Good morning, everybody. I'm Mark Blair, the CEO of the Mr Price Group, and thanks for joining us while we take you through our interim results to the 27th of September 2025.

I'm going to be talking a little bit about the operating environment. Praneel Nundkumar, the CFO, will take us through the detailed group performance, and then I'm going to share the longer-term thinking with you and also the short-term outlook.

Moving into the operating environment, and I think there's already been much said about this. There's been other retailer presentations, I probably don't have to say too much except to say, I think these graphs tell the full picture.

Since COVID-19, there's been a prolonged period of negative real wage growth, rising debt service costs, and obviously inflation has been more elevated, but it seems to be improving now. If you look at that graph on the left-hand side, there you'll see the negative wage growth in 2022 and 2023, started picking up a bit thereafter, but all negatively indexed to the base of 2019.

What happened during that process or that timeframe is that there was an access to debt of those consumers who could, and therefore, on the right-hand side, you see the debt-service ratio going up as well. It's great to have a little tick-down towards the end there going into 2025, and we're hopeful that when we get to the outlook and the shorter-term future discussion that that starts to trend in the right direction.

I think the picture here that it tells is looking at what's happened to general wages and wage increases over the period just relative to the cost of living. Many of the items that make up that cost of living have increased at a higher rate than people's wages.

There's some negativity in that. I think the good news is that when we start looking out towards the future, some of these things are starting to turn quite nicely.

Looking at the consumer spend and behavior, and, of course, the 2020, 2021 part of that table is not that relevant. It's a COVID year, and it's the bounce-back.

You can just see what happened to total household expenditure over the period, and 2.6%, 0.2%, and 1%, I think, also tells the picture. Certainly what we've seen as retailers is that retail patterns have been very erratic.

I'm talking about monthly performances very dependent on what's happened to timing of holidays, etc. Certainly, we've seen the impact of around paydays, very strong performance, and as it gets further away from paydays, then performance tends to come off.

Very erratic in that front. Of course, what we're living with is scenario that there's spending is one thing, I suppose discretionary spending is another, and discretionary retailers have also had to deal with the threats of the online Chinese retailers and online gambling.

Just to add a little bit more insight into that, certainly, the statistics that we've got show that the international online players have been losing market share for a few quarters now, and that was on the back of regulation change. That's a positive for us.

Then I think with online gambling, there's been quite a few reports that I've read, and I guess some of them have got divergent views as well. In the one report that I read, it did refer to that sometimes the statistics aren't that well understood, and it depends what's in the numbers, because to some extent, there could have been where online gambling was illegally taking place offshore and has now been localized and included for the first time.

That could be a factor. The other factor is that although one of the figures quoted was total wagered value of 761 billion, there was a view that that includes seed capital and winnings reinvested, and that that seed capital is probably around 115 billion versus the 761 billion.

The net losses at the end of the day, I've seen figures of 36 billion, 29 billion coming from online, but it's the incremental change year on year that in 2025 is estimated to be about 15 billion. That's the worrying part is that jump.

Of course, at this point, we also don't know how the accessing of two-pot retirement funding aided a short-term diversion into gambling. We'll have to see how that settles down.

I think the point that I also want to make is that as retailers, over the years, we've had to face many, many disruptions. Whether you're looking at the five-year history or, in fact, going much earlier than that, the introduction of cell phones was a good example, these are all bumps that we've had to overcome in the past, and we'll certainly make a plan to make sure we manage these ones as best we can.

Looking at Mr Price's sales growth versus the market, obviously, in this graph, Mr Price Group is in the red bar. What you see, whether you're looking at 2024, 2025, and then H1 and H2 in 2025 and H1 in 2026, Mr Price consistently above the gray bar, which is the rest of the market.

I think just sort of concentrating on the short term for a moment, although, of course, we would like the 5.5% to be a lot higher, what is absolutely not negotiable for us is the quality of those sales, and we're not after growing market share at all costs. We have to grow profitable market share, and that's what we've done consistently.

Very, very important for us. Also want to just stress, and we'll talk a little bit later about it as well, is that as we're in H2 now, we are up against a much stronger base.

I've spoken about the two-pot hitting there, and accessing that retirement funding really boosted spend last year, kicked in in October. Just from a monthly trading perspective, we had a really strong run up until February, the base is very high.

I think that's probably the timing going into 2026 that the two-pot effect should be out the system, and we can see how we're trading relative to a much cleaner base and, therefore, have a much better read on the health of the consumer. Very pleased that for all those reporting periods, comfortably above our peer set with, and I just want to stress the point again, with profitable market share gains.

I guess, at the end of the day, this is the kind of picture that we strive for. It's not myself as the CEO or Praneel as the CFO managing this from the top.

I'll get into what makes up the Mr Price DNA a little bit later. This is a process that's alive in our business, and there's great alignment on it in our business.

Shout-out to the teams that deliver these, but I must say, it's not a fight to get this shape done. Very pleasing that there's been a translation of positive top-line growth, that we've kicked on in the GP percentage, managed overheads, and actually come up with a HEPS growth of 6.5% and maintained our dividend policy as well.

Also, cash nicely up at just over or just around 3 billion. I did mention the word consistency a bit earlier.

That is something that we do strive for as well. Normally on graphs, we like to be red, but in this case, quite happy to be black.

The fact that for the last four reporting periods, all our numbers are in the black, I think that's the objective that we set out for. Consistency through merchandise execution, through cost savings, there's a lot of discipline that happens in our business to manage that outcome.

Although those figures for us are in the black, of course, we would like them to be higher in scale, but hopefully, that's the last slide that I'm going to talk to when we're starting to see green shoots out there that could start shaping the trajectory of those black lines there to hopefully what could become a steeper curve. I think we all look forward to that.

I think just relative to what's happening out there, the market is extremely promotional. You've seen what's happening to gross margins across the sector, and to come up with another consistent performance relative to that market, I've got to be pretty satisfied about that.

I'm now going to hand over to Praneel, and he's going to take you through the detailed earnings.

Thanks, Mark. Good morning to everyone joining us online on the webcast this morning.

I'm pleased to present to you the Mr Price Group results, the interim results for the 26 weeks ending the 27th of September 2025. As you would have gathered from some of the slides that Mark presented just now, the first half was quite a challenge in terms of the operating environment that we had to deliver results in.

Consumer confidence remained negative in the first half, and you would have seen that household expenditure growth was subdued. At our last results presentation in June, we did say that in an environment like this, our focus was on ensuring that sales would continue to grow ahead of the market and that that would come at higher GP margin gains.

I'm pleased to report back today that that's exactly how the first half transpired. Taking a look at the income statement, revenue for the first half grew 5.4% to 18.5 billion, driven by retail sales up 5.5%, ahead of the market's growth of 5.3%.

Retail sales was impacted by comp sales growing 2.1%, up from 0.4% last year, and weighted average space growth grew 3.5% due to the addition of 91 new stores in the first half. Gross profit grew 6.3% to 7.1 billion, creating a nice positive wedge to sales with GP margins growing 30 basis points on last year.

Expenses were well controlled, growing 5.6% to 5.9 billion, and operating profit grew 5.7% to 2.1 billion. Net finance expenses decreased 4.9%, and that was due to the interest earned on the positive cash balance in the first half offsetting interest expenses, coming in at 297 million, down on 313 million last year.

This assisted the profit before tax number growing at 7.7% to 1.8 billion, and profit after tax grew 7.3% to 1.3 billion. Profit attributable to equity holders of the parent were up 6.7% to 1.3 billion, and as Mark mentioned earlier, HEPS was up 6.5% for the first half.

In summary, even through the constrained trading environment and consumer challenges that we spoke about, our management team was satisfied with delivering operating leverage through GP gains and strict cost control. Moving on to the segmental performance, the apparel segment, which contributed 78.5% of retail sales, grew 5.3% in the first half.

This outgrew comparative market whose sales growth grew only 4.7%. The Mr Price Apparel division maintained market share in the first half and expanded GP margins despite the market being highly promotional, resulting in an operating profit growth for the sector of 12.3%.

As you'll note from the pie chart on the left, the Mr Price Apparel business contributes 42.6% to total sales, and it's really pleasing that on a 12-month basis, the division gained over 200 million rand in market share. The Studio 88 business also delivered a solid margin-accretive sales performance, and I'm very pleased to report that the Power Fashion business reported its 14th consecutive quarter of market share gains.

Comp sales were up 1.7% for the sector, unit growth was up 2.4%, and the sales density just under 38,000 rand per square meter for the apparel sector. Moving on to the homeware sector, which contributes 17.7% to total retail sales, sales in this sector were up 5.1% with healthy comp growth at 4.3%.

It was pleasing that operating profit in this sector also grew 12%, driven by all divisions expanding GP margins and managing costs really well. Unit growth was also up 2.6%, and inflation was up 2.4% with sales density just under 30,000 rand a square meter.

I must make a mention of the Yuppiechef business, who reported double-digit sales growth in the first half and continued to gain market share for 18 consecutive months now. Having a look at the telecom segment, which now contributes 3.8% to retail sales, up from 3.6% last year, and this came through from retail sales growing 12.4%, consistent double-digit earnings growth from this sector over the last few periods.

This also was positively impacted from market share gains of 50 basis points per GfK in the first half. Operating profit grew 16.8% on last year, and comps were slightly down at -1.9%, but unit growth was up at 4.3%.

The Mr Price Cellular standalone stores grew by 12 stores in the first half, taking the total stores to 73 and 481 combo stores across the business. Moving on to space growth now, the group ended the first half on 3,100 stores in the first half, a total of 91 new stores for the period.

As you can see, a lot of this growth coming through from the apparel sector, where the Studio 88 chain grew 42 new stores across its five trading businesses, with Power Fashion growing 11 stores and Mr Price Apparel and Kids growing altogether 11 stores. The homeware segment also delivered eight new stores for the period, and as I mentioned just now, the cellular business grew 12 new standalone stores.

Weighted average space growth at 3.5%, and we really just wanted to show you the table on the right at the bottom, that over the last four years, we've averaged just under 200 new stores per year. Even for F '26, you will see on the red bar graph that we're on track to deliver 200 stores this year, another 109 in the second half.

Our management team are also very satisfied with the return metrics on new stores. These continue to exceed the internal thresholds that we've set for new store capex.

Moving on to the slide that you all have been waiting for, the gross profit analysis, group GP grew 30 basis points to 40.0% in the first half, up from 39.7% last year. As you can see from the slide, these GP gains were noted across all trading segments despite a highly promotional environment by competitors.

The margin gains ensured that we had a smooth transition out of winter into fresh inputs into summer and spring merchandise. The apparel segment, which grew 30 basis points, was driven by the two largest divisions, Mr Price Apparel and Studio 88.

Further margin recovery in the homeware sector by 20 basis points ensures that the homeware sector is on track to deliver their medium-term target of 41% to 43%, and you'll note that we did increase this target in June, a higher target, but we're comfortable that they are in the range. The telecoms margin grew 60 basis points both for cellular and the mobile business, aided a lot by the transition into the private-label devices that we've introduced, which aids the margin growth.

We're expecting to be within the medium-term target ranges in the second half despite a strong base. A big focus area for me in the first half and for many of our teams, as Mark mentioned, was managing overhead costs in the environment that we spoke about.

I'm pleased to report back that total expenses grew 5.6% to 5.6 billion due to stringent and active cost management by our teams, which has now become quite a cornerstone of our value retail model. Our teams are agile at being able to respond when the sales calls are different to expectations.

Depreciation and amortization grew 5.5% to 1.5 billion, and employment costs, while growing 11.1%, was impacted due to some credits in the base, prior-year base effects from LTI schemes that were forfeited due to performance criteria not being met in the previous year. Excluding these credits, employment costs were up 8.6%, which includes the annual increase that we did, together with 91 new stores adding weighted average space growth.

Occupancy costs were up 4.2% to 566 million, and other operating costs down 3.1%, impacted by forex gains in the first half compared to forex losses last year from our African territories that we trade in. Excluding these forex gains and losses, operating expenses were still only up 1.9%, which talks to the effectively managed overhead costs in the business.

Moving on to operating margin, operating margin grew 10 basis points to 11.5% compared to 11.4% last year, and you will note that all trading segments expanded operating margin due to a combination of the GP margin gains that I spoke about earlier and together with efficient cost control. You'll note on the slide that the group op margin grew at a lower rate than the trading segments, and I must make a comment that you must tie that back to the previous slide where I spoke about the credits in the base, together with the fact that the group growth is impacted by central costs that don't sit within the divisions.

Also to note that the H1 margins are seasonally lower than H2, and we continue to track into our medium-term target ranges for op margin as we look forward into the second half. Moving on to the balance sheet now, also pleased to note that the gross inventory balance grew only 4.5% on last year.

We exited winter cleanly, and that really goes out to our management teams and our merchant teams who made sure that we managed stock efficiently and worked very hard in the first half to get this outcome, together with improved port operations reducing the unnecessary stock buffers that we had to place into the supply chain in the previous year. Trade and other receivables were up 3.9%, and this really is a factor of credit sales, but also the lower repo rate compared to last year, which we'll talk about a bit more when we get onto the credit slide.

Trade and other payables growing 21.7%, just a very big testament to the teams in our sourcing space who really worked hard to get our suppliers onto supply chain finance, the program that we've spoken to you about before. It was pleasing to note that in the first half, we've been able to transition a lot of our international suppliers onto the program, which is the non-comp piece to last year.

All in all, net working capital resulted in an inflow of 372 million, assisted the cash and cash equivalents balance growing to 3 billion, up 38% on last year, and a very healthy cash conversion ratio of 81.8% with zero long-term debt at the end of the first half. Having a look at the cash flow movements now, at the beginning of the period, we started with 4.1 billion in cash.

Cash from operations from working capital changes came in at 3.5 billion. We just spoke about the working capital improvement of 372 million, and net interest received, as I mentioned, on positive balances, 322 million.

From an investing perspective, we spent 519 million in terms of PPE and intangibles, and the large outflows in the financing space relating to dividend payments in the first half of 1.5 billion. We also spoke to you about the acquisition of the Studio 88 tranche of shares of 9% for 770 million, and then the lease liabilities of just under 1.6 billion to end the first half on just under 3 billion rand in cash.

Moving along to capex, capex expenditure in the first half came in at 574 million, almost 50% up on last year, and for the full year, we're still anticipating to get to 1.5 billion rand in terms of capex. As we've noted previously, this comes through due to the investment into the supply chain program, the Garsfontein Park DC.

That project is on track for delivery within budget by September 2026. This is due to the investment to support future sustainable growth for the business and further mitigating risks through the multi-site strategy.

You'll also note on the slide that store capex came in at 43.6% of the total capex spend. This talks to our investment into the store portfolio for new stores, revamps, and relocations, and expansions also.

Moving on to the credit growth performance, credit sales grew 4.3%, slightly behind the cash sale growth, to 2.1 billion, now contributing 11.8% of total sales. Most of the credit sales that we saw came through from existing account holders, and you will note that we've been talking about the approval rate for the last few cycles, and I'm pleased to report that the approval rate came in at 22.6%, 360 basis points ahead of last year's 19%.

This has been quite a big focus for us in the first half and will continue to be in the second half also. We've also just noted the TransUnion Consumer Credit Index.

While you see improvements coming through from 2023 into 2025, you see the little dip at the end of the red line now trending downwards, really giving an indication or a data point around consumer credit health in SA. The debtors book grew 5.5% to 3 billion, and the net bad debt ratio came in at 8.9%, slightly up from the 7.8% in March, but due to the deteriorating consumer environment that we spoke about earlier.

The net bad debt book ratio still remains low relative to the sector due to our strict affordability criteria. Impairment provisions at 13% was slightly down on March's 13.2%, but we're very satisfied with the coverage ratio on that provision.

Thank you very much. I'll now hand you over back to Mark, who will take you through the strategy and the outlook section.

Great. Thanks, thanks very much, Praneel.

I often get questions and, in fact, one of the reasons that we've set out the results presentation in this manner is as to what is it about Mr Price that you would think is different, what is our secret sauce, and what are the things that lead to good performance and consistent performance? I think the short answer is there's no one single thing, but it's a combination of things, and it's, I suppose, the magical way that these things all come together.

I'll go through some of the individual slides, but in many respects, I'll let you just read and absorb it. These are the items that I'll cover: the diverse portfolio of our brands; differentiated fashion, value, merchandise, and that's where it all starts, and it's critical to hold onto that; the trusted brand and the 40 years that we've spoken about; our Red Cap culture, which really is a differentiator; tried-and-tested processes over the years that we've refined, but we rely on; supply chain agility; a business model that's fit for purpose; and also a business that technology has a big part to play.

If I just start off on just looking at the South African business and exactly where the consumer profiles are made up, what you can see there is all the income levels for consumers, and that red block sets out exactly where the majority of the population falls in South Africa. Let you read those stats on the right-hand side as well, but the first point that I want to make here is that we've got businesses that span span this.

We're not all contained in the red block, but we're very well represented there. Of course, we've got some of those divisions that operate within that do access clients outside of that red block, and, of course, we've got businesses that solely target or mainly target people outside of that red block on both sides, in fact.

The way to show that a little bit better, perhaps, is then looking at those brands individually. Excuse me.

The two that I was that I was saying a little bit earlier is outside of the red blocks would be Power Fashion on the left-hand side, that services the low-income consumer, to Yuppiechef on the right-hand side, who on average services a consumer earning well over 1 million rand per annum. If you see those businesses and the spread that they've got across income levels in South Africa, and the amount of reach that they've got within those particular brands, I think that's certainly part of our success.

That you all know about the investment matrix that we devised many years ago, that was designed to make sure that we were bringing better representation to the income levels that we previously thought we were underexposed to. Being leaders in differentiated fashion value, as I said, was the absolute key and the most important thing to us.

It's what gets us gets us our customers, what keeps us our customers, and what does set us apart. The way we always look at it is by plotting it on the fashion-value matrix.

It's important to note that Mr Price doesn't always be the try and be the cheapest, because cheapest is based on price. We know that there's a lot more things that go into customers' purchasing decisions, and those things start going into the quality of the products, the level of fashionability, etc.

If you look at that fashion-value quadrant, that you can see Mr Price's position there, that's what we protect at all costs. Then you can see that on the right-hand side, Mr Price Apparel leads the fashion-value matrix ahead of some of some of the more recent competitors and and existing competitors.

Having been in business for 40 years now, I think it's important to note that the accolades that you that you can see here aren't recent. They're not they're not one-year wonders.

Many of these have, in fact, been accolades that we've achieved year after year. Mr Price Apparel, Mr Price Home, and Mr Price Sport holding the highest brand equity in their respective sectors.

Mr Price Apparel remains the most shopped apparel retailer in South Africa with 3.5 million shoppers. Mr Price Apparel was voted the coolest clothing store in South Africa again, and Mr Price Apparel holds a high share of wallet in the market, too.

I said that Red Cap culture is something that I really believe is is a differentiator, and I suppose that permeates our business. Started off with the founders and the foundations that they laid, that they made, and it's obviously got huge roots inside our business, but extends outside of our business, too.

I think really what it starts off with is a team that is passionate about what they're doing, a team and a young workforce that takes responsibility and ownership for things, and a team that's aligned. When I was saying a little bit earlier that when times are tight, we call Code Red for overhead management, we don't have to explain it.

People know, and they get on with it. It's a team that's aligned in all the big objectives that we're doing, and that makes management's team and the broader management team their jobs a lot easier.

There's certainly an extremely strong performance culture, and the reward structures that we've got are all so aligned to performance. We deal with each other in an environment of mutual respect, and if you ask anyone are they part of a Red Cap family, the answer would be absolutely we are.

That's all great, and it's the way that we interact with each other internally. As I said, that also then externalizes itself, and one of the things that is really, really important to us is that we speak openly and honestly with investment community and, in fact, all our stakeholders, and that we've developed trust just as we've as we've developed trust internally with one another.

That Red Cap culture is something to preserve at all costs as well. We've spoken about about our tried-and-tested processes over the years.

This is something that works really well for us. It's what management teams rely on when their backs turned, and they know that the the rest of the business is focused on what they're doing because there's guidelines in place and performing very well.

That starts with in-house trend departments. It's how we test merchandise, how we test concepts, how we've introduced tech into the the business.

It talks to the agility of our supply chain and also how we allocate merchandise to stores. Just on that, just to give you a little bit of elaboration, there's an initial allocation of stock to stores.

There's a degree of holdback in terms of performance, but the push of stock to stores is depending on what the demand is happening in those locations. It's not just all a push, and by managing it the way we do, that's a very key way that we manage minimizing our markdowns and stock being in the wrong quantities, in the wrong locations.

Supply chain, we've spoken a lot over the over the last couple of years as well. It is a differentiator.

We do have greater agility without having to own factories, and you'll see by what Praneel just explained with our stock management and our inventory balances in a climate like we've got, I think we did a very good job in managing that. That talks to the not just the management teams and the merch teams, but it also talks to the supplier base and our supply chain at large.

We've got the flexibility there. We've got, obviously, things that we do to gain access to fabrics, and so far that supply chain works for us nicely, and that will continue to evolve, but there's a there's a large degree of risk mitigation by relying on any one territory.

Obviously, where we do source from depends on proximity to market, the technical attribute of the merchandise, and and the price of of the merchandise as well. I said a little bit earlier that the operating model is one of a value retailer, and the reward systems are aligned to that, that if there's overperformance, then the reward really comes through.

That also protects you on the downside when performance isn't there, then there then there's no performance pay. When we're talking about the DNA of the business, one thing that is completely understood across our whole business is the saying that every decision every day must must support our value roots.

That's lived in the business. Highly cash generative, what we do internally with cash, our investment decisions are always based on ROI and a business case, and if you get the investment, then you're also responsible for telling us and proving to us that the business case has been has been achieved.

Likewise, very focused on cash generation, and I'll explain some of our achievements on that, not just the recent cash flow, but when you just stand back and see what we've done over the last couple of years, and expanded our business and still in the position with cash, I think that's been, yeah, that that that's been well thought through and well executed, I think. Praneel was talking about the way that we manage overheads.

We've done that year after year, and, as I said, there's a lot of discipline and as a call to action that has proved itself it works. I think the next phase of unlocking efficiencies, however, isn't the more tactical nature of things which we've tended to do, but with all the retail chains and the size of the business and the complexity of the business now, there's a much deeper level of work to to unlock efficiency, and it's the re-engineering, reconsidering the business.

I've just recently launched a program to do exactly that. It's going to be Exco-led with very senior members of our Exco team that are going to be heading up the project.

The brief is really, if the Mr Price Group didn't exist and we were starting it today, how would we be shaping that organization? It's not something that results are going to be focused on getting into the short term, but it's taking a long-term view of the business.

If we can get efficiency that way with our cost management that we currently do, and in an environment that has got this healthier consumer behavior or environment, then I think that's that's the thing that's going to tick us up going into the future. We've also spoke, in fact, we, excuse me, we spoke at the last results presentation about being a data-driven organization.

Won't go into everything here, but then that in that middle block, you can see some of the how that's translated into actual statistics: number of information dashboards we've got, AI and ML models deployed into the business, man-hours saved through automation. One of the things that we're going to be focusing on is not necessarily implementing a CRM system, but making sure that we've got access to a lot more customer data that will help inform decisions.

That's a project that's currently underway as well. I want to now go and and just talk about maybe maybe just start by taking a step back and explaining the strategic planning process over the last five years or so.

It's it's something that I'm we're often asked, what what are you up to, what's shaping our thinking, and I think it's certainly the right time to to to do that because we've said to the market, well, I guess for the probably the best part of two years now, that we we're doing research, there's a lot of effort going into it. As we do that research, I suppose just the way that we landed acquisitions as well, that that there is a body of work to be done, but as we do it, we can't let it distract from from running the business.

I think that we've proved that that we've achieved that. I was appointed in 2019, and and, obviously, early part of 2019, the latter part of 2019, COVID hits, hits South Africa in 2020, and that was a great time for us to sit back and think about where we wanted to take this group.

We did some detailed research there, but it was it was I also had to evaluate the the business that I inherited from my predecessor, and, obviously, there were certain things that I wanted to change in that. There are limits to what you can do.

My initial priority was, given that COVID was on the go, and given that we were doing a lot or my plan was to do a lot to strengthen the the inherent core structure of the business, that's where the immediate focus went. You you'd all known about, the DC that we brought in, the the the the ERP replatforming, etc.

Overlaying all that was quite a significant change to our management team. I had to be quite careful in what I introduced into the business given what I've just explained, and had to make sure that even in the case of an ERP, which is very time consuming, I wasn't being too demanding on the business whilst they were coping with all that change.

We we had been through a process. We had identified many organic concepts, and when I say many, they there were numerous.

We ended up implementing Kids and Mr Price Cellular. Kids was an offer that was pre-existing, but how we how we were actually shaping it in the business changed.

Those two took priority, and now they're a 4.3 billion rand business. Simultaneously, whilst we were focused on building our backbone, whilst we were focused on these organic concepts, we actually had been through thorough market research.

Cut a long story short, we acquired three businesses, and today, those businesses contribute 11.7 billion rand turnover, which is 29%. The operating profit is 1.2 billion, and there you can see the store numbers to date with with a very healthy future rollout potential as well.

Between 2019 and 2025, we invested 10 billion in capex, our revenue went up from 22 to 40 billion, dramatically increased our number of stores, our HEPS went up to 1424 cents, and we maintained our dividend payout ratio. I think to have to reflect on that and the achievement of that in in probably one of the most tumultuous trading periods that I've experienced in business to have acquired three businesses contributing that to our turnover, and as Praneel said, we've got about 3 billion rand of cash, actually tells you the extent to which we've we've deployed the cash that is available to us, and how we've executed over that period.

If you look at the group right now, I think we've got very strong brands. I've spoken a little bit about that, and we've got a great corporate culture.

We've got a talented and ambitious team, and we consistently performing. I said we'd like the numbers to be higher, but it's consistent, and it's top quartile and top-quartile metrics as well.

We are continuing evaluating organic growth opportunities locally and acquisition opportunities. However, the bigger we get, and I think it becomes more and more difficult to to identify other businesses that meet our our capital allocation criteria.

When we're looking at South Africa, there's there's no doubt that we can still benefit from scale, and that is online growth, store growth, as I've spoken about. I'm very I'm feeling very comfortable about the growth prospects relating to to those two things.

I've spoken a bit about the focus on the customer as well, that that customer obsession and getting more data that'll help us inform decisions that will benefit the customer and drive sales is is a focus area, and supply chain excellence is something that we are very focused on, too. The re-engineering program that that is about to start to look for efficiency, that will, my guess is it's going to take probably probably three to six months to really get to grips with what's in play there, and, therefore, the execution period thereafter.

Something that we've handled, I think, very sensibly is selective integration with these acquisitions. We haven't forced anything.

Of course, some things became were more urgent than others, but a lot of the supply a lot of the integration now is really around supply chain and related activities, logistics, etc. One of the one of the things that we actually going through right now is with one of our the chains that we acquired is ran a test on bringing them into our distribution network in a test area that's delivered exceptional results, and that'll now be rolled out across the rest of that chain.

That's a it's an excellent example of of selective integration. Of course, we're going to continue the technology evolution, and must stress that that whilst we're trying to re-engineer and look for cost savings, this is an area that we'll probably seek to redirect money into technology to to leapfrog even further.

How am I feeling about SA? I think I'm feeling very comfortable about the performance.

I'm feeling very comfortable about our discipline and what we rely on to run the business. I think we've got adequate opportunities there to carry on growing the business.

Hopefully, the economy will start playing its part, and should paint a very good picture. Which takes us into Phase 2 of the strategy.

If you just consider that we've got our group investment matrix in place in South Africa, we've got a well-established Exco structure, and I think we've been executing well. The business is in sound shape, as I said, but we've got to recognize that South Africa is a is a is an low-performing economy.

If you look at that GDP growth, you've seen the the reduction over the years to to the to the low point there of of GDP growth that was almost flat. The projection out to around 2030 still shows GDP under 2%.

The projections I've seen to 2050 see it coming below that number by by a bit as well. Of course, with these projections, there's always the chance and it's probably the tendency that projections are never quite achieved, sometimes they're too bullish.

Doesn't mean that we're not hopeful that that the that the green shoots that we're seeing will translate. Of course, at these kind of levels, it's it's hardly a robust and and a non-growing economy the way that we would like it.

You do know about the existence of our Apex strategy team, that's been a dedicated team that's been in place for for more than two years now. Whilst we were looking and elevating SA businesses, we also elevated our research to look for new areas of growth, and it's really around the long-term execution of a vision, not quick growth that we need to stick on, it's all about the long term.

We've we've really unpacked the pros and cons of organic growth versus acquisitive growth, and there is room for both, but, of course, there's there's different things to consider in each. Very importantly, we've been considering local opportunities at the same time as we've considered offshore opportunities.

Just to say, just like anything that we've done and anything I've explained up until this point, we're we're a group that think very deeply about things, and, excuse me, and and certainly our thinking has been multilayered and includes the use of third parties, advisors, country visits, etc., etc. It's it's it's these layers all help paint the picture.

The key outcome is, and this has been, as I said, multi-years' work, is that key territories outside of South Africa have been identified, and by identifying those, we also consider all the the key risk mitigation considerations. It's fair to say over the years, it's not just the last two years, it goes way beyond that, that we've we've had a look at or assessed many, many opportunities.

I'm talking particularly offshore now. The fact that we haven't landed any means that we've been very selective of on what we're looking for.

Once again, it comes back to the principles that we're setting and do those businesses meet those or not? I suppose it's, looking at my responsibility as a CEO, I suppose all CEOs have got this responsibility, it's to consider the markets that you operate in, it's to consider growth, consider the risks of achieving that growth, and ultimately adding shareholder value over time.

When we're looking at new territories, we we are only interested in identifying sustainable regions for long-term growth. The market size, the the ease of doing business, and the competitive landscape within that region are all critical and will be evaluated.

Of course, it has to have a stable macroeconomic and political environment and tailwinds for sustainable growth. Then lastly, it really doesn't help if you've even if you've ticked some of those things that I've just mentioned, but the currency's all over the place or even weaker than the rand.

Credit, the rand strengthened recently, but but, obviously, we want territories that don't weaken that position. Looking at actual guiding principles rather than just territory now for individual considerations is the size of the transaction will be appropriately considered.

Very importantly, we want to acquire on the merits of the target. The the in-country management team is absolutely critical.

They're the ones that have got to run the business the way they've been running the business with limited interference from us, and our and our our our input would be strategic. Before getting the right management team is probably you can't get beyond that into into the next block if you if you can't give that a a tick.

Excuse me. The the asset itself has to have very clear growth prospects, and we don't have any appetite whatsoever for a turnaround.

Certainly what we're looking for is that in terms of the company itself is that that we would like that company to be a platform for regional growth. I'm not saying an online platform or anything like that, I'm saying a management team platform that can do justice to a region instead of perhaps just the country that they located now.

Then, of course, you can you can all those things, I think, are quite obvious why we'd look for them, and then as a as a final piece, you'd also want to consider synergies, I suppose, both ways. Then lastly, you'd also want to consider what about our brands in those locations?

We wouldn't plan to lead in with our brands. We want to, as I said, acquire for the merits of the target and let that management team who knows that particular territory very well assess our brands for suitability into the country.

A lot of a lot of thinking, a lot of progress being made on that front. I think it's it's been a very thorough process that we've been through over the last couple of years and will continue to focus on.

The outlook, which I was referring to quite a few times in the presentation, and look, I think the the great thing is that change has to start somewhere. If you had to look at the outlook that we're seeing now to perhaps a year or two ago, I think we're in a completely different position.

We've got stable electricity supply, we've got improving port infrastructure, from the infrastructural point of view, things are a lot better. Then also from where what's affecting the the economy and the consumer, things are looking a lot better there as well.

Rand's improved, we targeting low inflation of around 3%, interest rates have been declining, and they are forecast to carry on declining. I think what I said a little bit earlier is that once we get out of this two-pot base, I think we're going to get a really good read on the health of the consumer, but obviously delighted at this point that things are heading in the right direction.

Even GDP growth, if even if it's only circa 1%, maybe 1.2% this year, it's it's also headed in the right direction. Looking good there.

It's it's premature to say that there's been a a consumer revival. I don't, I think the I think the updates from all the retailers is sort of proving that that's not the case, but I think it could well be the case as we head into the new year, but we've just got to get over this lumpy base.

As we know, we performed very well this time last year. In fact, it was only March that was a disappointing month for us, a strong base up until the end of April, up until the end of February.

Then just in terms of trading post the end of September, retail sales were up 3.1%. We've pointed out what the base was, it was 12.3%, which was which was high.

If you look at the individual months, the the RLC for October has just come out. We we obviously weren't happy with October performance, but we did gain market share, believe it or not, and the the momentum going into November is much better.

We're back into that sort of mid-single digit slightly above, which which I think, we'll take relative to the October performance. Quite happy that momentum is improving.

Quite happy that as you reach out into the future, the the economy and the consumer environment seems to be on this cusp of a an improvement, I think overall we've got a lot to look forward to. Thank you.

Great. Morning, everybody, and thank you for all of the questions that have come through.

There've been high volume of questions, we're going to do our best to get through as many as we can in the time that we have remaining. Going to start off with some questions around operational performance.

Praneel, maybe we start with you. With the sales environment softer due to the consumer challenges, do you have the same cost levers to pull in H2?

Quite a few questions around H2 opex and the impacts on the full year.

Thanks for that question. I think we've demonstrated that cost control is something that's always top of mind for us.

Just in terms of how we seeing it playing out and maybe how you should be thinking about it is the medium-term target range that we had set. We had noted in June that that range was between 27.5% and 28.5% in terms of expenses to RSOI.

Our focus is to come in within that range. Obviously, we'll try and manage as much as we can in the second half.

As Mark mentioned, post-period trade, also a bit subdued, but gaining some momentum. We're watching the sales growth quite closely, and as I mentioned also, our merchants are reacting quickly when they need to manage inventory at the same time.

All in all, Matt, I think that, yeah, the range is where we will, yeah, most likely want to land up in, and that's what we're aiming for.

I think just something to add there is that the base isn't a surprise to us. We always knew it was there, and therefore, anything that we also have to do on a cost basis, the thinking doesn't just start now.

To some extent, we've preempted things. We've identified areas that we need to start pulling back, and that's all been set in motion.

How should we think about management preference? Should demand be soft in the festive season, are markdowns preferred during the festive season or rather into Jan, Feb to clear stock?

Couple of other questions just around the high promotional environment in H1. Is promotion a seasonal thing that could impact H2 as well?

Look, to some extent, we've got to concentrate on what we really good at, and that's getting that fashion-value equation right. I must say when the top line's not there in the market generally, the retail environment does become rather brutal.

You've got heavy, heavy promotions, and, of course, what that does do is bring higher-priced merchandise more closely to still well above ours, but closer to our price. That's not a great equation, but, of course, we also know that competitors can't be living with this elevated stock position all the time.

When you're going to December, the worst thing that I think that could happen is that you carry on your problem into the new year. Of course, seeing the trends for this year, we have updated our views on merchandise, on stock flow, on stock commitments.

To the extent that that doesn't play out, then, of course, I guess there's the threat of margins going against you. By track record, that's something that we guard against at all costs.

We try and manage as well we can, and I think there are very limited scenarios that you would be comfortable carrying stock into the period post-December, but then it's got to be that you've actually acquired it and there's no risk to the carry. It can't be very seasonal, very very fashionable stuff that's trending, that might be out, because you're just going to then have to deal with the problem even more severely in the new year.

Thanks, Mark. I think you've covered the one major driver to GP performance in the second half.

Praneel, maybe just to cover the second half of that, and I'll read out one specific question, but there've been several on this: if you could give some color on annual GP margin expectations? You mentioned in June several factors that could be supportive of H2 GP.

Quite a few questions around the rand and put prices being better a couple of months ago, the impact into second-half GP. Thanks, Matt.

From a GP perspective, I guess you would understand that there are some supportive factors. We've called out kind of oil prices, cotton prices.

We've seen where the rand has been kind of trending recently. The other big one also is shipping rates coming down.

The one piece that's also unclear, and it ties back to the comments Mark was just making now in terms of the second half and the promotional activity, what we have seen, and you would have seen in the market, is that when there's deep discounting in the market, it impacts, and the reaction really then starts sitting in terms of where GP lands. I think that there is some support for GP in the second half.

What we need to watch quite closely is whether the market is as promotional as it was in the first half. I think when I take the kind of high-level view, I think the important thing is those medium-term targets.

You'll remember in June, we said that for the group, the medium-term target range is between 40% and 42%, which is the same for the apparel sector, and the homeware sector slightly higher between 41% and 43%. We are aiming to land within those ranges, more aiming for the middle part of those ranges, but that's kind of what we expecting, or what we know at the moment.

Of course, in an improving currency situation, you do have two choices. The first choice is to take margin or the second choice is to pass the pricing through.

Without sort of revealing our hand at this point, there's going to be a combination of that, but it's very critical for us to keep an eye on what pricing and what relative value there is in the market so that we do keep our value proposition. Then just lastly with regards to operating metrics, quite a few questions on central overheads and then questions specifically talking about op margin gains were healthy at a segment level.

Can you give some color on the dilution when looking at it from a group perspective? Several questions just around central overheads into the second half as well.

Thanks, Matt. I think when I paused on the op margin slide, I spoke about the fact that there are central costs sitting in the group line, which is not the same from a trading division perspective.

Then on the overhead slide, I spoke about the fact that there's base effects of the LTIs that were forfeited in the prior year, so that really was the non-comp base effect. Also, when you look at the performance of the trading segments, as I'd gone through the segmental slides, you would have seen that operating profit from the trading segments were quite healthy, which also means that from a group central cost perspective, there is an STI component based on performance that's also non-comp on last year.

Those are the two key things that are sitting in that group central costs that then impact the group ratio compared to the divisional ratios. Again, the medium-term target range for op margin between 13% and 15% is what we're aiming for, as we look forward into the second half.

Just moving on to drivers of sales. The last four years has seen some aggressive space growth.

Will you continue with this approach going forward? Just some questions as well as to what returns we would expect on space growth going forward.

As Praneel was saying a little bit earlier, we've set internal thresholds, it's roughly three times our WACC. Look, I think if we landed at sort of space growth between 3.5% and 4% this year, that is going some, but it's a space that is working for us as we said earlier.

To the extent that our actual store performances remain, then I'm very comfortable with continuing with store expansion. The question does become, does it become harder to find the quality space with not a lot of new property builds happening?

That is always something that we'd look at. We'll go into the budgeting process for the new year shortly, in fact, it's underway now, but I'd probably say that it would be safe to sort of bet of around space growth around 3%, maybe slightly lower.

Of course, if we presented with great opportunities and we model them correctly and on paper, they're generating the returns, we mustn't be shy to take the good space. The other thing is that it's not one chain we're looking for in terms of that space.

It's multiple chains that are performing that all have got the desire for the space. Our job internally is then to say, how much capital are we putting into store growth, because we also want to spend on revamps, and, therefore, that limit that we place, which chain is getting the space?

Of course, that then gets down to a couple of other factors, which includes store performance.

It seems like Home is turning around with volume growth and profit growth. Would this be a fair assessment?

I think the trajectory of Home, we've continued to see market share losses, so that is the one negative. I suppose it was like we were discussing a little bit earlier around margins.

We've had GP gains in the home sector, and that's what it's absolutely all about. It does show you that without achieving the top line that you want, and when I'm not unhappy with the top line, but it could have been higher if we went and chased sales a bit more, that we can still generated a good profit.

The home sector, in fact, all three businesses, Sheet Street, Yuppiechef, and Mr Price Home, I'm very happy with.

Praneel, just last one on sales drivers. The credit environment seems to have showed some steady improvements.

Is there an opportunity to push the channel more into 2026, considering the lower net bad to book relative to the industry?

I think credit growth is always topical, but as we always say, it's not a big part of our business. We also noted, and you would have seen from the consumer environment and some of the data points around this challenge in the consumer environment, we obviously trying to manage risk as closely as possible.

We noted in the first half that the approval rate was higher than last year by 360 basis points, probably mid 22%. We most likely will expect that to continue into the second half.

I think if the environment becomes more supportive and we see the data points in terms of customer affordability and customer behavior from a credit score perspective being in line with that, then yes, that will be an opportunity for us. Again, not an aggressive growth for credit is expected, but we're watching the market and the consumer health and affordability very closely.

Just to add to that, that consumer health is critical. We've got our own experience going back quite a few years now, where we pushed credit into the market in the absence of improving consumer credit health, and it actually counted against us.

The problem was that by pushing it too early, because you get a situation where customers rehabilitate themselves, pay down some months, don't others, you've got this lump that moves through your system, and it doesn't just take six or 12 months because that's the credit term. Because of the rehabilitation, you're probably left with a mess in your portfolio for about 18 months, really premature for us to think about pushing credit at this point.

Praneel, just a balance sheet question before we move on to some capital allocation questions. With improved port operations, are there more working capital benefits to come in relation to inventory days from holding less buffer stock?

Yes, we've been looking at this buffer stock quite closely in terms of port operations. We did note that there's been some improvement in the operations, and we did say even in June that we've started to relax some of those buffers that we had in.

In terms of managing inventory to year end, obviously quite tight, it will continue to be quite tight. I think, Matt, from an inventory perspective, we're not foreseeing any additional buffers required in the second half, and we're quite comfortable with the stock levels as we see them play out.

Other than just the first half, obviously, the merchants have been very busy as we go into the festive period now to manage the inputs, and we watching the sales also. If those come off, then we can react quite quickly in terms of where the stock lands, but it's something that's in hand.

Might just add there, too, that we've for some time now been communicating our focus on cash flow, and therefore, stock turn is one of those critical parts of that. When you're in quite a tumultuous situation that there's supply chain issues relating to shipping and containers and vessels and everything that we've been through, it's quite hard for merchants to deliver stock turn improvements when you're building buffers into your processes, absolutely necessary buffers.

As it then reverses, our real objective of improving stock turn should then be executed.

Moving on to some questions on capital allocation. There've been several questions relating to the current cash balance and share price and therefore appetite for share buybacks.

I think we've discussed before that from a share buyback perspective, we obviously have a framework that we look at in terms of a target share price, target P/E ratio, in terms of how we look at leading indicators in terms of that opportunity. What we always come back to from a capital allocation perspective, though, is what are the returns from the other avenues that we can deploy capital to?

As Mark mentioned in terms of the store returns, we're very satisfied with those store returns in terms of where the portfolio is delivering, we find that a really good avenue to allocate capital to. The other piece that from a capital allocation is quite key, quite a big number, we spoke about the 770 million for the 9% acquisition of Studio 88.

Remember, there's still 15% left, looking forward, that's another big piece that also drives our capital allocation thinking in terms of how we deploy capital. The dividend policy is a big one.

I think our shareholders have come to love the kind of dividends flows that come through the 63% payout ratio, that's also quite a big consideration. Also just to note that this year, we said we were going to invest into the infrastructure of the DC, you'll see that capex coming through this year and also into next year because that DC only goes live in September 2026.

More capex allocated to that project to support growth in the future.

I suppose the overall thing is use the cash or return it to shareholders, either through share buybacks or through dividends. I think certainly what I was explaining around our strategy and our plans for the future, we've got more than enough plans to warrant keeping our cash for now, and to make sure that we deploy it in the best areas to generate future returns for shareholders.

With regards to the strategy updates, do you mean outside or inside of Africa? Would you take the MRP brands to them?

Just some other questions relating to which countries offer the best upside with lowest risk, and then several questions relating to multiples, deal size, etc. Maybe, Mark, just what you can share now with regards to the question on markets and other information.

I largely addressed, I think, most of those things in what I already said. I think I'll go back a few years now, and I suppose at one point, there was always this hope of an expansion into Africa.

That was the new frontier for a value retailer. It seemed like it was an obvious place to go, but it is difficult to do business in some of those territories.

As a result, I said, I think there's limited opportunities in SA. There's none that we've identified in the rest of Africa, so that's not really a focus area for us at all.

I think it's premature at this point to start speculating on which other markets and territories and stuff like that. I think we've got to finish our work and then communicate at the right time.

Great. Thank you very much for everybody for joining today.

I think we've covered the main themes. There are obviously many questions in between on other topics, I do have them and will reply.

Otherwise, please do send them directly to me, and we can either cover them via email or in catch-ups over the next few weeks. Thanks very much for joining today.

Thank you.

Thanks.