Yes, thank you. Good evening, everyone.

This conference call will be hosted today by Jean-Christophe Thiery, Chairman and CEO of Louis Hachette Group, and Grégoire Castaing, Deputy CEO of Louis Hachette Group and Deputy CEO in charge of finance for Lagardère. Joining us for this presentation also Frédéric Chevalier, the CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail, who will each share their insights and key highlights for this first semester.

This presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. I now leave the floor to Jean-Christophe Thiery.

Thank you, Emmanuel. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

I am delighted to introduce you to Louis Hachette Group's first-half 2026 results. Despite a challenging economic and geopolitical environment, particularly in the Middle East, our group once again demonstrated its resilience and the strength of its diversified model.

In the first half on 2026, we generated revenue of €4.5 billion and EBITA of more than €200 million, reflecting disciplined execution across the group. We also maintained a strong financial profile, supported by good cash generation and continued debt reduction.

Grégoire will take you through the figures in a moment. Let me first turn to the main developments across our businesses.

At Lagardère Publishing, performance remained solid, supported by the diversity and quality of the portfolio. In Trade, we benefited from successful releases by Guillaume Musso and Pierre Lemaitre, to name a few, in France, while The Housemaid series continued to perform strongly in both the UK and the US.

We also had strong momentum in Spain and Latin America, while our board games and partwork activities remained important contributors to growth. Turning to Lagardère Travel Retail, the business maintained its positive dynamics, driven by strong performances in Europe and the Americas.

Our teams continued to demonstrate great agility in managing both the direct and indirect impacts of the situation in the Middle East. We also strengthened our portfolio through several new openings and the renewal of our concession at Geneva Airport.

Our other activities also delivered encouraging progress. Both Lagardère Live and Prisma Media reported positive EBITA in the first half, reflecting disciplined cost management and a more focused strategic approach.

At Prisma Media, the restructuring program designed to adapt the business to changing market conditions and accelerate digital transformation is progressing. Overall, 18 months after our listing, we continue to deliver solid momentum across the group.

This once again demonstrates the relevance of our strategy and the resilience of our group built around leading positions in publishing, travel retail, and media. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our ability to create sustainable long-term value and seize the opportunities that lie before us.

Thank you for your attention, and I will now hand over to Grégoire, who will take you through our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you very much, Jean-Christophe, and good evening, everyone. I'm also very pleased to share with you the good and solid results delivered by the group for this first half.

We will start by taking a look at the different performance of our different businesses, starting on the slide five with the Lagardère Publishing, which once again delivered a solid performance this semester. Despite relatively soft market conditions overall, the business showed strong resilience, benefiting again from its diversified activities and international footprint.

Revenue increased by 1.3% on a like-for-like basis to more than €1.3 billion. In France, as you can see, the revenue was down 1.6% in a difficult market that declined by around 5%.

Literature remained well-oriented in France for Lagardère Hachette, supported by several successful new releases, as Jean-Christophe mentioned it, including Le Crime du paradis by Guillaume Musso with already 250 copies sold, and by Le Belle Promesse by Pierre Lemaitre published in January of this year. We also benefited from a strong momentum in Le Livre de Poche with Quelqu'un d'autre by Musso again and Le Barman du Ritz by Philippe Collin.

Digital audio revenue continued to grow with a more than 20% increase in France year-on-year. On digital business, by the way, France is still lagging behind compared with what we are able of achieve in the UK, for example.

However, the growth we are seeing is encouraging. Our efforts to accelerate digital development in France are bearing fruits.

This is one of our priority for Hachette France in the years ahead. Coming back to H1 results for France, our performance was also affected by weaker market condition in number of segment, notably illustrated books, comics, tourism, and education.

More broadly, we continue to see the impact of cautious consumer spending and a softer environment for discretionary purchases. This makes the performance delivered by the French team all the more noteworthy.

Regarding the US, revenue increased by 1.3% in a market that contracted by 1.5%. This growth reflects a strong slate of new releases, such as the deluxe edition of Sorensen, [Thair Burn and Fury Moon?]

, or James Patterson and Viola Davis, Judge and Stone. The continued growth in audiobooks also contribute to this result in the US.

In the UK, revenue was down 1% in a market up 1%, following our very strong growth in the first half of '25 driven by Rebecca Yarros' Onyx Storm, which was a huge success, as you know. Backlist sales remained strong, supported by continued sales of Freida McFadden, The Housemaid series, and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, both boosted by their film adaptations in early '26.

New releases by Alice Oseman and [Floor Snap?] also contribute to the top-line growth this semester.

In our Spanish-speaking countries, revenue rose sharply by, as you see, 13%, benefiting from the early start of the back-to-school season in Spain, combined with the continued growth of the paperback division. Mexico also reported growth for both education and trade.

Revenue from partworks was up 6%. We continue to outperform in this market with particularly strong position and growth across the world, including Japan, Italy, Poland, for example.

Finally, board games continued to support our revenue segment with a strong 9% growth, supported by the continued success of the Flip 7 game. Now let's have a look to the EBITA and operating margin on the slide six.

In H1 '26, EBITA reached €105 million compared to €103 million last year. On a like-for-like basis, mainly excluding adverse exchange rate, EBITA grew by €5 million compared to H1 '25.

As a result, the operating margin remained strong at close to 8%, confirming the publishing division's sustained profitability despite the unfavorable seasonality that typically affect, as the first semester. To sum up, a solid first half for publishing, supported notably by its international footprint and its diversification efforts, which clearly represent two key strengths in the current environment.

Let's now move on to Travel Retail on the slide eight. Lagardère Travel Retail maintained its growth momentum and delivered a revenue of almost €3 billion during the first half.

Revenue increased by 3.3% on a like-for-like basis, supported by the continued expansion of our network. This includes the opening of Auckland in July '25, which generate a €55 million contribution, as well as Lima and several new openings across the United States, which contribute an additional €30 million.

In France, revenue declined by 4%. As a reminder, this line includes the wholesale activity carried with the joint venture operating our travel essential and duty-free businesses at Paris Airport.

Performance was below last year level, reflecting both the impact of the situation in the Middle East on traffic flows through European hubs, and also the temporary disruption caused by renovation works at several terminals at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. A more positive note, duty-free, as you can see, excluding Paris Airports in France, continue to deliver good growth with revenue up 14%, supported by the modernization of stores at Nice Airport.

In EMEA, revenue was up 4% despite a 28% decline in the Middle East in the H1 and a -39% in Q2. By the way, if we just take a look at the direct impacts of the current geopolitical context of the Middle East crisis on our top line, please note that Middle East accounted for 1.2% of the Louis Hachette revenue compared to 1.8% in H1 '25.

Again, as Jean-Christophe mentioned it, beside this weight in our revenue, we remain very vigilant as to the direct and indirect effects on our activities throughout '26, especially as regard to the impact on air passenger traffic and/or the risk of inflation. Coming back to the performance in EMEA, sales were strong in the rest of Europe.

For instance, in Romania, in the UK on ferries, in Italian regional airports, as well as in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt in Germany, or in Albania, Czech Republic, and Spain. In Americas, revenue rose sharply by 6%.

In North America, sales were up 5%, supported by numerous openings and strong commercial performance. Q1 was stronger clearly at 6%, supported by increased dwell time and consumption in airports.

Q2 was softer at 3%, impacted by lower traffic trends in May and June, surge in airfares, and Spirit bankruptcy impacts at Fort Lauderdale and Detroit airports. In APAC, revenue grew by 9%, reflecting a strong performance across the region.

As already mentioned, the main driver was our duty-free operation in Auckland, which contributed to more than €15 million during the first half. This more than offset the impacts of store closure in China, which reduced revenue by around 40% compared with last year.

By the way, regarding the restructuring of our activities in China, we remain on track to finalize our exit by the end of '26. Next slide on EBITA for LTR, for Travel Retail.

EBITA came at €111 million, as you can see. On a like-for-like basis, EBITA increased by €2 million, and the EBITA margin remained stable despite the consequences of the situation in the Middle East and the record level delivered in the H1 '25.

This solid performance reflects strong execution in North America, continued operational discipline, and lower restructuring costs in North Asia as the rationalization plan nears completion. Now let's turn to other activities, Lagardère Live.

For the first semester of '26, Lagardère Live revenue increased by 3% on a like-for-like basis to €115 million. Radio and news are facing a weaker advertising market.

On the other hand, live entertainment had a strong semester, posting close to 20% growth like-for-like, driven by the timing of artist tours organized by L Productions and a richer program of events at Les Folies Bergère, the Casino de Paris, and the Arkéa Arena in Bordeaux. After a sharp improvement in H1 regarding EBITA, the EBITA continued to improve and reached €3 million, representing a solid €22 million increase since H1 '24.

These results were achieved thanks to our continuous efforts to reduce the cost in every entity of this branch. Moving on now to Prisma.

For the H1 '26, Prisma delivered a revenue of €109 million, down 25%, while print circulation continued to be very impacted by the structural downturn in the magazine market. Digital revenues has been affected by the evolving digital consumption patterns and weaker online advertising demand.

Please note that EBITA remained stable and positive during this first semester at €3 million as the revenue decline has been offset by cost savings. H1 '26 was marked by continued restructuring, the closure of certain titles and magazines, the divestitures of the luxury division, and the sales of a 13.6% minority stake to Vivendi.

Last but not least, as you may know, the group also obtained a favorable ruling in its complaint against Google recently, with a related cash inflow of €66 million expected by the end of this year. I would also take this opportunity to underline the work of the teams who have been working on this matter for months and even for years to defend Prisma interests.

Now that we covered the performance of each division, let me walk you through the financial at group level, starting with revenue on the slide 16. Total group revenue reached €4.5 billion in H1 '26 with a like-for-like growth of 2%.

Once again, organic growth was the main driver, contributing €82 million across the Lagardère group's entities. On the negative side, foreign exchange had an adverse impact of €100 million with the US dollar being the main currency affecting our revenue, reflecting our strong presence in the US in both Travel Retail and Publishing.

This provides a good transition to the next slide, where we will look to the revenue by geographic area. As you can see, revenue mix remained broadly stable year-on-year, with North America continuing to be our largest market at 26%.

France represents 22% of revenue, while Western and Eastern Europe slightly increase their contribution thanks to Lagardère Travel Retail. On the next slide, for this first half of the year, group EBITA, as you can see, increased by €8 million on a like-for-like basis, after again a good level for H1 '25.

All activities from Lagardère group contributed positively to this performance, and FX and scope impacts amounted to €10 million, mainly reflecting again the unfavorable US dollar and British also pound evolutions versus euro. On the next slide, as regards the rest of our P&L, profits before interest and tax was stable at €162 million.

Finance costs improved by €11 million, driven by lower gross debt and reduced average cost of debt. Interest expense on liabilities increased by 11% due to new, renewed, and amended lease contracts, particularly in Poland and in New Zealand.

In total, IFRS net result increased significantly by 23% to €16 million. Now let's move on to cash flow from operations on the slide 20.

We continue to focus, as Jean-Christophe mentioned it, on improving the conversion of our operating performance into cash flow generation. As a result, our CFFO increased by 50% year-on-year to €84 million.

As usual, publishing generated negative cash flow in this first half, reflecting the seasonality of the business and the buildup of working cap ahead of the important second-half publishing season. However, H1 cash flow improved significantly year-on-year from an outflow of €40 million in '25 to an outflow of 20 €24 million this semester, mainly by a favorable evolution of the working cap.

Travel Retail CFFO reached €104 million, up €22 million versus last year, also reflecting both strong operational performance and improved working capital generation. Overall, working cap remained under control, and we continue to expect a significant reversal in the second half as is typically the case in both of our businesses.

As a result, we remain confident in our ability to deliver solid cash flow generation for the full year. This improvement in cash flow naturally brings us to our balance sheet, and more specifically, to the evolution of our net debt, which is presented on the next slide.

Given the seasonality of our activities, it makes more sense to consider the rolling 12 months evolution of our total cash generation and net debt as shown on this graph. On this basis, we reduced our net debt by more than €200 million thanks to mainly our operating cash flow.

Please note that our net free cash flow, cash flow after tax, financial interest, and dividends paid to minorities and subsidiaries level, reached €320 million. It's worth mentioning that CapEx and CFFO, as in H2 '25 include the proceeds from disposal of our real estate in rue d'Assas and also the sale of [mund.com?]

domain name for an amount close to €45 million. A normative cash generation, let's say on a 12 rolling months, would be around €280 million.

This very high level reflects the resilience of our operation throughout the challenging period and the substantial progress achieved over the past 24 months to improve our cash generation. The remaining outflows relating to the dividend paid in May to Lagardère group minorities and to our shareholder.

Finally, we received also €40 million at Prisma level from the sale of its luxury division and from Vivendi's contribution to its capital increase. As a result, net debt decreased from €1.9 billion to €1.7 billion at the end of June '26.

At this point, I would like to make a brief remark for those monitoring the net debt at Lagardère level. Like Louis Hachette Group, Lagardère net debt level also sharply improved, ending the first half of this year just below €1.8 billion, representing a reduction of almost €200 million year-on-year.

As a result, Lagardère net debt ratio fell to 2.2 as of June '26 compared to 2.5 a year earlier. We are clearly on track with our deleveraging trajectory we are pursuing since 2 years now.

Of course, we remain fully focused on continuing this effort. On the balance sheet side, our debt structure remained well diversified, combining bonds, bank loans, private placements, and commercial paper.

As you can see, the maturity profile is also very well balanced. To wrap up this presentation, in the first half of '26, Louis Hachette Group delivered solid operational results, demonstrating the resilience of its businesses despite this difficult geopolitical and macroeconomic context.

Louis Hachette revenue reached €4.5 billion and reported a strong EBITA at €218 million, growing after an already very strong first half of '25. Cash flow generation was also good with a cash flow up 50% and reaching again €84 million.

Over 12 months, we significantly reduce our net debt by more than €200 million. This brings to €1.7 billion a historically low level for a H1.

Thank you for your attention, and we are now available to answer your question.

Yes, thank you, and good evening, everyone. Just first question on the trend, if we could have a quick word, as usual, on publishing and travel retail for summer.

I have understood that the US have been a bit weaker in May and June, what's the situation for Travel Retail in the US in July and in Middle East? That would be useful.

Second question on the free cash flow. I'm not very clear on what is recurring or not.

Should we expect H2, the gain on the working cap to continue in H2? I'm not totally clear on the impact on Prisma, you win a contingency around Prisma, is it in the cash or not yet?

If you can come back on that point, the €66 million, if I'm correct. That's my second question, on working cap and on Prisma.

Lastly, a market question, regarding publishing. There is a US judge that approved last week or a few weeks ago a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and a group of publishers over books downloading.

First, do you expect Hachette to receive some compensation? That's my first question.

Second, beside that, are you now talking with Anthropic and other AI company about paid license deal for the future? Thank you very much.

Maybe, Frédéric, you can start for the trends regarding Travel Retail?

Sure. Good afternoon, everybody.

Frédéric Chevalier speaking. For the summer, of course, in the context of the current geopolitical context throughout the world, the situation is extremely uncertain, as you can guess.

Overall, we had a pretty good first quarter. The second one was a bit softer overall, especially in the US with a slowdown of the traffic and consequence of the crisis in the Middle East, the bankruptcy of Spirit Airline, a low-cost carrier in the US that affected the traffic in general and affected us indirectly.

What we see today in July is overall worldwide a month of July that is in the continuity or a little bit better than second quarter, with Europe and, in particular, Southern Europe doing better and the US doing a little bit lower than Q2. Middle East continues to be, obviously, quite depressed for obvious reasons.

Those reasons remain extremely uncertain. The uncertainty of the conflict in the Middle East is super high, for that reason, it's a bit difficult for us to give any forecast for August and September, which are two big months together with July.

July is somehow worldwide a little bit reassuring, a bit better than Q2, as I said earlier.

We need to answer for the publishing, and I leave the floor so Jean-Christophe.

For the publishing, the second half of the year is always a key period for Hachette Livre and for the publishing industry more broadly. As a reminder, unlike in 2025, we will not benefit from a new Astérix release this year, which represented around €15 million of revenues last year.

More generally, publishing remains a hit-driven business, and it is always difficult to predict the success of upcoming titles. That said, we have a number of highly anticipated releases scheduled for H2, including Rebecca Yarros' new book, [Freshing Day?]

, in September in the UK, and Joe Biden's memoir in November, for which we hold the world rights. We will also publish Malcolm Gladwell's new title, The American Way of Killing, as well as a new title from Rachael Gillig, The Knave and the Moon, in the US, and Sylvester Stallone's memoir, The Steps, in the UK.

In France, major autumn releases include Le Siècle de nos métamorphoses by Amin Maalouf at Grasset, La vie est une grande aventure by Laurent Gounelle at Fayard, and Dan Brown's Le Secret des secrets at Le Livre de Poche. I add that we could also have very good surprise with new authors.

I am, for example, thinking of the first novel of Canadian author Thélisson Aurélien, C'était ça ou mourir, published by Grasset next month, which could have success like, for instance, Gaël Faye a few years ago. However, books are ultimately a discretionary purchase, and given the current consumer environment, we remain cautious regarding demand trends in the second half.

Thank you, Jean-Christophe. Jérôme, regarding your second question for the free cash flow and the recurring free cash flow, let me just precise some topics.

If you have a look to our figures on a 12 months evolution, as I mentioned it, we had two big exceptional items for a total of €45 million: the sale of Assas and the sale of [mund.com?] .

If you want just to forecast, let's say, normative cash flow, you may take this into account. If you have a look to our figures just for the first semester, there is no significant exceptional impact.

That may also answer to you the second part of your question regarding Google, since again, the related cash inflow of €66 million is expected by the end of this year, but not yet received by the group. It's not in the cash and it's not in the result at this stage.

For your last and third question regarding the Anthropic settlement, you're right, as several publishers disclosed this recently. We had, let's say, a good and significant settlement in the US.

Some of the publishers disclosed their expectation regarding this settlement. Lagardère Publishing is also part of the beneficiaries of the Anthropic settlement with a total number of book listed by the court similar, for instance, to Bloomsbury, in the magnitude of less or more than 15,000 titles.

On our side, we think it's too early to disclose any specific amounts for the company, since the settlement amount is after attorney fees and other expenses, and will also be, of course, shared with the author. We hope to see some progress during the second semester, but too soon to mention any impact for us.

I think that you also had a question about the monetization regarding this type of, let's say, process and AI impact. Let's say that we don't rule out monetizing our content if we believe that both we and our author would benefit from it.

To be completely transparent, at this stage, our main focus is more on the ongoing litigation in the US involving again several publishers and platforms, and in which Hachette Book Group is a party. Next question.

I think I answered Jérôme question.

Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions.

I have two questions. The first one is on Travel Retail.

Could we have some details about the impact of the Middle East crisis on EBIT in H1? Also, what is the positive impact of the China restructuring on EBIT in H1?

What are you expecting for China from China restructuring in H2 compared with H1? That's for Travel Retail.

Second question is on Prisma. You have been implementing a major cost restructuring there.

Are you also working on the adaptation of the offering of Prisma, magazine offering, to the new consumption patterns?

Sorry, Eric, I didn't catch you the end of your question regarding Prisma. Can you...

Yes, it was so you worked on cost. Are you also working on the, well, adaptation of the offering of Prisma?

Understood. Frédéric, maybe I just answer for China and then you can give maybe some details about the Middle East.

Regarding China, again, you know that in H1 '25, it still represented a loss of a few million euros in EBITA. It included operational losses and restructuring costs, which was already at last year partially offset by reversal of provision accounting particularly for in the equity affiliates line item.

You can see that in the figures. Now in H1 '26, EBITA for China is breakeven thanks to the provision we took in '24 and again at the beginning of '25.

We can consider that China is neutral in terms of EBITA for the figures of H1 2026. As I mentioned it, the restructuring is expected to be finalized in the end of '26, we are well on track on the timeline.

Regarding the impact on EBITA for the Middle East, we don't want to discuss the figures at this stage, too soon and too detailed. Sorry for that.

We already gave you the trend regarding the revenues and the potential indirect impact that we have, but too soon also to disclose very accurate figures on this situation. Of course, it negatively impacted us during the first semester, of course.

Eric, you also had a question regarding Prisma and the adaptation of the branch. We, as first, maybe a quick update regarding the restructuring plan.

The restructuring plan is progressing in line with the expectations and is aimed at further improving the group's cost base and the operational efficiency and profitability. At this stage, we are not providing a specific target for the future savings at Prisma.

Again, too soon to say. However, we, of course, expect the restructuring to secure positive EBITA.

As I mentioned it, Prisma is still positive in this first part of the year, and we want to maintain Prisma in this at least at this level, and of course, if it's possible, to increase the profitability in the coming years. We are currently beside this restructuring process, of course, we are working on the strategy for repositioning the offer.

Over the past several months, primary focus has been first a portfolio rationalization and cost optimization. As I mentioned it, we stopped some titles.

We also divest the luxury division. At this stage, for the rest of the strategy, we are not yet ready to communicate any specific strategy for Prisma offer, too soon.

The agenda was really already tough during this first part of this year for the management. We will provide, of course, an update and share our plans when the timing will be appropriated.

Thanks. Thank you, Grégoire.

Thank you for your questions.

Yes, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions.

I would have two questions, please. The first one is on Lagardère Live, which was a drag on 2025 earnings.

I guess EBITA was -€20 million. You reached positive EBITA in H1 2026.

I would say happy to get your thoughts in the second half of the year, and if you are, let's say, aiming to reach at least breakeven over the full year for Lagardère Live. That's question number one.

The question number two is just to clarify your comments regarding the Paris rulings for the €66 million impact you mentioned. This is not included in the €84 million of cash flow from operations you disclose in the first half.

Is that correct? That's going to fuel into the second half of the year, just to clarify that point, please.

Thank you very much.

Yes, let me again clarify: this is not in the H1 figures regarding cash and results,

it should be good news for the second part of the year.

You're right, this is very significant, let's be very clear on that. Regarding Lagardère Live, I mentioned that the advertising market is quite difficult in France, but we benefit from a good momentum regarding the production of artist tour and again the events at our venues in Paris and Bordeaux.

The target is still to be positive in terms of EBIT at the end of this year. At this stage, we are still confident, but of course, we hope that the advertising market for the news part of Lagardère Live will be, let's say, quite correct for the rest of the year.

This is still the target, and we think it's feasible. Maybe finally,

thank you very much. Maybe finally, one follow-up regarding Travel Retail.

With

margins down in the first half, I guess about 40 bps down compared to the first half last year, I get you've got a lot of uncertainties regarding the next coming weeks and months, but could you take, I would say, any actions, cost actions, to support the margins if the traffic is going not into the right direction in the next coming months? Thank you very much.

Of course, we have absolutely no control on the traffic, we need to be super agile. The teams throughout the world engage into a lot of actions, not of the same nature.

The actions we engage into in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, obviously, are a little bit more radical than those we started and we implemented in the rest of the world. A bit everywhere in all our units, when we saw the war in the Middle East was longer than the few days that were announced at the very beginning, we started implementing action plans, managing all kind of spend in order to protect the result.

I think the first half of the year shows that the discipline that has been put in place and the execution of the teams in the various countries roughly more or less managed to mitigate the impact. For the second part of the year, well, same story.

If the situation continues to be as regrettably it has been since end of Feb, we'll continue those efforts with the objective to protect as much as we can the bottom line. Extremely hard to tell if we have to go that way or if we're back to a more favorable traffic and therefore P&L evolution.

Understood. Thank you very much.

Thank you for this presentation and to listen to this explanations, and we wish you a safe summer, and the Q3 revenue will take place on October 15th. Thank you very much.

Have a good evening.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you all.