Thank you, madam. Good morning, everyone, from me too, and thank you for joining us for the Esprinet Group H1 2026 results presentation.

I'm Giulia Perfetti, Investor Relations and Sustainability Manager of Esprinet, and with me here is Giovanni Testa, CEO of the Group, who today will comment on the results. Before we start, please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements, I would like to draw your attention to the regulation note on page 2 regarding the information contained within this document.

Today's call is being recorded and the podcast will be posted on the Esprinet website in the Investors section together with the presentation. I will now turn the call over to Giovanni to begin presenting and commenting with you on the H1 2026 results.

Giovanni, over to you.

Thank you, Giulia. Welcome also from from me, and I think that we can start with the H1 2026 results of the Esprinet Group.

The overall picture of the first half of '26 confirm our strategy, and the solid results reinforce the the momentum that we we built from the starting of the year. The second quarter have matched the the strong performance of the first, and this allows us, and this is the first news that I would like to underline with you, with a solid outlook for the second half, and let us to to raise our 2026 guidance to adjusted EBITDA of between €77 million and €82 million.

The the maximum of the less of the the previous guidance that we announced in May, now is the the minimum of the guidance, of the the minimum of the fork. Passing on the sales side, gross sales grew of 20 of 18% year-on-year, exceeding 2.0 million 2.0 billion euro in in the half.

Also in the second quarter the Iberian Peninsula remain our engine. Is the market that is more growing in in our in in the region in which we are we're present.

Once again deriving delivering a double-digit growth. On the contrary, in Italy the market is growing, but low single-digit, and the the trend of the market in the second quarter in Italy is more or less the same of the first quarter.

In we are in a market that restarted to grow, but not as we we would like [laughter] to see, and what not like is we are seeing in Iberian Peninsula space. Demand is driven primarily by the infrastructure, artificial intelligence, memory and storage.

This is a trend that started the last month of the last year and is continuing also also today. We see a little shortage of components, but we see also a very important increase of the unit average selling price, overall speaking about smartphone, notebook, tablet, and servers.

The the first three product categories are related to the Esprinet space, and servers are related in our of the businesses that we manage under our brand V-Valley. In PCs overall, what we have to underline is that the decline in unit shipment was more than offset by rising average price.

For sure we see a a number of units sold that is that is less, as is important number, important figure respect what is the business of the PC notebook in this moment. Green Tech sustained the the remarkable growth that we we had in the first quarter, and what is the main the main aspect for us is that our strategy to grow, to push a lot in these product categories and in renewable energy is a a winning strategy in this moment.

Passing to turnover to profitability and about the the financial structure, the EBITDA adjusted for the first 6 months of the year was at €31.9 million and with an increase of 27% compared with the same period of 2025, and also the incidence on the sales rising to 1.53% from 1.30%. This result is supported also by a gross profit margin of 5.79% and also from our capability to keep all the fixed and variable costs under control, and this is another aspect that is important in our strategy because we are trying to grow in sales and in gross margin, gross profit, keeping the under control the costs and reducing the impact of the of the fixed costs on the turnover.

The cash conversion cycles is closed at 25 years 25 days, sorry, 1 day better than the the first quarter and 4 days better than Q2 2025. The net financial position is negative of €325 million and is flat if you see the the compare period of June 2025, and is better of more or less €25 million-€30 million of March 2026.

ROCE stood at 6.3%. At the end of the day, what we can we can see is that we are growing, we are growing in sales and we are growing overall in EBITDA margin, that for sure is the aspect most important, more important, and we have we have maintained a solid financial structure.

All is the reason why we decided to to increase the the guidance 2027- 77 to 82 million euro. If now we look, thanks Giulia, to the H1 and Q2 '26 sales evolution, the the message are the message is more or less the same that we we discussed, we shared in the the first quarter.

We have outperformed the the market in all the region in South Europe in which we are present. Overall in the Peninsula Iberica that is the the country that is leading the way.

Spain grew 18% in the second quarter and 21% in the half. The market grew less, as you can see in in the picture, we we we beat the market.

Portugal is continuing increasing is is market share and we are doing more than the market, up to 62% in the quarter and 37% in the half. For Morocco, we didn't have data of the market, but what we can say is that is still small in absolute term on total of our turnover, but increase of 20% the the sales year-on-year.

Italy rebounded in the second quarter with gross sales up to 8% and and in the H1 we are exactly they were increasing exactly the same percentage of the market. The group grew 4 4%, broadly in line with the market over over the half.

Passing to the product categories, the the double-digit market growth in in the quarter was driven by the the performance of the infrastructure sales and also a strong performance of the personal systems, what we we see in the product categories Screens. Solution and Services grew of 15% in the quarter and 13% in the half, and the Screen of 4% and 9% respectively.

Devices, that is a product category that last year was in in crisis, in this year are growing of 8% in in the second quarter and 4% in in the half 1 2026, ahead of the market that was down in both the the period. We close about speak about product categories with the Green Tech, that remain our fastest growing area with up to more or less 40% in the quarter and 40% in the half, that confirm our strategy, that confirm our capacity to grow all in all the months of the year, is not a spike in in one moment and and then with results not in line in in other months, and confirm also our strategic role on renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

For sure, in the in the Green in Green Tech there is the the apport of the results of Wammat, the last our last acquisition in October 2025. Passing to customers, IT reselling, IT reseller were the the main engine of our cluster of customer, and are growing 8% in the in the quarter and 13% in H1.

Retailer, e-tailers were down 9% in the quarter. Here we want to really maybe answer to some questions that could arrive later.

We decided not to take some business that under the profitability and working capital point of view were not in in our vision good to take. We want to create value, not to destroy value, and we are not following the turnover just to have a a better figure in the top line if the the result is not reflected in EBITDA margin.

We decided not to take some some business in the retailer and e-tailers space. Passing to the the next one, here we we see the the profit and loss of H1 and Q2 of by the the three dimensions that represent our go-to-market: Screens and Devices for Esprinet, Solutions & Services for V-Valley, and GreenTech for Zeliatech.

As you can see, all the figures are positive. Some comments we have already done a few minutes ago.

What I have the pleasure to underline is the performance of the Services. If you remember, in Q1 we had a Services figures that decreased of more or less half a billion half a million euro for a spot deal that we had in the previous year and not in 2026.

You can see the performance of the Services in Q2. After the announcement of our new division, Innovexia, that we announced at the end of March 2026, we are very focused on Services, we are pushing a lot, and in Q2 we increased of 41% on the turnover and 56% in EBITDA margin.

It's clear that are small numbers of turnover in our in our global turnover, but with a gross with EBITDA margin of more or less 50%, also a small increase of turnover represent a good impact in our total EBITDA margin. Other aspect that we are the pleasure to underline, as I have told before, the Green Tech with increase of 40% of the turnover and 56- 57%, sorry, percent of EBITDA margin with a EBITDA margin that are that grew of more than 20 basis points.

Other other aspect that we want to underline is the increase of the turnover of the Screens, which for sure there is the impact of the increase of the average selling price of notebook and smartphone, but also the good performance respect the previous year of the Devices. If you see the H1 result of the EBITDA margin, €3.1 million against €0.3 million with a delta of €2.8 million, more than 100% of increase.

Also in in this product category, as we have said in the last in the last investor call, we have changed the profile of our business. We have decided not to go on in some categories in product of each product, and we are pushing a lot on the on the market in which we can see in EBITDA margin higher than than in the past.

In the profit and loss summary, we we see the the good momentum of the EBITDA adjusted and EBITDA adjusted. For the for turnover and for gross profit we have already commented what what happened.

We we see about the SG&A cost that are growing of 4% in H1 and 7% in Q2. The the main reason are all related to personnel costs, because I remember you that in the the perimeter of the the group was not present in Q1 and Q2 Wammat, for example, and are also the two renewals of the collective bargain agreement that there is both in Italy and Spain with a percentage that are important.

For for the other costs are under control, are in line with our expectation, also with the 2025 results. The percentage of the incidence of SG&A on the turnover H1 '26 decrease from H1 '25 from 4.44% to 4.26%.

About EBITDA and EBIT, what we have to underline in in Q2 is that for the first time there is a difference between EBITDA EBITDA and EBITDA adjusted, but also at level EBIT and EBIT adjusted, because in Q2 entered the we have included the some costs, some non-recurring cost that is are related to the termination of the relationship with the our former CEO, Alessandro Cattani, and three managers of the group, one in Italy, one in Spain, and one in Portugal, that left the company during the Q2 2026. About financial the financial aspects, the cost of the net financial expenses, there there is the impact, as we have already seen in Q1, of the not favorable dynamic of the euro-dollar exchange.

On the contrary, the other financial costs are in line with the the last year, speaking about €6.2 million in H1 2026 against €6 million in H1 2025. At the end of the day, all in all, net income increased of 40% in in the half.

You see the decrease of the net income in Q2, but is is all related to the non-recurring cost that I have explained a few a few minutes ago. Speaking about the balance sheet summary, there are two aspects that are the main focus of the group since a lot of a lot of quarters.

The first one that you can see in the right side of the slide is related to the operating net working capital. You can see that in the the the total operating net working capital is in line with the results at the end of June is in line with the result of 2025, because we're speaking about €428 million against €417 million.

You see an increase of the inventory and also an increase related of trade receivable that is connected to some deal that we have we have decided to to do because connected to the continue increase of the of the prices, we have decided to have the products already in our warehouse for the H2, for the Back to School in in August and also the the campaign September to December that I remember remind you that are the four months in which we have to create the the majority part of our EBITDA margin of the year. We have decided to prevent the the increase of the of the products to have some products available with the better price of the maybe of the competition of our competitor.

For our customer, we have decided to anticipate some deals. Speaking about the net financial debt that you can see in the left part of the slide, even if we have done this this deal and we have anticipate the some some purchasing deals with the with the vendors, the net financial debt is fully stable, because we're speaking about €325 million of debt in 2026 against €328 million in 2025, that is also connected, and is want to underline, to a grew of more than 8% on the turnover.

In this moment we are confident that also our hard work speaking about an inventory management is offering us a good result and a good demonstration that our strategy is in this moment a win strategy. Here we see the working capital metrics for the average of four quarter.

More or less the figure that we see in this slide are the same of the next one. Seeing the average of first quarter we are passing from 29 of Q2, at the end of Q2 '25 to 25.

We are increasing the the results, we have a better result of 4 days, and of 1 day respect the Q1 2026. If we see the in the next slide, if we see the the year-end year-quarter metric, also here we we see 4 days of better result of for the Q2, June '25-June 2026, and a decrease of 3 days, more than the 1 day of the average of the last quarter, from Q1 2026 to Q2 2026.

ROCE is stable, 6.3%, fully in line with the result, or a little increase respect the result of Q1 2026, and a little decrease of Q2 2025, that was 6.6%. Final remarks.

The geopolitical scenario is changing everyday, as you can read in the newspaper, in the websites everyday. We have a news that could be a good news or a bad news, and the the two in the bracket big wars, big crisis, we're speaking about Iran and Ukraine one, everyday offer us a different scenario that can change the visibility of the next month.

For sure, all that these aspects are creating issues on supply chains, the cost pressure, the price pressure, the price increase of the of the products, the cost pressure overall related to transport and to energy aspect. You you see perfectly the increase of the of the cost of the oil.

Is a a issue that can have some some aspect they are related to the control of the fixed costs and the variable one, overall in this case the variable one, of the of the company. There are also some issue about the project timelines because some companies, we're speaking about private company, are looking for started new projects and they want to see which which will be the which will be the future.

We have we still have, as in the Q1, some problems related to the public tender, we're speaking about Consip tender and so on, because even if the vendors are trying to enlarge the the time in which the can grant the price to to Consip, there is a still is a a issue because in the past we were in a market in which the the price is decreases and the the visibility for the tender with the public administration was 3 years for the for the price. Now is not possible to to have the same situation.

The ICT distribution market is is growing, is growing with a different percentages country by country, but all in all is is growing and was driven mainly by, as we have already said, the demand for infrastructure, artificial intelligence, software, cloud, cybersecurity, and for the for sure for the PC segment that, as we have already said, see lower units volume offset by the average price that is increasing more. We can confirm, we another point another moment, that our strong performance of H1 is demonstration that we think the good strategy that we started some years ago with the three division, Esprinet, V-Valley, and Zeliatech, with the decision to enter in in renewable energies, with the decision to have a push more than in the past on services and data center solution, is in this moment, because as we can comment the results since today, but also in our forecast, in our forecast, is the reason why we increased our guidance, we have we are positive and we think that we can have a long-term grow also in the next quarters because our market and our strategy as well will permit us to to grow.

If if the guidance we decided to increase the guidance, the new one is EBITDA adjusted of between €77 to €82 million. We will work, as in the past, to to arrive in the high part of the fork as we have done last year.

I think that I have finished from my side, and Giulia for the team for the Q&A session.

Hello. Good morning.

Thanks for taking my questions. Two questions on my side.

The first one is on the Device segment. As you already said before, there was an improvement in both revenue and profitability.

I was wondering if this trend could be, let's say, sustainable also in the second part of the year. The second question is on the V-Valley.

We have seen again a solid growth on this segment. If you could provide us more color on your, let's say, expectation for the mid-term.

If, let's say, the high single-digit target year-on-year, it's a sustainable trajectory for the next few years. Thank you.

The result of Q1 will be possible to reach also in H1 will be possible to reach also in H2 and also in the next year the result is related, as I have mentioned before, to a decision not to manage anymore some of that plant categories that enter in Devices. Also there is an aspect that I'm happy to comment with you that our own brands performed better than in the past, and own brands in our division of the turnover entered in Devices segment.

The answer is yes, we see more or less the same trend also for H2, and we are forecasting also for the next year. About V-Valley, V-Valley is one of the main pillar that is present in our strategy.

Also in the V-Valley space, there are a lot of product categories that all together created the result of V-Valley. Some product categories are growing a lot and also in the future are, for our point of view, the trendsetter of the market.

We are speaking about overall software and cloud that are mixed because there is not difference between boxed and cloud in this moment, on-premise and on cloud, and overall cybersecurity. There is also an apport of artificial intelligence agents that is starting, is not showing 100% in the results of H1, but is starting, and we have signed some contracts with vendors of agents, as I told you in a lot of interviews to the financial community in a lot of interviews in the last month about artificial intelligence and about the agents.

We are developing some agents internally and also we are signing some contracts with vendors to distribute agents that are done by other companies. What is the common point for the two strategies is that we are testing the agents internally before to put in the market, to offer to our customers, because we want to be sure that are working well.

Because artificial intelligence is a space in which a lot of people are speaking, and I'm not sure that all are knowing perfectly what they are saying. [laughter] We can say in this way because I want to be polite.

We want to test to be sure to offer to our customer agents that are working in a right way. Speaking always again about V-Valley, there is also another aspect that are important for us is the market that is related to server.

Connected to the artificial intelligence, the needs and the performance of the servers necessary to manage the AI, artificial intelligence, are growing a lot. We have to offer to the market servers with a capability, with the power higher, but higher in a very important percentage of increase of the power of the servers.

There is a market in which we will see in the future some needs of change of the infrastructure that are present now in data center, and so is another opportunity for us. I hope to have well answered you.

If you need some other comments, please tell me.

Yes, thank you. Very helpful.

Bye.

Yes. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you. I have two questions, maybe related to one on the working capital, the cash conversion cycle improved to 25 days, but we remain above your 21-day, if I remember well, ambition, and while factoring and securitisation programs increased to €402 million.

What concrete progress can be made on working capital in H2, and should investor expect that higher EBITDA guidance to translate into stronger cash generation this year? Maybe the second question is on V-Valley, on the margin.

If we compare it to the last year, we were at 4.75% and now we are at 4.35%, and so what drove this small, let's say, dilution, and should we view it as a temporary mix effect or as maybe the appropriate margin level for the current growth environment? Thank you very much for the answer and the presentation.

Let me start from the second one about the EBITDA margin of V-Valley. In the reality, the gross profit of this division is growing.

What is the reason why you see a decrease of the EBITDA margin is related to the fact that we are inserting in our structure, in our organization, some profiles that in the past we didn't have and are profile that in our vision can support and apport a lot in the future, in next future. This is why we are speaking about personnel cost that make the EBITDA margin with a little decrease.

We are quite confident that there is a good opportunity to improve in the future. Another part of the EBITDA margin rose by the personnel cost is related to the new structure on the new sales structure of Innovexia.

As we mentioned, the big difference in the managing of services in the group respect what we have done in the past is that we are trying to sell services and solution related to the services not only with the general sales structure of each company, Esprinet, V-Valley, and Zeliatech, but we have created a specific sales division, sales group, that help our customer to go together to the end user to explain the services and the solution, and we're speaking about overall cybersecurity and artificial intelligence solution. Obviously this group have a cost that in this moment have a incidence more than the growing that we are seeing in the turnover services.

As we saw in the figures before of Q2, already there is a good result of 40% of increase of the turnover in Q2, not only related to the new group, new sales group, but is also related to this group. Speaking about the working capital and for sure we see slight improve on the working capital.

There is a seasonality that this year is changed respect the previous years, and the needs of vendors and customers, as I commented before, created a new need to anticipate some purchasing deals. This is why we have produced a better result of some days, as you told us.

We are not so far, but we have not already reached our target that is, as you right mentioned, 21 days that in our calculation would permit us to be cash neutral. The main focus to arrive to that target will be to reduce in other time the level of stock.

We are confident to do that in Q4, overall in Q4. Also in Q3 you will see some opportunities for us, we can define the bracket in this way, but overall in Q4, that is the moment in which there is the big worries about a possible shortage of smartphone and PC notebook.

There was also a aspect of securitization and factoring. We are trying to not to do a lot more for securitization, but to sell more invoices to factoring because we are also trying to have the double advantages, not only on the net financial position, but also because we are always in non-recurring programs.

We are matching also the aspect of the insurance, the credit insurance aspect, because it's true that in this moment there are some possible issue about credit with very small specific clusters, I don't want to mention now, but there are one, two clusters, very small as number of customers, but very important in some specific market. I'm speaking about smartphone one, that are some issues.

Probably you have already read something in the newspaper and website.

Very clear. Thank you very much.

Morning, everyone. Congrats for the result and thanks for the presentation.

First one is on Spain, which is still very strong. How sustainable do you see this growth pace?

Can you provide some color on how much of the performance was linked to public incentives in comparison to the underlying private sector demand? Then you mentioned memory shortages and higher components prices as are relevant market factors.

Could these dynamics become a potential headwind for demand or working capital management in the coming quarters, although they are currently supporting current selling prices? Very lastly, if you can provide an update on the execution of the Innovexia project?

Okay. The first question is about, for example, for Spain the Kit Digital, and so all the funds for the PNRR programs in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

There are also here there are two different speed in the countries. In Italy, the impact of the funds is not so important from our point of view, in our vision, because a lot of funds are already not yet spent, and not yet used because sometimes our customers, our end user are not knowing perfectly how can do that.

There is probably some also problem of communication. When we have spoken with our customer, we have the feeling that not all is clear, not all the opportunities that these aspects can offer to the market are catching 100%.

On the contrary, in Spain, I have to say is that the contrary. In Spain all the funds were used and were well used for permit to the end user to start new projects, new projects in some different markets, and we see that in the renewable energy and also in the project that are connected to the data center, as I told you before, related overall to the change of the servers in order to manage better the AI agents, were well used, and we think that can support the business still the next two, three quarters as well.

Then we will see what will be the decision of the governments and of Europe for sure. The second one was the shortage of the memories and the impact on the prices.

In this case we have to divide the impact in two main group. The first one is we are sure because we are seeing also the projection of with vendors and so on that the price, the unit price of notebook and smartphone will increase I think till September, the end of Q3 of 2026.

2020, sorry, 2027, because also the possibility to create new factories for chips need more than one year, and in China, not only in China, in Far East, started to build the new factories. A lot of vendors did that, but there is a time needed of one year to be sure that the product is in line with the expectation and to arrive to the market with more product available.

About the price we will see an increase of the price for sure. About the units sold in the future, there is also here the need to divide public and private market and end-user market.

Private and public market, we're speaking about public administration, central or local, is no difference, and the private companies will continue to buy because they need to have notebook that can perform with a new tool with also the ChatGPT, Claude, Anthropic, and so on, because if you want to have a good performance you need to have a notebook performant that can perform with a microprocessor, RAM, and so on better that what they have in this moment in the companies. I want to remind you, and we have to remember well, that the last big change of the devices was during and after COVID.

Then there was another wave related to the change of Windows 11, but was lower than respect what happened with the COVID change. Now, for our point of view, we are already in the third wave.

Speaking about for the companies. Speaking about for the end users, the vendor whom we are speaking about these aspects are really not all in aligned of what we can happen in the next month.

We see a demand of consumer demand, the demand of end user, we are speaking about the retailers and e-tailers market, that are stable or in this moment is decreasing a little, and this is also reflected to the units sold in H1 that were less that H1 2025. To forecast now what will happen in the next three, four months, because we are speaking about Black Friday and Christmas campaign, it's quite difficult to forecast.

The average of the vendors are saying us that the reduce of the units sold will be less, but less in important percentage respect of the increase of the price. The turnover and the EBITDA margin related to that part will increase.

The last one was about Innovexia. We launched Innovexia in March '26 is a division that is fully working since some week because we have created the structure, we have hired all the people that we needed in the sales department that I mentioned before, and so we have seen for Q2 that the result was of 40% of increase of the turnover.

Overall, as we can define our activity, we are in this moment in a phase in which we are explaining what Innovexia can do for our customers and for the end user and the services and solution that we have sold where we can sell. Sometimes in exclusivity, because, for example, we have signed a contract in exclusivity on June 20, 23, I don't remember the exact date, with Vectra for a cybersecurity and artificial intelligence solution that is called AXIA that we have started to offer overall in public administration, local and central, with good results.

We are in a phase in which we are explaining, and we are quite confident that in the Q3 and Q4, and for sure in the 2027, we will take the results from the market of what we are doing now. We are happy because the result is good, we can not be different that we are happy for the turnover, for the EBITDA margin results.

We think there is a big space in which we can grow in the next quarters.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. We can end our today's conference call.

Thank you for participating, and of course we remain at your disposal. Thanks again, and see you next time.

Thank you to you, and we'll see you next time in November for the Q3 results.