Thank you, and good evening to all of you. Thank you for joining us, as usual, to review Imerys H1 2026 results.

Next to me Pierre Lebreuil, our CFO. Let me start by giving you some highlights of the first semester of 2026.

Strong, strong Q2, which led to a very solid first-half performance with higher sales, higher volumes, firm pricing, costs under control, and consequently, a material expansion of EBITDA and EBITDA margin. Second-quarter results further accelerated the positive momentum, which we presented already at the end of Q1.

We can be, I would say, proud, given the current general environment around us. Revenue, to go a bit more in detail, revenue was above €1.7 billion, up 1.8% versus last year at constant FX, driven by volume growth and firm pricing.

Sales volume were up 0.5%, reflecting the contribution of recent capacity expansions and the strong performance of our commercial teams, offsetting the impact of some subdued demands in certain markets, weakness in Europe, and a little bit the Middle East following the conflict. Specifically the Middle East, limited impact.

You might recall in April, we mentioned that we had almost no sales in the area or from the area. In March, situation has improved with, I would say overall, a more limited impact than expected on revenues for the group.

Fundamentally, the group, together with our local partners, we found alternative routes to import or export to and from the region. Pricing remained firm, increased in average 1% versus prior year, prior year, sorry.

You remember it was significantly lower in Q1, a step up in in Q2. Foreign exchange rates had a negative impact of 2.7% on sales.

It's almost €50 million, mainly relating to the US dollar depreciation, and it was fundamentally concentrated in the first quarter of the year. Adjusted EBITDA for the period amounted to €290 million, up 10% at constant FX, driven by higher sales volumes, price increases, good, strict cost management, and improved contribution from joint venture.

It's important to highlight, as you will see, we will see a bit later on, that at constant exchange rates, all, all our businesses improved the profitability in H1 '26 versus H1 '25. Strategic road map progressing well.

Project Horizon is on track, and I have a specific slide right after on the topic. Two bolt-on acquisitions, they were announced before, we closed.

The first one, Great Lakes in the US, it will increase our presence in this very dynamic market, closed on the 1st of June, for the 1 month of little, let's say, contribution to our perimeter; the second one in Brazil, SB Mineração, closed on the 1st of July, calcium carbonates for the local market, we will see the effects in H2 '26. Last, but just as important, E.ON of Belgium and Imerys Graphite & Carbon in Belgium inaugurated a state-of-the-art energy recovery plant at Imerys production site in Willebroek in Belgium, where we produce our carbon black for batteries, on July 2nd, recently, and this will significantly reduce the group CO2 footprint, and we will use exhaust gases to produce electricity for the equivalent of 40,000 households.

A slide here to give you an update on the Horizon project, our performance improvement program launched or announced late in October. In a nutshell, I think is important to note this program, which aims at really reaching our target profitability and especially strengthen our competitive position, is on track.

All activities are on time. Social processes are launched and progressing as planned.

Our target of reaching €50 million to €60 million annual run rate savings versus our 2025 cost base, already step-up €17 million have been achieved by the end of June, I would say, well balanced between fixed cost and overheads. This confirms what we said before, that the group is on track to realize over 50% of the expected benefits in 2026 already, with the full run rate impact expected to be achieved in 2027 onwards.

On June 30, a provision of €30 million have been booked as restructuring costs. For the for the industrial footprints, ongoing, what is called rightsizing of production capacity is being implemented, as been announced, where needed, when needed, and I would say specifically in Europe, but not only.

A common ERP systems worldwide is now almost finalized. We have more than 85, almost 90% of all of Imerys under one ERP, massive effort over 5 years.

This will also have help accelerate AI implementation, shared services, and certainly fuel productivity gains. Let's take a look at our main underlying end markets and the trends during the second quarter.

I would say construction activity, I would say a bit subdued all geographies, excluding, of course, infrastructure and data centers, but you know Imerys is less exposed to this specific sector of the construction market. Maybe a bit better in Europe, definitely remains very soft since several quarters in the US.

We know the need of housing, for me, it's a matter of time before this market returns to a healthy growth. Consumer goods, no issue, resilient in all geographies so far.

Automotive was down, lower production levels basically in all geographies. China was holding the world up recently, even China had a drop in Q2.

Maybe on the positive side, production of electro-vehicles continues on a strong path, and and you will see in more details later on, the good impact on Imerys business, especially around our Solutions for Energy Transition business. Finally, general industrial activity typically follows the overall economy, a bit soft in Europe, is holding better and even improving in the US, and especially for Imerys, very robust in Asia and in China.

If you look a bit sales performance by geography in the first half of the year, Asia, you see on the right, very strong, even stronger than Q1, which was good. Growth in all businesses, certainly with a specific excellence in in conductive additives.

China, performing very well, is becoming one of the most important markets for the group with good sales, good profitability, and good growth. Europe, still negative in Q1, impacted mainly by residential construction, which is really slowly, but very slowly picking up, and in general, low industrial activity, okay in consumers, and I think we did better than the market with share gains.

North America, solid rebound in Q2, 3% up after a bit softer Q1. Housing markets, as I said before, remains weak, but we had strong sales in filtration, in industrial application, in consumer goods in general, and prices remain firm.

South America was was good, in line with Q1, I would say at constant exchange rates up, especially around consumers, a bit weaker in construction. If we now look a bit more in detail our three business units or business segments, starting with Performance Minerals, revenue of approximately €1 billion is around 60% of the group sales.

Overall, the group remains very resilient, considering especially market circumstances, and there you have APAC and therefore EMEA APAC and therefore the Middle East impact. Positive organic growth, stronger in America and in APAC, a bit weaker, as I said before, in Europe.

For Performance Minerals Americas, say flattish volumes, construction offset by strong consumers, strong filtration business, and definitely share gains in polymer business. EMEA APAC, volumes down, impacted especially by in ceramics in Europe.

High energy costs following the Middle East conflict caused a a reduction in in production volumes at our customers. Rebounded in in June, I have hopes that this was a temporary stop to react from at high energy prices, but we gained market share in in polymers and definitely in filtration.

Prices up, partly to pass through higher energy costs to our customers, classic energy surcharges. Adjusted EBITDA strong, up 8 8.1% at constant exchange rates, supported by a positive price-cost balance, but also very strict cost management.

If I look at our business Solutions for Refractory, Abrasives and Construction, revenue reached €571 million in H1 '26, up 1.6% at constant FX versus last year. Volumes were up 1.7%, strong performance in abrasives, strong performance in advanced ceramics, getting better in construction, strong in China.

I think refractory and construction, some share market share gains in this, especially in Europe, in this weaker markets. Cost-saving efforts allowed the group flexibility, flexibility on prices.

Prices were down in average for this business, but that led to win back market shares in H1, and still, we increased our profitability. Demonstration is on the right.

EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA for the business was up 11.5% at constant exchange rates. If we complete our segment review with Solutions for Energy Transition, we start with Graphite & Carbon.

Strong, strong growth, almost 14% year on year at constant exchange rates, confirming the impressive growth from an already high comparison base of +20% in H1 of last year. Revenue, €137 million, as said, driven by robust end markets, typically electro-vehicles, energy storage, and new avenue of growth like polymers, but also market share gains with new product launches.

H1 '26 adjusted EBITDA increased also by 16.4% at constant exchange rates versus last year. TQC, good results, as you see on the table, revenue rose 6% versus last year, but our business in in Q2 was helped by some one-offs that led to higher sales and higher profitability.

Pierre will give you a bit more details on our financial results. Pierre?

Thank you, Alessandro. Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for joining us tonight. Let me recap some of the key aspects of our financial performance, starting with revenue, as just detailed by Alessandro.

Group sales amounted to €1.74 billion. This represents a 1.5% organic growth year over year, driven by a positive 0.5% volume effect.

Prices rose by 1%, accelerating mainly in Q2, driven by the pass-through of higher energy and logistics costs to customers. Organic growth reached therefore 2.3% in Q2, accelerating versus Q1.

Currencies had a negative effect of €47 million, mainly in Q1. As a reminder, USD was at a strong 1.05 USD per euro level in the first quarter of 2025, whereas it is now around 1.14, as you know.

Lastly, the €5 million perimeter effect in Q2 is mostly related to Great Lakes Minerals acquisition. If we now look at the group profitability, as you can see, for the first semester, adjusted EBITDA reached €290 million, corresponding to a 16.6% margin.

Looking at Imerys direct operational performance, which, as usual, is highlighted in the box in grey color, you can see that adjusted EBITDA has significantly improved with a 10% year-on-year growth, driven by positive sales volume, disciplined pricing, strict cost management, and as well the higher contribution from joint ventures. Then if we just look on a reported basis, EBITDA increased by 3% in comparison to the first semester of 2025, and this is a consequence of a massively unfavorable exchange rate effect of €17 million, which, as you remember, was mostly recorded in Q1.

Just one additional comment about the strong Q2 2026 performance. Just in Q2, adjusted EBITDA amounted €172 million, showing a solid 14.5% year-on-year increase at constant exchange rates.

If we now deep dive a little bit on the way we manage our cost in the inflationary environment we faced in H1 2026 and especially in Q2. Keep in mind that energy and transportation costs surged on March 1st after the start of the war in Iran, impacting our H1 2026 cost by around €15 million net of hedges.

How was this offset in our performance? First, by maintaining firm pricing, notably starting April 1st, 2026, as we pass through energy and freight price increases to our customers, especially in Europe.

Secondly, by managing our cost. Multiple initiatives related to the Horizon project are ongoing to optimize our overheads and our fixed costs, including some production capacity adjustments in Europe.

At June's end 2026, €17 million savings have already been booked related to this plan in our financials. In parallel and in addition to this Horizon plan, we have pursued our I-Cube industrial excellence program, delivering as well additional savings at June 2026 end.

If we now move to the bottom part of the P&L, as you can see, the current financial result was a negative at €46 million in the first half of 2026. This includes a €10 million increase due to interest rate, and as well a €7 million non-cash mark-to-market revaluation of our two virtual power purchase agreements.

Other operating expenses are negative by €17 million year to date. Those €17 million include a €30 million charge for restructuring costs related to Project Horizon, and this is partly offset by a non-cash revaluation gain on the EMILI lithium project, now accounted for under equity method.

As a consequence of all this, net income group share is positive at €49 million. If we now look at the cash flow generation, current free operating cash flow amounted to €109 million, so, as you can see, largely above last year.

In addition to the improved adjusted EBITDA, this is due to three main factors. First, as well as you can see, reduced operating working capital requirements, and this despite the sales growth we just reported.

Multiple initiatives are ongoing to reduce working capital, and some of them already delivered meaningful benefits in this first half of the year. Second, dividend received from JVs in the first semester increased, as you can see in comparison with last year.

This especially includes a $10 million dividend received from our TQC joint venture, whereas we had not received any dividend from them in 2025. Finally, free operating cash flow improvement was as well driven by lower capex paid.

Out of the €10 million strategic capital expenditures reported in this slide, €7 million were invested in the EMILI lithium project before the switch to equity method consolidation on April 1st. As a reminder, those €7 million were fully covered by the fund received from Banque des Territoires, they do not represent any net cash out for Imerys.

To conclude this financial review, let's now look at the net debt. As of June 30th, 2026, net financial debt amounted €1.47 billion.

This means a €77 million increase as compared with December 31st, 2025. This increase takes into account the acquisition of Great Lakes Minerals early June and as well a large non-cash adjustment for new leases, basically the lease of our new head office.

Excluding those two one-shot components, net debt as June 30th, 2026, was slightly decreasing in comparison with December's end. It is as well important to mention that the net debt to EBITDA ratio at 2.6 was roughly stable in comparison with December 2025.

As a reminder, Imerys investment grade rating was confirmed both by S&P and Moody's in second semester of 2025. On this positive note, I will now hand back to Alessandro for the outlook.

Thank you, Pierre. Let me conclude few words on current situation and what to expect going forward.

I think, as you have seen and heard, strong performance in the first half of 2026. This gives us confidence in delivering a solid full-year results in progress and progress compared to last year.

We remain, however, watchful and careful about the broader macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. Specifically, there is a risk of prolonged high energy costs, which could and would probably drive inflation and potentially lead to higher interest rates, to be seen.

The situation varies really daily. As a consequence, the group targets an adjusted EBITDA in the range of €550 to €580 million for the year 2026, assuming no catastrophe and no material deterioration of the current macroeconomic, geopolitical environment.

What can we control, that's what we focus on: serving our customers, managing our costs, cash discipline, execution of our strategic projects. That's in our hands, and we will deliver.

Thank you for your attention, and I hand over to you for Q&A.

Yes, hello. Good evening, gentlemen, and congratulations for this release.

I had actually two question. The first one is on the guidance because I'm not sure I understand.

The guidance seems a bit cautious, if you maybe could elaborate a bit what are your main hypothesis behind this guidance, because if I look at the guidance at the midpoint, it means an increase in H2 of the EBITDA of 1.5%. It has been 3% up in H1, and if I look at Q2, it's almost 12% up.

I would like a bit of a clarification here. Or yeah, so that's the first one.

On the second one, I was looking at the trajectory on the net debt. Of course, it's going up in H1 due to the seasonal nature of a construction activity, but if you could provide a little bit of an update where do you believe the net debt to EBITDA will land at year-end, that would be helpful.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Sven. I'll try to answer your first question, and Pierre will comment on the quality of debt and ratios.

The hypothesis at the basis of our guidance is our current view of the business and the markets. This must take into consideration the uncertainty, especially around the geopolitical situation.

Last week, when we were drafting our press release, our presentation, and preparing this communication, the war in the Middle East flamed up again. Oil went above 100, gas in Europe $100 per $105 per barrel the Brent, gas in Europe reached almost €65 a megawatt-hour.

If this would be the case, it's bad for the economy. It's bad for the economy.

We have seen when it happened in April, most of our ceramics business customers shut down their kilns. Gas is one of the main costs, everything which is tiles, tableware, sanitaryware, everything stopped.

That's the business in the Middle East, India dropped significantly. Something like this could have consequences, and today, we cannot exclude it.

There was a kind of ceasefire a week later, price dropped to $80 per barrel, and the gas went down to 50. Today, we're back to 90, although there is no message, no news.

Very difficult today to be firm on the outlook of markets. Not only energy itself and the cost, and you've seen we can pass it through because everybody does, but this level of cost increase could cause inflation.

If you recall, 2, 3 weeks ago, both Europe and the US started talking on a potential rate increase. It didn't happen, now they called it back, but a rate increase means uncertainty.

It means no construction, no renovation, no new cars. We have to be prudent, and we have factored this in our guidance.

Then all your numbers were facts, your analysis is very adequate. Please keep also in mind when you look at absolute terms that we had a very strong FX impact on Q1, reduced significantly in Q2.

That helps when you look at absolute numbers. What will be the dollar in Q3 and Q4?

I have no idea. At this level, it means basically no FX impact for the group for the second half of the year, which you've seen the Pierre's bridge, €17 million of EBITDA loss only in translating dollar to euro.

If this is zero, our EBITDA is better by 17. Am I calculating it?

Yes, with a safety factor. There are too many uncertainties and too much volatility in today's world not to be prudent.

The group, that's what we do. We believe Q2 was solid.

With all these negatives, our volumes are up, all our businesses are up, all our costs are under control, Project Horizon is delivering. I'm confident the group will deliver a good result, but it will not only depend on us.

We need the markets to stabilize, to be a bit more stable. We don't ask for anything else.

The rest we can manage, we can do. I think we are winning market shares.

Think our commercial actions, our new products, new capacity, you see Graphite & Carbon growing double digit again. We see our business in India double-digit growth, business in China high single-digit growth, all new capacity we have put in, and they're ramping up, is not done.

I think we have good prospects. We need a little bit of stability in the overall market.

On the debt, Pierre, you want to comment?

On the debt, two comments. Maybe allow me first to come back again on the H1 performance, in our view, this is quite a strong performance.

Maybe to comment a bit further on the two specific effects in H1. Lease adjustment, as so this is additional IFRS 16 leases that have to be accounted in our net debt, especially, as I briefly mentioned, the fact that we signed a new long-term lease for a new head office in Paris.

Then those new leases do not correspond to an immediate cash out. This will be phased over several years.

Then the other effect, obviously, effect of our acquisition, in H1, this was Great Lakes Minerals. Bon, as well, yes, additional net debt, but as well additional EBITDA.

Then and that's the reason why we had a chart, if you look at our net debt waterfall, we had a point in the middle. If you restate those two effects, actually, in comparison with our net debt situation at end of last year, we had a decrease in net debt despite the fact that, as you mentioned, seasonality play a bit against us, both because Q2 is stronger than Q4 traditionally, which is obviously leading to purely mechanically to an increase in working capital, and then as well linked to the fact that we are paying in Q2 the dividend, and despite this, restated from non-recurring effects, we had a drop in net debt.

Then as regards H2, bon, as we do not provide any guidance on net debt, I will not give you any clear figure. What I can still share: you might expect and we hope first to have a cash out related to our talc Chapter 11 process in the US, then this would have an impact on net debt.

Bon, I am sure we will come back to it in another question. The other impact, non-recurring impact you might anticipate is the acquisitions we closed on 1st of July, Serra Branca Mineração.

Then as well if we disregard those two specific effects, we are absolutely convinced that our net debt will remain under control in H2. For sure, we will benefit in H2 from the seasonality, and we do not believe we do not have any specific concern at our net debt level at the end of the year.

I think the commitment of the group to remain investment grade historically is only confirmed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sven.

Hello, Alessandro. Hello, Pierre.

Thanks for taking my questions. I have three if I may.

The first one is about the price effect. It has been positive.

Is it the case in all your businesses? Maybe in which business should we anticipate any catch-up in H2?

My second question is on TQC. Results have improved significantly in Q2.

Should we consider the same contribution in the next quarters or higher contribution? Maybe how is the business doing in terms of pricing and volumes on TQC?

Price-cost effect. You said three questions or is that it, Ebrahim?

No, that's it. Only two.

Thank you.

Okay. Price effects, yes, you're correct, it changes from business to business, and partly reflects energy surcharges.

I give an example: gas in the US did not change at all. Gas in Europe increased significantly, typically, European businesses increased their prices slightly more than US businesses.

Similarly, in APAC was, depending on the country, sometimes a bit protected from the energy increases or delayed. Fundamentally, I would say catch-up, yes, but it might remain unbalanced one area to the other, depending on the impact of energy.

Then if I look specifically at the businesses, as we write in the press release, I think our RAC business has done some price adjustment downwards. This was possible thanks to, as we said last year, a strong restructuring and cost savings program that gave them more competitiveness.

From this competitiveness, they are benefiting by being more aggressive in the market, and we see volumes going up in a market, iron and steel, which is definitely going down. That's why really it's business to business.

It's healthy everywhere. That's important, and the price-cost balance, even if we don't disclose by single business, is positive in all businesses.

That for me key. TQC, I would say, no, do not extrapolate the good first half of the year because on June 30, we could enforce certain contractual clauses that generated a bit either artificial sales or anticipated sales, we will not have them in the second part of the year, with an immediate recognition in profit, which again will not happen in the second part of the year.

Extrapolating H1 to make H2, I would say is not adequate. I think TQC, as we keep saying now for two quarters, is doing better, but is very slow.

Semiconductor is good, is solid, it remains the smaller part of the business. Solar remains a bit still ups and downs.

We know that this year installation of photovoltaics are at best flat, especially because China canceled all the subsidies, we will experience a year of less installations. The rest of the world is growing, but China is by far the largest consumer of solar panels.

I think on the demand side is flat here before we go back to healthy growth. Production is normalizing, as we have been saying.

I think will progress, but I would say look more at last year and as more progression rather than H1 this year only and extrapolating. It would be too optimistic.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ebrahim.

Hello. Good evening, and thank you for taking my questions.

I would have two, please. The first is again on The Quartz Corp.

Can you explain what happened here? That a customer had a force majeure event and then some type of take-or-pay clause was activated that meant Imerys got paid without providing the material?

That's my first question. My second is on the H2 cash flow.

It was quite nice, the cash flow in H1. What exactly would happen if talc goes according to plan?

What would be the cash-out that the company would be expecting on a one-off basis in the second half of the year? Any update on the status of the litigation is welcome.

Thank you.

I start from the end. I was expecting the question.

Unfortunately, we don't have yet the good news that we are looking for and expecting. Our very detailed and precise judge is still working on the ruling and writing this ruling.

We have regular interaction. She said, 'I have no more question.

I don't need no more information, and I will conclude soon.' The soon is the question.

There are no mandatory deadlines in this phase, whenever is done is done. Remind you that, unfortunately, the US go on vacation in July rather than August, probably also vacation-driven delay, but it will come when it comes.

We remain very optimistic and positive. When it comes, we will need to contribute not immediately because it might be delayed until the end of the process and there are some administrative steps in between, but once it comes, we will have to contribute our part to the plan.

Pierre, you want to mention values and provision?

The provision in the book is $117 million. It is sufficient to cover.

The

contribution plan is $95 million.

It is a bit lower than this indeed.

When this closes, Imerys will pay in cash $95 million against the provision which is, I'm saying, overestimated at 117. The question is when.

I think it would be the best spent money because finally it will mean the word end to any past, present, and potentially future liabilities around this Chapter 11. Typically, it's been accounted for in all agencies' considerations because it's public knowledge and is known.

Back on TQC, I cannot go in too much details because it's also a competitive issue, but fundamentally, there were contracts coming to a deadline, and we could, as per contract, enforce certain sales which caused an increase in profitability and in sales itself. It's fundamentally a delay in or an anticipation of invoicing, and that's why I said it would be unfair or not adequate to multiply by two the good performance of H1.

More details are unfortunately not possible.

That's helpful. Thank you.

A follow-on for me. Do you have any comments on how Q3 has gotten started?

We've had almost all of July now. I appreciate that it can be starting to get quieter towards the end of the month, but is there anything that would give you pause to think about demand in any of the major industries, be it construction or automotive, relative to the first half of the year at this stage?

I would say the trend that we have seen over the last, let's say, 3 months is confirmed, and I'm talking about markets: the poor construction in the US, a bit weak in Europe picking up, automotive, it is what it is, consumption is solid, which also is reflected, I probably say, in Imerys activity. At the moment, I would say it remains healthy.

Again, question mark on the Gulf, but sales have resumed in Q2. Maybe not at the if you remember, we mentioned €5 million per month.

Typically, we are not there yet, but compared to zero in March and 3 and 4, we are, I would say, almost at 80% or 90% of what our sales would be in a normal situation. No signs so far of weakness, but rather a confirmation of the current trends, which remain positive for us, I would say.

That's helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.

Thank you.

Okay. There are

No further questions, thank you very much, and thank you all for listening. Probably for many of you, I wish you a good vacations, and I look forward to speaking again after the summer.

For sure, if there are news around our Chapter 11 case, it will be promptly communicated to the market. Thank you.

Goodbye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye-bye.