Sword Group S.E. (9RS.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being present with us whereas you could still be in bed watching all of this on your screen, but I really do appreciate the fact that you've all traveled to be here and the fact that your present will enable you to sense how strongly we believe in everything that we're saying. But we're not in Paris, and so as a result, we are streaming all of the discussions? And any questions you put forth will be communicated to us by Stephanie. A very big thank you to Dawn, as is the case every time we know that she has a difficult job. I was saying there is a Scottish speaker. So I would like to ask you, if you don't mind, to please take care of that. To be totally honest, I have no doubt whatsoever about Kevin and Greg's capacities in English, but please do pick up a headset because what they're going to be saying is extremely important. I insist on that. And once again, thank you to Stephanie as well, who is in charge of organizing all of the event. And let me start out by giving you an update. I organized a seminar when I joined my first company rather, I went to a seminar. We were asked to provide the news that was important for the future. And there's a lot of important news Yesterday, Anthropic announced that Claude unfortunately, has intruded on real systems during a test phase despite the fact that this intrusion was not programmed was not scheduled. Just imagine the risk of such an AI tool. And we're going to be talking to you about security, safety, cloud, governance data. In other words, what I'm saying here is this fully justifies the transformation, the AI transformation that our group is entering to. And something that was of interest of interest to me last night was NVIDIA. NVIDIA as the Australian government for 2 extra gigawatts for its data centers. gigawatts gigawatts compared with 1.6 for all the data centers in Australia compared with less than 1 gigawatt for the data centers in France. When you see that kind of information, you realize that the management infrastructures, they have a wonderful rosy future ahead. And as you'll see, this is one of the analyses that we've performed. Please be reassured as to the need for staff. Also the Gartner announced yesterday once again. And this is rather provocative, what I'm about to say. We are going to make redundant 30% of our staff were next year, it was said. But in 2029, we will be obliged to rehire the same staff at a higher price. This is what the Gartner was saying. However, there is a current and underlying current that means that we should think about things. Basically, we need to not react too quickly in our business sector. So I stress the importance of this. We need -- stuff. And the proof is in the footing. This is something we've already anticipated on and we'll refer to this further down the line. Google and Accenture have signed an agreement, this was signed the day before yesterday. This agreement is all about positioning 1,000 people, making 1,000 people available. for AI Google tools to work on Gemini. But for quite some time, we have been ready in this sector. We do not need this kind of announcement and maybe the mistake we make sometimes is to underestimate our sales, and we should make these announcements. So I'd just like to say that today, we are sound, we are study, and we are fully ready for the future. I haven't have another introduction I'd like to give on sturdiness we are used to buying companies. I wonder why people sell their companies? They sell them to us just at the moment where everything is about to succeed the people are about to come rich, but they sell companies to us just at that moment. Why? Because people used to saying, there is hope. There's work in the pipeline, and there is a certain amount of recurring business. We're fortunate that we're able to announce to you a study backlog, an amazing backlog. For me, the backlog really is the key point to the future success of a company. And naturally speaking, alongside its strategy. So we're talking about transformation. And I would like to stress for the analysts amongst you, either in the room here or present remotely speaking. I'm under the impression that maybe we do not have the right peer group. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh in saying that because when you say something negative, it's very important to then provide a solution. And I don't have the solution, I must admit. However, let me stress that we have a transformation process that has already taken place, where it's a lot of members of our current peer group have a lot of liabilities that they need to manage in order to guarantee their future and in particular, they have a lot of business sectors where they're gradually losing ground. I wanted to introduce this meeting with see news and also with this news and also I want you to speak of our ambition to talk about our strategy. After the presentation strategy. You'll have every opportunity to put questions and all of the general managers now here, and they're willing to provide any answers you require in real time, but you will not have the slides. The slides are in your book. You can refer back to the slides. But we'd rather you put the questions directly. So first of all, let me pass the floor over to Greg. Greg is our AI man, and then Kevin will come forth for the presentation on behalf of all of with regard to our strategy. So Greg, over to you.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you again for joining us this morning. I want to take a few minutes this morning to explain the evolution that's happened within our business. Historically, Sword has been well known for providing excellent technology capability and skills to the markets that we work with them. But we've been working on evolving that story for several years now. And we believe that the AI revolution that's coming ahead of us is accelerating that evolution massively. So like I said, historically, we've always been well placed to provide those technology skills and capability and deliver an excellent projects. But the journey that we're on is moving much more towards that AI-led systems and the greater. And through the rest of the speech this morning, I'll explain what we mean by that and why we think it's important. But the needs of our customers are evolving. They're changing. And that's what's underpinning this evolution and the new strategy we're putting in place. So to build on that, the first thing that we have been working on is organizing our capabilities in a different way. So we have 4 clear parts of our business that comes together increasingly to solve the problems that our customers have today. The first area of our business is around consulting. So we have that ability to work with our customers, help them make sense of the challenges they are trying to address as an organization, help them identify the right strategy around AI and our wider transformation and help put together the governance and the transformation programs and road maps within their business. Also make sure that they can embed those changes. So we have a lot of capability around change in adoption and actually making sure we can help our customers not just to the technical element of transformation but embed that in [indiscernible]. We also have then the applications side of the business, which I guess historically, we are really well known for. Like I said, we've been providing lots of capability in that space for a number of years. We see that part of the business continuing to scale and evolve but perhaps in a slightly different way. Taking on more projects and programs of work, but also the applications part of our capability will be key to deliver the AI solutions for the future, whether that's in the data space or building AI-enabled applications. Then, we also have the platform capability, which is something, again, we have been working on this for a number of years. Our partners are key to that. I'll talk a bit more about them in a few minutes. But that platform piece really brings in those data, AI, cloud platforms that increasingly will be required to drive the type of transformation we're talking about. And we don't have the ambition or the need to try and create everything by ourselves. We want to use that best-of-breed technology from our partners. And that platform piece will be a key part of this AI transformation as well. And then lastly, the infrastructure capability that we have within our business, perhaps something we maybe have talked less about in the past. But it's certainly a key component of how we show up for our customers these days, especially provided that secure networking, the compute the stories, the workplace services, we have the ability to put all of that in place for our customers. So quite simply, what we are talking to the customers and position ourselves as we can be powered by AI, we can be enabled by cloud and we can be secured by cyber. And that range of end-to-end capabilities, we see as being a great fit to try and drive the transformations that our customers are about to go on. Like I said a minute ago, we don't have that desire to try and build technology ourselves. Certainly, we will always create some IP and some solutions where we have the capability and the need for it. But the strength in our organization comes from the relationships we've built with these global technology partners, select of Microsoft, AWS, Cisco and Splunk, Palo Alto, [ Nutanix ], Dell, these organizations are investing billions every year and the technology that our customers are looking at and assessing to try and drive their business forward. Our opportunity there is working with those partners, being the integrator of those technology platforms and solutions to deliver those outcomes that our customers need. So when I talk about being that AI-led systems integrator, it's working with these big hyperscalers and these technology partners to solve the business problems that our customers have. That's how we're positioned. That's how we see ourselves and help them translate that technology capable capability, sorry, into meaningful outcomes for our customers' business. So that's how we see that technology landscape evolving. Let's say, we will still build solutions on top of these platforms. We will still build proprietary IP where it makes sense for ourselves. But increasingly, our revenue will also come from being able to transact either the consumption-based platform revenue from these technology partners or in the case of the infrastructure side, actually transact the hardware or software, network and compute that is going to be required to drive these transformations. And I think the other key part of this story is the fact that these technology vendors don't have the intimate customer relationships that we have. So I think the last time we had the session I spoke to you all about our ambition is to be the AI transformation partner for all of our existing customers. The reason that's important is we know those customers. We know the landscape, we understand their business, we understand their architecture, we understand their constraints. Our job is helping bring these new technology platforms into those environments and help our costs make sense to them. And that's how our partners view as well. Our partners know that we understand our customers internally. So rather than them coming to our customers with a technology solution and our platform and trying to position that. They increasingly look to us as sort to bridge that gap. And bring our understanding of our customers and their environments into that conversation, which is good for everyone, right? The customer gets the benefit. We get the opportunity to have new revenue streams come into our business. and then the technology vendors get the ability to position their solutions. So that's how we see partners and those technology capabilities that have read about on a daily basis being part of our business. And I think the key thing here is we've already done this. We have been in this for several years. So this is not a new thing. This is just an evolution of that part of our business. And then thirdly, I want to talk about these 3 key underlying threads that bring our together around AI, cloud and cyber. These are woven through all of our business. So AI obviously brings that ability to innovate and drive productivity. Cloud brings that ability to scale and agility and speed to bring these solutions to the market. and cyber make sure that all of these solutions are secure and resilient and our customers can rely on them. So these 3 threads are woven into all of those parts of our business, our own consultant, our own applications platforms and infrastructure. So our intention is not to try and create some stand-alone AI business. Our intention is AI is woven and in the fabric of everything that we do across the business. We don't want to have 4 separate businesses that we talk to our customers about. I don't know, you've got a platform problem or cloud platform these days. That isn't the conversation. Our customers have business problems they need to have solved. And our key ability there is to make sure we bring that end-to-end solution and we bring these things together. Our customers these days, they don't have an isolated sorry, cloud program, for example. They don't have an isolated application refresh program. They are talking about how do they transform their business by using AI, which needs that end-to-end integrated approach. And let's say, we have those end-to-end capabilities that these 3 things are the kind of thread that runs through them all when we bring them all together. So hopefully that makes sense. And this slide really is to try and detect how those revenue streams within our business are changing and will continue to change. So like I said at the beginning, we've been known in the past for providing that technology capability or skills that capacity, which is still an important part of our business and will remain so. But if we don't transform how we position ourselves with customers and how we show up for people, there's always a risk that, that part of our business declined as AI comes into software development. An example, that would potentially have the ability to make that more easy to do, make it much more productive for individual software developers. And if we have our traditional model of generating revenue, just probably providing those resources on a time a material basis or fixed price. Our business will go into a decline. That is not what we are here today. We are here to continue to grow our business and deliver that growth that you guys are used to. So we're seeing here that, that application revenue, in particular, if we did nothing and we didn't transform, maybe that tails off. in the world that we're moving to, we see that increasing. We see the ability for these solutions to be AI-enabled applications being developed for data products to develop using AI, that will increase. But we see these new revenue streams coming into our business. We see the ability for us to provide that infrastructure to drive the AI transformation. We have that ability to work with the partners, outlined previously like Dell and Nutanix and HP, we can transact those hardware and infrastructure orientated products. We can have that revenue stream as part of our business. And we do already do that. But we see AI, again, massively increasing the need for that within our customers. And increasingly, we are the transformation partner have in that conversation. We also see that platform revenue increasing. And by platform, what I mean by that is the data and AI platforms that underpin these solutions. The solutions at those hyperscalers, Microsoft and AWS provide. We have the ability to also have that revenue coming through our business. we are the partner for our customers that can make sure we take care of those FinOps disciplines, the billing for that platform consumption. That can come through our business and drive growth. And we're already seeing that, but we see that increasingly significantly over time. And then also, we see that consultancy revenue increasing. We are increasingly getting involved in these conversations with our customer to be that partner to drive transformation. So we've always done that, but we see that scaling significantly. So that mix of revenue within our business will change. It has changed already, but continue to change and most importantly for this audience, we see a huge growth opportunity as part of that, all fueled by AI. And then lastly, I just wanted to take a minute to I guess, explain our thought process around this topic of AI transformation. This is something that is a small scale or is it something that is revolutionary. We have thought long and hard about this. We've talked to our customers. We are understanding how they starting to interpret this. And I think there's a nice parallel here with historical things that have happened, particularly the industrial revolution process that happened long before all of our time, but the parallels there are quite similar, that industrial revolution started with the spin in Jennie, which was a machine introduced originally to help people be more productive, which was fine. It was allowing individual workers to be more productive, but they are still largely doing the same work. They weren't necessarily transforming how they work and transforming their organization. It wasn't until the factory came along and the assembling came on several hundred years later in that case, where organizations understood the real transformation was thinking about how they organize their business around those machines and how they put that end-to-end production line in place. the parallel to what we're seeing now is, at the moment, I think most organizations at this point, they've introduced Copilots or ChatGPT to those individual workers. So people are being more productive on an individual basis. but that's the equivalent of the spin in Jennie. That's not transforming the organization. And when I talk about has been that AI-led systems integrator, we see that our role in that is to help people get to that point where they get to the production line, the assembling scenario of industrial revolution. You rethink how your organization works with AI. And that's the journey that we want to take all of our customers on is to help them really realize that benefit and opportunity presented by AI. And we're doing that to ourselves as well. So we've started an internal AI transformation program with the same mindset using the Pathfinder approach that I talked to you last time about. We're running that internally. We are reimagining how do we deliver our processes. But also recognizing that that's a Germany, okay. So we have taken the first step, and we have enabled people to have copilot and secure productivity tools with AI to help them individually be more productive. But as part of our internal AI transformation program, we are looking at our processes, we're looking at our data, we look at how we reimagine those processes to come together. If I try and bring that to life, for example, let's think about one of the key markets that we target that Kevin will talk about more in a minute. Let's look at that utilities market. What I mean by that AI-enabled process transformation. If we think about utilities, their key business is making sure that they manage their assets, they provide electricity to the places that need it. A huge part of their business at the moment is field operations, engineering, control rooms monitoring the state of those assets. There's a huge amount of overhead in making sure that those assets remain productive. Now if you introduce copilot to that, for example, you could have those individual different people in that process being more productive. What we are seeing is, let's reimagine that process. Let's look at how data is helping you actually underpin those decisions. let's introduce AI agents that can inspect that data, understand the state of the assets, understand the impact of weather may have in those assets and use an agent to massively orchestrate and simplify that process. so that if there is an issue, when the engineer turns up on site to the maintenance in that asset, they know the problem. They know the part they need. They are able to then make that decision to then implement a solution for it. We're reimagining how that process works. We're not just saying, let's keep working the same way and use some AI tool to make it better and more efficient. We are sitting, let's reimagine how that happens. And to bring that all together, that's when you think about, especially in that critical national infrastructure space in the utility as an example. That data is critical to that. They have to have that data available. They have to modernize their applications that, that data is held in. They have to make sure it's secure and resilient and that brings together all of those capabilities I mentioned at the start between consultancy to help them understand that in the first place, the applications to be able to develop a solutions and the platforms to make those solutions work on top of and that secure network and infrastructure underpinning all. So that's what we see as the opportunity ahead of us. And our goal for all of our existing customers to take them on that journey. And like say, we talk about our existing customers because we know them intimately. We know the constraints we or platforms and our architecture. So that's how we are positioning ourselves. And again, if we just go back to that industrial revolution story, the organizations that one then were the ones that understood they had to take the technology and integrate it into the business and reimagine our business. Those were the organizations that came up in the right side of that transformation. So that's where we are planning on being assorted, but also then taking our customers and naturally and get into the same benefits as well. So any questions on that, happy to take them now or equally afterwards. But I can hand over to Kev.

Thank you very much, Greg. Just a brief transition, please feel we assured you have a book that's sick as that -- you will now only have to listen to Kevin's presentation, but you can't put any questions you wish. And this is why I would like to introduce each of our CEOs. We have Guillaume, who is with us. Guillaume is the French speaker because you have friend to be in Canada, France, now and also Switzerland and you're gradually making inroads into German-speaking Switzerland. But for the moment, it's French speaking Switzerland. So 3 entities in total. Hence, if you wish to put any questions, do feel free on the strategy. Next you have Greg, you've just listened to. Dieter, we've known for a long, long time. I think we've been working for a long, long time for the last 25 years, Dieter, almost 25 years. And it's a wonderful adventure based on the European Union. So deets in charge of the European Union with bases in Athens, Luxembourg, and a certain degree of presence in [ Dusseldorf ] and also the private market that they go into out of Luxembourg. The following person is David. David is a newcomer. And we announced to you last year, the acquisition of [ Full On Net ], I think you said in Madrid. We have a small entity in Barcelona and we bought go in Switzerland with a usual position in Lisbon. And he's taken over Iberia. In other words, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon. And last but not least, he's hiding in the background. We have our CFO, that you'll speak when you concerning the accounts with regard to the general accounting. And I suggest that for the moment, Kevin steps up and gives the presentation, please feel free to put any questions relating to the strategy. Then after that, I'll give you the figures, and then you can reput questions concerning the figures. So Kevin, over to you when you're on.

[Foreign Language], Jacques. So rather than restating our strategy, I think Greg did quite a good job of explaining what it is we're trying to achieve. Across the group and how that's in line with the transformation agenda that we all hear and see every day. on behalf of, it feels like a wedding speech on behalf of my other colleagues, I thought I'd just maybe try and bring to life what it is we're doing, certainly in my country. but are equally applicable examples when we look at the other regions, one of our countries, all of which are contained within the book that you can take away. I think for me, I wanted to address Greg touched on it. Our strategic primary market in the U.K. has very much become critical national infrastructure. You know and understand the heritage we had in oil and gas and energy. We moved into renewables some years ago. Utilities has become a burgeoning sector or subsector, which is throwing up huge opportunity for us. We've had very great success in the last couple of years there, and we see that as the primary growth market for us moving forward. Of course, we'll still continue to address finance and public sector. And of course, we can consider those as critical national infrastructure also. The technology demand requirements of all of these sectors fits very nicely within what we are seeing, our capabilities are, which Greg so beautifully articulated in cyber, cloud and AI. Our revenue channels, our delivery methods, we have to have that 4 pillars. Increasingly, it's not a single conversation around, can I have a skilled resource to fulfill a task. Again, Greg explained quite well how we need to consult with our customers and be with them on the entirety of their journey so that they can realize the benefits of all of the moving parts, they need to consider is we're trying to transform our business. So consultancy is really important. We try and understand and identify their needs, requirements and objectives at the outset but also help them to consider the infrastructure requirements, the platform requirements and the application requirements in order to fulfill that. I think many, many organizations, I think there's 87% of organizations. Certainly in the U.K. will say that they are using AI already within their business. I believe it's less than 5% have translated that into a bottom line gain at this point in time. And therefore, that remains the fundamental challenge for all businesses is how do we get to that production line when we consider in line with the industrial evolution. Our delivery models haven't really changed. We still deliver our projects. We still deliver our procurement. We have managed services and resourcing. They don't need to change. That's just how we show up and organize ourselves within our business units, to face off to customer demand. Greg touched on utilities. I mean I talked to you about credibility. There's a huge demand there. When I talk about our 3 key offerings in cyber defense, it's very clear that resilience is vital. There is no option for any of the utility providers to have any downtime. Their critical national infrastructure, they provide electricity, et cetera, to millions of people and businesses. So I think about cyber defense and security. Clearly, there's lots more nation-state attacks. We live in a volatile world. There's always some -- looking to target these utilities companies. So they're investing quite significantly. Gladly, that's in line with our capabilities. Cloud, the need to modernize infrastructure is there for everyone. Our most recent acquisition, which we've made since I last talked to you, it was a company called CRSC, who brought AWS capabilities. Why that is important is because it gives us that hybrid multi-cloud capability. Cloud transformation is key and central to maximizing efficiency of the delivery models that will be required well now and as we move forward even more so. and irrefutably AI and data, data is obviously at the center of everything we do. But we really believe this utilities market has got to concentrate hard on that transformation piece the need to meet new demand for electrification, decarbonization and various of our agendas. So rather than just restating our strategy, I'm trying to evidence what Greg says in terms of how we are conducting our business. And I want to give a bit of an insight into where I in the U.K. see we need to make investment to not want to protect our revenue, but to ensure we deliver on that double-digit growth, which we've been so very good at doing for numerous years that I want that to continue in the future. So investment is a key part. And rather than waiting for customers to come to us, we know our position in that utilities market. I'll talk to you in the next slide about what I think that market demand is, the size of the price and the stability of the customer base that we're trying to address. The foresight, me and my team to try and get ahead of the agenda to try and build on the solutions that we've already delivered to utilities. So for us, you'll see it within our accounts, we will make at least GBP 3 million of investment in terms of building some solutions, specifically addressing the utility sector and their challenges. We are in the process of building a blueprint for substations. That's electric substations. There are 500 of these in Scotland alone. There are many more thousands when we consider England and the wider U.K. And if you broaden that to the rest of Europe, you're into very big numbers. We know what needs to happen to the substations from a technology perspective. And as such, have went away and designed a blueprint and an architecture to take to our customers. So they don't have to do the hard thinking. We'll go to them with that answer. So that's something we're working on at the moment. Also, we have been involved in, and I've talked to you at least twice about some of the very large projects. We won with network separations and creating separation between IT networks and OT networks. That's really, really important so that nation state attacks cannot bring down these businesses. We need to keep that network separated. We need to keep the control systems separate from the external facing Internet. That's really, really important utilities. So again, we're putting together a network upgrade blueprint of which is pretty well advanced. Compliance becomes very heavy agenda when you consider the industries that we're working in targeting in critical national infrastructure. Every executive I speak to in these organizations tells me about the difficulty, not only around compliance, but the time and effort it takes to demonstrate evidence that compliance and it's becoming an even greater burden as the days, weeks and months go by. So again, Greg referenced that we work with technology partners to bring best-of-breed technology to address fundamental customer problems, issues and they're facing. And as such, we've already built up an has rolled out for one of our customers around addressing compliance with CAF, that's our requirements, specifically for the utility sector. But instead of having to run around for days and weeks finding old documents and files here, there and everywhere at the push of a button. Both our executive teams and the people who are operational can demonstrate where they are from a compliance perspective at any given moment. Clearly, we're not going to demonstrate that today, but I did demonstrate it to my workforce earlier in the week. So that's quite an exciting development. Stage 4 of that investment in utilities for us, there's a license monopoly from -- I won't go into the provider, but we've got GBP 50 million licensed monopoly across these utilities customers. That technology has been bought by somebody else. The price of that technology has increased tenfold. So they have a monopoly, they've got nowhere else to go. We are actively working on a solution with one of our other partners, Nutanix to come up with a much better price point and we think we can make huge inroads into that monopoly in the next year or so. And lastly, these large-scale customers demand that we show up organized consistently with a method of structure around how we deliver to those businesses. So we're just tidying up and strengthening our approach from a project delivery perspective. In terms of the market demand, specifically again referencing utilities, there's regulated spend it's available. It has to be spent. There's GBP 100 billion committed. There's the largest investment cycle in decades happening in the U.K. We know the drivers, they're on the screen there, net zero energy security, electrification providing data centers with electric the need and so on. But there is a [ $100 billion ] value of investment coming into -- or committed to the sector already. I told you we built 5 strategic offerings to specifically address or attain as much of that rise as we can. There are 9 U.K. power network operators both in transmission and distribution coming to market. We're speaking to most of them. We're working on our external presence to make sure we remain attractive to them. I'm very confident that we will make inroads into some of those other 9. We've got the biggest one arguably as our customer just now gives a strong reference point case studies and credibility. We have a 5-year sales ambition in this sector of GBP 600 million. Let me be clear, that's not committed revenue, it's not financial guidance, but it is the size of the prize that we're looking to address. And we believe we can get to that using that various investment pieces as a platform, but just continuing doing what we're doing, understanding our customers' businesses intimately. I often get asked the question, how can you or be credible as an AI transformation partner against some perceived larger organizations. And the answer is simple. Greg said it, too. We have proximity intense understanding track record, heritage with these types of organizations, but quite frankly, many others are nowhere in air. So that's what brings us to the table. And I'd like to think we do a good job and repeat business becomes part of that thing. I don't intend to go through those key spend drivers, but there for you to consume to check out to do your own research on that is the size of the prize. The biggest benefit for us addressing that utility sectors is we don't have to go about trying to win business, knowing whether the funding is there or not. Oil and gas has got a little bit more complicated with governments? Are they going export from our oil and gas sort of note, there's a bit of uncertainty in there. Utilities is very, very, very certain. So that is why we are making quite large. It's not a bit quite a large informed investment in that sector. So for me, in the U.K., and I'm sure the guys could say the same for their regions. We've got clear focus. We're targeting the fastest-growing ADAS technology. Greg covered those. Those are the most relevant in the modern day. But we're also applying those to the strongest demand sectors. So I think we've got the technology, understood well with a clear proposition and we've got strong markets that we're operating in. In terms of having the right plan, I want to be clear, and again, I spoke to my workforce in the U.K. about this earlier in the week. We've made strategic acquisitions in the U.K. for a period of 10 years. And now we've got to the end of that journey. I'll say the end of that journey. I now feel like I particularly have the breadth of capability that we need to be successful for the next decade. So personally, I have no need to add more skills to our organization. We may opportunistically decide to add scale in the future. that our strategic partnerships and our acquisitions both have been very well thought out and conceived in terms of where we were trying to get to. This is not a new plan. We've been doing this for 10 years. I've been thinking about those acquisitions and those partnerships over that time. And now we've turned up with the right answer, the right partnerships, the right technology, the right methods at the time where the world is demanding at most. And so in the end, we believe we've got a unique position, certainly in our target markets. Greg explained how AI is helping accelerate all of those offerings across our 4 key pillars. I don't intend to go too much into detail in terms of these case studies. But in terms of evidence in our strategy, they're there for you to see. Greg talked about how we are delivering internal AI transformation to ourselves. But also we're leading our customers with exactly the same approach. So there's a case study there where we've got a GBP 5 million opportunity for a very large utilities organization to help them understand how they prove the concept, that's fine. Everybody can prove concept with a coal pilot very quickly or cloud, whatever. How do you demonstrate improve the value? Can you actually translate and turn that into bottom line efficiencies or top line growth? And can you scale it? And when I talk about scaling it, you need to think about who is that actually going to be embedded within our new operating model? It's back to the getting to the production line. That is the big challenge that we have, as Greg says, go long and hard about. I think we know exactly how we address our customers. There's evidence there. There's a very large utilities customers. It's coming to sort to say, can you help us understand what it is that we need to try and do and how to get that effectively and translate that into some efficiency, either top line growth or bottom line savings. And very quickly, there's another one there from a big oil and gas customer, it's really around cyber defense. But again, you can see the threads of where AI has been applicable in conjunction with cyber capabilities to make sure that they're safe, they can't be hacked, that they're efficient. AI is used to automate much of the security functions in there. Jacques referenced it at the top of the speech in terms of the concerns that are abounding in the global market today in terms of the capability of AI tools to create security events. So we need to use it for the good. I think we're all wrestling with the good or the bad of AI at this point in time. I don't share the [ Dooms ] Day verdicts of this morning's news that humanity will end in 10 years because of AI. I think that's slightly sensation less, if I can offer you my opinion. I'll leave you with these slides. Read the book. We're happy to take questions now or afterwards, and I'll hand you back to Jacques. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You have virtually all of the CEOs in front of you. The only person missing is Nasser who wasn't able to be here with us. And Nate is in charge of India, the Middle East. They're functioning very, very well today, unlike potentially what we might imagine. And also the English-speaking part of Canada, he does the split on a regular basis, but his entity is an entity that has always outperformed in terms of its revenue. I'd like to now ask you whether you have any questions on the strategy on operations. Do put the questions if you'd like to. And I believe that all of the microphones are already on.

Hello. My name is Nicolas Thorez. Thank you very much for the first part of the presentation. I have 2 brief questions on the strategy. Is it possible or would it be possible to quantify your revenue mix, what portion goes to applications consulting platform and infrastructure. I'd like to know whether you can perform that exercise as of now. Can you give us a rough sharing out of the pies, we say and how are you going to develop the mix over future years? My second question is related to this. Maybe let's start with first question. Kevin, do you want to answer?

Kevin, do you want to maybe raise a few points. Kevin, of course, is focused on the U.K., but all of the points are going to be broker relevant for all of the entities.

Thank you for the question. I think it's very valid, and I knew this question was going to come up. So arguably should be better prepared. The reality is that's -- it's about gut feel at this point in time in terms of what's presented on there. It's fully our intention to get to that. So we're organizing our own systems and capabilities to be able to produce that on an automated basis. So for the next time, my commitment is, we will share that at this point in time. It is largely what that grass is. It's not specific in terms of percentages or volumes. But next time we talk, we'll come back with that per period. That is a subsequent one there, which we're working on, have certainly done that the U.K. level versus the group and each of the guys we've been having conversations about how to produce that. So if you don't mind, the next time we will come with that information.

Thank you, Kevin. My second question was pretty much related to this related to the evolution of sorts mix in the future relating also to AI. I think on Page 11, you presented something that is pretty clear. You're anticipating on strong growth in platforms and infrastructure, potentially Will that mean that you think internally about the evolution of your perimeter as well? Or is your perimeter going to remain the same? Anything you need to do to accelerate the transformation of the mix within Sword, generally speaking, as well for you, Jacques.

If you like, I would argue that globally speaking, the strategy that we propose is relevant to concerns all of the entities. Maybe I could pass the floor over to Dieter. Dieter could be considered as the diners saw in the room because sticks to a contract-based system, a big contract that he has. With the European institutions, they move forward at the speed of the European institutions. But Dieter, could you say a few words about the themes of the new contracts cybersecurity. Well, we've won quite a few new contracts. That's why I was saying earlier. We've never had such a positive outlook, such a broad outlook as we currently have. We won Frea. Frea is the framework contract for all of the European organization everything that revolves around cybersecurity. We also have contracts for the development of AI. So we're very much omni present on this market. But to refer back to your previous question, I think each entity within Sword is different. But if we talk about artificial intelligence within the European organizations and bodies, let me just say that up until 6 months ago, service providers such it was forbidden for us to use artificial intelligence, notably due to the fact that a lot of the tools are non-European today, things have changed. It's a gradual change that is ongoing. There's been an experimental phase and gradually a stretched carefully controlled phase is being entered into. In other words, it's the European institutions, some sales that are choosing the products that we're allowed to use. And they also define or set out the use conditions. So it means that the service providers such as sort we do not have the freedom to choose the products. We don't have the freedom to choose how we function. We have to follow a framework, governance demands, very often related to the safety, the security in Europe and in the European organizations. And so today, we're working with our teams on this new way of working. We're providing them with the support that they will acquire. In other words, the AI component is becoming a normal major component in development and in digital transformation. I hope I've answered your question to a certain extent.

Yes, at least partially. Potentially, I had 1 last question. This is for you, Kevin, on the U.K. market. It's true that in France, we're not very familiar with the market, particularly in the IT sector. Can you just remind us of the competitive intensity of the market? Okay. You went into detail on the opportunities that you have related to the energy sector, the utilities, the recent contracts won by Sword. Would you argue that there are any newcomers, new players that could confront you. What about the competitive environment? Is that likely to become more intense? And could it lead to pressure in terms of the prices and the quotes that you put in?

Okay. Thank you for the question. I think we already operate in a very competitive market. I was having this conversation again with Jacques this morning over breakfast, I think each of us face different challenges in terms of our position in the market. The U.K. technology sector is very mature, very competitive, and it has been for a number of years. And despite that, we've managed to deliver that growth. So I don't see anything changing. I think our capability has increased. And again, I referenced our acquisitions and our strategic thinking around partnerships. So I believe we're still on a march in terms of our competition. We're beating the companies that are arguably held up as much bigger than us at a more competitive price point. For me, the challenge is making sure that we obtain the value for the services that we're now delivering. As we've allowed as an organization, sometimes you're a little frightened to put your prices up too much. But I think that's something that I certainly need to focus on and my management team have been very well drilled on. In fact, if I can take you back to what we're doing from an internal AI transformation perspective, we're currently actively building a smarter pricing tool for us to use that references our competitors, landscapes, frameworks, et cetera to make sure we're positioning ourselves at the right point. So for me, it's not a challenge of scale or can we find that opportunity, can we deliver that opportunity? It's making sure that we get our gross margin at the right levels to protect that bottom line. You'll have seen a slight degradation in terms of the U.K. bottom line for that very reason because we're getting involved in these much more strategic programs, the cost of resources have gone up, et cetera. So I'm very well versed in terms of where we are in the U.K. market. I feel very comfortable. I'm happy to talk to you in more detail afterwards as well, if you like, in terms of that landscape. I hope that answers your question. Just to try and answer part of your previous question in terms of changing the perimeter to address these. Again, I think all of the guys will tell you, we have lots of conversations around partnerships in particular. And each of us have got slightly different flavors of partnerships. The one Greg, the slide that Greg put up is the overarching the hyperscalers, the biggest ones, if you like. But all of us need to think about what are the demands requirements, necessities, regulations on a country-by-country basis because one technology solution may be applicable to a certain region and not another one. So there are nuances in terms of our partnerships, and we've all worked to make sure that we've got those right strategic partnerships in the right countries at the right time. So I think that's one point that we didn't answer before.

You'll also have the opportunity to put your questions at the end. Stephanie, are there any additional questions Yes, there are more questions in the room. Please feel free. Those of you who are online to put your questions in the chat as well, and you'll have the opportunity later on. .

We talked more and more about digital sovereignty. Can you sense that there is any particular demand or pressure from your clients, notably the European Union on these subjects? And what's your answer is for you once again.

Hello. Very good question. the digital sovereignty maybe it's all about the European institutions capacity to control the data, the infrastructures and the technology. These aren't empty words. It's all very tangible, particularly at the level of the European policy and politics, it really is a tangible criteria when it comes to procurement of digital services and IT services. The aim of the European bodies is to use digital technologies and services, but to guarantee that at all times, they have stability control and autonomy. I would argue that this evolution is creating an environment with sort European and courage is becoming increasingly relevant. It's very clear that it's a massive, massive opportunity for Sword, notably at the level of the European institutions yesterday, for example. I traveled here by train from Belgium. And while I was traveling by train, I received an official letter from the European institutions, specifying one of the contracts that was allocated to IBM had been ceased immediately a procedure was entered into, and we are now in charge of this contract. It's very clear that they have less and less patients, let's say, with non-European companies. And clearly, they have the ambition to work increasingly with European companies. I hope I've answered.

Partly, yes. But I'm thinking about the slide that you presented earlier with the different technological bricks. And I was thinking all you showed with the American actors, okay, they're the best ones. But do you have alternatives to offer to us?

Yes, sorry. I expected that question as well. And I think the -- as Kevin said, those hyperscaler partners we had in that site are definitely organizations that we have already worked with for several years, and we are well set up, and they also are mature as partners. So we will continue to work with them. There's 2 things, I think, are important in your question that are both opportunities for sort. The first one is working with a new set of partners that are emerging. So for example, we've already completed significant work with Mistral, for example. We have that, let's call it, nonfunctional requirements come up in Switzerland with Guillame and the customers we have in private banking, for example, on a daily basis, we have these new emerging requirements that from a partnership perspective, we are actively working on how do we broaden that partner ecosystem. One of the challenges there is some of those new partners aren't as mature as some of those existing partners we had in that site. Therefore, actually them understanding how do they work with system in goods like as part of that conversation. And how do we make sure that relationship works in the rig for way, but that's an active part of the strategy. So partnerships and broaden that ecosystem is something we're working on and some time I'm heavily involved with. The other thing that I think is really important on that sovereignty conversation is that will be an increasing driver for spend in that infrastructure pillar that I referenced. So as organizations increasingly bring more and more AI into their business, and they bring it closer to their critical business data. They don't want that to go into a cloud. They don't want it to go into U.S. cloud and they certainly don't want to necessarily lose control of what's happening with it. So we see that strategy that we are putting in place will drive that level of infrastructure spend as well. People will need to put in the platforms that they can control end to end. So there will be that hybrid cloud capability. You certainly don't want to manage your infrastructure platform in lots of different ways. So that hybrid cloud capability that we put in place with like [ Nutanix ] and AWS, Cisco, Microsoft and Dell, we see that being a really key driver in the customers, but a lot of it will be driven from that sovereignty agenda. Hopefully, that answers your question as well.

Yes. I'd just like to add something that's interesting in relation to what you said. You said that most of the actors are going to be American, so digital sovereignty if we talk about our partners, it's not always easy to have despite the fact that you have solutions. But for the moment, you can't count only on that one point of attention we have is to work with these partners who are not necessarily European Swiss or from the U.K. But we work with them a great deal in that case, on the sovereignty of the data. This too is going to be one of our focuses to be able to continue to work with these non-European partners. But by safeguarding the data in terms of safety applied to the data and also to the processes. So it's a way of answering that it's not only to say we need to build everything in the European way or the Swiss way and each have our own individual cars, as we say, the other alternative is to work with more sovereign solutions with our partners, applying the right levels of security, the right processes, the right regulations. And this is something that we're being very careful and ambitious about with our clients.

Stephanie, I suggest I continue, and then we'll continue with the questions afterwards. So let's move on to the figures. First of all, the track record for the last 4 years, we have sold EUR 20 million more than what we bought. We're not complete notice. In other words, for the last 4 years, this means that we have cleaned up the group. We have kept only those companies that are capable of operating in line with our strategy with people also who are capable of achieving the technological levels that are required for today. And when I talked about what I call our social liability, I'm talking about the problem related to people, those people who work in companies and yet to won't necessarily have the capacity to acquire this technological level that I'm referring to. So within Sword, we've done this background work. And I stressed earlier the importance of our transformation towards AI. It's something that is already up and running. Yes, we're continuing with all of our R&D, and I'll talk about this, but this transformation process is up and running. That's what I wanted to say for the track record. 4 years ago, we had EUR 200 million in revenue. Today, we have EUR 400 million. To talk about the first half year, our growth amounts to 12.6%. And we keep an EBITDA of 12%. I can hear some people shouting out, they're manipulating us why 12%. Let me say, this is an ambition, a clear ambition to keep to 12%. And if we achieve more than 12%, we invested. So our strategy is underpinned with this 12%. We'll see this when we look net cap position of further down the line. Also, if you look at our consolidated breakdown, you have the EBITDA and our organic growth that gives you on the screen. The only difference, and there are 2 points I'd like to refer back to concern Spain. This difference is not significant. Spain was purchased less than a year ago. And when we purchased companies during the course of the year, we do not include them in the calculation of the organic growth, which is pretty normal. Next, you have and Switzerland has been restructured. First of all, so that we can begin acquisitions in German-speaking Switzerland so that we can start a business with France, so that we can merge the 2 Swiss entities. I don't know whether you but we had 2 CEOs in Switzerland. And then lastly, we're going to consolidate Canada. The rest is as usual. The U.K. is working to a certain extent for the group without reinvoicing maybe the they might complain about that. But well, there's a slight drop in the EBITDA margin, but all of this is related to R&D. This means that we have a profit and loss account with the EBIT at [ 12.5 ]. And this gives us net profit after corporate tax despite the fact that this still doesn't have much value because there were so many exceptional items in there that we can explain it more in detail. So for this -- let me move on to our net cash position. I did have questions on this. Our net cash position as of the 30th of June 2026 is minus EUR 62.9 million. Why? Because there are cycles because we've had acquisitions. And let's talk about where we're heading above all. We have what we call our ISO perimeter. We're looking to have a net debt of EUR 35 million at the end of the year. So we will have a net debt of EUR 35 million for credit lines that amount to EUR 155 million. I repeat, we have EUR 35 million at the end of the year for the net debt for credit lines that amount EUR 155 million. So I'm not saying we can sit back and rest on our laurels, but we do have the capacity to continue with our acquisition strategy. all the more so because there will not be any costs related to the share deal until 2029. Now, let's have a look at what we're actually doing with our cash. We have the M&A activities, EUR 19.4 million in terms of the costs. These M&As related to this year's acquisitions, mainly Cyrus HQ. Do feel free to put any questions further on the line. Cyrus HQ is a real jewel in the crown is part of the strategy that we've explained. They are also the earn-outs that we're paying. Should we regret this? Absolutely not. The more money we pay in terms of earnouts, the happier we are. In other words, it means that the acquisition with excellence, and we have made excellent acquisitions. That's what I wanted to say concerning utilization of the cash in mergers and acquisitions. Almost a theme, let's look at the acquisition of Cyrus HQ. This I would argue, it's a technological investment. And let me explain what we're doing in terms of R&D. We're using the IFRS rules. Philippe falls in older documents, research is something that is entered as regular operating costs. The development can be capitalized and is capitalized. Development for us amounts to EUR 2.6 million over a 6-month period. But the cost that I'm talking about, that is above the EBITDA. That is part of this additional margin that we could potentially achieve if we didn't have the obsession of looking to the future, it is 2.6% of the revenue. So our EBITDA without research amounts to 14.6%. So 12% is the bottom line that we set out on a cost basis. technological investment, it amounts to EUR 19.6 million over the course of the 6-month period. It is a lot of money. Next, I'm going to pass the floor over to Philippe and Philippe is going to continue.

In just a few words, I'd like to be able to talk to you about the relevant aspects related to the balance sheet. We're going to start out with the goodwill and the other intangible assets. Shack has just talked about the acquisition of Cyrus HQ. This generated a goodwill of approximately EUR 12 million. In terms of the other intangible assets, Jacques also talked about the CapEx. In other words, the cost of development of EUR 2.6 million. This is partially offset by the amortization of the assets that have already been capitalized on. Moving on concerning the current assets mainly the working capital requirements. The comparison between the 30th June and the 31st of December is not necessarily a good comparison because obviously, certain things are seasonal, and this is what can explain certain variations between the different headings such, for example, as trade and other receivables and work in progress. If we look at the need for working capital, it's all pretty balanced. But on the 30th of June, what is generally more relevant is to note that we see a significant improvement in the need for working capital requirement as time goes by prepaid expenses. This is a line that corresponds to costs that we observe in advance relating to the requirement of the Cognos product in Switzerland. At the level of capital, you can see that we've distributed dividends of course. On the 31st of December, our equity will be a lot higher than during the course of the previous financial year. at the level of the financial debt, Jacques has just explained how the cash has been used and you referred to the credit lines. Yes, the debt regarding to minority holdings. This has dropped by approximately EUR 4 million. Other elements that are important the products that are invoiced ahead of schedule. We have a significant reduction here. This is due to the reduction in one of the contracts in Greece. That's what I want to say for the main elements related to the balance sheet. By way of conclusion, there is an increase in the assets, thanks Cyrus, the capitalization as well on the development costs. The equity at the end of the year will be reestablished, and there's a significant improvement expected in terms of the cash position. If we look at the future now, we have a business that is very simple. You have 20 months, 20 months of backlog. And if that is the case, you can guarantee that you will achieve double-digit growth. I'm under the impression that for a long, long time, we didn't check this beforehand with Stephanie, but I'm under the impression that for a long, long time, we hadn't achieved growth in terms of our backlog at the end of the first 6 months compared with the first of January. But with the number of contracts that we've signed recently, we have increased this backlog. And this is essential for the future because it guarantees the sustainability of the group. This is what is at hand. Next, here on the screen, you have the list of our top 10 clients for 2026. If we remove those clients to whom we invoiced less than EUR 500,000. We have 74 clients in total. You might say that's not many. No, no, no, it's absolutely massive because it means that each of these clients is a client where we have potential -- the potential that we have with the top 10 clients. So we have the capacity to grow our business for each of our clients. story I often tell is as follows. If you hire a beginner salesperson in Lyon, the next day, the person travels to [ Santen ], I have no idea why. We can never stabilize with what we've got. And I think that currently, we have this capacity. We have capacity for growth and explored growth that is out there. And we're able to announce to you our growth is going to grow. You will see it grow over the next 3 years. We have had a period, I would argue almost the low period in 2025. the time period was slightly more difficult. We achieved 12%. But with more difficult with this year, we're achieving the 12% much more easily. That's why I feel very comfortable about the future. Further down the line, I know you're going to ask a question. there's a gap on the screen. In other words, the share price there is a counter performance on the share price. So there were those pessimists who we say, oh, it's disastrous. And we're losing the battle. However, there are optimists who on the contrary. But with so much backlog with so much profitability with so much growth, internal growth and above all, with a true technological strategy. Are we going to accept that we can be underestimated for long? My answer is no. Whatever happens in 2027, I will find solutions, but we are taking a risk we're taking a risk of being bought out and we can't accept it because today, we're not just worth more, we're worth a lot more than our current value the cycle in terms of the value of shares just to finish on a positive note, varies quite a lot. If I talk to you at the end of January, for example, I would have said for the last month and looking forward to the EUR 2, we're up 14% and have been since the first of January. We're not going to tell you the same manipulate the figures. Currently, we're at minus [ 7 ]. But once again, I stress we have the capacity to grow. And this means I would argue it is time to buy. There you are. I've done my sales but I hope I've convinced you but I'm ready to answer any questions you might have. And I'm very happy to revert back to questions, define if there are any others.

I have a question for Philippe. It's not mentioned in the slide in the slide show, but as mentioned in the half year financial report. I think it's the first time that Sword has a set up a factor program. EUR 12 million in some of the subsidiaries, if I read the figures rightly. Twofold question. This program, is it designed to be extended over time? And could you give us a bit of rationalization related to this program. As Jacques said, you sound very relaxed about your cash position. Why have you set up such a program in that case?

The people in charge of it are in the room, so I have to be careful about what answer I provide we're coming out a test and it's also an opportunity. The opportunity was a potential acquisition that we were looking to make maybe in a country that I didn't even present here. let's say, the test was to work with the bank, and we decided to implement this factoring approach. And it was pretty satisfactory on a very short-term basis, last year for a short-term period, and it was a test, that's the answer. And it was related to an opportunity that didn't actually come about.