Good morning and thank you for joining us this morning at our interim results presentation. My name is Neville Brink, CEO of the group, and I'm joined by Zaf Mahomed, CFO, and over the next hour and a half, we'll take you through our our half-year results presentation.

The format that I'm going to follow is I'll give a quick overview of of of the results. I'll then work through the divisions, the the three operating businesses.

I then hand over to Zaf, and he'll do the group financial results, and then I'll end off having a a brief discussion on on the next six months outlook and and talk a bit about our strategy. Then, we should have about half an hour for questions.

Let's kick off straight away. Let me just start with by saying people asked me how I felt about the results.

It's although we are flat on last year, it's a quietly pleasing result. Why I say that is it points to the diversification of our business and the strategy that we've developed over the last five years of broadening our our our ability to deal with the volatility of a fishing industry.

It is a volatile industry, and we've had some tough challenges this this six months. Overall, our business has has done well, because where we've had challenges, other businesses have stepped up and and replaced the the earnings that we've seen a drop-off in, in particular, the fishmeal and oil side.

Lucky Star, our strategy remains to to grow that brand and expand into new categories. We spent substantial capital in in in the wild-caught side enhancing and upgrading our factories and vessels, and they certainly have have delivered this year.

Then, on the fishmeal and oil side, where we've had challenges, both in SA and and the USA, those assets are are very well positioned. They're they're operating extremely well, and and are well-positioned for for growth in the future.

A pleasing performance in terms of of the diversification and dealing with a very unpredictable environment. Just some highlights.

Lucky Star, and and obviously I'll go in into more detail in each of these divisions, but Lucky Star strong margin-driven performance. We've seen revenue growth.

Our volumes were were flat on last year, but on last year's six months volume growth was a record. We've had some supply constraints, and I'll talk a bit about that, and and we've had to deal with that.

A good performance out of Lucky Star. On the wild-caught side, very, very good performance from, in particular, the horse mackerel business, but both horse mackerel and hake, assets doing well, good good ability to be out there at sea, delivering performance, no unplanned breakdowns, a good growth from that business.

Our our our division which really is struggling this year, through really no fault of their own, is our SA fishmeal and oil business where we simply haven't seen the landings that we were expecting. We invested in those assets in in both St Helena Bay and Laaiplek over the last two years, and those assets are looking good, but you need fish to drive volume through those factories.

It's high fixed costs, the the the under-recovery of fixed costs has been a problem this year. We've had no product to sell into the market, which has has driven the performance down.

USA, despite the fact that they are down on last year, a good performance. Remember, in the USA in our first six months, the bulk of the time they are in a closed period.

We we we run that season from October to April, effectively in the six months, they have one month of operating. In the October 2025 year, it was better than the October 2024 year in terms of catches.

Then the rest of the year is done is is is used for maintenance. Obviously the product that we sold in the first in this half was obviously from a price point of view down on on pricing that we had in the '24 year.

A drop-off in profit, but still a very good performance. Then, and Zaf will expand about our balance sheet, significant reduction in debt, obviously a large portion of that working capital, but we've restructured our balance sheet, and and Zaf will talk about it, and we're in a very good position from a from a balance sheet point of view.

Let's look at the the divisions now. I'm going to start with Lucky Lucky Star Foods.

Operating profit almost 40 41% up, revenue up 4.4%, and that's driven a a significant improvement in OP margin. It came with difficulties, because over this period we started experiencing stock shortages and we went into an allocation mode.

Sorry, I skipped a slide there. In terms of what happened at the factory, we saw an increase in pilchard quota this year from 44,000 to 51, almost 52,000 tonnes.

A disappointing in the sense that certainly the pilchard resource seems to be recovering strongly. The research that that determined this TAC was late in and going out, the Africana, the research vessel, only went out in April.

We believe that if this research went out when it was supposed to go out in the early part of this year, later part of last year, we would have had a much higher allocation of quota. Right now, we're coming to the end of our our catches, and the the pilchard resource is is still out there very strong, and we are trying to motivate for an additional allocation later in this year from from the authorities.

Strong recovery in pilchards. You see the yellow block there with our Namibian quota last year.

There was a an experimental quota late in the year in October of 10,000 tonnes. The biomass study has has reflected a strong recovery of the pilchard biomass in Namibia.

They gave us a 10,000-tonne quota late in October. We only caught about 4,500.

We're hoping that the allocation, we're expecting the allocation this year to be somewhere between 20 and 30,000 tonnes. It is late in being allocated.

We were hoping that that would have been allocated already, because our factory in in Walvis Bay is certainly geared up to to go fishing and and produce product, and Lucky Star requires that product. As soon as that opens up, we will be producing and bringing it into South Africa.

As you can see, the landings on the bottom left are up on last year. The problem at the moment that Lucky Star faces is the availability of frozen raw material that we source around the world, and I'll I'll cover some of the strategy around that later.

The effect of that is that our factories in both St Helena Bay and Laaiplek didn't have the frozen production to put through their factories. You can see there first quarter, second quarter, last year, 1.5 and 1.6 million cartons, 3 million cartons in total, whereas this year we've only produced around 800,000 cartons.

Obviously, and that reflects in the number, but it does lead to a under-recovery of fixed overheads in those factories. What we were fortunate last year is, you remember, we invested heavily in stock.

We bought frozen stock from, particularly the Pacific, substantial stock, and that stock has certainly stood in good stead in that we were able to sell this into this year. We are now getting to a point where we will go back into the market to look for for frozen stock.

We have been looking for frozen stock, and I'll talk a bit about that later. A good performance, a little tough in terms of not having the the raw material to produce through our two factories.

As you can see, Lucky Star volumes are flat on last year, 5.1 million cartons. Last year was a record six months, we maintained that despite the fact that we had limited supply, and we are managing the supply to our our our major customers in order to to try and slow down sales a bit.

It difficult with a brand as as strong as Lucky Star. It still has a very, very high penetrace, as you can see, fourth largest brand in the country at 94% penetration.

Four categories we operate in: canned meat, fish, vegetables, and and and other products, and and noodles. A very good, strong good performance.

Why the the margin has has increased substantially is, one, we had relatively well-priced stock from last year, our cost of sales was was was was well priced. Obviously with with a with a with a shortage of stock, our our storage costs have come down, and our our freight costs has gone down substantially.

We've managed the the promotional material quite closely to limit the the amount of promotions we went out there, and that and that helped us both on a on a margin basis and a revenue basis. Good performance from Lucky Star.

Obviously, going forward, the availability of raw material is key for this brand. Certainly in quarter three, we're going to continue in the in in an allocation mode.

Locally, we are hoping for a second allocation in South Africa and a substantial allocation in Namibia, which will certainly help in in the short term to drive production and and availability of stock for for Lucky Star. Internationally, we we buy product from two main regions.

One is the Moroccan-Mauritanian area, and currently Morocco and Mauritania have experienced over the last two years a low ebb in terms of their pilchard catches. It is improving now.

Currently, Morocco has a ban on exports of pilchards. They want to supply their own canneries first.

Over the last couple of weeks, the the catches have exceeded what the canneries can absorb, and post-Eid, where they are going into an Eid holiday now, but post the holiday, we are hoping that Mauritania will will unban the exports of pilchards and we can certainly buy some more product from them. The main Pacific season starts now from May through to October.

We are active in that. We have a number of our our suppliers they're going into the Pacific region: Korea, Japan, and and the Russian vessels will be operating in the Pacific region, and they will go and test the the waters in the next two weeks.

We've got substantial orders placed with them. The product from those regions will probably only arrive in quarter four, which will mean that quarter three will be a a low stock, and we're going to have to manage that stock very carefully.

Constrained quarter three, but we're expecting a a substantial improvement in in quarter four. The strategy remains the same in terms of Lucky Star.

It's a it's a strong brand. We we we continue to grow that brand.

We've we've got flavour extensions in in the in the canned pilchards side. We have gone we're re-entering the UK market, which has been a traditional market.

We are going back in there now. We've got substantial orders to go into the UK market.

Our entry into Ghana is now starting to get real traction. We went in last year, and it's starting to grow.

Then we are obviously active in the school nutritional programme, and and that is is is certainly growing. The brand, despite the the constraints on on on raw material, is still growing, and and we'll have to manage this this interim period where we have a shortage of product.

On the canned meat side, we've had a very, very good run in our canned meat side. We've introduced a a second line now in our St Helena Bay factory.

We have two factories, one in Graafwater and one in St Helena Bay. Both factories now are running flat out in term promotion at maximum output, and we simply can't keep up.

Canned meat side is doing extremely well, and we are going to introduce some some new products in that in that category. Then, as we we have started, and we did this last year, started and tested the noodles market.

It certainly has started to gain traction now. We are contract packing.

There's a contract packer that is packing Lucky Star noodles for us. We have expanded nationally now with that brand, and the intention is to invest in the in the full value chain over the next short period.

Canned vegetables for us has been a a product category that we've started to slow down. The margins are tight.

It's a highly competitive category that we operate in. It still gives us good market share and and and forward facings, but we've now reduced our our penetration in the market to to target those areas where there's slightly better margin and and slightly better better cost in terms of going into that market.

We've reduced our volume off-take in the in the canned vegetables side. Then we are going to be launching one new product.

I don't want to expand too much on this, but it'll be done in the in the fourth quarter in a new category under the Lucky Star brand. Again, the strategy of expanding Lucky Star outside of pure canned fish will continue.

Let me move on to wild-caught seafood. A business that's done extremely well here, off a low base, I will say that: 74 million last year, 204 million this year.

Of the 204 million, there is our fuel hedge in that of around 40 million, so that came through in the first half. Zaf will expand exactly how we put that hedge in place, a financial instrument, but certainly it has helped this business.

We hedged our fuel, 70% of the fuel for the wild-caught business, Namibian vessels and SA hake vessels, but not the Desert Diamond. The Desert Diamond was held for sale, so that wasn't didn't fall into the fuel hedge, but certainly it has helped this business.

Solid performance from hake. Our hake vessels, as we invested over the last two years in upgrading those vessels, and you can see it coming through in sea days there: 542 sea days versus 515 last year.

That is just a simple fact that those vessels are operating well and not breaking down, and can get back to sea as quick as possible. They come in, turn around, discharge, and get back out to sea.

Catch costs have gone up, and that's driven by fuel. The the hedge doesn't sit in there.

Fuel costs, and that that is going to be a a constraint going forward. Fuel costs are a big component of of our hake business; 30% of their operating costs is in fuel.

Catch rates have remained more reasonably stable in hake, but what what we've done as part of the the strategy of this division is the vessel goes out and fills up every day. That is the target.

If we don't catch hake, we then target the bycatch. It certainly has driven so it's driven operating costs down because you're catching more of every other species, and you're filling the vessel up as as much as possible each day.

From a market point of view, the market remains very, very strong. Prices are at record levels.

There remains a shortage of whitefish worldwide. Cod cod supply is short and has driven generally cod prices through the roof.

I don't know how consumers are affording it, but the the result is that is other whitefishes have also gone up. We we simply can't keep up with demand, and pricing has certainly at at record levels.

As you can see in the last bullet point, our fuel hedging in this part of the business, in the hake business, 17.3 million is is the fuel hedge that we recognized in the first six months. We have just received our new vessel, very exciting.

It arrived last week. A vessel, a second-hand vessel, but I was on the vessel last week, and the vessel is in superb condition.

Brought in from Argentina, 1987, which is relatively new in vessel in vessel age. Very nice, good, very wide beam, will be able to accommodate a a very a dual vessel, a dual-factory vessel.

We'll be This vessel essentially will replace the Desert Diamond. It allows a lot more flexibility in operating both in the bottom trawl and midwater trawl species.

When you are when when horse mackerel is short or or catch rates are slow, you then can target your bottom trawl, and vice versa. It allows a lot more flexibility and and and can counter the volatility of the Desert Diamond.

As the Desert Diamond was feast or famine, and it it just isn't fit for purpose. That vessel will continue to operate.

We are selling that vessel, but this vessel will be replacing it. It will go through a a major refit over the next six months, and should be back into the water fishing in both horse mackerel and hake in January of next year.

Very exciting-looking vessel, and I'm I'm looking forward to seeing it perform. On the horse mackerel side, very good performance, in particular from Namibia.

As I said, let me start with South Africa. Desert Diamond had good landings relative to last year.

Last year, we sent the the vessel to Namibia because the the catch rates of of horse mackerel in South Africa were very poor, it operated part of the time in Namibia. It came back in the early part of this financial year, started fishing, and certainly horse mackerel has started to improve in South Africa.

We put it through a drydock, and because it was held for sale, we expensed the full cost of that drydock, almost 30 million against this vessel. We didn't depreciate, we didn't capitalize any of the costs and depreciate it.

The vessel will continue to to fish for the rest of this year. There are a number of buyers that are looking at the vessel, but we expect the vessel to be out of our lives by the end of the year, but it will continue to fish.

It had a good performance for the first six months. Namibia was the star performer.

Despite the fact that catch rates came off slightly, the the operating costs reduced quite substantially. Obviously, there was a hedge as well in this in this business of 24 million.

Market remains very, very buoyant. The the need for cost-effective protein still exists, and our our horse mackerel prices are at record levels.

Very good performance from both South Africa and Namibia, and and look forward to going forward with these two businesses. The two smaller businesses in the wild-caught sector: squid and lobster.

Let me start with lobster. Steady performance.

The TAC on on West Coast went eight up by almost 60%, a little surprising to us because of the level of poaching, but DFFE is saying that the resource is recovering, which is which is positive to see. Then the South Coast lobster also increased, a very stable, it's very small part of our business, but both doing well.

The disappointing species in in this in this business unit is is squid. As we invested last year in both rights and fishing vessels.

We we increased our our fishing rights and increased our fleet, and we invested in a brand new cat vessel that we built. This species had a very poor year.

I've put a graph there at the bottom just to give you an indication, and that's industry catches over the last 20 years, not just ourselves, industry catches. You can see there are these troughs and spikes.

Right now we are on a trough, but the expectation is, based on history, is that we will see a a a strong recovery of of of squid. It's a short-lived species.

It lays eggs, and if the conditions are not right, sea conditions and and temperature conditions, then you do have a low recruitment. Certainly based on what we've seen on other species, in particular the West Coast, hake and horse mackerel, we're seeing strong recovery.

We're hoping that this species will recover next next year. It is a it is a a species I'm I believe in, and and we will see the recovery.

One of the the key points is in a fishing industry, we you have to have diversification. You've got to be in all species, because one is up and one is down.

This I I am confident this will will recover. The catamaran, even though we've had a poor performance, the catamaran within the context of our other vessels outperformed all of the other vessels.

I'm very pleased with the way that that vessel has performed. Obviously it still is at a low level, but once the the species returns, we should see strong a strong performance from that that squid vessel.

The the business which really had a tough time, and it's reflected in the numbers: operating profit of almost 140 million against a break-even last year. This was a simple fact of no fish.

As this is an industrial fishery, high fixed cost. Factories require volume to drive production through those factories.

Two species that we catch is anchovy and South Atlantic herring, red eye we call it. Last year we had a record, record red eye catch.

This year, red eye has been very, very limited, and initially there was a zero allocation of of of anchovy. DFFE later then just recently have issued a 30,000-tonne quota, very, very small quota, and that's really as a bycatch to pilchards.

When the vessels are catching pilchards and they and they do catch some anchovy, they don't have to stop on the pilchards. That is declared as as bycatch against the pilchards.

It is disappointing, because, and many of you have seen our factories over the last couple of months, we've invested in those factories. The the Laaiplek factory is superb at the moment.

It can it can produce high-quality meal and oil, but it needs volume to go through that. It is, and and then obviously on the sales side, no production, no sales.

It is a it is a disappointing performance, but again, this is a business that we've invested for the long term, and I I'll show you some graphs here just in terms of where we are with the resource. Top left-hand side was the red eye landings.

The the light blue is what is issued by the by the by the department, and what we caught last year. As you can see, we we had a record catch: 96% of what they issued, we caught.

This year, they had a similar allocation of around 200,000 tonnes as a PUCL. The industry has caught 28% of that.

We're out there looking at the moment, and we're certainly hoping that that will improve going into the second half. On anchovy TAC and catches, as you can see, '25 was a low year, and this year so far we've caught no no anchovy.

A tough year. Long term, and it's important, the question is why are we in this industry?

Long term, I still believe that this industry will deliver, and I'll talk a bit about the market later, because the market is a key component of of fishmeal and oil and where it's going. Top left-hand side is the anchovy biomass.

As you can see, it's a short-lived species, three to four years, but it bounces back strongly. Last year we had a low, 2024.

When I say two years ago was was a low. The biomass measurements this year So last year in 2024, the biomass measurement was 113,000 tonnes against a high, you can see, 6.7 million tonnes is the top end in in the in the early 2000s.

This year the biomass measurement was up to 626,000, a strong improvement in the biomass. Still a low biomass, but what is what is key there is this upward trend.

We're certainly hoping that going into next year, that trend will continue and we'll have a decent a decent allocation of quota. It it does bounce back very quickly, and we are very well positioned at the moment from a factory point of view to take advantage of better catches and and and and production.

The the biomass on red eye is fairly stable over the last couple of years. Surprising that we haven't seen the fish, but it seems to be at a level that will continue at that.

It appears, and and I I was hoping that anchovy would bounce back strongly this year, it appears that we should that that things will get better and we'll have a a good year next year with the with the recovery both of of anchovy and red eye. A tough year for them, and will be a tough second half.

There's no doubt. USA, similar business as produce fishmeal and oil.

A reasonable performance: operating profit of 270 million against 370 million last year, down 100 million. Margin, and which which shows that we brought costs under control, margin in line with last year, and this was just a function of pricing.

Daybrook is in a very good position now. We've started the season.

The season has just started four weeks ago. This is a 28-week season.

We start middle of April and finish middle of October. In the first for this year, obviously volumes were very similar to last year in terms of sales volumes, pricing.

The only difference between this year and last year was pricing came off. In 2024, the Peruvian catch was was very good.

Markets, and it is a commodity market we play in, and we saw prices come off relative to 2024, and that's what drove the performance, the reduction of of 100 million in operating profit. In terms of landings, long-term average is around 600 million fish.

As as I've explained before, in America they don't count in kilos or tonnes, they count in fish. We land around 600 million fish on a long-term average.

If you exclude the '21 year when we had the hurricane, it's around 625,000 tonnes. Right now, our catch rates after four weeks are almost double what we landed last year.

You can see on the right-hand side, the red line is last year, the black line is ours, the long-term the five-year average is the dotted line. For the start of this season, we are well ahead of last year and, in fact, 20% ahead of the five-year average.

Very good signs out of that industry for this season. Based on the current projections, we certainly should exceed the five-year average of 625,000 million fish, certainly hoping to get closer to 700 million fish, which will bear bear us in good stead for both the balance of this year and next year.

A good performance despite the fact that they're down, but very positive signs coming out of this fishery in terms of going forward. I spoke about this last year.

We are, and that's our partners, Westbank, will be introducing a new vessel, a new type of vessel, and I thought I'd just show you a picture and give you a little fishing lesson. The left-hand side is our current vessels.

We have 12 of those vessels that go out. That's a a carrier vessel with two skiffs or purses on the back that get deployed when they get to the fishing grounds.

We have planes that go out and look for the fish. When they spot the fish, the fleet goes to to where the fish are.

They deploy those two those two purses, and those purses drop a net, a purse seine net, and circle the fish. The the vessel on the right-hand side is a is an Alaskan single-seiner that has been operating and and and these are the vessels that operate in the salmon, the wild-caught salmon industry in Alaska.

They are they are smaller vessels, they're jet engine, and they you don't need to deploy two purses. They fish, they are a purse seiner on their own.

The key for this is can that vessel on its own circle the fish quick enough and quietly enough to catch the product? The big difference between these two vessels is the crewing.

The vessel on the right, the new one, has a crew of four and can stay out at sea for a month, it doesn't have to come back every day. The vessel on the right on the left-hand side, our current vessels, have a crew of 14, operating costs are a lot less in this vessel.

The the the trial will be can these can these vessels purse effectively in the fishery, in the menhaden fishery, as they do in in in the Alaskan salmon industry? They're both fish are fast-swimming fish, so that'll be interesting to see.

We will then use one of our vessels on the left as a carrier vessel. This vessel will stay at sea, purse.

The carrier vessel won't carry the two skiffs, it'll come alongside, put the net, put the pump into the into the purse, suck it out, and go back down to the factory, and run backwards and forwards. We have to use two or three carriers.

It'll be an interesting experiment. As you're As and as I explained before, this fishery is not a TAC fishery, it's not governed by quota or tonnage, it's governed by time.

We have between October between April and October, we can catch as much as we can. The resource is very, very healthy, the biomass has seen strong growth.

Currently, the industry takes between 4 and 5% of this biomass out, there's lots of scope to increase the the volume catching, volume uptake of this. We're hoping that this vessel, and if it works, there they are these vessels are available.

The Alaskan salmon industry has taken some strain, there are a number of these vessels which are available for us to bring down. It'll be an interesting experiment, and we're certainly hoping that this will will deliver.

Our our partners are are very optimistic about about this new fishery, let's see how this operates. I will go I will be visiting the States in in June and and go and visit and get on one of these vessels to see how how it operates.

It is It will be in It has just landed in Fort Lauderdale. It was It came down by carrier vessel, landed there.

It'll be in this fishery in early June. Very exciting new development.

I want to talk about about the market, and this again is is is something we can't don't control, but has a massive effect on pricing in in in the fishmeal and oil market. Top left-hand graph is the Peruvian catch.

Dark blue is what they call the first season, light blue is what they call the second season. Last year, first season was 3 million 3 million tonnes, second season 1.6.

Normally this industry catches about 5 million cartons, 5 million tonnes a year. This season they announced a a a very low first season allocation, 36% down on the first one, 1.9 million tonnes.

The fleet went out and have been really battling to catch fish, so much so that the authorities put in mini bans. Certain areas get banned of fishing.

It was not only the catch that they were battling with, was the the amount of juvenile fish, youngsters in the in the catch. The levels were anything between 40 and 70%, and obviously that is you're destroying future biomass.

The authorities are very concerned about the level of biomass and the level of catch, and they've currently put a second ban in. The vessels went out, put a second ban in.

That ban will expire on the 26th of May, and then they'll be made a make a call on whether they either close the season permanently or allow them to continue fishing. The current catch is around 450 million tonnes sorry, 450,000 tonnes, compared to that 1.9 million tonnes, very, very low catch.

The second point that has has come through from the authorities is the the El Niño, the start of an El Niño event. Already the warm the water is warmed, and hence the the lack of catch and and the poor catches.

The concern is that we're going into an El Niño period, we know certainly South Africa we're going into El Niño, there they're going into El Niño, and they're talking about a potential super El Niño. If that is the case, they won't have a second season.

Now that has a massive effect on on on the market, the the fishmeal and oil market. If you look at the top right-hand chart there, currently world production is at a nine-year low.

That 4.9 million tonnes, that's all fishmeal and oil, fishmeal in particular production is at a nine-year low, and that 4.9 million includes the 1.9 million allocation of this year from Peru. If the catches are either stopped or or or curtailed, that number is going to be very, very low.

On the bottom left, we're seeing the continuous growth of of aquaculture and the aquafeed demand. As you can see, growth is expected to continue at a CAGR of around 3%, demand continues to grow.

Right now from a buyer and seller point of view, we're out there talking to to buyers, no most of the sellers are not going to commit right now. Buyers obviously would like us to commit.

We know the pricing is going to go up, we just don't know what to what level. We are holding back as a as industry.

It does put Daybrook in a very, very good state, given the fact that we're having good catches and and reasonable oil yields, and the fact that over the next few months we will see a stop a a massive reduction in in in supply of fishmeal and oil. This this is not only positive for for Daybrook for the second six months of this year, but certainly into 2027 where we'll see the real benefit of of of this dynamics that's playing out in the industry at the moment.

Don't know what the price is, and the indications are at the moment that fishmeal prices are somewhere between $2,500 a tonne and 2,800, and the latest indications we've seen on oil are somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000. Going back to the levels we saw in 2024.

Very positive for for US, and for South Africa if we can see fish come back next year. I will hand over to to Zaf now, and then I will come back and talk a bit about outlook and strategy.

Thank you, Neville. Strong performances by both Lucky Star Foods and wild-caught seafood helped offset lower results from the fishmeal and fish oil businesses.

Revenue declined by 6% to 4.9 billion rand. Despite the overall decrease, Lucky Star Foods delivered 4.4% revenue growth, supported by sustained demand and a favourable sales mix.

The wild-caught seafood segment benefited from strong pricing and improved catch rates, contributing to revenue growth of 19.1%. In contrast, revenue from the fishmeal and fish oil segments was negatively impacted by lower South African industrial fish landings and weaker global fishmeal and fish oil pricing.

Operating profit was slightly below the prior year, declining by 1.6% to 665 million rand, compared to 676 million in the comparative period. Headline earnings per share increased by 7.7% to 349.8 cents per share, primarily due to a significant reduction in net interest expense compared to the six months ended March 2025.

An interim dividend of 110 cents per share has been declared, unchanged from the interim dividend paid in the comparative period. The group's net debt to EBITDA ratio improved to 1.1 times, which is a significant improvement compared to the 2.2 times at the end of March 2025, reflecting capital repayments made across both regions and lower working capital levels in South Africa.

From an operating profit review perspective, the first half of the 2024 financial year represented an exceptional performance, as Neville mentioned, with fish oil prices at record highs. Total operating profit for the first half of the current financial year is in line with two of the past four years.

Despite this, contribution by segment differs significantly in each year, reflecting the benefits of the group's diversified business model. Lucky Star Foods delivered a strong performance, with operating profit increasing by more than 40% to 324 million, driven by solid sales volumes and stronger operating margins.

Its contribution to group operating profit increased from 34% to 49%. Better pricing, improved catch rates, and lower fuel costs contributed to wild-caught seafood delivering a strong turnaround.

Operating profit increased significantly from 74 million rand to 204 million rand, and operating margin increased from 5.7% to 20%. Fishmeal and Fish Oil Africa recorded a loss of 139 million, compared with a loss of 5 million in the prior period, primarily due to significantly lower red eye and anchovy landings, which were down 62%, together with a reduced availability of pilchard trimmings from our canneries.

Daybrook's operating profit declined by 26.7% from the prior period due to weaker global fishmeal and fish oil prices. Despite this drop in financial performance, its operating margin remained consistent at 24.2%, compared to 25.7% in the comparative period.

Moving on to our detailed income statement, gross profit margin improved to 28.1%, primarily driven by strong performance of both Lucky Star Foods and the wild-caught seafood segment. Lucky Star Foods achieved higher margins due to lower inventory holding and fish procurement costs, a favourable sales mix, and higher volumes of locally caught pilchards, which mitigated lower local canning production.

Wild-caught seafood margins improved due to higher volumes, stronger market prices, and lower fuel costs. These improvements were partly offset by weaker margins in the fishmeal and fish oil segments.

Operating profit decreased marginally by 1.6% to 665 million rand. Overheads were down 6.1%, which includes a fuel hedging gain of 43 million, of which 33.4 million is unrealised.

Our fuel hedging strategy helped manage this key cost input during the period, and I will cover this in detail in the next slide. Excluding the impact of fuel hedging, as well as a net effect of the Desert Diamond's suspended depreciation and class renewal costs amounting to 30 million, overheads declined by 3.3%, reflecting the group's focus on cost containment.

Net interest expense reduced by 31.3% to 99 million rand. The 33 million net interest reduction in South Africa was primarily due to materially lower working capital levels and the positive impact of capital repayments.

In the US, net interest expense decreased by 12 million rand due to lower debt levels following capital repayments made in both the current and prior periods, a favourable rand exchange rate effect, and the transition to a revolving credit facility in December 2025, which eliminated negative carry. The effective tax rate increased to 25.4% from 24.3% due to a lower proportion of US earnings, which is taxed at a lower rate.

Profit after tax increased by 5% to 422 million, compared to 402 million in the comparative period. Detailed financial statements have been included in the appendix to this presentation and the results booklet, which is available on our website.

As I mentioned earlier, some detail on our fuel hedging. Fuel is the largest cost in the wild-caught seafood business, representing approximately a third of operating costs if you assume crude oil at $65 per barrel.

The annual cost at this level is approximately 360 million at an average usage of about 25 million litres of fuel. At the beginning of the financial year, we structured a cap-and-collar hedge covering approximately 70% of forecasted fuel consumption for our hake fleet in South Africa and horse mackerel operations in Namibia.

The hedge is based on our estimated fuel usage, excluding Desert Diamond which is held for sale, and runs from November 2025 through to September 2026. The collar is set with a floor at $60 per barrel and a cap at $65 per barrel.

The structure provides protection when the oil price exceeds the cap, as we receive cash inflows that offset higher fuel costs. There is no hedge impact within the collar range, and we forgo any benefit from falling prices below the collar.

Operating profit for the first half includes a fuel hedging gain of 43 million rand. Of this, 9.4 million rand is realised, with a further 33.4 million in unrealised gains, as oil prices have traded above our cap strike rate.

A 10% change in the oil price has an impact of approximately 10 million rand on our current operating costs. It should be noted that the hedge was taken using the ICE gasoil price, which has a higher correlation to the marine gasoil that we use.

This has the added benefit of approximately 20 million rand, as gasoil has increased by 89% compared to Brent crude at 60%. We spoke a lot about working capital.

Net working capital reduced from 3.3 billion to 2.7 billion. Primary driver of this was a 60% reduction in Lucky Star Foods inventory, largely due to lower volumes of fish procured, which came off elevated levels in the prior period.

Fishmeal and Fish Oil Africa inventory decreased by 50%, reflecting lower production output. Higher levels of frozen fish procurement are expected to result in higher working capital levels and inventory holding costs during the second half.

This will result in higher short-term borrowings and a corresponding increase in interest expense in South Africa. The group has sufficient credit facilities to fund any increase in working capital.

The group's net debt declined by 1.8 billion rand, from 3.5 billion to 1.7 billion at the end of March 2026. This decrease was driven by a reduction of 1.3 billion in South Africa and 445 million in the US, due to capital repayments made across both regions and lower working capital levels in South Africa.

The group's net debt to EBITDA ratio accordingly improved to 1.1 times, which is significantly lower than the 2.2 times in the comparative period. In South Africa, the ratio improved from 3.7 times to 1.5 times, and in the US, from 0.7 times to 0.3 times.

The group complied with all the covenant requirements relating to all its debt facilities during the period. The US balance sheet reflects a significant deleveraging over the period, with gross debt having reduced by $88 million from $107 million at the end of September 2021 to $19 million at the end of March 2026.

$123 million of gross debt and $132 million in dividends have been paid since the acquisition of Daybrook in 2015. This amounts to approximately 4.2 billion rand, if we assume an exchange rate of 16 rand 50 to the US dollar.

The primary focus has been to deleverage the US balance sheet and reduce US dollar debt. The transition to a revolving credit facility in December 2025 has further enhanced the capital structure by eliminating negative carry and will now allow more dividends to flow through to the group.

In South Africa, net debt has decreased to 1.6 billion rand, driven by capital repayments and significantly lower working capital. As a result, the leverage ratio dropped to 1.5 times.

A short-term facility of 1.6 billion rand remains available to support working capital needs in South Africa, providing sufficient liquidity headroom. Capital expenditure for the half year was 116 million rand, down from 183 million rand in the comparative period.

Spend included scheduled maintenance for the hake fleet, a deposit for the acquisition of a dual-purpose vessel, and regular maintenance at the group's processing facilities. The planned capital expenditure for the financial year is 542 million rand.

Replacement capital expenditure represents 312 million rand, which is largely in line with our historic average spend and includes an additional canned meat line on the West Coast. The most significant capital item is 230 million rand for the recently acquired dual-purpose vessel that was delivered in May 2026.

This vessel is currently undergoing a comprehensive refit to equip it to target both the hake and horse mackerel fisheries, further supporting fleet versatility. Fishing operations are scheduled to commence in January 2027, following completion of these upgrades.

The interim dividend has been maintained at 110 cents per share, unchanged from the prior year, reflecting operating profit in line with the prior period, the lower working capital levels, and takes into account the unrealised hedging gains recognised to date. Cash generated from operations increased significantly to 1.4 billion rand, compared to 10 million rand in the comparative period.

This improvement was mainly due to a reduction in working capital requirements during the period, largely resulting from lower volumes of fish procured by Lucky Star Foods. The group delivered cash operating profit of 821 million rand for the six months to the end of March 2026, with South Africa contributing 476 million and the US contributing 345 million.

Reduced working capital levels released cash of 603 million rand, largely resulting from lower volumes of fish procured in Lucky Star Foods. The group paid 246 million in dividends, which was the final dividend of 175 cents per share declared for the 2025 financial year.

Free cash flow conversion has improved significantly and underlines the positive impact of reduced working capital requirements, as well as the strong cash-generating capability of the business. As a result, the group repaid 993 million in net debt.

In South Africa, this includes the repayment of short-term facilities, as well as capital repayments on term debt. In the US, the transition to a revolving credit facility resulted in the further repayment of 567 million rand, significantly reducing debt levels.

The group's cash balances closed at 459 million, compared to the 603 million opening cash position. Following the significant reduction of US debt to an optimal level and the move to a revolving credit facility, the group will prioritise the reduction of debt in South Africa, along with maintaining focus on cost control and prudent capital expenditure.

The strategy of investing in our assets and reducing debt over the past four years has positioned the group to capitalise on resource availability, market demand, and stronger pricing. Thank you, and hand back to Neville, who will cover the outlook for the business.

Thank you, Zaf. Where to for the next six months?

Lucky Star obviously is a great brand and continues to have strong consumer acceptance and demand. We have relatively sufficient stock for the next couple of months, but the focus will be on replenishing the frozen stock, in particular for the quarter four and for going into next year.

I've spoken about that in terms of the plans. We're certainly hoping that both the Pacific and the Morocco will fire, and we will get some additional product from our Namibian and local supplies as well.

A strong focus on managing costs. We will be obviously limiting promotions over the next period, because we simply cannot supply the demand that the customers want, and we'll have to manage this period until we can replenish the stocks at a level that can drive promotion again.

Good business, constrained slightly at the moment in terms of supply, but good prospects going forward as soon as we can replenish that stock. On the wild-caught side, pricing remains very, very firm.

We've got a leverage. Our vessels are in a very good state at the moment.

We are managing input costs. Obviously fuel is a concern for us.

We have our hedge in place, but long-term trend of where fuel is is a big concern, and we have to manage that very very carefully. We do have four vessels going into maintenance.

The two Namibian horse mackerel vessels and the two hake vessels are planned for standard repairs and maintenance, which will pull back some of the sea days, but this business, based on supply and demand, is in a very good position for the balance of this year. On the fishmeal and oil side, you've seen what's happened to the market, how that'll play out over the next couple of months is going to be interesting to see.

Certainly there's no doubt that pricing on both fishmeal and oil is going to increase substantially. We will be talking to our buyers over the next couple of months in terms of setting some prices, but we'll be setting prices for this year and for next year.

Good outlook for the fishmeal business, in particular in the USA, and certainly in SA if we see a return of both anchovy and red eye. I think that covers it.

Happy to take some questions. Good

morning, everybody. Neville, questions we have so far from Wessel Badenhorst at OysterCatcher: "How do you balance expansion of Lucky Star pilchards into other countries and with supply constraints and pricing?"

Good question. Obviously we are always trying to grow our Lucky Star brand, and this is a, in my mind, a short-term blip.

80% of the product we get for Lucky Star is supplied from various geographies outside of South Africa. Indications are that the Namibian product is coming back, the Namibian biomass is coming back strongly, and should that happen, there's plenty of room for growth.

We do have to balance it. Allocation mode is never a nice position to be where customers are looking for stock and we cannot supply them, but I don't want to restrict our sales force in terms of growing our market share.

Even the new countries we go in will be limited in terms of supply. It is a fine balance.

A

second question from Murray at SBK: "When do you expect a Namibian pilchard quota allocation?"

Latest indications are by the end of May. We were hoping that it would be earlier.

The industry is pushing hard that the authorities make a call. I think that obviously it's not a TAC yet, the question is who does it get allocated to?

We believe that it'll be kept with government and what they call government objectives, and industry can purchase the quota from them. We're comfortable with that, but the latest indications was by the end of May.

Next question is from Nick Wilson, News24: "Could there be a shortage of Lucky Star canned fish on shelves because of the supply constraints?"

I don't think there'll be a shortage on shelf. There's sufficient stock for us to certainly go forward for the next four months.

The question is, can we thereafter, if we don't find supply, then there may be a shortage. We are being very cautious about our promotional activity, we are limiting volume off-take by being scarce in our promotional activity.

It's a double-edged sword. We're artificially reducing volume output to try and manage the stock that we have going forward over the next three, four months, and hopefully by then we'll have the replacement stock.

Another question from Murray at SBK: "With the potential for strong results out of Daybrook and wild-caught doing what it's doing, is there potential for you to be debt-free in a year?"

I don't think we'll ever be debt-free. We will always have a working capital facility, typically our working capital facilities run from March, normally it's at about 1.5 billion rand, to September at about 750 million rand.

This was an unusual year, as we spoke about pilchard procurement, but we will always have a working capital facility because that is the nature of the Lucky Star business. From a term debt point of view, we would hope that we would be able to, other than the share that's paid out in dividends, that now Daybrook is in a far better position to pay more dividends to South Africa given that it's now on a revolving credit facility.

Would it be within a year? Not quite, but yes, we looking at reducing our term debt in South Africa as the next stage in our balance sheet optimisation.

Thanks, Zaf. Another one from Murray: "This one for you, Neville.

Canned meat seems to be coming through nicely, peak margins. What's the margin split between pilchards and the rest?"

Let me say that certainly the margins on canned meat are better than on the canned fish. The margins have improved in canned fish, as you've seen, but margins on canned meat, hesitant to say what they are, but they're certainly better than canned fish.

Okay. We have no other questions at this point.

I think we can close.

We can conclude. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today.

I look forward to seeing you over the next couple of days. We we're having one-on-one meetings with a number of our investors, certainly we're in a good position, and I'm certainly looking forward to the second year.

I think it's going to a second half, I think it's going to be a very interesting second half, with some challenges, but with certainly some some bright sparks on the on the horizon. Thank you, everybody.