36 million. This is a 20% increase on the dividend declared in respect to FY '25. This leaves our estimated 12-month forward-looking gearing ratio slightly below the bottom end of the range, but is prudent given the peak funding associated with RK3 in FY '27. Regarding Zimbabwe, the distribution policy is to flow through to PPC shareholders and amount up to the gross dividend received by PPC from PPC Zimbabwe. In this regard, a total dividend received from PPC Zimbabwe was ZAR 595 million. However, we have excluded ZAR 105 million from this as this was a dividend specifically to enable PPC to cash back a guarantee for PPC Zimbabwe solar project. The adjusted amount is therefore ZAR 490 million. The ZAR 433 million dividend cloud amounts to almost 90% of the ZAR 490 million with 10% retained by the SA & Botswana Group for prudence. This results in a 77.5% increase in the dividend from Zimbabwe compared to FY '25. Combined, overall, the total dividend of ZAR 469 million is 72% above the FY '25 dividend declared. Thank you very much, and I'll now hand you back to Matias for the business review.

Thank you, Brenda. I want to take this moment to recognize and personally thank Brenda. This is the last time we are presenting together, and I have appreciated every part of it. The discussion preparing the materials, the valuable English grammar and pronunciation corrections, and your best experience and deep insight into the listed environment in South Africa. Brenda, your impact on PPC has been profound. You inherited a devastated finance function. Your leadership and commitment have helped to shape the business we see today. On behalf of the executive team, the entire PPC team, particularly from me, thank you. Competitiveness is our obsession. Our understanding of the cement business and its evolving dynamics bring us back to a small number of fundamentals. At the center of all of them is one principle, only competitive companies win. It is embedded in our daily decision and aligning the organization behind it has been a delivery leadership priority. Today, we are a different PPC competing in the market, structurally stronger. This change started with leadership, organizational culture, governance and control changes follow. We are now managing PPC with an understanding of our cost base and clarity on what drives value and what does not. Revenue growth and buying market share in a muted market does not create value. Actually, destroys it, as we have seen examples in the South African cement industry again and again. Improving our operational leverage, productivity and quality sales does create value. This is why we have relentless focus on contribution margin, and we will continue doing so. It is important to maintain strict capital allocation while driving value accretive projects. This investments vary in scale and impact and are fully aligned to the outcome, strengthened our competitive position and create value for shareholders. Let me be clear. We have made good progress, but the transition in the next 2 to 3 years is going to be equally demanding and important. It will require ongoing commitment and deep expertise from the executive team. The giant is awake, is not longer reacting to its environment, but actively shaping it outcomes with stronger margins, better revenues and a clear path ahead. Let me now take you into the performance of each of our business segments. South African cement delivered a strong step-up in profitability for the second consecutive year. This is remarkable taking into consideration a largely unchanged demand context and irrational competitor's behavior. The numbers on this slide are impactful. The same demand in the market, the same asset, imports at the higher level ever, yet a fundamentally different outcome and EBITDA expansion of 51% over 2 years under the Awaken the Giant implementation. As you can see, revenue growth was not the driver. It has increased around 3% over the period to ZAR 6.3 billion, reflecting the shift towards value accretive sales. In FY '26, volumes grew by 1.3%. But on a 2-year view, total sales volumes are broadly flat. But here comes the important part. While total revenue might look less the same, the quality of those sales has improved materially, better product mix and distribution channels and improved regional and sector portfolios. This improvement was leveraged by the logistic cost with a significant reduction of our distribution expenses of over 24% over 2 years. All of this is driving the contribution margin growth and translating into bottom line growth. Our journey is on quality earnings and margin expansion. Volume growth will come, but it will be delivered through competitiveness and operational leverage, not through margin compromise. Over the past 2 years, EBITDA has grown by 55%. This was not a single jump that can be attributed to one factor, but sustained and consistent execution. EBITDA margin was at 11.5% in FY '24. In FY '25, margin grew by 2.1 percentage points to 13.6%. And this year, it has further expanded by 3.3 percentage points to 16.9%. A total growth of 4.5 percentage points in 2 years. Importantly, these figures exclude the non-core property disposal, underscoring the robustness of the operational improvement achieved in the period. As I mentioned, this performance is entirely driven by internal actions, not the external environment. Our operational discipline has driven a 6% reduction in cash cost per ton over the period, reflecting structural improvements in logistics operations and overhead costs. We executed a disciplined commercial strategy, prioritizing margin over volume and optimizing route to market, especially in an environment of short-term self-destructed tactics from some competitors. This is supported by real tangible operational progress, including higher production of clinker and cement in our integrated plants, lower clinker incorporation, and an additional 2 percentage point improvement in OE on top of the increase achieved in FY '25. Importantly, looking at world-class benchmarks that one day we could become, we still have significant room to improve. Critically, our core South African cement business move from lethargic cash generation and even cash consuming business not too long ago into a cash generation business for the second year in a row. Cash generation remained strong, but slightly lower than FY '25, mainly due to temporary higher stocks at the end of FY '26, ahead of the planned maintenance shutdown of Dwaalboom and Slurry in Q1 2027. The focus of working capital has been a key element to top up the structurally higher results and therefore, deliver stronger cash conversion. The outcome is clear. Two years of materially improved results. South Africa cement has moved from a struggling underperforming business to a growth one with expanding margins. This positions South Africa cement to convert future volume recovery directly into earnings growth. The material business is very small in the context of the group. You can see in the left chart, it represents less than 1% of total EBITDA generation. That said, our focus has been clear and consistent, ensure the business is cash positive, disciplined and well managed. As part of our strict pricing discipline, revenue was negatively impacted with softer volumes, especially in ash and readymix units. EBITDA in FY '26 reached ZAR 11 million with the segment presented a neutral profitability. The material business is well controlled with upside ahead, but due to its size won't change materially our results in the future. Zimbabwe delivered a remarkable performance in FY '26, building on the strong performance achieved in FY '25. It reinforced PPC Zimbabwe position as a high-quality cash-generated growth platform within the group. Revenue increased by 16%, and expansion marked by market growth. We have captured these momentums with sales volume growth demonstrating our improved commercial reach to market. After a record year in FY '25, EBITDA increased to a new high of $56 million in FY '26. EBITDA margins also had a step change from 20% in FY '24 to a robust level at around 27% currently. FY '26 margins were flattish compared to FY '25 due to the first half impact of a planned longer maintenance stoppage at our clinker plant. In H2, the EBITDA margin recovered to a level above 30%, even with the temporary restriction caused by the Bulawayo factory gearbox failure. This performance reflects clear traction from the turnaround actions, increased clinker production by 4% year-on-year. Each additional ton of clinker produce is a leap in terms of profitability for PPC Zimbabwe. Launched a new product with higher extensions, reducing clinker incorporation by around 4 percentage points which effectively increased our local cement capacity. Execute stronger route-to-market actions, including an expansion in our collect model, allowing us to capture better the strong market demand, gain traction on efficiency and cost measures. What also stands out in the cash generation level, Zimbabwe generated strong cash inflows, enabled a significant increase in dividends to $36 million in FY '26, highlighting both the quality of earnings and balance sheet strength. The demand for cement remains high, and PPC is uniquely positioned to supply into this growing market. With our premium brand, national footprint and full range of products we are able to leverage and fully capture this growth into results. Zimbabwe continues to be a powerful engine of value within the group. What is particularly encouraging is that this performance is not reaching a ceiling. It is a building platform. That is why we believe in a phase of optimization and improvement of the current assets. while we prepare for a new phase of growth, a new integrated plant. Safety and decarbonizations are much more than compliance for us. They define the sustainability of our business. On safety, the progress we made was overshadowed by a tragic fatality at our Hercules plant, involving a contractor working at high. Despite the right equipment and risk assessment procedure being in place, a highly experienced, skilled and certified operator neglected to attach himself to the lifeline. This is a sovereign reminder. Systems alone do not prevent accidents, behaviors, too. Our commitment is unconditionally to a safety culture of 0 harm. Achieving this requires a deeply embedded safety culture where every individual takes ownership every day without exception. We are strengthening leadership accountability, supervision and driving consistent behavior on the grounds. Safety comes from a safety-conscious mindset and discipline. In our decarbonization process, we are making tangible process across energy efficiency improvements. Alternative fuels and lower carbon products. This paves the way to reduce CO2 emissions while we are strengthening competitiveness. On a like-for-like comparison, in terms of emission per ton of cement, we have registered a tangible reduction of emission in FY '26. Both safety and decarbonization are journey. This is our commitment to build a business that is safer, more environmentally sustainable and structurally stronger for the future. The journey has just begun. If we step back, the change is clear. From an EBITDA of ZAR 1.7 billion in FY '17, the PPC business on a like-for-like basis faced a sustained period of decline, reaching a low of just ZAR 900 million EBITDA in FY '23. To the Awaken the Giant turnaround, we fundamentally reset this trajectory. What we are now seeing is not a cyclical rebound like the short post-COVID period. It is a structural recovery driven by competitiveness, cost discipline and focused execution. The results is a step change in performance with EBITDA more than doubling to exceed ZAR [ 2.1 ] billion in FY '26, surpassing prior peaks and importantly, doing so with higher-quality earnings and a stronger cash generation. Critically, this is not an end point. We have rebuilt the foundations, preestablished operating leverage and invested in value accretive projects that position the group for sustained value creation. The momentum is real. The trajectory is positive, and there is still significant upside ahead. Moving to the strategic update and outlook section. Creating shareholder value has been at the core of our turnaround. The results are clearly visible. Over the past 2 years, PPC has delivered a significant re-rating in the market. Our share price appreciation reflects the results achieved. Our market capitalization has increased meaningfully from around ZAR 4 billion to over ZAR 10 billion over the last 2 years, reinforcing PPC position as a credible value creator in the sector. Importantly, this re-rating is not driven by external factors, once-off actions of short-term strategy. It is underpinned by a consistent improvement in the metrics that matter most to shareholders. We have delivered consistent growth in HEPS, reflecting both operating leverage and quality of earnings. We have restated and grown dividends per share, demonstrated confidence in the cash generation of our core business and a clear commitment to returning value to shareholders. We have also materially improved our ROIC, evidence in better capital allocation and more efficient use of our balance sheet. Taken together, these outcomes highlight a step change in the quality of our earnings, more cash generative and most importantly, with room to growth. The strategic project with a new Western Cape Plant as the main highlight and the compound effect of the turnaround will deliver a new step change in results and value in the near future. We believe there is a clear opportunity. Despite the progress as mentioned in our Capital Markets Day, PPC continues to trade at a valuation multiple below comparable players, a clear runway for further upside. I will share again my confidence in our strategic plan and process. The early delivery in FY '25, combined with compound momentum in FY '26 has only strengthened that confidence. As we look ahead to FY '27, our message remains unchanged. We started this year with a strong foundation, and we are determined to build on that success. The Awaken the Giant strategy remains solid. In our plan, FY '27 is a pivotal consolidation year. Consolidation of the turnaround process and capitalizing on the effect of actions already implemented while preparing for the next step change in FY '28. We are confident for FY '27, but our focus will be on delivering and executing the plans for FY '28, when there will be the next marked change for PPC. The year started with global instability, expanding effects across the cost change. This impact is seen in our cost structure and in our distribution cost, and to some extent, in the demand behavior in the markets. It is an exciting year for South African operation. It is the year in which we will complete the construction of a new plant, positioning PPC with the two most advanced plant in the country, RK3 and SK9 in Slurry, complemented by a modern and competitive plant in Dwaalboom. The project remains on schedule and within the approved budget. Importantly, our project governance, cost control and reporting structures remain robust and effective. Overall, the RK3 project is progressing, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver this critical investment on time and within budget. In South Africa, we expect FY '27 to be a year of consolidation, underpinned by broadly unchanged market conditions. As I mentioned earlier, the high inventories at the FY '26 year-end were planned for use in the annual maintenance shutdowns at 2 of our main integrated plants, Dwaalboom and Slurry. This, combined with the worldwide cost inflation pressure may temporarily impact H1 FY '27 results, but our confidence in the full year results remains unchanged. The industry has been having productive engagement with the government lately about key aspects of the sector, namely, the dump imports of clinker and cement into South Africa; the carbon tax equalization on imported cement and clinker, and the enforcement of the cement quality standards in the country. These are critical topics for the industry and jobs in South Africa. We believe that the moment for appropriate regulations to create a fair competitive landscape has finally come. We expect that some of the measures will take place in a short period of time, leveling the playing field for local production with imports and blenders. This is a top to our business plan. In Zimbabwe, we expect to continue the previous 2-years trajectory, also an important year to drive forward with our partner, the installation of the solar project. The 20-megawatt solar plant with battery backup at our Colleen Bawn plant will have a significant impact on our cost base. This project will not only improve our margin and strengthen our energy security but also demonstrates our commitment to environmentally sustainable operations. Future looks excited. This slide was first presented in our Capital Markets Day in March 2025. The plan remains firmly in place. But today, we stand 1 year further ahead in our execution and importantly, ahead of our delivery curve. The story is even more compelling now. We set out a clear ambitious plan, and we are delivering it at pace. Step by step, we have rebuilt PPC foundations, and the impact is visible in a materially stronger EBITDA, expanding margins, rising ROIC and sustained cash generation. The Awaken the Giant strategy continues to guide us. We are not just progressing. We are ahead. Looking forward at our trajectory remains clear. We will continue to consolidate these gains through FY '27, strengthening the platform for the next step change in FY '28 as RK3 comes online. Our ambition does not stop with these targets. We will continue focused on executing with consistency. As our strategic project they set as tangible drivers of a more efficient and competitive PPC, we are increasingly confident in our ability to outperform our own plan. We believe PPC is uniquely positioned to deliver sustainable, high-quality shareholder returns. Starting with our leading position across our core markets, PPC holds leading market positions in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. This enables scale advantages, powerful brand equity and established commercial relationship across our markets. We operate a modern increasingly efficient asset base. Over the last years, we have started the plant performance improvement plan to increase the plant's efficiency, reliability and performance. At the same time, we are investing decisively for the future. Specifically, the new integrated plant in the Western Cape will strengthen our cost position and enhance long-term competitiveness. Down the road, a new integrated plant in Zimbabwe. We are strategically positioned to capture the future demand. Our markets are underpinned by fundamental drivers, including population growth, urbanization and infrastructure gaps. PPC is not only well placed to capture the demand recovery, but also to extract maximum value from any market upturn. Over the past 2 years, PPC has demonstrated consistent EBITDA and EBITDA margin expansion, improving returns on capital and shareholders' value. This performance reflects the trajectory of the turnaround strategy, delivering above peer growth in key financial metrics. Critically, this growth is underpinned by a strong financial position. We have a robust balance sheet, low leverage and consistent cash generation. This gives us flexibility to reinvest in high-return opportunities, maintain capital allocation discipline and distribute dividends. Lastly, an experienced and proven management team. A company with strong governance and a clear long-term strategic vision, execution matters and PPC has the team to deliver. In summary, compelling investment case with a clear path to continue delivering shareholder value. Over the past 2 years, we have demonstrated through actions and results that the right team with the right strategy, executing with discipline and focus delivers tangible and clear outcomes. We have set ourselves to unlock the internal value of PPC. Without any changes in the macro environment, the changes reflect structural improvements that are making our business fundamentally more competitive. We now move forward from a position of strength. What we have delivered today is only the beginning. Internal opportunities for further value creation remain significant. Our strategic initiatives are set to deliver a further step change in performance. At the same time, the competitive shifts we anticipate in the market are expected to be positive. With a healthy balance sheet, disciplined capital allocation and high-return projects, such as RK3 ahead of us, the pathway to sustain earnings growth, margin expansion and improved returns is clear. The momentum is real, and we are well positioned to capture the meaningful upside that lies ahead. To our PPC team, we can be proud of our results. Together, we have reignited the pride and the belief in what we can achieve. We are reestablishing PPC as an iconic contributor to the growth of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Let us continue building on the success achieved today. To our investors and shareholders, thank you for being part of PPC Awaken the Giant journey. PPC always stood for quality cement you can trust. Today, it also stands for quality of consistent results you can trust. The turnaround is real, and we are ready for the next phase. Thank you so much. We are moving now to the Q&A session.

Good morning, everyone. This is Debbie Miller. I'm responsible for Investor Relations for PPC. If you want to ask a question, please type it up in the message section. I'm going to start from the top. The first question from Rowan Goeller from Chronux Research. Is there still a market premium for the PPC Surebuild brand? And are you holding market share for this product?

Of course, to both questions.

Thanks, Matias. The next question is from Heinz Schenk, Netwerk24. Matias and congratulations on some heartening and robust results. I was hoping perhaps for some color on the realities of the local market, please. And he's broken it down into three parts. I'll read all 3, and then you can take them, I think they are sort of regulation and market related. You've mentioned that imported still remains a threat to competitiveness in the SA market. Is PPC of the opinion that some regulatory intervention is needed? Or do you believe the focus on higher-quality sales might eventually alleviate such pressures? Let's stop there and do that first, and then I'll deal with the second question.

Yes. Let's clarify the point or try to give some color. I mean, of course, we believe that imported cement is a problem for the South African cement market. Not so much for PPC, but quite a lot for some of our competitors. So indirectly for us as well. As mentioned in the question because we have some quality, high-quality products, imported cement does not compete against us in that segment. But it's an extremely important topic for South Africa. Since last year, we have seen an increase in imported cement coming from Vietnam. For almost 10 years, South Africa, imported cement coming from Vietnam was around 1 million tons of cement. In the past year, that jumped to 1.5 million tons of cement. Same thing is happening with the cement imported from Mozambique. From being a -- it's very small amounts of cement coming from West China plant in the border with South Africa, at around, I don't know, let's say, around 50,000 tons of cement. Now we have seen an increase to 300,000 tons of cement coming from Mozambique, which I would say that represent a big risk for the country, not only for the cement industry. As you all know, AfriSam has been sold to West China, West China is in Chinese term, a small Chinese regional company in Chinese terms. Highly geared that has supported their expansion in Africa through that, namely recently, West China issued 2 bonds of around $700 million at an interest rate at around 10% per year. And West China has bought AfriSam with a credit facility from Standard Bank. So AfriSam has very old plants and average about 45 years old. So it's not very difficult to see that most probably the business plan from West China running AfriSam, taking into consideration the weak financial position West China is. So it's quite difficult that we can believe that they are going to make a big investment in South Africa, I don't know, but I'm trying to interpret the situation. So the most probable scenario is that West China is going to start to move production from the current AfriSam plant in South Africa to Mozambique. We have made this point during the ComCom process linked to the acquisition of West China of AfriSam, but the ComCom didn't pay much attention to our comment. We have been also engaging with the government lately and highlighting this problem that we will see. I mean, respectfully, I think that South Africa will have to take a decision in terms of if really South African jobs matter or all the incentives in place are going to move the industry to produce in neighboring countries and to bring cement to South Africa because clearly it's more cheap -- it's cheaper to produce cement in Mozambique that you don't pay the carbon tax, you don't pay South African taxes. You don't -- you don't pay South African labor cost. You don't pay South Africa energy costs, logistics cost, et cetera. So imported cement is a problem. There is no level play field competition with local production, and that is a problem. I don't have any problem to compete against any competitor, but I would like to have the same rules to compete. So imported cement coming from Vietnam is a big problem because it has increased to 1.5 million tons. But for me, a big, big concern is what is happening in Mozambique. I mean, if this trend continues, again, all the incentives from government will be to boost the industry to produce and to invest in the neighboring countries and to bring the cement to South Africa.

Thanks, Matias. Still with Heinz from Netwerk24. Related to this, have you and the industry seen any improvement in the circulation of substandard cement in the SA construction industry? Or does it remain a problem?

It remains a big problem. We haven't seen any improvement. Basically, the substandard cement is coming from some blenders, not all the blenders that reduce the clinker content of the cement produced to a level that's not complying with regulation and make it very dangerous for anyone building with that cement. So this is another huge, huge concern we have. And also, we have expressed our concern to government.

Thank you. The third part of his question. Zimbabwe seems like a real growth platform as mentioned. Could you perhaps provide color on what type of projects in the region is driving this?

I mean different kinds of infrastructure is happening in Zimbabwe, from housing to public infrastructure to roads, we are seeing a consistent growth in the market that from all segments. I couldn't point out to one in particular. All of them are growing.

Okay. On to the next question from Warren Riley at Bateleur Capital. What impact is higher diesel pricing having on the group post March year-end? Are you able to pass through the majority of the logistics cost? Or are you expecting a negative margin impact?

Paulo, could you take that? But I would say that, yes, we have passed part of that cost, and part we will have to absorb it, but Paulo can answer in detail.

Thank you for the question. Yes, we are seeing an impact in our logistics and distribution costs and some upstream cost inflation in some several input costs. We have passed a pricing flow through in terms of the most of the distribution cost. And regarding the cost inflation in -- related to other input costs, we are working on optimizing our efficiency and balance that increase.

There's a second part of the question from Warren. You referred to potential new integrated plant in Zimbabwe. Can you explain the logic behind this and the potential capital requirements?

First of all, I mean, as we mentioned in the presentation, we are not here for the short term. Our strategy includes short-term gains, as you have seen significant ones in the first 2 years of the turnaround, but also we are planning and building for the future. Again, as we have mentioned, Zimbabwe is a very important operation for us, business for us, and we see a country that is consistently growing. PPC plays a leadership position there. And in cement, you can't just think for the next 2 or 3 years. You need to think for the next 20 years, like happened with the RK3 project in the Western Cape. If you don't invest in advance of the demand and growth in the country, you put at risk the future of the company, and we are not going to do that. So of course, we are starting the process. We have aligned with the Board. We are starting to speak to Sinoma about the cost of the project. We are looking at where the new plant is going to be. Brenda and I and the whole team, we are working on looking at different finance options that we can look at. And of course, we are going to follow our capital allocation process. But above all and respectfully and humbly I think that no one at this point would believe that this management team is going to do a crazy stuff like happened in PPC in the past. So I'm convinced we are doing the right thing. And I think that I'm very optimistic that in the middle term, we are going to land with a very good project to build a new integrated plant in Zimbabwe.

Thank you. Nick de Vos has got two questions here. But Matias, I think you've covered them off. Maybe I'll read them out, if you want to expand on anything then you're very welcome. I think he's asked -- Nick's from Centaur Asset Management. He asked, please, can you comment on the review of your Zimbabwe operations by Sinoma and what this could look like? And I know we've spoken about the integrated plant. I don't know if you want to...

No. But I mean, no, it's important one because I mean, there are 3 aspects of our cooperation agreement with Sinoma in Zimbabwe. First of all, what is already in place, we are upscaling our skills in our Zimbabwe plant, and that is what, in fact, has happened is that we have Sinoma engineers there. They're helping to upscale the skill at the plants and improve the processes and the performance. Then we have already some ongoing projects to invest in our current facilities in Zimbabwe to improve production and reduce costs in the short term. And in the middle and long term, we are already working with Sinoma on defining a sustainable and plan to build a new integrated plant in Zimbabwe.

You've covered this quite comprehensively. But once again, I'm going to just read the question if there's anything else you want to. Can you elaborate more on the progress regarding safeguards on the importation of cement. Which I know you covered quite well.

Yes. But I mean what I can tell you now is that I am cautiously optimistic. I think that the past 2 months, we have had a very productive conversation with government. And I think that I always thought that partnership between public sector and private sector is extremely important for the progress of the country. So I would rather prefer not to extend, but I'm cautiously optimistic that finally, we have -- having productive conversation with the government for the benefit of the country and the industry.

On to a question from Marko Ras from Optimum Investment Group. The underlying margin is 18.9%. Obviously, stripping out the one-off non-core asset sale, et cetera. How much of the remaining gap to the sustainably 20% plus margin target can still be closed through the self-help before RK3? And what are the biggest levers to bridge that gap in FY '27?

Well, I will answer you from a personal point of view. I'm not in a very good mood lately because I think that we continue committing unforced errors internally. Our result has been fantastic, but could have been better. So I strongly believe that there is still a lot of opportunities ahead to improve our results and particularly our EBITDA margin. So I think that there is still room to improve those financial indicators even without RK3 running.

Thank you. I don't think there are any more questions. Thanks very much.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.