Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is Ahmed Hazem from EFG Hermes Research, and we'd like to welcome you all to today's second quarter 2026 results conference call for AD Ports Group.

With us on the line today is Mr. Martin Aarup, Group CFO; Mr.

Ross Thompson, Group Chief Strategy and Growth Officer; and Mr. Marc Hammoud, VP of Investor Relations.

First off, congrats on the results amid obviously a very challenging environment in the past few months. Without further delay, I'd like to hand over the call to Marc.

Marc, the line is yours.

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Ahmed, for hosting this call.

Thank you, EFG, for hosting this call. Thank you, everyone, for connecting to our Q2 2026 results earnings call.

As usual, I'll kick it off, and then I'll pass it on to Ross for the strategy part, and Martin for the financial part. First key messages, I think Q2 2026 is a good illustration of the diversification strategy that has built resilience and created business opportunities for us.

It was another record quarter amid volatile backdrop. Net profit nearly doubled year-on-year, and focus in the short term will be on integration of M&A and cash generation.

Sorry, I think I have the wrong on display. Yes, here you go.

Let me share again. Here we go.

Can you see my screen, Ahmed? Can you confirm?

Not yet. It's loading on my end, Marc.

Can you see it now?

Not yet. Now I can.

Okay. All right.

I was saying Q2 highlights, accelerating growth with improved profitability. Revenue were up 47% year-on-year to 7.08 billion, all through organic growth.

EBITDA increased 49% year-on-year to 1.74 billion, with EBITDA margin standing at 24.5%. As I said earlier, total net profit almost doubled, plus 88% year-on-year to 836 million dirham, setting a new record quarterly performance since listing.

EPS reached 0.12 dirham, up 86% year-on-year. As importantly, the growth momentum continued in the month of July.

Resilience and opportunities, that's the two keywords I used to start with. In this current context that we've been living through since the month of March, resilience because our business of and geographic diversification, resilience because of our landlord and long-term partnerships business model in Abu Dhabi, opportunities because we've been adapting swiftly to the complex, challenging, and dynamic geopolitical and market environment since the beginning of the conflict.

The result of that is that we've had limited negative impact on our ports business and significant positive impact on our maritime and shipping business, as well as our logistics business. In terms of asset monetization, we concluded one more transaction.

We sold a set of warehouses in Kizad Logistics Park in Abu Dhabi for 650 million that came with an associated EBITDA of 294 million dirham. As I said earlier, the short-term focus will be on completing and integrating the ongoing M&As that have been announced.

Those M&A are expected to accelerate growth and strengthen our cash flow story. If we take CLI, ALCN, and MBS Logistics, all based on 2025 numbers, it will impact our revenue, it will add 10% to our revenue and 16% to our EBITDA.

If we take GFS on Q2 2026 numbers, it would have an impact of 16% on our EPS. If we adjust our bottom line by the warehouse sale and the impairment losses, it would have had a 22% EPS accretion.

Continued improvement in the balance sheet, you saw that the net debt to EBITDA improved to 3.7 times in Q2 2026, down from 4.1 times in Q2 last year and 3.9 times in the first quarter of the year. We still enjoy a strong liquidity position of 300—sorry, 3 billion—3.636 billion in cash, and we have another 5.9 billion of undrawn credit facilities, including an accordion option.

No major debt maturity up until 2028. In terms of guidance, we are maintaining our medium-term growth, profitability, cash flow, and debt leverage guidance based on current visibility and subject to the evolving regional situation.

For those who would be tempted to annualize our H1 capex of 2.8 billion, we're saying that we will be disciplined in terms of organic capex for the rest of the year. On the equity story, obviously the conflict is dominating the headlines, but the local economy remains in positive territory.

I think the top-down story when it comes to AD Ports Group is also about trade, and trade with external world. We'll see, for example, on the slide highlighting the CEPAs that the UAE continued to push aggressively in terms of CEPAs.

Some new CEPAs have been signed, some others have been implemented. Trade continue to be strong.

Top-down story continues to be strong. The second point on growth, you've seen it, we continue to deliver growth, and it continues to be a combination of the three levers: one, the ramp-up of existing assets; two, the organic growth capex that we've been deploying; and three, selective M&A that we've been also announcing.

Pivoting to free cash flow positive being the third key point in the equity story. As I said, the short-term focus will be on cash flow generation.

You saw that in Q2, excluding the acquisition of the 30% stake in GFS, we were free cash flow positive at 73 million dirham. We will continue to focus on cash generation for the rest of the year and in the short term.

On the balance sheet front, I've gone through all the points except the fact that we continue to target a 3.5 times net leverage in the medium term. No changes in our shareholding structure, and not much changes also in terms of foreign institutional investors engagement in the equity story, as you can see in Q2.

All right, in terms of stock price performance, there's been a little bit of catch-up lately. At least year-to-date, we're close to flat, and we're up 47% since listing.

Since 30th of June, it continued to rally. The average daily traded value continues to improve at $2.5 million per day.

In terms of revenue and EBITDA distribution for the first half, you can see that in terms of EBITDA, which I think is the more relevant metric to look at, it's about 50/50 percent, 50% for fixed infrastructure assets and 50% for maritime and shipping. Logistics remains a slow contributor, although you could notice that versus Q1, we turned back positive in terms of EBITDA contribution.

More or less the same picture in terms of total assets and capex distribution, dominated by ports, economic cities, and maritime and shipping. Global map and global presence, the key notable difference with the previous map is the addition of two terminals in Brazil with the acquisition of CLI, one in Santos, one in Itaqui, that takes the number of terminals to 40.

The rest is an update on mostly the routes for the maritime and shipping feeder shipping services and ro-ro shipping services. Scale, despite the current environment, we continue to invest in capex, we continue to invest in M&A, which helps us scale up our operations, whether it's capacity or volumes.

You continue to see those numbers increasing by the quarter. I will end up here, and I'll pass it on to Ross.

Thank you, Marc. Good afternoon, everyone.

Next slide, please. I think everybody is well aware the crisis continues.

Unfortunately, we don't see anything changing in the immediate term. I think what the company has focused extremely well on, as part of the UAE's response, is to build alternative multimode transport corridors.

The entry points into the Gulf of of of entry and exit points, sorry, have changed, significantly from from inner Gulf countries. The modality is the the big entry and exit points so far are Khorfakkan and Fujairah Port.

Obviously, that we're running Fujairah Port. With bonded transit straight through from from Fujairah Port or or or Khorfakkan, straight through to either Jebel Ali in in Dubai and and Khalifa Port as if it were a bill of lading that was destined for for those ports as is.

That's on the container side. On the bulk side, we're we're discharging in in in Fujairah and transiting.

We have storage silos there for for grains and and bulk products. We're using trucking and both rail to transport cross-country.

Rail has been a significant piece of the response. We're we're currently running six trains a day between Fujairah and and Khalifa Port for cargo that comes directly into Fujairah, straight on the train.

It's transited straight through, and it arrives at the terminals in in Khalifa Port as if it were destined for that. That's that's really been the the the the big response.

I think also that we've used our hubs outside the Gulf extremely well: Karachi, Safaga now that it's it's starting its operations, are taking vessels from the Far East, dumping cargo in in our ports, and our own network of feeders through GFS or or or even the line feeders that are collecting cargo and then bringing it either to Fujairah or or elsewhere. The response has been consistent.

We have capacity, although we do have waiting times at our ports of 4 to 5 days, which which wasn't wasn't there pre pre-conflict. We are seeing volumes picking up.

During the during the crisis, actually volumes in into the Gulf dropped around 80%. We are seeing in in the last 2 months volumes returning in that trade, not back quite back to where they were, but I would say they've recovered round round about 30% of of where they where they were, and that continues to rise month-on-month, which shows the the rebound of the economy inside the Straits of Hormuz, and is good for us, because that that promotes volume going forward.

We've also explored other mechanisms where we're actually using Sohar into into Abu Dhabi, Oman into Abu Dhabi, both by truck and by rail. As I said, we're using larger relay ports outside the Gulf to ease capacity constraints, particularly in Khorfakkan and and and and Fujairah, with the bigger vessels.

Far, we are coping, and we are providing enough capacity to meet market demand on a consistent basis. Next slide, Marc, please.

A busy a busy quarter in quarter two for for for some major acquisitions. I think the largest being CLI, which we acquired.

It's the largest agri-bulk operator in in Brazil. It's a white-label term terminal, which is perfect for us, has long-term contracts with all the major market producers: Cargill, ADM, Bunge, names that the LDC, which is the sister company of ours, we we we share a common shareholder.

It is the It gives us a platform where it is the number one exporter of grains, number two in soybeans, and number three, coffees, sugars, and corn. It is a significant platform that that controls a lot of the volume that's moving from Brazil into parts of Africa, into the Middle East, and also into into China.

Next slide, please. We've acquired two ports as part of this this agreement: Itaqui Port in the north, and Santos Port in in the south, Santos being the much large larger port.

Currently, the the the two terminals are doing 17, just over 17.2 million tons or almost 17.5 million tons. Current revenues are $173 million, and EBITDA around $101 million.

It's a very, very high margin business. It's a business where the the growth of export volume in Brazil is outstripping supply chain capacity, supply from the growers to ports, and port port capacity.

We know the growth from the market will be significant and there for for many years. This this company is undertaking a a capacity increase up to 20 20 million tons.

We already have significant discussions and interest to take the full expansion capacity on contracted business. These are long-term contract business, high-margin, export market to to Middle East, Far East, and and Asia, opens up new trade routes for for Abu Dhabi Group, Abu Dhabi Ports Group.

We hope to do the shipping for some of the customers out of this terminal through our maritime business. We're in discussions with processors to potentially start processing in Khalifa Port, particularly in soya and and and wheat, to add manufacturing here, and then to link Brazil directly with the Middle East.

It's never been done before in bulk in this in in this size and scale and volumes. I think 80% of all the sugar that the UAE imports comes from from Brazil, and this is the major terminal of sugar export for that.

A huge opportunity for the group the group not only to to enter the agri-bulk sector in a big way from origin for the exporters, but a huge upselling and and and up-value creation acquisition for us that that that will span across our maritime network, our logistics provision, but also our infrastructure business in in in in the Middle East. Very excited about this, very well received in the market, huge huge interest from from the customers to work with us, and not just here, but open up conversations about them wanting to work with us in other parts of the world.

We see agri-bulk, and particularly the food sector, of one of the core markets that will grow over the next next decade, and one that's particularly important to nations and governments around the world to secure to to secure raw raw product, raw agri-bulk, for processing closer to home, which is a knock-on effect of both of COVID and and and now the conflict. Super, super happy.

We're in regulatory approval. We hope to close that in the next 4 4 weeks, and then close financially and have October, November, December as part of the part of the the the company's P&L.

Next slide, Marc, please. Keep going.

We've covered this. Keep going.

We've covered the the transaction. Projects update.

Again, I think, the largest was was CLI in Brazil, something that the company's worked on for some time. It is part of the strategy.

Our strategy has always been been to build global networks, and particularly through enter supply chains and and move down the value proposition in five core sectors, agri-bulk being one of those, containers is another sector that's important to us, energy, chemicals, and automotive. These are these are the five core sectors and the five core pillars that that the company has built its its near-term strategy on, developing the supply chains for that.

These impact all of our five clusters. They participate in all of that.

Around 60% of the group revenue comes from those five sectors today, and we expect to see significant growth going forward, and and and more service provision to our global customers on that basis. As we've discussed, quarter two, acquisition of CLI.

We also made we call it small, but but it's still €70 million acquisition of MBS Logistics in Germany. This really fills a a geographic gap for our logistics business.

It gives us a strong presence in Germany, which is the largest largest market in in Europe, which was missing from the group, has strong presence outside of of Europe. It also gave us access to Frankfurt as one of the major air cargo hubs in Europe, if not the major air cargo hub, and gave us the the customer contacts and also ongoing revenue revenues within within the air cargo sector, particularly coming through Frankfurt.

This is a a bolt-on acquisition, but but stamps our flag in the ground, completes a little bit some of our missing geographies, and also creates hubs for us in in in certain sectors. We also, as part of the original agreement, but also as part of our resilience program during the conflict, we completed a 30% acquisition of additional shares of GFS.

We previously owned 51% in the company, and now 30% taking us up to 81% ownership. This was critical to the group's response to the conflict.

GFS is under our ownership. It's a supermajority.

It means that we have greater control over the the network, greater control over the operations. It's important to us that the majority of our fleet is owned, and that allows us freedom of where we where we ship in times of crisis and how we respond and how fast we can respond without having to seek permissions from from different vessel owners through charter agreements.

A really strategic focus for us and, as I think the shipping rates have justified our purchase of of GFS relatively speaking since 2020, 2022, '23, since COVID. It's a it it just gives the the group a greater degree of control over its strategic core assets.

We had the soft launch of through Noatum Ports of Safaga terminal. This has been well received, particularly with because of the crisis.

We have had calls so far, a number of calls from different shipping lines. We're still testing out the equipment, so that's why it's called a soft launch.

We're not at operating capacity yet. We're not at operating speeds yet.

This is for us to fine-tune equipment and software and process ahead of our intended operational start date, but very exciting and and and certainly on track with the business plan that that we put in. What we will be doing is offering Safaga as a relay point for larger ships.

I talked about that we have 4 to 5-day waiting times into the into the two ports in in the UAE as volumes pick up. What we can do is offer Karachi and and and Safaga as a relay port for some ships, the the the larger ships that run on Asia-Europe, drop your cargo here, and we will take them on feeder vessels into into the UAE through Fujairah and a combination of Fujairah and rail.

Next slide, please. We continue, and this is a a vein of thread that that we've talked about many times, but we continue to recycle capital through asset monetization to reinvest in our in our core business, to reinvest in assets, core assets, to bring those to market, to lease them, and and then to to recycle that capital into developing out more.

This enables us to fast-track fast-track our Kizad development. We've been leasing out, traditionally about 3 square kilometers a year.

We have over 400 square kilometers. At times, we've released 5 5 square kilometers.

This allows us also to bring in the private sector and and and develop in conjunction with the private sector to to greatly to greatly speed up the the development of the 400 square kilometers and really make significant steps in in in the amount of land that we're developing in any given in any given year, whilst not stretching the balance sheet of the company. The two two well-publicized transactions that that that we've done with the private sector: one was with Mira Development for 4.6 square kilometers for for 2.47 billion, and Danube for 1 square kilometer, 840 million.

This is developed to what we call the town center. It's it's retail, it's housing, it's villas.

This all supports the ecosystem of developing industrial land of the size of 500 550 square kilometers that that Abu Dhabi Ports Group currently controls. Our warehouse sales continue, mix-ownership model for for build-up assets.

Again, this has been highly demanded, and we've completed three transactions so far: two with Aldar, one was for 570 million and 650 million; one was with the MAG Group for 295. All of these were done through a process run in conjunction with Knight Frank.

There's large demand from the market for these types of transactions. We feel the value is exceptional, and we've we are very happy with the the the results of the three transactions that that we've done.

Non-core financial holdings, again, the group looks to to divest any non-core minority investments or or shares that it held. I think the the one that we've very well publicized is that we sold the 9.8% or 9.77% stake in NMDC for around 1.6 billion, and all of this capital stays within the company to reinvest in in future growth.

Next slide, please. Again, the M&A, we've we've we've kind of been through.

As it as it transpires, I think we've always talked about the group the group doesn't plan to take on four in a certain quarter. It works very hard over a long period of time on on these transactions.

Because of the nature of the market, what what we're going after, and also the changing macro environment and and our response to the, our response to the conflicts, because we're we're, exposed not just to the conflict here, but we're also exposed to the conflict in the in in in the in the Black Sea, our response, they come when they they they come. Four came relatively quickly.

I think that, Global Feeder one was was we had an option, and it was an option to take the 30% stake at the original valuation. It's an implied EV/EBITDA of 3.7.

The group felt that it was for GFS was fundamental to the group's strategy going forward, but fundamental to our ability to respond to changing macro environments, conflicts, changing trade patterns. It was imperative for us to exercise that option and take more control of of of that group, but extremely extremely good value for the group as well.

Very, very happy to have an 80% control of that asset going forward. Our plan is to add ships into that network.

GFS is the underpinning service provider who links our port network, and that will continue as our as our ports ramp up, our greenfields come on stream, but it will also continue as and when we add new ports to our portfolio. CLI we've talked about, implied 8.3 times transaction.

We think significant value, the growth potential, the high EBITDA margin business, the long-term contracted business, the nature of this business, the importance of the product, we think this is is great value and a leadership in the key the global key export market, and we have leadership position in that. That's extremely important to us.

We're very, very happy with the management team that we've inherited. We're working very closely with them, or we will be working very closely with them in in in integrating that business once we hit we receive regulatory approval.

MBS, 10.5 times, although it's a smaller transaction, therefore the the the multiples don't don't necessarily equate. If you look at if you look at the values that have been given across the logistics piece, particularly in in Western markets in Europe, in North America, again, we think that that that that there is value in this in this deal.

Lastly, we're still involved in the MTO to acquire the remaining shares, the LuNa shares and the minority shareholders of Alexandria Container Terminal. Again, this is a significant terminal.

It's all gateway cargo. It gives us a hub and and a a very good structured port, high-margin port, in in the Mediterranean side of of Egypt.

We can structure our feeder network around the Mediterranean off of of Alexandria. We're starting to see great synergies, the potential in the group for agri-bulk, for containers, and for automotive in particular.

Next slide, please. Just just just a piece on Noatum Ports and the growth of ports, adding what what I've just explained.

As you see now, Brazil with two terminals; our our West Africa footprint, Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, and Douala in in Cameroon; our North African footprint with four terminals in Egypt, that would also now include Alexandria; East Africa with with with Tanzania; and our GCC and Central Asian ports, Kazakhstan is our grain terminal, Pakistan we have the general cargo and also the container terminal there, Syria the closing of our of our stake in Latakia, our 20% stake with our partner CMA, Jordan the general cargo terminal, and obviously our 12 bulk terminals and general cargo terminals and and automotive terminal that we hold in Spain. A growing footprint between East and West.

We would I would ideally myself like to see us add to this portfolio in the future when the right when the right opportunities come up. We are completely focused on on our greenfields, which are colored green here, bringing them to market, making sure they're the head of the business case, making sure that we deliver them on time, making sure that the contractual side with our partners and our shipping lines mean that we're we're set for long-term growth.

At the moment, we have no concerns. We're doing very, very well.

We have highly demanded terminals. In fact, I think Congo-Brazzaville and also Angola, we could have sold two or three times two or three times the capacity that's available.

We'll be looking to address that in the future, but the market demand for West African terminals has been exceptionally strong, exceptionally strong. Next slide, please.

We've been through the details. Thanks, Marc.

Next slide. I think Marc touched on this.

It's it's also important if you if you overlay the footprint of our ports and also our maritime network against where these CEPAs are being signed by the UAE government with its trading partners, there's no surprise that there's a huge overlap, right? That's part of the group's strategy, that we really we really invest to enable those CEPAs to to to really fulfill the the increased volume in trade.

One, we're an enabler, but two, we're a beneficiary. We tend to invest in the supply chain where where trade is expected to grow.

Trade grows where there's joint investment, and trade grows where there's where there's free trade agreements. The UAE is expanding rapidly, and and we are a net beneficiary, but we're also the enablement of that.

We will continue to invest. Largely we have really good multinational partners: in the bulk, Louis Dreyfus; in the containers, the major shipping lines, four of the major shipping lines; the in the fertilizers; in the in the iron ore; in the energy markets.

We have big, blue-chip customers that are expanding along these lines and asking us to provide greater and greater service to them on a global basis. It's it's it's a it's a strategy of the company to do that, to really work significantly with our customers in detail about their growth plans and how we can provide services with offtakes and long-term agreements through them to enable their business in line with the geographic footprint that that that we see as priority.

This is what is really driven the profitability of the company over the last 2 to 3 years. It's also what has kept our customers close to us when things have changed: conflict, changing trade patterns, and asking us to provide the solutions rather than seeking it from from from the market.

This this proximity to customers cannot be underestimated. We have a significant strategic account management program that pulls all the parts of the the the group together.

We are seeing significant growth through our top 50 50 customers. In fact, our top 20 customers are giving a natural CAGR of around 30% year year-on-year.

We we aim to increase that significantly in the purchases that we made. CLI will enable that even further for us.

Our CAGR with major customers in the bulk products will will will grow. Our proximity to customers, our proximity to the UAE's trading partners, this is what drives drives profitability of our business on a sustainable, long-term basis.

Next slide, please, Marc. I think we covered these.

New land leases, you would expect that that, with the conflict, it's been a difficult period for our economic zones. It's actually been, surprisingly enough, it's actually been on the contrary.

We still have strong demand for investors to invest and announce new projects. That really demonstrates, I think, the confidence that the global market has in the UAE and AD Ports being part of that, but in the UAE and the UAE's ability as an economy to sustain and respond and and really to bounce back.

I think one of the testaments of that is, in in all of our economic zones, we have not had cancellations during this period to date. That's a testament to most of our our industrial base is happy to ride out the storm and believes that the market will rebound significantly, as do we, as as this conflict abates.

Inshallah, that that that's something that that that happens soon. I think, a very a very nice story for us is is in the automotive, with Rox taking a 10,000-square-meter facility.

Rox is a beautiful car, Chinese electric car SUV. If you live in the UAE, you would have seen these on the road, very, very very, very luxurious SUV.

We're happy to be a partner of that, and the target annual production will be 300,000 vehicles by 2030, bringing production into into into Kizad. Abu Dhabi Refreshment Company, again, we talked about food.

This is food processing. This is on the beverage side, but this is part of what what we see as fundamental staples of the group's of the group strategy and who is investing into our our economic zones for development.

Exxon development, again in the food and beverage market, 37,000 square meters in the Abu Dhabi Food Hub. Next, please.

With that, I'll hand over to Martin.

Thank you, Ross. Next slide, please, Marc.

Just I'll quickly try to take you through the financial and operational performance of Q2. As Marc mentioned earlier, Q2, we delivered the best quarterly results on record, despite the regional events weighing on our UAE ports.

Our revenue for the quarter came in at 7.08 billion, up 47% year-on-year. The EBITDA reached 1.74 billion, up 49%, and total net profit hit 836 million, and that's an 88% increase versus the same quarter of last year.

On a half-year basis, the revenue was 12.83 billion, up 36%; EBITDA 3.25, up 41%; and net profit 1.49 billion, up 64%. Once again, the growth accelerated as we moved down the income statement, the margins expanded, the operating leverage came through, and finance cost continued to moderate.

The quarter benefited from the 650 million dirham warehouse sale to Aldar, but even adjusting for that, the underlying growth remained strong and broad-based across maritime and shipping, economic cities, and logistics. This is the diversification story that we have been telling for several years now, and it's doing exactly what it was designed to do.

One thing that is important to note is that during the quarter, we received a monetary grant amounting to 602 million related to qualifying operational expenditures under the government-led resilience program. The total amount was recorded as other operating income in the P&L with corresponding cost asterisk and G&A expenses, but with bottom-line immaterial impact on the P&L.

When we look at the port cluster operational KPIs, the regional events had had a very visible impact during the quarter. The general cargo volumes were down 39% year-on-year, and container volumes declined 55%.

The driver is almost entirely the UAE. The general cargo in UAE fell 67%, and UAE container volumes were down 65%.

The international operation continued to cushion the impact. The Noatum Ports terminals in Egypt, Pakistan, Spain, and Angola now represent 65% of total quarterly general cargo volumes and grew 14% year-on-year, while the international container volumes were broadly stable.

Group-wide container terminal capacity stood at 12.2 million TEUs, with Khalifa Port at 9.6 million and Fujairah at 720,000 TEUs. The total throughput for the quarter was 853,000 TEUs.

Overall capacity utilization was a disappointing and very low 28%, with the UAE at 22% and international operation at a much healthier 61%. One structural point worth flagging in this quarter is that the transshipment to origin and destination mix in the UAE inverted this quarter to 37/63% versus roughly 65/35 in prior quarters.

Transshipment is the volume most exposed to the rerouting, and that is what we are seeing. The underlying infrastructure is obviously intact, and we have very significant capacity hitting once the volumes normalize again.

Next slide. Moving to the economic cities and free zones, on land leases, we had 1.2 square kilometers net of new leases during the quarter, and that's an acceleration from Q1, with key agreements signed in the F&B, auto, metal, and logistics sectors, despite the regional situation.

Industrial and manufacturing projects continued to represent around two-thirds of the overall land leases, which is the tenant mix that we are striving to maintain. Our specialized hubs—the Metal Park, AgTech Park, Food Hub, and also the Auto Hub—remain on track to come online in phases through the second half of 2026 and into 2027.

Despite the regional situation, we are maintaining our annual guidance of 3.5 to 4 square kilometers of net new land leases per year. On warehouses, leased space was down 13% year-on-year, but this is a capacity effect, not a demand effect, follows the sale of the warehouses that I mentioned earlier, which reduced capacity by 7%.

Utilization actually improved to 91% during the quarter. We have, as mentioned in previous quarters, close to 500,000 square meters of new warehouse capacity coming on stream later this year, which is a 65% increase from 2025.

Next slide. A couple of further highlights from the economic cities cluster is worth calling out.

Sedara Group, our staff accommodation business, reached an all-time high occupancy of 98% in Q2, improving both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, with bed leases up 23% year-on-year. The total bed capacity was largely unchanged at 139,000 beds, purely a utilization game straight through to the margin.

On the gas distribution, volumes reached 6.3 million MMBtu, up 8% year-on-year, driven by continued steady demand from our industrial customers, and our gas network in Abu Dhabi stands at 106 kilometers. Next slide.

For maritime and shipping, the story in Q2 was all about rates rather than volumes. Container feeder shipping volumes were 740,000 TEUs, down 11% year-on-year and 15% quarter-on-quarter as port bottlenecks in the region constrained our ability to move boxes.

That volume decline was more than offset by pricing. The average freight rates in our core regions, the Gulf, Indian subcontinent, and the Red Sea, increased 96% and 37% year-on-year, respectively.

We operated 27 services connecting 87 ports across 36 countries, with the Gulf, Indian subcontinent, and the Red Sea accounting for 54% of the volumes in Q2. The container feeder fleet grew to 61 vessels, with 53 on service versus 50 in Q1 and 47 a year ago, and we completed 261 voyages in the quarter, up 11% year-on-year.

Next slide. Beyond the container feeder services, the wider maritime portfolio continues to broaden.

Our total vessel fleet reached 325 ships as of Q2, up from 274 or 275 a year earlier. UGR, our automotive ro-ro joint venture, was again a key growth driver.

We transported 208,000 car-equivalent units and 243,000 cubic meters of high and heavy cargo in the quarter, and that's 119 and 36%, respectively, of the entire 2025 full-year performance achieved in a single quarter. The dry and liquid bulk, ro-ro, and multipurpose fleet expanded to 72 vessels, up from 36 a year ago and 63 last quarter, and that includes both owned and chartered-in vessels.

The offshore and subsea fleet stood at 102 vessels, broadly stable over recent quarters. Our marine services grew to 85 vessels from 78 a year earlier, with drydocking again being one of the key operational drivers.

Next slide. On to logistics, where we are seeing a genuine turnaround take hold.

Polymer volumes declined 23% year-on-year on the regional events, but higher pricing largely support the segment's overall performance. Air freight rebounded, up 5% year-on-year, recovering from the loss of the large Asian customer earlier in the year that we mentioned during Q1.

Ocean freight was down 5% year-on-year, but essentially stable quarter-on-quarter, a reasonable outcome in a challenging market. The regional supply chain reconfiguration is driving rail and land bridge demand across UAE and the wider GCC.

The improvement that we signaled in Q1 for logistics has come through in the financials, and we expect that trajectory to continue. Next slide.

Let's move on to the revenue by cluster. Maritime and shipping remained the largest growth engine.

Revenue was up 62% to 3.8 billion, and that was driven by the automotive, up 208%; shipping, up 71%; agency, up 38%; offshore and subsea, up 27%; and drydocking and shipbuilding, up 10%. Shipping now contributes around 60% of the cluster's top line, reflecting the strong rate environment.

Economic cities and free zones grew 132% to 1.3 billion, boosted by the 650 million warehouse sale. Stripping that out, growth was still 15%.

The warehouse revenues rose 26% despite the sale. Sedara Group was up 29% on higher occupancy.

Utilities and land leases grew 11% and 9%, respectively. Ports was down 70% to just north of 600 million, reflecting the UAE volume impact.

Concession fees in the UAE contracted 57%, but the international container operations more than doubled, up 108% year-on-year. Logistics grew 30% to 1.5 billion, driven by land bridge requirement across the UAE and GCC, with project logistics up 40% and warehouses up 32%.

Three of the four clusters growing strongly, and the one under pressure is the one most directly exposed to the regional situation. Next slide.

On the geographic split, international operations represented 37% of the H1 revenue, with Spain, Pakistan, and Egypt being the primary contributors. If you were to reclassify all shipping as non-UAE, which arguably better reflects the true nature of the business, since it's currently split by office control, international would represent 68%.

This was a deliberate strategic choice we made several years ago, and it's paying off precisely when we need the most, as you've seen in the quarter that we've just been through. Alongside the business mix, geographic diversification has been one of the most effective tools in mitigating the impact of regional events on the group financial performance, and Q2 was a clear demonstration of that.

Next slide. Turning to the EBITDA, which was up 49% for the quarter to 1.74 billion, maritime and shipping EBITDA rose 79% to more than 1 billion for the first time, driven by a combination of revenue growth and materially higher profitability in the shipping segment on the back of the rate environment.

Economic cities and free zone was up 99% to 659 million, driven by higher bed utilization in Sedara and growing warehouse leases, and obviously boosted by the warehouse sale. Excluding the 294 million gain on the warehouse transaction, normalized cluster EBITDA was 365 million, up 10% year-on-year.

Ports declined 23% to 234 million, a direct consequence of the top-line decline from the regional situation. Logistics, which was the area of concern we had in Q1, delivered EBITDA of 94 million, up 154% on increased activity in the UAE and the wider GCC.

Next slide. Zooming in on the margins, consolidated EBITDA margins was 24.5% in Q2 and 25.3% for the first half of 2026.

The standout margin expansion came in maritime and shipping, up to around 27% from 24%, and in logistics, which improved from 6—or to 6.4% from 3.3%, still low in absolute terms, but moving decisively in the right direction. Economic cities came in at 51% for the quarter, or 57.1% when you exclude the effect of the warehouse sale.

Port margins held up reasonably at 38% given the scale of the volume decline, and remained above 43% for the first half of the year. Looking ahead, as always, consolidated margin will depend on the revenue mix, the margin profile across the clusters, and also the ramp-up of international operations, and of course, the regional situation.

We are maintaining our medium-term EBITDA margin guidance of 25 to 30%. From a portfolio perspective, our target remains that more than 60% of our EBITDA comes from our infrastructure business, ports and economic cities, which carry the highest margins.

Next slide. Moving to the balance sheet, liquidity remains strong.

We closed the quarter with 3.36 billion in cash and cash equivalents, plus 5.89 billion of undrawn bank facilities, including an accordion option, well over 9 billion of available liquidity. Net leverage continued to improve, reaching 3.7 times in Q2, down from 4.1 times a year ago and 3.9 times last quarter.

We are making steady, consistent progress towards our medium-term target of 3.5 times, and we remain committed to getting there. Next slide.

On capital expenditure, we invested 1.45 billion in Q2, taking the first-half capex to 2.8 billion. The capex intensity was 20% of revenue for the quarter, down from 24% in Q1.

We have preponed some capex planned for the second half of the year into the first half in order to effectively respond to the regional situation. The distribution in the first half was balanced between maritime and shipping at 48% and our infrastructure assets, with ports at 24% and economic cities at 22%.

The maritime and shipping spend went into tankers, container shipping vessels, marine services vessels, and drydocking maintenance and repairs, largely to fulfill existing contracts. We are maintaining our organic capex guidance of 4.5 to 5 billion for the full year 2026.

Next slide. On the cash flow, Q2 was a very strong quarter.

The operating cash flow came in at 2.14 billion, more than double Q2 last year, with cash conversion of 123%. That is a marked improvement on the 62% we reported in Q1.

The free cash flow to firm was negative around 1 billion, but that figure includes the 1.1 billion acquisition of additional 30% stake in GFS. Excluding that transaction, the group generated positive free cash flow to firm of 73 million for Q2.

Our key focus remains on reaching the inflection point on becoming free cash flow to firm positive on a sustainable basis, which entails that our immediate priority is on operating cash flow generation and disciplined capex spend. Next slide.

Next one. Despite the situation that we currently have in the region and the turbulent macro environment, we remain confident in our medium-term growth trajectory, and we're reaffirming the guidance across the board.

As always, these targets are based on existing operation and approved or announced projects and acquisitions. Over to you, Marc.

Thank you, Martin. It's time to open the floor for Q&A.

Ahmed, can we do that?

Yes, of course. Just a reminder for everyone, you can send your questions in the Q&A box or you can use the raise hand function, and we can unmute your mic.

We will be prioritizing raised hands first before the Q&A box. The first question comes from Shahrukh Nawaz.

Shahrukh, please unmute locally and ask your question. Shahrukh, can you please unmute locally and ask your question?

I guess we'll move to the next question coming from Ricardo Rezende. Ricardo, please unmute locally and ask your question.

Hello, Ricardo, can you hear us?

Hello. Yes, sorry.

Took a while to unmute myself. Thanks, Ahmed.

Good afternoon, everyone. If I may, I'd like to just follow up on a couple of things that Ross pointed out on his remarks.

The first one, when Ross, you mentioned about the six trains going from Fujairah to Khalifa Port every day. If we assume the situation might remain ongoing for a while, what would be the capacity that it could have for incremental trains from Fujairah to Khalifa Port?

Then the second question is on the West Africa footprint. That demand has been very strong there, outpacing your expected capacity.

If we do get to a point where you might add more capacity in the region, would that be something more in the shorter term, meaning could we see some announcements in 2026, or is that a bit more long term? Thank you.

Look, the first question is I think, I'm not from Etihad Rail, but my circumstance is that I think we're maxed out with six trains a day currently. I don't think that's their full capacity, but it's to do with the equipment that we have between the quay and the rail yard.

It's as much as we can provide at this point in time. I do think that they have additional capacity on the line.

I think, look, the easy answer, we've done the calculation. If you were to take all of the inner Gulf's cargo via train, and needed to put all of it sort of pre-conflict levels, which is 22 million TEUs, how many trains a day do you need to run to cater for that?

It's about 25. That's a situation that would never happen, right?

In one terminal, etc., we can't build a terminal of 25 million, but my point being, we are where we are, we have what we have, and we would like to see, we've increased capacity in Fujairah significantly from what we had during the conflict to now. I think we've over doubled capacity, taking extra land, built yards.

Our constraining factor is the size of the quay length that we currently have, and the depth and the turning circle that we have in Fujairah. I think, look, none of us have a crystal ball, but I do think that in order to build future resilience, no matter what happens, what scenarios play out, and there are a number of scenarios, we must have a strong footprint on the east coast, right?

We must look at the way that trade patterns may or may not change. Fortunately, we had planned not for this conflict, obviously, but for disruption when taking Fujairah first, and we had planned that we needed a strong regional network, or we needed GFS, and we needed close proximity to Etihad Rail, we needed our terminals rail-linked.

We had planned for changing environments, and so we continue to do so. The issue with the conflict is there's a lot of unknown, and there's a lot of scenarios to play out, but we know what we know, and we don't know what we're not going to know at this point.

The obvious answer is you can't do nothing. We have to build on what we know, we have to maintain supply chains, we have to maintain our customers' volume, and that's what we're doing.

There is ultimately more capacity to be had. We are looking at ways to increase capacity in Fujairah, but it's not going to be significant, and that's where we are right now.

Yeah.

Thank you. Then in West Africa, if you could comment on potential—

I missed the point about West Africa. It broke up a little.

Sorry. You mentioned on your remarks that demand in West Africa has been very strong,

and then

is even outpacing your expected capacity there. Could we see something in the short term of you adding more capacity, or is that something more maybe 2027 onward?

I think it's these things are always market demand related. We're in phase one of Congo-Brazzaville, and as we've partnered with CMA on that, where we own the majority and they're a minority investment stake.

We have the ability and the option to accelerate phase two and phase three should we choose. Now that's a symptom of capex and returns, but we have the market demand to accelerate those phase two and phase three as we stand.

Same for Angola. We're receiving very, very strong demand in the market for our terminal there, people looking to really cement down West Africa hubs.

Now not all of the shipping lines around the world have strong West African hubs. CMA certainly do, MSC certainly does, but if you look at the remaining shipping lines, it is open, and all of them want that relay hub, one in West Africa and one in East Africa.

We're very prime position with the assets that we invested in to deliver that. If the market demand is there and we can reach good economic terms, of course, we would do it, and we will let you know in due course.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Shahrukh Nawaz, you still have your line open, can we try again?

Hello, Shahrukh, can you hear us?

Am I audible?

Yes, you're audible. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Congratulations for a good set of results.

I have three questions. First is, as we are in mid of the third quarter '26, and how have you seen growth in the port segment, and what's your second-half expectation?

Along with that, what level of utilization rate do you expect for warehouse in the remainder of 2026? Will there be any further warehouse sales, which can have a good growth impact in the EC&FZ in the second half?

Second question is, once the shipping and freight cost eases, will there be margin pressure for maritime and shipping segment and logistics segment going ahead? The third question is, what contribution will be to the logistics segment revenue starting 2027 post-MBS Logistics acquisition, which would be completed by the fourth quarter of this year?

Let me answer the first question, and then Martin, I think you can take the latter questions. Look, I think we don't see much change in the region and in the world, actually, between now and the end of the year and even into the first quarter next year.

Whilst we're not providing forward guidance, what I would say is you can look at quarter two as relatively speaking the new normal in the immediate term. Quarter two would be a full quarter of where the shipping rates are, where the port volumes are.

I would take quarter two as the basis of the rest of the year, in particular, as the new normal.

Just on the other questions, you're talking about the warehouse utilization. We're at 91%, 92% currently.

We see strong demand in terms of warehouse capacity. As we also mentioned, we have significant new capacity coming on stream for the remainder of the year, but that's based on the very, very strong demand.

The utilization on the existing capacity is almost at full utilization, and that we expect to remain. Then obviously, when the new capacity come in, there will be a ramp-up period.

In terms of potential warehouse sale, we have nothing planned at this point in time in the second half of the year. Our key focus is on the integration, first of all closing the M&A transactions that you've seen on the screen here now, and doing the integration.

Additionally, making sure that the operational integrity is there, especially in the volatile environment, that we really make sure that we're disciplined on the capex spend, and then, as we highlighted, also focus on cash flow generation. When it comes to the logistics contribution in terms of the overall portfolio, again, we're not giving specific guidance per year and in terms of the relative growth rates, but we have highlighted here in terms of what we expect the contribution would be for MBS Logistics going into next year, that's just shy of 1 billion of additional revenue.

Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Anna Antonova.

Anna, please unmute locally and ask your question.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question, and thank you for the presentation.

A quick follow-up, maybe on the comment about your outlook into year-end, and that Q2 can be taken as perhaps a new normal, at least into the year-end. My question is whether we can expect any additional government grants, given that the current situation may continue in Q3 or Q4, or the bulk of the extra costs associated with alternative trade corridors has been mostly taken, and we may reasonably expect that kind of going forward, the profitability, especially in logistics, will hold without any incremental government support?

The government grant is basically having a limited impact in terms of the P&L and the profitability, because it's a cost that we are taking on based on government mandates and instructions, and we're being reimbursed for that. This situation is again extremely volatile and evolving, and again, we have the optionality and we're on standby to take any instructions in terms of supporting the government with anything trade-related that will come up.

Whether there will be more grant in the second half of the year, possibly, but again, I think it's important to highlight that from a P&L perspective, it's neutral. When we look at the second half of the year in terms of how it will continue, we highlighted in the press release that the growth momentum that we had in Q2 has continued into July as well.

We still foresee that particularly the container shipping rates will remain at an elevated level in the next couple of quarters. Again, I think that there is a lot of uncertainty in the market right now, and we, yeah, remain vigilant.

We have a positive outlook for the second half, yeah.

All clear. Thank you so much for the comments.

Thank you. As a reminder, you can use the raise hand function or we can read your questions out from the Q&A box.

We currently have no hands raised and no questions in the Q&A box. We'll give it a minute or so.

In the meantime, maybe I can ask a question. Ross, you mentioned that you're using Safaga as a relay port for east-west cargo, maybe shippers that can basically put volumes into Safaga.

Obviously, we're hearing about a lot of issues between Saudi and the Houthis trying to disrupt Bab-el-Mandeb, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb as well. Are you seeing actually a lot of flow going through the Red Sea right now or are things slowing down as well?

We lost Ross. No,

I think we lost him, but just to comment on his behalf. Safaga is used, and Egypt is used as a relay point for us right now.

Obviously with Safaga, we only have the soft launch, but we expect to be fully operational here later in the second half of the year. It's an important staging area for us, and also depending on how the regional situation will continue to evolve.

Far, we still have trade going into the Red Sea, and it's still flowing. We are not directly impacted, but again, the situation is extremely volatile.

Thank you for that. Thank you, Martin.

We have a question from Graham Hunt. Graham, please unmute locally and ask your question.

Hey, can you hear me okay?

Yes, please go ahead.

Perfect. Yes, and unfortunately, if Ross is not on, I had one question for Ross and one for Martin, but maybe, Martin, you'll have to take both.

My question was really on the CLI acquisition. First part was you talked about sort of real upside potential to returns there.

I just wondered if you could add a bit more color in terms of where you could see EBITDA going to from the asset, what are the sort of immediate near-term opportunities you see that you can really start flexing once it's in the group? Then second question just on capex, how should we think about that when CLI and the other acquisitions are in the base for 2027?

Are you still comfortable, I know you reiterated the medium-term guidance, but is that on the basis of all these acquisitions also in the base? Just a little bit on that would be helpful for the capex run rate.

Thanks.

Let me jump in, Graham. It's tricky to answer those questions because we haven't completed CLI, and we don't want to comment on future capex plan for the asset or what EBITDA uplift we could see from integrating it into the wider group.

Unfortunately, you'll have to bear with us another quarter until we actually complete the acquisition, and then we'll be in a better position to comment on those.

Just on the general comment on the capex, what we mentioned in terms of the guidance, 4.5 to 5 billion this year, that includes the acquisitions, but again, they will have limited impact because they will only close in the end of the year. I want to stress again, it's a key focus area for us to be very disciplined about the capex and really make sure that we spend our money wisely.

In light of the situation that we're in, that we also try to phase our capex in an optimal manner. That combined again with a strong focus on the cash flow generations, which you have seen here in Q2, with the strong operating cash flow, that is something that is going to be a priority for us also over the next coming quarters.

Understood. Maybe as I've got the mic, just one follow-up.

Last time you did sort of a couple of big acquisitions relative to the scale of the group, you took a little bit of time to digest them. I appreciate it's very difficult to time these kind of opportunities.

Are you feeling now, assuming all of these opportunities that we're looking at in the slide in front of us go through by the end of the year, do you anticipate a bit of a period of digestion as you look forward? Or just I guess I'm trying to understand how deep the pipeline of additional opportunities for your group you're still seeing at the moment, and what your appetite is for them?

I would say as a management team, we have our hands full, right, with the situation that's currently happening in the region. Again, the key focus for us in the next 6 to 12 months is getting these transactions closed, making sure that we do proper and timely integration and that we reap the targeted synergies that we have outlined as part of these transactions.

Then again, as I mentioned, continued disciplined capex spend, focus on optimizing and the cash flow generation in our existing business until we have greater visibility in terms of the regional situation.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Gaurav Shilar.

Gaurav, please unmute locally and ask your question.

Hello. Am I audible?

Hello, yes, Gaurav, you're audible. Please go ahead.

Congratulations on a great set of numbers. I have a couple of questions.

First, regarding the container feeders rate. The volume has declined, but the rates have increased across Indian subcontinent and Red Sea.

How sustainable do you expect the current rate environment to be through second half of 2026, particularly given the favorable market condition that management expects? What rate and volume assumptions are you currently factoring into for second-half outlook?

Second question is regarding the fleet size. I wanted update on the fleet size and planned vessel additions through second half of 2026 and 2027 and beyond.

What expected delivery and development timelines will be? At what utilization rates do you expect to achieve these fleet expansions?

Thank you.

These are a level of details that we are not guiding on in general. A few comments, and I think we highlighted that earlier in the call as well, in terms of the shipping rates, we have seen the momentum that had in Q2 going into July.

We do expect the rates to be still elevated in the next couple of quarters. Again, to which extent is still a bit uncertain, but that's sort of our base case.

In terms of our fleet size, we're not guiding on that. I think in general, what we are doing is that we try to be agile and have flexibility and optionality in terms of being able to charter in and charter out vessels, and that is something for the different asset classes that will impact the fleet size and the utilization.

Thank you. We have a question coming from Anna Antonova, again a follow-up.

Anna, please unmute locally.

Yes, thank you. I just have a quick follow-up question, a bit technical, but still.

You talked about segmental EBITDA trends, but I just wanted to ask quickly about the corporate segment EBITDA, which is basically unallocated costs. In the last couple of quarters, these costs were running at a negative 100, 150 million per quarter, but then we saw a spike to above 250 million in Q2.

Could you please comment if this Q2 is a new normal run rate, given all the recent M&As which may have added to the corporate costs, or are there any one-offs in the corporate costs in Q2, and if we can then, if this is the case, we can expect kind of the Q2 run rate to normalize towards kind of historically lower levels? Thank you.

Yes, if you're referring to the EBITDA, then there are a number of extraordinary costs associated both with the ongoing regional conflict and also the M&A transactions that we have recently completed. Certainly the amount that you saw in Q2 is not expected to be the run rate.

I think if you would average out Q1 and Q2, then that's a good indication of the average for the coming quarters.

Yes, I was talking about the adjusted EBITDA from the corporate segment as you present it in the notes to the financial statements, basically net impact of all the corporate revenues and costs and everything. Thank you for the comments, I understand that Q2 is not a run rate and a bit lower run rate, the average of the first two quarters would be a bit more better reference point.

Thank you.

Thank you. I don't think we have any questions left in the Q&A box or raised hands, Marc, Martin, back to you for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Ahmed. It's been a long week, and everyone is impatient to go on weekend.

Thank you for attending the call, and we look forward to interacting with you in the next few weeks. We'll be attending a few events in September, so as I said, excited to talk more in details about our Q2 results and the rest of the year when we see you.

Thank you, Ahmed. Thank you, EFG, for organizing the call, and have a nice evening for everyone.

Thank you, Martin, Marc, and Ross, and thank you, everyone, for attending. You may now disconnect.