Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Fiera Milano's first half 2026 results conference call. This is Vincenzo Cecere, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability, and I'm joined today by Francesco Conci, CEO, and Massimo De Tullio, CFO of Fiera Milano.

Today's presentation will be structured into three main sections. Francesco Conci will begin with an overview of the key highlights, strategic developments, and outlook for the full year 2026.

Massimo De Tullio will then provide a more detailed review of the group's business performance, financial results, and cash flow. Finally, we will conclude with an update on ESG performance and sustainability achievements.

Following the presentation, we will open the floor for a Q&A session during which management will be available to answer your questions. At this point, I'd like to hand over to Francesco Conci for the opening remarks and key messages for the first half.

Francesco, please go ahead.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The first half of 2026 delivered solid growth and a strong improvement in profitability, continuing the momentum already recorded in the first quarter.

Revenue increased by 38% to €245.7 million compared with €177.9 million in the first half of 2025. EBITDA increased by 49% to €94 million, with the EBITDA margin improving to 38.3%.

Net profit more than doubled, reaching €50.7 million compared with €23.1 million in the same period last year. Revenue growth of approximately €67.9 million was supported by five main drivers: one, the consolidation scope effect amounting to approximately €28 million, mainly reflecting the contribution from Expotrans, Stipa, and the full consolidation of MiCo DMC, our destination management controlled company; two, the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which contributed approximately €27 million, including temporary infrastructure activities and venue usage; three, a positive calendar effect of approximately €5 million, mainly driven by the biennial exhibition Mostra Convegno Expocomfort and Transpotec Logitec, which are held in even-numbered years; four, a solid performance effect of approximately €6 million, corresponding to like-for-like growth of around 4% in the first half 2026; five, the congress business, which contributed approximately €2 million, mainly supported by the use of Milan venue as the main media center for the Olympic Games.

These results demonstrate the increased scale, diversification, and operating leverage of our platform. I'm also pleased to announce that Fiera Milano has won a new international exhibition for the airport industry, inter airport GLOBAL, which will take place in Rho from 12 to 14 October 2027.

This is a further confirmation of Fiera Milano's growing international positioning and its ability to attract world-class events to Milan. On the ESG front, I am proud to share that Fiera Milano has been recognized as a top ESG performer, ranking among the top 10 Italian listed companies in the ESG Identity Corporate Index 2026.

Being ranked in the top 10 means Fiera Milano is now benchmarked against Italy's most established and highly rated companies on ESG, a clear signal of the progress made and the standard we intend to maintain. Looking ahead, in light of the strong performance recorded in the first half, the above-expectation contribution from the Olympic-related activities, the progress in integrating recent acquisitions, and the currently limited impact from the geopolitical environment, we are confirming the guidance already upgraded in the first quarter.

Revenues are expected in the range of €380 million to €400 million. EBITDA is expected between €100 and €110 million.

Overall, the first half results confirm that Fiera Milano is building a broader, more diversified, and structurally more resilient business platform. Finally, as a part of a broader strategic agenda, we currently expect to present Fiera Milano's new strategic plan in the first quarter of 2027.

This timing will allow us to incorporate the full-year 2026 results and provide a more robust basis for our assumptions, supported by greater visibility on the geopolitical environment and one on the main macroeconomic and industry trends. Let me now hand over to Massimo De Tullio, who will take us through the business and financial review.

Thanks, Francesco, and good evening, everybody. Let me start with the divisional performance by legal entities, which explain the strong results recorded in the first half of 2026.

Starting with the Italian exhibition business, which remains the core of our activity and represents approximately 71% of group's revenue in the period, revenues of this sector increased from €137.4 million to €182.4 million, while EBITDA rose from €49.4 million to €70.3 million. The performance was mainly driven by, for sure, the contribution from Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, including both the venue usage and the temporary infrastructure activities.

For sure, also another important impact was related to the more favorable exhibition calendar reflecting the presence in the first half of Mostra Convegno Expocomfort and Transpotec Logitec. Third point, I would mention also higher stand fitting and exhibition service revenues following also the acquisition of Stipa.

The EBITDA growth reflects the revenue trend described above, and it was partially offset by higher operating expenses and personnel costs related to the acquisition of Stipa. Moving to the second division, the foreign exhibition business, which represents around 2% of group revenues, revenues increased from €4.3 to €5.6 million, while EBITDA improved from €1.7 to €1.9 million.

Revenue growth mainly reflected the contribution from EXPO REVESTIR in Brazil, while EBITDA also benefited from the result of the joint venture with Deutsche Messe. Turning now to the congress business, which represents approximately 19% of group revenues, revenues increased from €37.6 million to €47.9 million, while EBITDA rose from €11 million to €19.7 million.

The revenue increase mainly reflects the full consolidation of MiCo DMC from 1st of January 2026. EBITDA improvement was primarily driven by the use of the Milan venue for the Olympic Games, which was characterized by a high-margin profile compared to the standard business.

Finally, other sectors, which mainly include the logistics and integrated services activities of Expotrans, revenues increased from €7 million to €20.3 million. This is also thanks to the fact that Expotrans was consolidated in 2025 starting from May, and clearly in 2026, the consolidation is taking place since January the 1st.

We have 6 months of consolidation against 2 months. EBITDA rose from €1 million to €2 million, and this is again more or less driven by the same kind of impact, reflecting the full-period contribution from Expotrans.

Overall, these dynamics led to group revenues of €245.7 million and EBITDA of €94 million, with the EBITDA margin improving from 35.5% to 38.3%. Now, I will bring you to the slide 12, where we can analyze the revenue growth contribution by business line.

We moved from €178 million to €245.7 million. Again, it's a growth of approximately €68 million.

Out of this €68 million, the consolidation scope effects, the full consolidation of Stipa starting from March, the change of consolidation method of MiCo DMC, fully controlled starting from 1st of January, and the full consolidation of Expotrans starting from January against the consolidation starting from May in 2025, all this together amounts to €28 million additional revenue in the first half. Second important impact was driven by the Olympic Games.

Additional €27 million compared to the first half 2025 came from this line, and specifically €20 million from the setup activities and €7 million from the venue usage of the Rho venue. Then we mentioned already calendar effect, again €5 million positive impact in the first half, mainly driven by the presence of Mostra Convegno Expocomfort and Transpotec.

Then congresses with additional €2 million compared to last year, and the performance effect already mentioned of €6.3 million. This explains the bridge between revenues accounted in the first half 2025 and revenue accounted in €245.7 million, the revenue accounted in 2026.

Now, let's move to the income statement. Again, the period delivered a significant improvement across all profitability metrics, supported by strong revenue growth, favorable business mix, and contribution from Olympic activities.

Again, revenue increased from €178 million to €245.7 million, corresponding to an increase of €68 million. Again, main impacts are the consolidation, €28 million; again, Milano Cortina accounting for €27 million; the calendar effect; and the performance.

EBITDA increased from €63.1 million to €94 million, again corresponding to a growth of €31 million, and the EBITDA margin improved from 35.5% to 38.3%. The increase mainly reflects the revenue performance, partially offset by higher structural and personnel costs related to the acquisition of Expotrans and Stipa.

Now, in terms of financial management and net profit, financial management improved by approximately €2 million, mainly due to higher interest income on cash investments, the positive fair value adjustment on ESG mutual funds, and lower financial expenses related to the lease contracts. As a result, profit before taxes reached €64.6 million, and net profit amounted to €50.7 million compared to €23.1 million in the first half of 2025.

Moving to the balance sheet, overall the group maintained a solid financial position despite the acquisition completed during the period and the dividend and buyback payments. Non-current assets and goodwill amounted to €512.8 million compared to €503.5 million at year-end in 2025.

The goodwill, as a result of the acquisition, increased from €97.6 million to €119.6 million, mainly reflecting the acquisition of Stipa for approximately €11.6 million cash and Made in Steel for approximately €8.8 million. Net working capital moved from -€135.3 million at year-end 2025 to -€93.5 million at the end of June 2026.

This corresponding to a change of approximately €42 million. The main drivers were an increase in the current assets of €24.6 million, including €2 million in inventory and contracts in progress and €22.6 million in trade and other receivables; a reduction in current liabilities of approximately €17 million, including a decrease in trade payables of €7.3 million and a decrease in provision, deferred income, and other current liabilities of €10.8 million.

Customer advances increased by €1.2 million, representing the balance between advanced collection for future events, and in particular Host, and release of advance for events held during this semester. The increase in receivables mainly reflects the expansion of the consolidation perimeter following the acquisition of Stipa and MiCo DMC, together with outstanding receivable from Fondazione Milano Cortina.

Now moving finally to the net financial position, net financial position availability pre-IFRS 16 stood at €109.4 million compared with €157.2 million at the end of 2025. The reduction of €48 million mainly reflects the impact of the acquisition completed during the semester, and the dividend distribution, and on top of that, the buyback payments, partially offset by the positive cash flow generated by operating activities.

Looking at the charts, in particular chart 16, we can confirm that the group continued to generate positive operating cash flow despite a significant absorption from working capital and investments completed during the period. The operating cash flow, starting from an EBITDA of €94 million, operating cash flow amounted to approximately €21 million after €27.5 million of cash-out related to the rents, an absorption of €42 million approximately from net working capital, and €4 million of capital expenditure.

Net working capital dynamics can be explained in and can be summarized in this way. We have an increase in trade and other receivable of €22.6 million, primarily due to the timing of collection related to Milano Cortina activities amounting to approximately €25 million and the contribution from the acquired company, MiCo DMC and Stipa; a reduction in deferred income mainly related to Milano Cortina of approximately €18.3 million, and this is clearly related to the revenue recognition that happened in this semester, while let's say the invoices were issued last year and also most of the cash was collected during 2025 regarding this contract.

Then we have also a decrease in trade payables of approximately €7.3 million and a positive contribution of €11.2 million coming from tax consolidation payables. In this semester, we already mentioned the group completed also €35 million of, in terms of acquisition: so Stipa amounting to €26 million, including a purchase price of €12.1 million and €13.9 million related to the actual value connected to the put option that we recognized in this operation; and Made in Steel amounts to €9 million, including a purchase price of €7.7 million with, on top, the impact of the possible earn-out to be paid to the seller, which amounts to approximately €1.3 million in actual value.

Dividends and buyback amounted to €20.7 million together. As a result, the net free cash flow was negative for €48 million approximately.

This result was mainly driven by the temporary working capital absorption, as you can see, which was probably the main impact we had to face, M&A investments, and the shareholder remuneration, while the underlying operation performance remained quite strong. On guidance, Francesco already anticipated this point.

We already upgraded our guidance during the first quarter 2026. In this moment, we can confirm the same guidance, revenues in the region of €380-€400 million, EBITDA in the range of €100-€110 million.

What we can anticipate is that with these results, we will probably wait for the Q3 in order to be even more confident about the possibility to reach the top part of this range. At this point, I will leave the floor to Alice Gattone in order to speak about some ESG topics.

Thank you, Massimo. Just a final note on sustainability.

As was mentioned before, we're proud to have been recognized as a top ESG performer and ranked among the top 10 Italian listed companies in the ESG Identity Corporate Index 2026, which is Italy's leading independent recognition for companies that most integrate ESG factors into their business models, confirming the continued progress of our ESG strategy and the strength of our long-term commitment to sustainable value creation. With this, we conclude today's presentation.

We are now ready to open the floor for the Q&A session and take your questions. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions.

I have actually four questions. The first one is if you can just give us some color on the performance of the main events of the second half, like the CPHI or the EICMA.

Then in terms of guidance, if you can provide some indication on the net cash position you expect at the end of 2026. Still on the exhibition business, I was wondering if you can, let's say, update us on your pipeline of international events you're going to host.

The last point is related to the Live Dome. I saw the press release.

Can you just elaborate a little bit more on the strategy? I think you will provide more details clearly with the business plan, but if you can provide, let's say, some early comments on the strategy on the entertainment related to the Live Dome, when do you expect the construction works to start, and basically when do you expect to have the full availability of the new venue?

Thank you.

Thanks, Emanuele, for your questions. Let's start from your first one was about the H2 performances.

In H2, we will host a couple of very important events. The most important, for sure, is CPHI, the events organized by Informa, and then we have also, like every year, EICMA Moto, which is in a very positive momentum since last couple of years.

CPHI is expected to grow compared to the previous edition that was hosted in Milan in 2024, we expect this exhibition to occupy additional two pavilions and to bring additional exhibitors, which for us is the real key in terms of profitability because, as we already mentioned, when you attract this kind of international events, the main part of the results is coming from the services that we are able to sell and is not mainly related to the square meters. The additional two pavilions, for us are better news just because we know that there will be additional exhibitors.

The area in itself is not bringing a huge increase in terms of profitability compared to the previous edition. Anyway, we expect to grow in a sensible way on CPHI compared to the last edition.

I would say that we expect to grow at least by 10-15% in terms of profitability. On EICMA, again, we do not expect very additional square meters, we see a growth in terms of square meters.

The exhibition will occupy more or less the same pavilion as of the last edition, but we expect again to increase our share in terms of services provided to the exhibitors and to the organizer, we expect to grow compared to the last edition in the region of 5-10%. H2, in a like-for-like view, is in this moment positive.

Regarding the guidance on net cash, we mentioned in this moment analyzing the balance sheet that we have €25 million credit versus Fondazione Milano Cortina. We should collect this money by the third quarter and probably a minor part of it will be collected by the end of the year.

Considering this amount as collected by the end of the year, I think it's reasonable to think to our net financial position in the range of €100-€110 million. This clearly depends on our capability to collect all these credits from Milano Cortina by the end of the year.

I go to the Live Dome question, the fourth one. Which is the strategy?

Let's start from the fact that as of today, the major works will be carried out by Fondazione Fiera Milano in order to adapt this pavilion to the needs of the not only music events, but a lot of other kind of events like sports events and, let's say, in general, entertainment events. These major works will be concluded by the end of February, I think.

Starting from 1st of March, we should be able to host events, major events in this new space that can be used and that can host up to 40,000 people in the configuration in which we will not use the tribunes, while using the tribunes, we should be able to host up to 22,000 persons, which it's a good value proposition in this moment considering that neither of the two actual venue in Milan, Santa Giulia and Assago, are able to provide this kind of capability. Clearly, attached to this major works, there will be an increase in the rental, an increase in the rental that we have negotiated considering the ramp-up of the new revenues coming from this new business line, the entertainment, and also the conference expo business line.

Rent will reach in 2031 additional €1.350 million, but we will reach this value with a gradual increase. In 2027, the rental increase will be only €340,000, and then we will gradually ramp up up to €1,350,000.

Then the third question was about the international non-resident events. Confirmed in 2026, there is already CPHI for this year.

Useless to say that we are trying to negotiate additional events with Informa. It's not an easy job, it's not already done.

We have to perform this coming exhibition, and then at the end of the exhibition, we will start discussion with Informa in order to see if there is any room in order to host again CPHI in the future. inter airport, we already mentioned, is a new exhibition that will take place in October 2027 in addition to the one that we already announced, because we will have European Rotors already announced in 2027.

We just announced in 2026, because they already happened, no, the SECP exhibition and the EMAPIC. We are also negotiating the renewal of additional exhibition like Expo Ferroviaria, which is already happening in our site, but it's likely to happen again in 2027.

We are clearly, as we are doing with reference to CPHI and Informa, we are also already negotiating and trying to bring back to Milan some very important exhibition like Gastech, ITMA, and Fastener Fair, which is not an exhibition that we already host, but it could be a new addition to our calendar. In this moment, these are under negotiation, we cannot rely on the presence of this exhibition.

In terms of congresses, in 2027, this was already announced a couple of years ago, but now we are very close to the moment that will happen, we will host the European Congress of the Society of Cardiology, which is the largest congress in the world, and we will also host the ERS, European Respiratory Society Congress. These are two of the main largest congress events.

For the coming year, we are also involved in this moment with additional very important congresses. We have no confirmation in this moment to be announced, but work is in progress also to attract additional important congress in the coming years.

Very clear. Thank you for all the details.

Yes, good afternoon. A couple of questions also from my side.

The first is how do you see the evolution of net profit and DPS in light of the good performance of the first half of the year? Another question on the new events that you have announced, the inter airport event, which is roughly the size of this event?

Finally, if you can give us an update on M&A, if there is anything that can be commented. Thank you.

Thanks, Simonetta, for your questions. Related to net profit, at this stage, we could anticipate a range of profit in the region of €30-€35 million by the end of the year.

In terms of dividend distribution, in this moment, we cannot anticipate any kind of policy, but considering this kind of net profit, we could consider something which is related to what we already did during 2024 and 20, sorry, 2025 and 2026. I would consider these two values as the range in which we will decide the dividend distribution.

Regarding inter airport, it's a conference expo, and we expect approximately €1.5-€2 million additional revenues coming from this kind of event. Clearly, these are not huge events in terms of dimension, but here the game is to bring as many as we can.

They rotate very easily. They do not occupy the venue for lots of days, it's interesting this kind of business line also is for this reason for us.

Related to the M&A potential operation, in this moment, we are negotiating three possible acquisitions. It's a possibility, it's not something already written, that can happen in the second half of the year because we are really close to the final step of this, but it's something that we need to assess.

The possibility to conclude these two operations is in this moment at an early stage and are related to exhibition organizers.

Thank you.

Hello, good afternoon to everybody. If I may, I would like to ask you or to comment on the overall visibility of your guidance.

Let's look at the bottom part of it. It seems extremely unlikely because it would imply just €6 million EBITDA in the second half.

Even if you look at the top part, it's implies some 70 to 80% decline compared with last year. If you can elaborate on that, thank you very much.

Thanks, Andrea. Andrea, clearly, second half of the year cannot be compared to 2025 because we have a completely different calendar compared to the odd years, no?

We will not have Host or MADE or SICUREZZA, our organized events, biennial events, which clearly makes the even years not comparable, and in this moment, less favorable compared to 2025. On top of that, in second half of 2025, we started accounting also from revenues from the Olympic Games, while in this second half of the year, we will not account anymore revenues coming from the Olympic Games.

Again, comparison with the second half of 2025 is not a like-for-like comparison, I would say. Historically speaking, the second half of an even year is not so favorable in terms of calendar, this explain why we will move probably, and I was anticipating before, to the upper part of our range of EBITDA and revenues.

On top of that, we have to consider also a kind of non-recurring impact that we are facing in the second half of this year, which is a kind of a compensation effect related to the congress business. In the first half of the year, thanks to the presence of the Fiera Milano Cortina and the International Broadcasting Center, we scored a very positive and huge result in terms of EBITDA on congresses because the contract with the Milano Cortina is implying a very positive margin, no?

The presence of Olympic Games in 2026 clearly a little bit discouraged some congress organizer to place their events in Milan in the same years in which there were already the Olympic Games. For this reason, the second half of our congress business line, let's say, will be a little bit lower because we had a very strong first half, and because of the presence of Milano Cortina, we didn't put in our calendar a lots of international congress like the one that we already mentioned for 2027, for example.

This a little bit explain why our second half will not be so strong as the first one was, but this is a kind of physiological, I would say, impact.

Thank you very much.

Yes, thank you. Just a follow-up on the acquired companies.

On a like-for-like basis, are you satisfied by the growth of Expotrans and Stipa? Is the evolution in line with what you were expecting?

Are you seeing cross-selling and synergies with your existing business? Thank you.

Thanks, Simonetta. Let's start from the last one, Stipa, the company operating in the stand fitting business.

Stipa is performing perfect and in line with what we expected. Probably in the second half of the year, we will have to face also in this business the increase in some costs related to the energy and all the implications related to the increase in the transportation costs.

In this moment, so far, good, I would say. For Expotrans, expectation were a little bit higher before the development of the Middle East conflict.

There is a part of the business related to Expotrans which was related to bring exhibitors and move and transport exhibitors also to exhibition that should have happened in the Middle East area that in this moment are not happening. In this perspective, Expotrans in this moment is scoring a little bit lower compared to our initial expectation, but considering the overall scenario and the overall context, I would say that anyway the performances are in line.

The new consolidated company, MiCo DMC, that was already part of the group, but starting from 1st of January is consolidated by line because we acquired the full control, but in this perspective, MiCo DMC is performing better than the expectation. Overall, our M&A strategy in this moment is in line with our expectation, and we are in the process of making all the synergies working in the best way possible in order to add value to our group.

Thank you.

Hi, thank you for taking a follow-up question. I would like to, if you can remind us, in your business plan, the business from events was included, and let's say the potential business from the new Dome was already included to some extent or if you can elaborate on that?

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Andrea, for the question. Yes, we included that business.

Clearly, the visibility that we had in 2024 was different from the one that we will have probably in the next months. There was already a portion of the revenues and EBITDA coming from this business line.

We will review for sure during the next strategic plan the forecast and the business plan, a specific business plan for this division. Okay?

Thank you very much.

everybody, and should you have any other question, please do not hesitate to contact us at Investor Relations email. Thank you.