...anos, the CFO of Cenergy Holdings, and I welcome you on this hot August afternoon to our 2026 first semester financial results conference call. Let's see first our major highlight points of the semester that has just ended.

We have in a record backlog figure following IPTO's frame agreement on the North Aegean and Dodecanese interconnections. The project execution was very good in the semester, delivering high margins in most projects.

We continue to build up capacity since our backlog is expected to grow even further. The returns to our shareholders remained attractive, and our leverage profile is also solid even after expending a significant amount for capex in the first semester.

The numbers that are highlighted in our press release and in our financial results are as follows. We have an increase in revenue of 13% year-on-year above the threshold of 1 billion, at a level of €1.15 billion.

This higher revenue actually doubles in terms of profitability, in terms of profitability delta, and we have an increase of the operational profitability of 26% compared to the semester, the first semester of 2025, reaching a number of €216 million. Again, that, once more, it shows that our focus is on value and not on volume.

Margins remain high, around 19%, almost 200 basis points higher than the corresponding semester of last year, slightly lower than the 19.7% that we had in Q1, as we had already forecasted. The introduction of land cables extra capacity in Thiva and Eleonas has driven slightly down those margins since in Q1 we had a disproportionately high percentage of offshore cable in our revenues.

Our backlog reaches 3.9 billion. This is mostly due to the IPTO interconnection of the four, the four interconnections in Greece, which is valued at 1.15 billion.

I will come back to it in a while. Capex for the first semester was 165 million, an important number, with 67 million out of which were in facilities outside Greece.

We reiterate in that way our commitment to a global positioning both for our cables segment that is expected to start its US operations in the second semester of 2027, which means 12 and a 12 months from now, or a little bit more than 12 months, 12 to 13 months from now, as well as the new pipes facility in the UK. The bottom line is at 177 million, 43% higher than last year, and an EPS of 65 cents, 45% higher than last year.

Given this very strong results of H1 and the growing backlog, the company has decided to upgrade its full year 2026 guidance for operational profitability to 390-420 million range of adjusted EBITDA. Let's look into a little bit more detail the figures for 2026, starting from revenue.

As I said, the revenue exceeded 1.1 billion. The strongest change is found in the cable products business unit, at 352 million for the first six months, a 20% increase from the corresponding semester of '25.

The largest share of revenue is, of course, in cable projects, more than 40% of total revenue, and this is the most profitable segment, as you all know. There is a strong increase in steel pipes projects of 13% in money terms.

The only constant part of our business line is hollow sections, but as I told you quite often in the past, this is not a focus point for our group. It's more of a continuing business from the 20th century years of Corinth Pipeworks, and it's really a very small part of the Corinth Pipeworks business right now.

The sales are dispersed. Of course, the larger part is still found in Europe.

We're a Europe-centric company. More than 60% of our sales are in Europe for the last two years.

The rest of the world has shown quite a considerable increase. It now takes 14% of our sales from 7% in the corresponding semester of '25.

The US is constant at around 7%. The increase of 13% of revenue, as I said before, has led to a 26% increase in operational profitability at 216 million.

That operational profitability is further boosted by €7 million of a positive metal result for a total EBITDA of 223 million. Of course, that metal result, as you all know, is only an accounting profit number, and it's not considered to be a recurring amount.

Now, how do we go from last year's first semester to this year's one? It's really the cables providing most of that change in the profit before tax, 52.3 out of the 53.5 million change.

The SG&A is higher as sales have increased, but also as labor costs have gone up. This is partly due to our good performance in '25, which led the company to really contribute and gave some bonus payments and incentive payments to our staff because, as we always say, the most important part behind our factories and our products is our people.

We the the company wanted to congratulate the staff, all the the labor, both workers and white-collar workers in the group, congratulate by some extra payments for the good performance of '25. Now, the operational profitability, of course, trickles down to PBT at 177 million, and that, of course, also trickles down to a profit after tax of 138 million, 45% higher than the corresponding semester last year.

Most importantly, however, it is the the view that we have on our backlog. The first reading of the numbers showed just a 500 million increase from December 2025.

We all knew, you all know the projects that we have announced in the first quarter, the project in the Netherlands and the project in Poland. A much more important landmark for us is was the frame agreement that was signed between Hellenic Cables and IPTO, ADMIE in Greek, of 1.15 billion, which relates to the connection of four, four important connections in the northern and eastern part of the Aegean: first, the connection between Thraki and Lemnos; then between Lesvos and Lemnos; Lesvos and Chios is the third one; and between Kos and Rhodes, the fourth one.

These are really strategic projects for the country. We the the plan the project includes almost 700 kilometers of submarine cables and another 230 kilometers of land cables.

It's an EPCI project, as we call it, a turnkey project. We are very confident that there is more to come in project awards until the end of the year.

Now, how is this backlog distributed? In cables, the backlog is really European and Greek, and it's a large part, the largest part of it is interconnections.

A smaller part is offshore wind farms. That is important because the interconnections give us much more stability and visibility for the future.

We have clients in interconnections which are semi-public entities that do invest a lot in important projects for their countries. They are much higher, they have much higher creditworthiness than offshore wind farm developers, and that gives us a much better degree of confidence for the visibility of our backlog.

For the steel pipes, the steel pipes backlog remains around 500 million. 500 million is almost a year and a half of revenue.

It is this year concentrated in the Americas and the rest in Europe, and it is diversified, I would say, evenly distributed between oil, natural gas, hydrogen, and a small part in CCS, around 10%. Given the backlog that we do have and the growth that we do want to achieve in the medium term in the future, we have spent an important amount of money, I would say, 165 million in the first six months, to support that next growth phase of the group.

These are all strategic investments split between cables and steel pipes, with cables having the lion's share. 50 million is was spent for the new Maryland plant in the US, and another almost 90 million spent for Corinth and Thiva, the two factories in Greece.

These two last parts was were concerned actually the optimization of the new capacity that we have installed since 2024, whereas in the US, the story, I've described it quite often in the past, it is getting a local base for that important, large, and growing market for cables in the US. Then there is another amount of almost 30 million, which was spent by the steel pipe segment, the largest part being the acquisition and the start of recommissioning for the Hartlepool LSAW pipe facility in the UK.

Now, that is also an important project for us. It gives us additional capacity in LSAW pipes, and as I will make a little bit clear in in in a while, the LSAW pipes are the most valuable projects for the group and for, globally, not just for us, and it also it's also a door to a very interesting market, which is the UK for us.

The capex is spent, but it is spent to support the next growth phase of Cenergy. Despite that capex, the leverage remains very manageable at 1.1 times EBITDA for the six months.

Clearly, there is an increase of almost 180 million from working capital, which translates to a 230 million difference in net debt. We expect these figures to normalize by the end of the year and the leverage to hover around one, the level of one times EBITDA by the end of the year.

We believe that we have really offered some good returns to our shareholders. The returns remain attractive.

We have a 45% increase in earnings per share since the corresponding semester of '25, and more than 15% upside in the share price since December 2025, despite some hiccups that we've seen in the share price in June and July. The return of capital employed remains very strong at 28%, as it was also in 2025.

Turning at the segments, clearly, as I said until now, the important contributor of Cenergy profitability and growth up to now is the cable segment. We have a turnover of 842 million of sales, most of it in projects, more than 50% in projects, and the rest in products.

That turnover is converted actually to 164 million of operational profitability, with margins reaching 19.5%. This average margin includes both the margins from projects, which, as I stated quite often in the past, are above the 20% mark, and the margins from products, which are lower, we have an average of 19.5%.

The increase of 36% in EBITDA is, as is clear, due to the disciplined and successful execution of important projects for the the segment, as well as trying to give the best and the most profitable solution, the most efficient solution for cables to our clients. Working capital has increased, of course, by almost 170 million since December.

That also boosted net debt by 155 million, but still the profitability of the segment is strong enough to keep the leverage profile a very sound at very sound levels. For steel pipes, the story is a little bit different.

There is an increase in turnover at 312 million. That increase in turnover by 11% is actually volume-driven, it is not a result of higher prices.

I would say that prices are slightly lower from the last semester of 2025. The profitability stays around 51 to 52 million, as was last year, but the margins are lower.

Don't forget that 2025 was really the annus mirabilis of Corinth Pipeworks, with extraordinary operational profits of 108 million. This year we are keeping close, I think, to those levels, but we are not supposed to actually reach those 108 million, but it's still a very strong year for CPW, despite the fact that the market it does not really enjoy the positive tailwinds that you have in the cables segment.

Let's turn now to, I think, the most important part of this presentation, which is the outlook for the rest of the year and for 2027. I would say that, starting from cables, that the most interesting growth themes for cables are as follows.

The transmission projects: HVDC, subsea transmissions, these are the most attractive profit pool for cables, not only for Hellenic Cables, but also for the other cable operators. The growth is driven mainly by the European interconnectors, the export cables of offshore wind farms, some island interconnections, like in our case, and grid security.

Margins remain structurally superior to other cable businesses. We're talking about margins which are close or higher than 20% for all of the of competitors and ourselves, and the the importance of that growth point is that it will remain it is driven not by a fading choice in energy sourcing, but from a much more stable choice of energy stability and energy resilience.

The second growth theme which evolves, the second major growth engine for cables, is AI and data centers. They emerge as that growth engine not only because as an electricity story, but also as demand for fiber-optic cables, for connections of data centers to the grid, of upgrades to the transmission mechanisms.

That is an important step because it gives, at least for us, a very good argument for our North American foothold because the data center story is much hotter in the North American continent, and that's where a large part of the demand is expected to come. Third point is the modernization of the grid.

The International Energy Agency actually has identified that grid congestion and delays in connections are one of the biggest bottlenecks to the energy transition. That's why utilities in Europe and in North America, they accelerate investments in transmission networks, underground cables, especially for areas which are struck by tornadoes or by large physical phenomena, distribution upgrades, we all know the stories about the lack of charging stations in urban areas in Europe, but also in the US, and the resilience of the grid.

All of these growth themes are important for the cables. The geographic winners, I would say, are, in Europe, the offshore wind in the North Sea, the interconnections in the Mediterranean, and the grid reinforcement programs, whereas in North America, it could be data center upgrades in the grid and medium and high-voltage land cables, since submarine is much rarer in the US, as you all know.

What is the the key takeaway of our outlook for the next year and a half? We have a very strong demand from the grid and high-quality earnings from transmission projects.

The growth thesis is now broadening. It's not anymore renewables and electrification, it's becoming AI, data, and electrification.

This is important because it gives us a much more stable and a wider range of possible projects for Hellenic Cables in the future. Steel pipes is a slightly different story, as I said.

Steel pipes, first of all, it's clear that Corinth Pipeworks is playing a role as a top tier 1 player. It's not there to target every new pipeline that will come up in the Middle East or elsewhere.

To be very clear, Corinth Pipework is not really targeting the pipelines that you might have read about in the news and which are planned in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf, for many reasons, one of which being that these countries have their own local producers. There are already seven or eight different steel pipe factories in the Middle East, in the Gulf, and we're also talking about onshore pipelines, which are clearly lower margin bringing than the offshore pipelines.

Secondly, with our acquisition of the UK facility, we are putting a lot of interest in the LSAW market. Now, the LSAW market, the market for pipelines which are welded across the pipeline, it's not a spiral welding, it's a longitudinal welding, is the most profitable and growth-promising segment of the oil and gas pipelines.

Geographically, we would say that they are the projects are concentrated in the US Gulf Coast and in the US in general, and also, of course, in Asia. Now, in the former, we have a very good positioning, whereas in the latter, in Asia and in Saudi Arabia, as I told you, we are not that much interested for projects there.

The market volume is so large, actually Global Energy Monitor talks something about more than 200,000 kilometers of gas pipelines in development globally. Half of them are in areas where we are present and in areas where we are leaders.

The just that part of the story is enough to keep us growing for the next medium term. Secondly, LSAW drives a lot of projects that are related to LNG and energy security.

Clearly, it also had it is related to the local changes that happen in the transportation of oil in the Middle East, but we, as I said, we are will not be present there. The margins are very attractive for LSAW, and they are attractive for booked and for high-spec players.

We are not trying to underwrite the margins in order to get some business. The level of quality and the level of delivery that Corinth Pipeworks is offering to its clients, which are all the major oil and gas companies around the world, means that we can keep margins to the a good sound two-digit double-digit levels, even though we will not be, of course, able to reach the 19% and the 18.7% that we had in the past.

In a in a in a nutshell, the LSAW market is not a broad commodity market. It is a selectively a selective market, a market that is working on tier 1 oil and gas approvals, on strong backlog, on high utilization, on the ability to, excuse me, to actually pass through a part of the steel cost to the final client.

CPW is very well-positioned to take advantage of that market. Third point in steel pipes is the UK market.

Actually, the UK market is a very interesting situation because the our acquisition in Hartlepool has actually allowed us to enter a market which is closed, quote, unquote, to everyone else. What do I mean by that?

That all the competitors of Corinth Pipeworks, whether they are German or Indian or South American, they are shut out of that market because of local content clauses, which means that the acquisition of Hartlepool offers an almost captive market, which, of course, is not booming in terms of oil and gas development, given the UK government's decision on renewables, but it is a very promising market to other projects, such as hydrogen and CCS, carbon capture. Also, it is a very good opening for the transatlantic market due to the proximity to the US.

Corinth Pipeworks will continue to select projects in a disciplined way. Some important awards are on the way, and I hopefully I will be able to say more during our next meeting in November.

It's always the the focus of Corinth Pipeworks is disciplined execution, niche projects, and really exploiting our top-quality producer of steel pipes. The combination of very good H1 results and a growing backlog has led the company to upgrade our guidance for the end of 2026 by 20 million in both ends of the interval.

We are now forecasting that our operational profitability will be between 390 to 420 million for the year, with the usual assumptions, of course: a smooth execution, no material deterioration in the availability or the cost of key inputs, that the demand remains healthy for products, and that we are we have a limited impact from major geopolitical risks. I will finish the presentation with our financial calendar.

Our next appointment is for mid-November. In 16th of September, of course, we will publish our interim report for the six-month period of '26, but mid-November, we will have our appointment for the Q3 trading update.

Then early March '27 come the full-year financial results, with the general meeting following at the end of May. I now turn back to our operator to start the Q&A section.

Thank you very much.

I see we have some raised hands here. I start with Mr.

Marios Bourazanis in an alphabetical order, I'm sorry, I start with Mr. Marios Bourazanis Marios, you have the floor.

Thank you. I hope you can hear me and thank you for your presentation.

Just a couple of questions from my side. The first one is on the order intake following the strong H1 intake.

I'm wondering how we should think about the backlog development through the year-end of 2026 and how tendering activity has gone so far in H2 and if there is scope for meaningful awards for the rest of the year. That's my first question.

My second question is as the group moves past the peak of the current capex cycle, I was wondering how you're thinking about the next phase of growth. Are you assessing any opportunities to expand the cables footprint more ambitiously, either in Europe or in the US?

If any attractive opportunities arise, how do you think we should think about funding capacity across your cash flows, your debt headroom, and potentially any other sources of capital? Thank you.

Sure, Marios. Thank you.

First, yeah, the order intake was really good for the first H1, and I'm very, very confident that it will be even better in the second semester, not only for cables, but also for steel pipes. We expect our backlog to grow significantly in the second semester.

I forgot to say, and this is maybe related to the new awards, that Hellenic Cables, I think it has already disclosed that it was certified for the 525 kV cable solutions. That's a very important result, and it will, of course, affect the awards that we will get in the second semester.

As for the capex cycle, it is true that we do still have some strategic capex to do in the US. Until the end of the year, we expect construction works to finish.

A couple of equipment is already on their way or they have already arrived in the US and will be installed by the end of the year, by December, so that the objective is that by February '27, we will start producing samples, first medium-voltage samples and later on high-voltage samples, because, as we need some certification for that. The capex cycle is expected to go back to a much lower level of capex in '27.

Since there will be some good cash flow generation in '27 and '28, of course, the opportunities are open. We may examine further investment in the US to actually grow the business there, or some expansion of our facilities in Greece with further optimization.

That will be done following important awards in our backlog, so that, as we always follow that same path, we first have the awards, and then we plan our expansion of capacity accordingly. I then ask Mr.

Thijs Berkelder to take the floor, please.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you, Thijs.

Okay. Thijs Berkelder, ABN AMRO ODDO BHF.

Can you maybe give capex guidance for the second half of the year, and maybe also explicitly for the Maryland factory for the second half of the year? The press release and you just stated you expect sort of end of construction before year-end.

Does it mean so much lower capex than in principle for the US next year? Second question, just a data fact, assets under construction in terms of value end of the first half, how large was the amount?

For now, the third question is on the margins within cables. Is it real that product margins have improved to 10% or so?

I start with the capex. You're right, in the second half, of course, we will have we still have an important part of capex to be spent.

Let me clarify that this slight delay in spending the capex is due to invoice delays. It is not due to work delays.

Whereas in, in theory, one could say that if you want to spend 170, almost 170 million for the US plant in 2026, that would be split in equal parts between the every each semester. It wasn't.

It's a bit lower in H1. It's 50 million in H1, the rest, the other 120, will be spent in the second semester, and the works will be finished by December, which means that what is left for '27 is much lower.

'27, we are only expecting certain certain expenditure for peripheral units or, commissioning of the equipment, but not something important in the US. As for the margins, it is true, Thijs, that products have shown quite a strong level of around 10% in the first quarter.

However, the margin expansion is, due as I said before, it's due to the mix shift, to what is the mix between projects and products, and what is and how that mix shifts. The important for us is that our backlog is composed right now of interconnections projects mostly.

This is important because it gives us the security of a higher margin. Offshore wind, as might lead to some, repricing of the of the of the projects and so on, and that might be a little bit kind of changing the forecasts of the margin, whereas grid projects, transmission projects give us a higher stability.

Now, the fact that we have expanded the facilities in Greece, in the land facilities in Greece as well, does not mean that we will focus on products, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that we will not focus on products. The approach of Hellenic Cables is a balanced approach.

We do not want to become a project-only company. We don't want to go back to a commodity cable commodity company.

It is important for us to keep growing more in the areas where the margins are better: CF, offshore, submarine interconnections and so on, but without leaving behind the foundation of our company, which are cable products, land cables, and so on. It's all I I believe right now the market in projects is supply-constrained, the market in products is related to a business cycle.

It has some good results in H1. We expect it to have good results in H2 as well.

We do have the capacity to serve a higher demand for products, for land, medium-voltage, and low-voltage in the second semester. We expect these margins to stay where they are for the rest of the year and the beginning of '27.

There is then a question, there was a question, a written question by Mr. Katsios of Optima bank.

He would like an update on Maryland and Hartlepool. I believe, Mr.

Katsios, I've answered the question on Maryland. About the Hartlepool plant in the UK, the Hartlepool plant is was a plant that was non-operational for 9 months.

We've acquired it. We've cleaned it up.

We brought back all the the the labor in back to the factory. There are some important commissioning works that have to be done: maintenance of the machines, the putting back some raw material so that it can start working.

They expect we expect, sorry, to commence operations there even by September this year. The of course, we are not expecting to have high utilization rates for Hartlepool.

Hartlepool was an investment decision made in terms on the basis of a very low cost and on the basis of the opportunity that such acquisition was opening up for the segment. We did not have an an order book already built for the UK facility, but as I told you, it is an opening to an almost reserved market locally and a very good facility in terms of proximity for the US market.

Since we are very active in the US and we expect more awards to come from there, including the famous Alaska pipeline, we are we are more than confident that some of that demand will be serviced by the UK facility. Mr.

Testa, Peter Testa is adding is asking some questions on the capacity added in Corinth and Eleonas. In Corinth, the Corinth facility in 20 when we started in 2024 and finished in 2025 in 2 years, we can actually say that we doubled the capacity for submarine cables.

We are now working at a capacity which could be measured in terms of kilometers, but that might not be a very, very good very good expectation or forecast because it it it supposes, actually, that you we will be producing only one kind of cables in the Corinth facility. If you assume that you we produce one type of of cables, we could say that the the offshore capacity of Corinth is now close to 2,000 kilometers of inter-array cables and another 800 kilometers of DC export, high-voltage AC and DC cables.

For Eleonas and Thiva, things are different. In in Thiva, we have actually doubled again.

We passed from three to five insulation machines and now to six insulation machines, which means again that we have doubled capacity. We are talking about Thiva having a capacity of more than 60,000 tons in land cables, and Eleonas a similar a similar amount.

Now, will there be some progress in the high-voltage market? The high-voltage market, we're already there in for the European market.

In the US, this is our next phase, too. The US, we will first wait to see how the medium-voltage land cables market evolves, and we will go to a later a later phase, we'll go to some development of the high-voltage there in '28, '29, some investments there.

There is another question. Oh, there is a question by Mr.

Kaparis, Stathis Kaparis. Stathis, you can have the floor, and then I will go on with the other written questions.

Hi. Thank you.

Thanks a lot for taking my question. I've got two, if I may.

The first one is on the cable margin. I don't know what you could say.

I'm trying to isolate a one-off timing impact. Can you hear me?

We lost you a little bit, Stathis.

Could you,

yeah? Yes.

I was actually asking about the cable in H1, it's significantly stronger. You have explained the reasons, but I wanted to isolate the one-off effects of mix and project timing, just to understand what the underlying cable margin is expected, what was it in Q2 potentially versus Q1, what was the difference?

That's number one. Number two, on the cash flow, I'm trying to reconcile the pretty much stable net debt between H1 and H2.

I suspect the 1.1 to 1 leverage is justified by the increased LTM EBITDA, so that leaves us with net cash flow of zero if my calculation is correct. You should generate 150 operating cash flow.

Working capital is a reversal of probably more than 100. Then you have 20 of dividend, and then the capex you mentioned is probably 120 in Maryland, because if I remember well, the Hartlepool you guided for 15 to 20 million, you've already paid that.

Potentially that leaves 100, 150 million?

Let's start with You You understand, Stathis, that I cannot really give numbers here

that are forecasts.

Just directions. The cable margin was right now at above 19%.

Now, that cable margin is the combination of the projects and the products. It is true, as Thijs mentioned before, that the products have given us almost a 10% margin, which is good, and that combines with the 20+ margins from projects to give a level of 19%.

What we expect the the levels to be at the end of the year is around that level, around the 19, 18 to 19%. It's all depends on the product mix and on which projects will be executed until year-end.

These are the the ranges, the trends that we expect. Cables are expected to turn in around 18% margins for the year, 18, 18.5 margins for the year.

Now, the free cash flow: you're right, we have another 120 million to spend on the US. This is out of the share capital increase, it doesn't really affect the the cash flow generation.

The overall story that you are describing is more or less correct. There will be less than, almost, I'd say less than 30 million in a sense, 25 to 30 million left for capex non-US-related in the second half, and that will allow us, linked of course to the generation from profitability, will allow us some good cash flow production by the end of the year.

In 2027, things will be better in that sense, since we do not expect to have the same capex levels as we had in the past, the 235 million of '25, or even more than 235 million this year including the US. This is this is the the correct trend for the the future.

I turn to some written questions because there is, time is a little bit, limiting. There is a question by Mr.

Bruno Raguet: "How could I describe the current pipeline of opportunities in steel pipes? Is it bigger, more attractive than a year ago, or about stable?"

I believe it is more attractive than a year ago, not because the market has grown up a lot, but because we have been able to show to our prospective clients that we can be there in the very difficult projects that they are thinking about. In projects that are demanding, and that either local producers or lower quality producers cannot deliver.

It is an attractive market for '27, and we have we are very close to some awards that can actually give us visibility further in 2028 for steel pipes. Now, cables, correct, we announced that our HVDC capabilities have been certified.

That opens up additional project opportunities. You are absolutely right because it opens up the opportunity for HVDC, more HVDC projects in in Europe, not only in Greece, but also in Europe.

Absolutely correct. There is a question by Mr.

Tanuj Shethkar on future acquisitions in the US in the next 5 years. It's we know we could theoretically talk about that, around a a cup of tea, but it's the the the market and the US market is actually so fluid that there could be opportunities.

You're right, some other large manufacturers or large competitors have acquired companies in the US. The US will have a lot of the US market and the US producers will have a lot of consolidation in the years to come.

Once our facility there is stable and produces good revenues, we may, of course, examine acquisition opportunities over there. Mr.

Yannick Naud: "Does the somewhat higher oil price change the outlook for steel pipes a bit over the next few years compared to the beginning of the year?" I would say yes, because you have, excuse me, new oil routes being designed, but not very much for our side since we are more, asked around demanding projects, offshore projects, and so on.

I don't know, yeah, it's good to have a high oil price for us, for this for this segment. A low oil price means that exploiting new, developing new fields is not interesting, and therefore, if it's not interesting, you do not need pipelines to actually transport the oil or the natural gas.

Clearly, higher oil prices are important, but it's the the the more general picture that we get in the international oil and gas market and not specific news that may come in the Gulf or in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere. The more general picture is clearly positive.

There is then a question, actually a couple of questions, on by Mr. Davide Longo.

He asked me to confirm 120 million of capex for H2. The 120 million is what I mentioned is the capex for the US plant, and I confirm that, clearly, for the US plant in the second semester.

I cannot really confirm anything else for the the second semester. Clearly for the US plant, that's the amount of money we will need to finish up construction by December.

The working capital dynamics: now, the working capital dynamics are quite seasonal because we do have milestone payments and advance payments throughout the year, especially in the last 2 months of the year. It is, yeah, we we are expecting to get back to a lower level of net debt to EBITDA around one by the end of the year, even lower than than one, but it will depend on the scheduling of payments of milestone payments that will also affect working capital by the end of the year.

Finally, again, yeah, the capex for 2027, since the US will not be there and most of the of the large capacity expansions in Greece have been completed, the capex in '27 will be much lower. We're talking about around 60 to 70 million maintenance capex for both segments, plus a small number for, optimization projects here and there.

I do not include in these numbers either the UK plant that may need maybe 10 to 15 million for full commissioning or the small amounts that may be needed in the US in 2027, unless, of course, the scope of our US presence changes, and this is still under discussion. No decision has been made.

I would want, since we have we are kind of limited in time, I would like to give the floor to certain people that have not asked questions before. Mr.

Testa and Mr. Berkelder, you will excuse me, but I have to give the floor to a couple of participants that have not asked questions in the past.

Mr. Bawin Taacker, you have the floor, please.

Thanks for picking my question. I have one on your outlook as to what you're assuming on the low end and the high end of your adjusted EBITDA outlook.

If I recollect your commentary about cable margins remaining strong in 2H, plus UK Hartlepool facility becoming operational from September onward, though at a lower utilization level, can you please share what you're assuming at the high end and the low end, what is keeping us away from the high end, to be honest?

What is keeping us away from the high end is the uncertainty around the global market, to be very honest with you. If that uncertainty is not there, then we are closer to the high end for sure.

Because the first semester, the 216 million has already given us a very, very good foundation on which to base the profitability for the year. There are a lot of factors which are unknown at the time, and one day we're reading about something in the Straits of Hormuz, next day we're reading about AI being a total bubble, and so on.

The cautiousness that we want to keep is what makes us put down a lower end in our profitability interval. You're right.

If these things do not exist, then we will be above the midpoint of our interval, for sure.

Thank you so much. One more from me on your subsea cable capacity utilization.

Could you share an approximate where the current utilization may have been in 1H? Oh,

the subsea cable utilization is very close to full utilization. The Corinth plant is working 7 days a week, well, 6 days a week, the seventh day is really for maintaining and tuning up the equipment, and three shifts a day.

It's at full utilization. There's no question on that.

The land cables are a little bit lower because we are still ramping up the last insulation machine, which will be fully operational by early September, and so that will also go towards 85%+ utilization. We are working at very good levels for cables.

Steel pipes is different. LSAW is very well-utilized, the capacity, at three shifts a day, 5 days a week.

Spiral and ERW is a little bit lower, and we do have space for the larger projects to come, like the Alaska pipeline.

Thank you so much.

Finally, Mr. Athanasakis, I ask you to be quite brief because we are already at 4:00.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to ask a question. I wanted to come back to the cable margins.

The participation of projects in the mix executed this half was similar to last year,

The sound is not very good, George. Could you please repeat because the sound is a little bit muffled?

I said that I wanted to come back to the cable margin. The participation of projects in the first half this year was similar, actually a bit lower than last year, but the margin was a lot higher.

Even if one assumes that the products have a margin of close to 10%, which is higher than in the past, the resulting margin for the projects is a lot higher. I was wondering, is this due to the execution of specific projects, or is this a permanently higher pricing level that we should expect to continue going forward?

Whether this sort of margin is embedded in your backlog? It looks more like 30% than 20%+ in the projects.

Right. Okay.

I get the question. Okay.

It is not due to a permanent price increase in projects. No, it is due to the mix of projects we have executed.

Let's not forget that executing a project means that in certain cases we have a larger share of the installation part, which means that without a significant cost, you do have a part of the profitability. What may happen is that being in the installation part, even without your vessel, if the subcontractor has the vessel, the Hellenic Cables that is the project manager can actually make a good profit on a part where it is not spending money, because it is not actually using a vessel since we don't have a vessel, it is not spending money for raw material or other production, and it is getting a part of the profit after paying the installer as a subcontractor.

There have been a couple of projects like that, there were projects with a lower production part. The margins that you may think about, 19, 20, 25%, 25% is when I have a cable, I produce it and then I install it and I make a profit on the full amount.

If I produce a little bit, but I take a higher part of profit on the installation, these margins can go much higher. I cannot say more than that, but you understand the small detail which comes out of that.

It's not a permanent price increase, it is clearly a mix effect, not a permanent price increase. We were very happy to have very good projects this first semester.

That's why I said that overall in the year, we expect the margins to stay between the 18 and 19% level for cables.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Sorry for being over the time.

Thank you so much for being with us in this August afternoon. I wish everyone a very happy and relaxing vacation, and I reiterate our next appointment for mid-November.

Thank you very much, and have a nice afternoon.