Distribuidora Internacional Aktie

Good morning, everyone. I'm Alberto Valdes, Head of Investor Relations. Welcome to our full year 2025 results presentation.

Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements on Slide 2. Today's discussion will include certain projections and non-IFRS metrics that provide a clear view of our underlying performance.

Today's presentation will be led by Martin Tolcachir, our Group CEO; and Guillaume Gras, our Group CFO. After their remarks, we'll open the floor for a Q&A session.

I'll now hand things over to Martin. Martin, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Alberto, and good morning, everyone. I am proud to present what I believe are truly excellent results achieved in the first year of our Growing every day strategic plan.

Looking at the outline on Slide 4, our story today rests on 5 key pillars. Dia Spain is not just on track, it is accelerating the delivery of our strategic plan, and we are now significantly outperforming the market. Dia Argentina has stabilized. After a resilient second half, we are now well positioned to capitalize on the recovery in food consumption expect from 2026 onwards.

Dia Spain remains the engine of the Group's financial results, driving substantial margin expansion, multiplying net profits and generating robust cash flow. Our exceptional stock performance in 2025 validates our strong operating performance and solid prospect for profitable growth. 2025 marked a pivotal year for Dia. It was the year in which we successfully transitioned from a turnaround phase to one of sustained profitable growth.

Now let's talk at this in greater detail. Let's start with Dia Spain and the accelerate delivery of our strategic plan on Slide 6. One year ago, we presented our Growing every day strategic plan, which set out 4 clear targets for leading the market in profitable growth.

Our performance in the first year clearly demonstrates that we are not only on track, but exceeding delivery on these targets. We opened 94 new proximity stores, boosting total sales growth to an impressive 8.6%, more than doubling the guidance average rate and increased our adjusted EBITDA margin by 54 basis points to an impressive 6.8%.

At the same time, we added to the average capital expended budget, resulting in increased returns on robust deleveraging.

As you can see in the next slide, this rigorous delivery is spread across the 4 dimensions of our strategic plan. Our strong like-for-like sales growth, our expanding customer base and improving NPS score is evidence of the positive response by our customers to our improved value proposition.

Meanwhile, our franchisee excellent NPS score and our inclusion among Spain's most reputable companies are more than just a source of pride. This enhanced satisfaction and reputation enables us to recruit the best talent to support our operations.

Finally, our exceptional share price performance and our surge in liquidity are both powerful market endorsement of our strong results and of our enhanced investor relationship outreach.

Let's now move on the main highlights of Dia Spain's operating performance, starting on Slide 8. The rate of sales growth has surged from 5.5% in 2024 to an impressive 8.6% in 2025. Our total sales in Spain reached EUR 5.5 billion. Like-for-like growth reached 7.4%, driven primarily by market-leading volume growth of 5.7%, fueled by an expanding customer base and higher frequency rates.

Price inflation was just 1.6%, strategically remaining below general food and beverage inflation and highlighting our commitment to affordability.

Finally, despite being in the ramp-up phase, new store contribute an additional 1.2 percentage points to our sales growth.

As a result, our total sales growth strongly outperformed the market, enabling us to increase our market share by 12 basis points and consolidate our position as the fourth largest national player and absolute leader in the Proximity segment.

Moving to Slide 9. You can see how our customer-centric strategy is promoting loyalty and as a result, sales growth. Our value proposition centers on quality, convenience and affordability, offering a comprehensive and innovative assortment of product and the freedom to choose from leading brands.

Thanks to our commitment to quality and local sourcing, sales of fresh product increased by an impressive 15% and now represent 28% of total sales, a significant 160 basis point increase year-on-year. Similarly, our commitment to offering high-quality Dia brand product at affordable price has driven a 10% growth in this category. These products now account for 59% of our fast-moving consumer goods basket, an impressive 170 basis point increase on 2024 and is evidence of a growing base of loyal customers.

Continuing on Slide 10. Loyalty sales account for an impressive 56% of gross sales in 2025, marking a 9% increase. This was driven by an increase in the number of loyalty customers and the frequency of their purchases. It is worth noting that the average purchase frequency and basket size of loyal customers is double that of the non-loyalty customers.

In this context, the additional of 200,000 loyalty customers in 2025 is of a great value, bringing to -- the total to 5.8 million. The digitalization of our loyalty base continued to progress rapidly, fostered by our gamification initiatives and exclusive promotions.

Currently, 58% of our loyal customers who account for 1/3 of our sales interact with us via the application. This channel is growing exceptionally well. It grew by 13% last year. This growth has been driven by double-digit growth on both our own platform and those of third-parties despite the temporary slowdown experienced by delivery platform while they adapt to the recent riders law.

Our digital platform complement our proximity network perfectly, reaching 84% of the population and offering the best service level. Over 90% of the orders are delivered on the same day within a 1-hour time slot. Our digital ecosystem combines the unparalleled speed and convenience of our e-commerce platform with the intelligence of our Club Dia loyalty program. This provides customers with a personalized omnichannel experience and us an outstanding Net Promoter Score of 60 points.

Turning now to Slide 11, you can see the progress of our store expansion plan. Our goal is to open 300 new proximity stores by 2029. These stores have been selected from a pool of 1,500 high potential locations identified through our proprietary analytic tool. We are giving priority to areas where we already have a strong presence, such as Madrid, Andalusia, and Castilla y Leon, to further increase our store density and improve our logistic efficiency.

By focusing not only on large urban hubs, but also on smaller multi-municipalities, we can capitalize on our capital-light format and thrive in areas where large competitors are less efficient. We are now leveraging our scalable franchise model to accelerate the rollout of these select stores, boosting organic growth and share profitability.

In 2025, we opened 94 proximity stores, more than offsetting 38 strategic closure and achieving a net expansion of 56 stores. Our aim is to double net openings in 2026. With over 100 net store opening, we will drive organic growth and further consolidate our position as the market leader in Proximity segment.

Most of these new stores, 73% are managed by franchisees who currently represent 67% of our network. These hard-working, experienced entrepreneurs help us to bring Dia value proposition to every neighborhood. They manage the store, growing on their local knowledge while we provide infrastructure, product, logistics and service standards.

This specialization ensures complete alignment of interest, maximizing productivity and profitability for both parties. The success of this model is reflected in our franchise impressive Net Promoter Score of 75 points.

As shown on Slide 12, the expansion of our store is being supported by the modernization of our logistics network. By 2029, we aim to resize and renovate 6 of our 12 logistics platform, improving their service level and capturing significant operational savings. This follows the successful model of our first renovate platform in Illescas, Toledo.

In 2025, we opened a second logistics center in Dos Hermanas, Sevilla and start construction of a third Leon scheduled to open in the coming months. A further 3 logistics platforms are planned for Malaga, Levante and Catalunya in 2027, '28 and 2029, respectively. These new platforms are built to the highest standard of efficiency, productivity and sustainability and enable us to optimize our operating margins.

Renovating refrigeration equipment is also helping us to improve our energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint. To date, 68% of the logistics network and 24% of our store have been decarbonized.

The next slide #13, shows our continued progress on ESG. Here, I am pleased to announce our new sustainability plan to 2029, named The Value in Every Day, which will positively impact all our stakeholders.

Having successfully complete all the initiatives proposed under our previous sustainability plan by 2025, we have defined 84 new actions for the next 4 years grouped into 5 categories. Firstly, actions to improve our customer awareness of quality nutrition through strategic alliances with suppliers and nutritional experts.

Secondly, action to extend our ESG training programs to all employees and strengthen our inclusive hiring and diversity targets within our meritocratic culture. Thirdly, action we will contribute to the development of urban and rural communities by sourcing locally, creating new jobs, improving accessibility and taking social actions.

Fourthly, action to accelerate our decarbonization plan, lift our 0 waste and food waste prevention targets, consolidate our responsible sourcing standards and implement the DRS scheme for packaging recycling. Finally, we will further improve our reporting and disclose enhancing our ESG rating visibility and fostering customer perception and trust.

Now let's turn to Argentina's operating performance on Slide 15. Dia has demonstrated resilient management by successfully navigating a challenging macroeconomic environment. The strategic measures implemented in 2025 were instrumental in stabilizing sales volume, delivering positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow and maintaining a robust net cash position.

Firstly, we refine our product assortment to increase shelf productivity, and we implement a high-return promotion strategy supported by enhanced communication to stabilize sales volumes. Secondly, we optimize our network by closing underperforming stores, streamline in-store operation and reducing our logistic footprint to cut secondary distribution costs and restore profitability. Finally, in terms of finance, we optimize our inventory levels to free up cash and only invest in maintenance to preserve the business self-financing capacity.

The success of these measures is clearly evident in our second half performance metric. Firstly, we achieved 2% like-for-like sales volume growth in the second half of the year, gaining 31 basis points in market share. Secondly, we successfully turned the margin around, moving from minus 0.5% in the first half to plus 1.3% in the second. And most importantly, we moved from a negative cash position to generating EUR 12 million in free cash flow in the second half of the year, ending with robust liquidity.

As you can see on Slide 16, we believe the worst is already behind us. While the year-on-year comparison still shows a decline in like-for-like sales volumes, the sequential quarterly trend indicates clear stabilization in the second half of the year.

2026 is set to be a pivotal year for the Argentina, as you can see on the next Slide 17. The Argentinian economy is already showing positive signs with more moderate inflation, a stabilized exchange rate and a solid growth prospect for the coming years. The consolidation of Argentina macroeconomic framework and relative price stability with the bulk of fiscal adjustment now complete, should allow for a gradual but sustained recovery in the household disposable income. This will enable consumers to return to more normal food consumption patterns.

In this scenario, our leading position, operational efficiency and financial discipline provide a solid foundation on which to capitalize on the expected recovery in food consumption from 2026 onwards.

As you can see in the next Slide 18, our leading market position in Buenos Aires gives us a solid base from which to rebuild growth and profitability. We are the leading proximity food retailer and top-of-mind brand in the Buenos Aires region, thanks to our competitive prices, high-quality products and successful loyalty program.

Our balanced assortment includes a high-quality private label, generating close to 30% of gross sales, well ahead of the market average. We offer a high-quality fresh product assortment, combined with guaranteed product availability to meet essential customer needs.

Our strong value proposition results in best-in-class consumer satisfaction, as reflected by an impressive Net Promoter Score of 78 points.

I will now hand you over to Guillaume, who will briefly explain our financial results.

Thank you, Martin. Let's start with Spain's strong financial results on Slide 20, which demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy. As mentioned earlier, gross sales increased by 8.6% to reach EUR 5.5 billion, while net sales, excluding the franchise margin and value-added tax, grew by 8.2% to reach EUR 4.6 billion. The slight difference in terms of gross and net sales growth reflects a stronger growth rate from franchise-operated stores.

Our adjusted EBITDA margin increased by an impressive 54 basis points to reach 6.8%, one of the highest in our sector. This was driven by operational leverage and rigorous cost management, resulting in an 18% increase in adjusted EBITDA to reach EUR 313 million.

Finally, I would like to highlight the threefold increase in our net income to EUR 166 million, including EUR 52 million from the recognition of deferred tax assets in the second half of the year. Given the positive net income achieved in the last 2 years and our robust profit forecast, we are well positioned to activate tax assets.

Dia Spain still has over EUR 660 million in tax loss carryforwards pending activation. This equates to over EUR 165 million in potential future tax savings, meaning that Dia Spain's effective tax rate will remain below 20% in the medium to long-term.

Excluding this tax effect, our net income would have reached EUR 114 million in 2025, doubling that to previous year. Our high profitability also led to strong free cash flow generation, totaling EUR 140 million. This resulted in a significant reduction in net debt, as you can see on Slide 21.

Cash flow from operations reached EUR 301 million. This figure includes the recovery of EUR 33 million in tax refunds during the first half of the year, following the official removal of the regulatory cap on certain tax deductions.

Net CapEx totaled EUR 161 million during the period, representing a 60% year-on-year increase linked to the execution of our store expansion plan. Following the refinancing of our debt in December '24, which provided the stable framework needed to execute our 5-year strategic plan, net financial payments totaled EUR 61 million.

As a result, we achieved a net debt reduction of EUR 79 million. This represents a 24% decrease compared to the end of 2024, bringing the total down to EUR 251 million.

You can see this on the next Slide #22. The company boasts a set of solid credit metrics. Firstly, it has a low financial leverage with an adjusted net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of just 0.8. Secondly, it has a long-term financing structure with no significant debt repayments until 2029. And thirdly, it has a solid net cash position of EUR 295 million at the end of 2025. These robust credit metrics offer ample flexibility to support accelerated growth while maintaining a low leverage profile.

Now let's turn to the financial results of Dia Argentina on Slide 23. As previously mentioned, gross sales in Argentina decreased by 15% to EUR 1.5 billion, affected by a 10% decline in like-for-like sales volume and above all, by the translation effects of the 40% depreciation of the Argentine peso in 2025.

Net sales mirrored the performance of gross sales, declining by 15% to EUR 1.2 billion before the application of IAS 29 accounting rules for hyperinflationary economies. These rules had negative noncash impact of EUR 104 million. It is important to reiterate that our decisive cost control and financial discipline enabled our adjusted EBITDA margin to recover by 180 basis points to reach 1.3% in the second half of the year. This resulted in a positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow of EUR 4 million and EUR 3 million, respectively.

As you can see on Slide 24, rigorous working capital management and targeted maintenance CapEx protected our cash position throughout a challenging year. The EUR 27 million working capital inflow was driven by optimizing stock levels, unlocking trapped cash and covering targeting maintenance CapEx, which preserved Dia Argentina's net cash position, almost intact before the foreign exchange took effect.

The depreciation of the Argentine peso by 40% in 2025 had a translation effect of EUR 25 million on its net cash position, which closed the year at EUR 61 million. This solid net cash position, together with our rigorous financial discipline, ensures that the business remains self-funded and ready to capitalize on Argentina's expected macroeconomic recovery.

Finally, let's conclude the review of the financial results with a brief summary of the Dia Group's consolidated results from continuing operations, on Slide 25. Dia Spain continued to be the driving force behind the Group's growth and profitability. It achieved a 3% increase in consolidated gross sales, reaching EUR 7.1 billion as well as an 8% increase in adjusted EBITDA, reaching EUR 316 million. This resulted in a 30 basis point improvement in the consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin, reaching 5.4%.

Notably, our consolidated net income for continued operations more than doubled to a robust EUR 115 million, excluding a EUR 14 million profit contribution from discontinued operations. This relates to the reversal of unapplied contingencies regarding the sale of the Portuguese business in 2024.

Conversely, in 2024, discontinued operations contributed a loss of EUR 107 million linked to our exit from Brazil. The company is thus returning to profitability following a successful transformation process that has established its position as Spain's leading supermarket chain in the Proximity segment. It now boasts a robust and profitable business with promising prospects for growth.

Finally, the Group's free cash flow reached a robust EUR 143 million. This resulted in a net debt reduction of EUR 51 million, bringing it down to EUR 190 million at the end of the year.

Now I would like to draw your attention to our exceptional stock performance in 2025, as shown on Slide 27. This powerful market endorsement is a testament to our strong achievements and solid prospects for profitable growth. Dia's share price has made an extraordinary recovery, rising by 140%, while our average daily liquidity has surged fivefold and is now consistently above EUR 2 million.

Our market cap grew from EUR 0.9 billion at the end of 2024 to over EUR 2.1 billion at the end of 2025, releasing EUR 1.2 billion of shareholder value. Despite this impressive performance, Dia is still trading at a discount compared to our peers.

Closing this gap should increase our market cap to over EUR 2.7 billion, in line with the current analyst consensus valuation. Our share price recovery and surging liquidity reflects renewed and growing confidence from institutional investors, underpinned by our proactive investor relations outreach.

Last year, we executed 14 targeted roadshows in major financial hubs and participated in 10 investor conferences, effectively presenting our new equity story to over 190 high-quality investors. We have added 2 new brokers to our sell-side coverage, and we are actively encouraging new coverage from pan-European brokers to further increase our visibility among institutional investors. We are committed to broadening our investor base and building deeper, long-standing relationships with investors, ensuring that we fulfill our value creation commitments.

Now I hand you back to Martin, who will deliver his closing remarks and outlook for 2026.

Thank you, Guillaume. I will now conclude this presentation with some closing remarks on Slide 30 before moving on the Q&A session. The excellent results achieved in the first year of our Growing every day strategic plan validate the success of our proximity model and the strength of our customer-centric strategy.

We are delivering robust volume-led like-for-like growth, significantly outperforming the market, while accelerating the rollout of our expansion plan ahead of the schedule. This operational excellence is driving a substantial expansion of margins, a twofold increase in the net income and strong cash flow generation.

Looking ahead to 2026, our goals are threefold. Firstly, to maintain our position as the market leader in like-for-like growth. Secondly, to accelerate the rollout of our expansion plan with over 100 net store openings this year. And thirdly, to continue to increase our adjusted EBITDA margin. We will also continue to monitor strategic opportunities in Spain's fragmented market that could generate additional shareholder value.

In any case, please note that we only view these opportunities as strictly supplementary to our core organic growth road map, and we won't allow any distraction from it. Meanwhile, Dia Argentina has demonstrated resilient management by successfully navigating a challenging macroeconomic environment. The strategic measures implemented in 2025 were instrumental in stabilizing sales volume and delivering positive adjusted EBITDA and improving free cash flow in 2025, while maintaining a robust net cash position.

Our leading position, operational efficiency and financial discipline give us a solid foundation on which to capitalize on the recovery in consumption expected from this year as the macroeconomic environment normalizes. 2025 marked a pivotal year for Dia. It was the year in which we successfully transitioned from a turnaround phase to one of sustained profitable growth.

With a significantly strengthened balance sheet and proven proximity strategy, we are now well placed to deliver long-term value. This transition is being increasingly validated by the financial market, as reflected in our exceptional share price performance and enhanced stock liquidity.

Thank you for your attention. We are now open to your questions.

Thank you for your attention. The Q&A session is now about to begin. To ask a question over the phone, please press the asterisk, then the number 5 on your telephone keypad. As a shareholder, you may also submit questions through the red button on your webcast screen. Once we have verified your ownership, we will answer your question. If we are unable to do so during the session, we will respond directly to your e-mail address. Questions received from analyst covering our stock will be addressed first. Thank you.

All right. Here comes our first question from Alvaro Bernal at Alantra.

I have 3 questions, if I may, all related to the 2026 guidance. The first one is regarding sales growth. You have grown at 9% in Spain in 2025, ahead of the 4% to 6% guidance. What do you expect for 2026? If you can provide a mix on volume, price, store opening, it would be very helpful.

Second one is regarding margins. You delivered a solid 6.8% margin in Spain. What do you expect for 2026? And what are the drivers of this improvement?

And the last one is regarding CapEx in Spain, having in mind that you're accelerating your store opening plan to a targeted 100 net openings in 2026, what can we expect in terms of spend? That's all. Congratulations on the results.

Thank you. Very clear questions, Alvaro. I think the first 2 are for Martin. The last one on CapEx, maybe is more suitable for Guillaume. Martin, if you're ready.

Sure. Thank you, Alvaro, for your question. Clearly, 2025, our sales delivered an impressive 8.6% increase, as you mentioned. This performance was built on a robust 7.4% like-for-like, basically supported by volume growth and also an initial contribution of our expansion plan that added 1.2% to the top line.

So going to your question on '26, what we can share is that, what we expect is to maintain our market leadership in like-for-like growth. We really think that the value proposition that we are proposing is clearly the one is choose by customers, and we are going to keep our rhythm of like-for-like ahead of the market.

On the expansion, what we expect is also overperform the growth of square meters of the Spanish market. We are targeting 100 net openings for the year, and that will also allow us to accelerate the growth again in 2026. This acceleration means that in total growth, 2026 is projected to again outperform our guidance range of 4% to 6%.

On the margins, what I can share with you is that clearly, Spain again reached 6.8% in 2025, that this is 54 basis point expansion. That was driven basically by this strong operational leverage and rigorous cost discipline, as was already presented by Guillaume.

Outlook for '26, our focus is clearly on accelerating our organic growth. We expect, based on that, a fixed cost dilution and rigorous cost management to offset wage and transport inflation, again, enabling us a further improvement in margins this year.

However, this -- there will be a more, let's say, normalized pace compared to the extraordinary jump seen in 2025.

Perhaps for the CapEx, I can give to Guillaume.

Thank you, Martin. First, to remind, in 2025, Dia Spain net CapEx totaled EUR 161 million, in line with the guidance provided and 60% above the EUR 99 million invested last year in 2024. So the year-on-year increase is mainly related to our store expansion plan.

Looking ahead to 2026, we expect to double our rollout speed with more than 100 net store openings. Consequently, we should expect around EUR 50 million higher CapEx than in 2025, pointing to over EUR 210 million. Remember that this CapEx is fully financed by our operating cash flow. This enables us to maintain low financial leverage throughout our strategic plan.

Thank you very much, Martin and Guillaume. The next question comes from Luis Colaco at JB Capital.

I have 4 questions on my side. The first one would be regarding the breakdown in terms of sales growth for 2026. We saw an exit rate of like-for-like of circa 7.7%. You guided before -- last year for 2% to 3% like-for-like. And we are seeing the inflation in Spain still in the food sector already at 3%. Do you think that this guidance that you provided last year between 2% and 3% isn't conservative at this stage?

Second question would be on the expansion of stores that you project. You said that you expect 100 net new stores for 2026. You opened 54 already in 2025. So I wanted to understand if the 300 net new stores that you projected from 2025 to 2029, also, does it look conservative at this stage? And I assume that the 300 is net new stores. That wasn't clear for me, in the past.

And the third question would be on the debt. You've been deleveraging in a very fast way. We know that you refinanced your debt in 2024 at a very high rate. Bearing in mind your current net debt-to-EBITDA, do you think that you will be able to refinance your debt at the end of this year? And what type -- if this is -- if you agree with me, do you think that -- can you provide us some color on what type of spread should we be assuming for debt refinancing?

And the fourth question would be also on the market in general in Spain. We've been seeing the nominal food retail sales growing -- accelerating the growth. What do you attribute this to, immigration, higher purchasing power from consumers? If you could give us some color would be great.

All right. Very clear questions. Thank you very much, Luis. I think the first pool of questions regarding the sales growth in Spain, also our store expansion and the macroenvironment, could be very good questions for Martin and the one regarding our financials is more suitable for Guillaume. Martin, are you ready?

Thank you, Luis, for your questions. What we are seeing in -- for Spain in terms of growth -- the drivers of growth, we expect now inflation position between, say, 1% to 2% this year. We still have some pressure, especially in fresh product. But then we have also a mix effect that will offset partially this pressure, so again, between 1% to 2%.

In volume like-for-like, what we expect, or what we are expecting is a consistent growth between 3% and 4%, which is a robust growth in this market. And in terms of expansion, what we are assuming now is a contribution of around 3% coming from this plan.

In terms of our acceleration in expansion, but more broadly, the acceleration that we are seeing in the execution of our plan in 2025 and our solid prospect for 2026, we really think that while we are delivering ahead of the schedule and accelerating in general, it may be premature to review our strategic targets only 1 year after its launch. However, given, again, this positive trends, I wouldn't rule out revising our targets plan next year, let's say, in 2027.

Concretely, concerning the opening stores, you can assume that, yes, the 300 additional stores openings are net -- in the framework of our plan.

Then some comments on the macroenvironment, as you pointed. We expect in Spain a solid growth in terms of GDP. 2025 was at 2.8%, which is a real strong performance, especially when we compare with the rest of biggest economy in Europe, Germany, France. So really, really strong support of this growth.

We consider as we see in the -- all the available information that 2026 will remain a strong year for Spain. We project this growth around 2.4%, again, driven by a strong domestic demand and all the external sector.

In terms of inflation, 2025 was already a year of the moderation, and we expect 2026 with a number of around 2% in terms of inflation. We really are -- appreciate seeing a clear improvement of the disposable income from household, which is really important for our business.

Last year was already a positive year and all the information we are gathering confirm that 2026, again will be a positive year in terms of recovery of this real disposable income, which, again, it's key for our business.

So last element that we can share is that in terms of population and tourists, we are still seeing solid numbers that will sustain this trend looking forward.

And regarding the refinancing, today -- the lockup period of the current financing expires at year-end, paving the way for a potential refinancing from 2027 onwards. As this time approaches, we intend to leverage our strengthened credit profile, reduced leverage and proven operating track record to optimize our cost of debt. And this should reduce financing costs and unlock our current capital allocation constraint, providing us with greater flexibility to remunerate our shareholders. How much do we expect? It's too early to say, but we expect a relevant reduction cost of debt.

Just a follow-up question on what you said. You mentioned before the like-for-like between 1% and 2% in terms of prices, if I'm not wrong, 3% to 4% in terms of volumes. But that already surpasses the 4% to 6% total sales growth that you guided for. Is that correct?

With the prospect we are having today for 2026, clearly, we expect to outperform our range, the range of growth that we give as guidance in 2026, clearly.

Yes, that is very clear. Thank you, Martin. The next question comes from Jose from CaixaBank.

So I have 3 questions. The first one is on net debt evolution at the consolidated level in 2026. If -- based on the fact that you should expect to accelerate store openings and also CapEx, if you expect to reduce net debt by 2026 versus 2025? That will be the first question.

The second question related with the tax credit. So the activation of the tax losses were carried forward, I think that you had around EUR 1 billion in the balance sheet at least last year. There was some activation this year. Can we assume that the company will activate a similar amount in 2026? And how should we assume the phasing of this? If you can provide a little bit more details on this, I think it will be helpful.

And finally, the third question on the working capital evolution in Spain. There were slight cash outflows in 2025, reason for this? And also how do you expect this to evolve in 2026?

All right. Thank you, Jose. If I understood you well, you're asking about our net debt prospects for the coming years and if we are going to be reducing our net debt position again in 2026. That is a good question for Guillaume. You also ask about our income tax in 2025 in the second half, which was significant. If you can give Guillaume a little bit more color on that and also on our prospects?

And finally, I think you ask about the working capital change in Spain in 2025 and also your views, Guillaume, regarding next year, 2026. So when you're ready.

Thank you, Alberto. Regarding net debt projection for this year, as we increase our CapEx, we expect to maintain our current net debt. So that's the first point.

Second, regarding income tax, in light of our positive performance and strong future profit expectations, we had EUR 52 million out of a total deferred tax asset balance of EUR 217 million, that was activated in the second half of the year.

This, together with the one-off reversal of a fiscal provision totaling EUR 9 million registered in the first half, this more than offset the corresponding annual corporate tax resulting in positive tax income of EUR 47 million in 2025.

So regarding 2026, Dia Spain still has deferred tax assets totaling EUR 165 million pending activation, which will not expire. We plan to activate these assets progressively over the coming years, which will result in an effective tax rate below 20% in the medium to long-term.

Regarding the working capital change in Spain, the outflow you mentioned of EUR 10 million, if I'm not mistaken, is linked to a calendar effect here in our supplier payments. So it's just something punctual. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect a positive working capital inflow driven by our projected sales growth and expansion plan.

Thank you, Jose, for your questions. We've got another one coming from Pablo Fernandez from Renta 4.

Congrats on these solid numbers. Just 3 on my side. The first one is just a follow-up on growth and margins, in this case about Argentina. Could you provide some color about the [indiscernible] picture and maybe offer some guidance on your expectations about sales and margin expansion in '26?

And the second one, do you keep considering the business in this contract as a strategic or maybe this first green shot could be a good opportunity to divest in the country?

And the final one is regarding the EUR 10 million of assets held for sale in your balance sheet. Maybe you could provide some color about it?

Thank you, Pablo, who is now shifting to Argentina. He's asking about how we see the macroenvironment and our prospects for 2026? Also, if we consider this as a strategic business or we could consider its divestment? And finally, a question regarding assets held for sale, that is more suitable for Guillaume. So Martin, the floor is yours when you're ready.

Thank you, Pablo, for your question. On Argentina, in terms of GDP, following the sharp contraction in 2024, GDP is estimated to have a recovery of, let's say, 4% in 2025, driven mainly by a rebound in the agriculture sector and the gradual recovery of the energy and the mining sector.

The economic forecast suggests this recovery will continue in '26 with the GDP growth expected to remain between 3% to 5%, but with an increased contribution from private investment and consumption in addition to the primary sector.

In terms of inflation, as you know, inflation has significantly decelerated from the inflationary peak of '23 and '24 to a single-digit monthly rates at the end of last year. In this context, the real disposable income began to recover in '25 amid rising wages and more moderate inflation.

Still, it remains at a very low level and following 20% cut in 2024 due to measure implemented to eliminate the fiscal deficit. So looking ahead, what we expect -- the consolidation of Argentina's macroeconomic framework and relative price stability are expected to enable the sustained normalization of household disposable income and the gradual recovery of food consumption from this year onward.

As you know, we have a strong position in Argentina. We have a leading position in Buenos Aires. We have a strong brand, a loved brand in the country and a brand that is perceived as the -- more competitive in terms of prices and the leader also in terms of own brand quality and loyalty program.

We have an operational and supply chain solution that is really competitive in that market, and that means a real value for us. We have a value proposition that also combines this own brand, fresh products and national brands that differentiate our value proposition from the other players.

In this context, the -- we consider that the consumption is now bottoming, and we expect a gradual recovery from this year onward. So in this context, again, we are not considering the sale of the Argentina at the moment.

Selling the business now will fail to capture the value we really think this operation have and this strong position that we have in the country and more particularly in our leadership in Buenos Aires. And again, all the potential recovery that we are foreseeing based on the healthy and the strengthening of our value proposition.

What we expect in terms of sales growth is, again, this gradual recovery during 2026, although the sequential quarterly trend should continue to improve. The positive year-on-year comparison will be more evident, especially as the year progress.

Last question on also margins for Argentina. As you know, we have put in place decisive cost control and financial discipline that allows us to get to a positive adjusted EBITDA in the year. The second half of the year we have been already capturing the benefits of all that strategic decisions.

And again, the full year, we finally closed a positive 0.3% of adjusted EBITDA margin. This year will be a year where we are capturing -- we are going to capture fully all this -- the benefits of all that decision, and we expect to improve our adjusted EBITDA margins in Argentina.

And regarding the question about assets held for sale, the EUR 10 million you are seeing, corresponds to real estate assets belonging to Dia Argentina. We talk about one warehouse and 14 stores. These assets are up for sale in 2026 with the aim of reinforcing the company's net cash position. As you know, and just to remind, Dia Argentina had a net cash position of EUR 61 million at the end of the year.

This, together with our rigorous financial discipline and the monetization of real estate, will ensure that the business remains self-funded and ready to capitalize on Argentina's expected economic recovery.

Very clear, Guillaume. Thank you, and Martin. We have a final question from Marisa Mazo from GVC Gaesco.

Alberto, congratulations for the results. I have 3 questions. The first one is in logistics. Can you remind us how may be impacting costs when you continue opening your new warehouses? And how much is the annual investment? The second issue is on the financial debt and the repayment. If I'm not wrong, you have to pay penalty on the -- if you repay the debt from year 2027 onwards. And also, you're still accounting for the opening fee. How we -- may we think about which will be the trade-off between renegotiating the debt and all the other impacts it has?

All right. Marisa, thank you for your questions. If I understood you well, you're asking about your logistic optimization plan, specifically how much we think it could contribute to improve our adjusted EBITDA margin by 2029 and how much we are -- we expect to invest in each of these platforms and throughout the plan. That is a good question from -- for Guillaume.

And you also asked about our -- if I understand you well, the potential refinancing of our debt as from 2027 and how much it could contribute to reduce our financial costs, both questions for Guillaume. The floor is yours when you're ready.

Yes, Alberto. Regarding logistics, the gain we expect from this optimization plan by the end of 2029 is 30 bps and requires yearly investment by 20 -- sorry, EUR 10 million to EUR 15 million per year.

Regarding debt, as I said, we have a strong penalty until the end of 2026 if we repay now the -- our current debt. So that's the reason why we are waiting for 2027. And today, it's too early to know how much we can save, but we believe that it will be a relevant saving.

All right. There are no more questions from our analysts over the phone. Let's now review the written questions received from our shareholders who are following us through the webcast. Some of them have already been answered. Fernando was asking about our plans regarding the business in Argentina and a potential divestment. I think that has already been addressed very clearly by Martin.

Then Luis and Jose are asking about the share price potential and also about potential M&A in Spain. I think the first one could be a good question for Guillaume and the one regarding M&A, maybe for Martin. So if you're ready, we can answer these ones.

So regarding the share price potential, it's -- of course, we cannot provide any guidance regarding our share price. We know that our stock price has made an extraordinary recovery last year, validating our successful business transformation. However, we see that we are still trading at a significant discount to our European peers on 2026 consensus numbers.

According to the latest analyst consensus average, target price is EUR 46 per share. So there is still a significant upside potential. This fundamental upside is based on, let's say, 5 points: one, our unique business model which gives us strong competitive advantages. Our strong -- two, our strong organic growth that significantly outperformed the market; three, the profitability that is above the average of the sector; and also our strong cash flow generation and low leverage profile. That's the main element for the share price potential.

Thank you for this question on M&A. And I would like to start by first saying that our focus and our full priority is to deliver on our strategic plan, the plan that we have shared with you last year and that we are executing rigorously, and any other consideration has to be considered, again, with no possibility to distract us from the execution and delivery of this plan. And this plan is based on customer experience improvement, like-for-like growth and our organic expansion. However, our robust financial position enable us to evaluate potential M&A opportunities within Spain.

Spain is still a fragmented market. And we consider that they can be with opportunities that could create additional value for our shareholders and our responsibility is to analyze and consider these options.

In any case, not that we -- again, we only consider these opportunities as supplementary to our core organic growth road map, and we will not allow anything to distract us from it. Also important to share with you that we already defined clear criteria for evaluating any M&A opportunity in Spain to ensure that any potential transaction will really create long-term value for our shareholders.

In that regard, we only consider assets that are profitable and generate cash flow that are complement to our business model and national footprint, that create clear opportunities of quantifiable synergies, have limited integration cost and offer a real attractive returns.

In any case, any event of this nature materialize -- if in any case an event of this nature materialize, we will disclose it to the market swiftly in accordance with the applicable regulations.

That is super clear, Martin. Thank you very much. We have another question from [ Alvira ] and Jose. They are both asking for potential dividends or shareholder remuneration in the context, again, of a potential refinancing as from 2027? That maybe is a good question for you, Guillaume.

Yes, Alberto. So as you know, dividend payments are not permitted under the current refinancing agreement, but this is not definitive. Delivering -- we think delivering our strategic plan and fulfilling our financial commitments will give us the flexibility to reconsider our capital allocation priorities in due course.

And of course, an early refinancing of our current debt facilities from 2027 onwards could remove our current capital allocation constraints.

Thank you, Guillaume. The last question comes from Mohanty. He is asking about our store closures in Spain and our prospects? Maybe Martin, if you can answer this last one?

Sure. No problem. You have seen that in 2025, Dia Spain closed 38 stores. This is twice the natural rhythm of annual turnover, as we didn't close any store in 2024 that will be incompatible with the redundancy program that was in place.

Looking ahead to the coming years, what you should expect is a natural turnover of around 15 to 20 stores per year. And these closures are mainly based on the change to the rental conditions, store relocations or the closure of underperforming stores. But we will come back to this historical average rhythm -- natural rhythm, I would say, of around 20 stores per year.

Super clear. And there are no more questions from the webcast. Thank you very much, Martin and Guillaume. If you require further clarifications, please contact us, the Investor Relations department. And you will find the contact details on this presentation or on our web page.

Thank you very much, again, for your attention and look forward to connecting with you at our first half results presentation. Have a nice day.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this presentation of our first half 2025 results. I'm Alberto Gavazzi, your new Head of Investor Relations. Today's presentation will be led by Martin Tolcachir, our Group CEO; and Guillaume Gras, our Group CFO. After their remarks, we'll open it up for a Q&A session.

I'll now hand things over to Martin. Martin, over to you.

Thank you, Alberto, and good morning, everyone. I am proud to present what I believe are truly strong first half results for the year. In this presentation, we'll look at our key achievement, but first, let me start with the headlines on Slide 4. DIA Spain remains our engine of growth and profitability, with strong value-driven like-for-like sales outperforming the market. The Argentina is at a turning point. It is demonstrating resilience and making preparation for a gradual recovery of food consumption as the economy improves.

Our financial performance is robust, demonstrating strong profitability growth and impressive cash flow generation, which has enabled us to reduce debt significantly. Our stock performance reflects renewed investor confidence with our share price more than doubling and liquidity surging. Finally, we made significant developments in corporate governance. Our Board has reinforced its skills and capabilities perfectly aligned with our growth strategy and best practice.

Now let's drive into the details, starting with Spain on Slide 5. Our operation in Spain continue to be the engine of growth and profitability. Our performance in the first half of the year demonstrate that we are delivering across all the key areas of our strategic plan.

As you can see in Slide 6, our like-for-like gross sales growth in Spain switch to 7.5% in the first half. The strong growth built on the robust 5.1% like-for-like growth recorded last year. This is a truly remarkable performance, especially considering it includes an estimated 0.7 percentage points negative impact from lingering suppliers disruption due to the national power outage on April 28 and calendar effects. If we exclude this, our underlying like-for-like sales growth will have reached an impressive 8.2%.

Importantly, our strong growth is predominantly volume-driven with a 6% year-on-year increase, fueled by an expanding customer base and higher frequency rates. This is a clear indicator of the health of our business. Root in our unique value proposition and the consistent effort of our first-class team to enhance the customer experience.

While price inflation contributed 1.5% for like-for-like growth, it strategically remained slightly below the general food and beverage inflation, highlighting our commitment to affordability for our customers. This robust growth outperformed the market, enabling us to increase our market share and consolidating our position as the fourth large player in the Spanish food distribution market. In May, we held a 5% share, which is a 0.1 percentage point increase year-over-year.

Moving to Slide 7. You'll see that our strategic decision to offer a wide range of fresh locally search product of the highest quality is truly paying off. These products have been a key growth driver in the first half, increasing by an impressive 14% year-on-year and now represent 29% of total sales, a significant 1.6 percentage point increase year-over-year. Similarly, our unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality private level products at an affordable price is another one of our competitive advantage.

Sales of our DIA Super brands grew by 10% year-on-year, driven by customer choice. These products now account for 59% of our fast-moving consumer good basket, a solid 1.6 percentage point increase versus 2024. This clearly indicates a growing base of loyalty customers.

Another distinctive feature of our value proposition is the balanced assortment of product from our own private level and best brands. This gives our customers freedom of choice and provide best brand with an effective sales channel.

Continuing on Slide 8. Our loyalty sales account for a substantial 56% of gross sales in the first half, growing by a strong 10% compared to the same period last year. This growth was directly driven by an increase in both the number of loyalty customers and their purchase frequency. The number of loyalty customers grew by 5% in the first half of the year, continuing its positive trend and reaching EUR 5.7 million.

The digitalization of our loyalty base continued to progress rapidly. 54% of our loyalty customer accounting for 30% of our sales already interact with us via the app. This is a significant year-over-year increase of 11 percentage points. This enhanced digitalization allows for more direct contact and the development of personalized offering significantly improving the customer experience.

Our personalized Club DIA program is Spain leading loyalty club, a testament to the very stable and highly engaged customer base will build, whose purchase frequency and basket size are twice the size of that of non-loyalty customers. Our strategic investment in developing our new app and web store to offer the fastest and easiest online shopping experience nationwide is yielding significant results. This channel is undeniable nationwide growth driver for the year.

Our online business continued its exceptional trajectory, growing by 19% in the first half, propelled by strong own channel sales, a remarkable 37% increase in deliveries. Online sales contribute a significant 0.8 percentage point to our like-for-like growth. Now reaching 4.9% of total gross sales, a level already achieved ahead of our strategic plan.

Our digital platform now serves approximately 84% of the Spanish population with over 90% of online orders being same-day or express delivery. The unparalleled speed and convenience of our service are driving customer loyalty and earn us an outstanding Net Promoter Score of 60 points.

Now turning to Slide 9. Our store expansion plan is firmly on track and gaining momentum. As a part of our leading profitable growth strategic pillar, we have set ourselves the goal of opening 300 new stores by 2029. With 45 new stores opened year-to-date, we are decisively implementing our strategic plan and reinforcing our position as the national leader in proximity for retail. Most of these stores, 77% have been opened under our scalable and profitable franchise model, a true win-win proposition and one of our unique competitive advantages. Thanks to this scalable model, we can grow with the collaboration of entrepreneurs who share our value and brings our value proposition to every neighborhood.

Additionally, optimize staffing requirements results in high profitability while ensuring operational quality across our network. For franchisees, is streamline the process of setting up a store by offering financial flexibility and reduce initial investment. It also streamlines store management by offering valuable expertise and simple pay-per-sale model. Their high level of franchisee satisfaction is reflected in their Net Promoter Score of 68 points.

We are the leading franchise operator in Spain by both number of stores and proportion of franchise stores within our account for 66% of our total footprint. The expansion of our store contribute an additional 0.5 percentage point to our like-for-like sales growth, bringing total gross sales growth to a robust 8% and reaching EUR 2.65 billion in the first half.

Our sales density continued its significant improvement, increasing by 9% year-on-year to over EUR 5,700 per square meter also reflecting greater footprint efficiency. This growth is supported by the development of a modern, efficient and sustainable logistics network as shown on Slide 10. Our new logistic platform in Dos Hermanas, which began operations in June is the first major milestone of our 5-year logistic optimization plan. This plan involves 6 new tailor facilities based on the successful Eliska model in Madrid to better supply our current and future stores as well as our e-commerce network.

This state-of-the-art facility will serve 235 stores across Western and Lucia, including Seville, Cares and Velva, and support our online service covering 80% of the region's population, ensuring timely and complete deliveries. Furthermore, this platform is our testament to our commitment to sustainability, built to the highest standards, it use self-generate renewable energy and operates under a zero-waste model. This strategic investment reinforced our commitment to continuously improve operational efficiency and logistics. A key driver of our EBITDA margins improvement.

We have reduced our logistic costs by 11 basis points year-on-year, bringing them down to 5.3% of net sales. Construction of a third new logistic platform in Leon has already begun, scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. It will serve around 200 DIA Stores in Castilla Leon and Asturias, supporting our growth plans and online services to 70% of the population in the region. Additionally, our energy transition plan is progressing well with 55% of our logistic network and 17% of our stores decarbonized to date. Our new chillers and cooling chambers not only reduce our carbon footprint, but also improve our energy efficiency directly enhancing our profitability.

Now moving to another critical foundation for our success, our people, on Slide 11. I am very pleased to announce the signing of a new collective agreement for the next 4 years with a representative or nearly 14,000 DIA team members in Spain. This agreement establishes a stable and positive framework to further enhance both their satisfaction and our labor productivity. Key agreements include, a guaranteed annual salary increase of 2.5%, a 1% reduction in annual working hours, improved flexibility and working life balance initiatives and access to a free 24/7 health care service for all team members. This new collective agreement is not just about terms. It ensures the stability and commitment of the entire DIA team directly aligning their dedication with achieving the objectives set out in our strategic plan. Beyond our strong financial and operational performance, our commitment to sustainability is unwavering.

Let's review now our progress on our ESG strategic plan, Every day counts, on the next slide, #12. In the first half, we made significant strides across ESG pillars. First, we demonstrate environmental leadership by accelerating the carbonization, improving waste management and embracing sustainable logistics practices. Second, we reinforced a sustainable value chain by carrying out proactive due diligence and the funding compliance requirement for the new deforestation regulation.

Third, we promote inclusivity by increasing hires from vulnerable groups and boosting female representation on our Board of Directors. Fourth, we fostered entrepreneurship and encourage healthy eating through strategic partnership under our program, Eat Better Every day. Finally, we further improved our sustainability governance by publishing our first CSRD compliant report and preparing our sustainability plan for the next 4 years. This integrated ESG advancement reflects our deep commitment to positive impact and long-term sustainable value creation for all stakeholders.

Let's now move to Argentina's business performance on Slide 13. The Argentina has shown great resilience in the face of a more challenging macroeconomic period brought about by austerity and disinflation policies. This policy significantly impact disposable income and demand for consumer goods. However, we are now at a turning point, as you can see on Slide 14. Food consumption in Argentina is expected to gradually recover from the extremely low levels reached after austerity and this inflation policies were implemented last year. The Argentinian economy is already showing positive signs with more moderate inflation, the stabilization of the exchange rate and the GDP growth project for 2025 and 2026. Crucially, it is anticipate the nominal wage will consistently exceed inflation. This will result in a gradual increase in disposable income and subsequent progressive recovery in demand for consumer goods. Now that changes in food consumption tend to lag improvement in disposable income. This is because it takes time for families to recover financially and we gain confidence before they change their food consumption habits.

As you can see on the next Slide #15, our leading market position in Buenos Aires provides a strong foundation to rebuild growth and profitability. We are the #1 proximity food retailer in Buenos Aires region, with over 1,000 stores across the country. DIA Argentina is the top of mind brand in Buenos Aires. Thanks to our competitive pricing, high product quality and the leadership of our loyalty brand.

Our balanced assortment features high-quality private level, generating approximately 31% of gross sales leading the market. We offer a high-quality fresh assortment, combined with guaranteed product availability, meeting essential customer needs in proximity. And finally, our best-in-class customer satisfaction is reflected in an impressive Net Promoter Score of 75 points. These strengths clearly demonstrate our deep connection with Argentinian consumers and our robust platform for further success. We are now implementing a proactive action plan that leverage our competitive advantage to capitalize on the gradual recovery. This plan includes relaunching our commercial dynamics to drive store traffic, while keeping our focus on operational efficiency and CapEx discipline to preserve the business self-financing capacity. We are now looking to adapt DIA Argentinian's fixed cost and store footprint in order to improve profitability in the face of a lower sales volume.

Now let's review the operating performance of the Argentina in the first half of the year, starting with the next slide, #16. While our sales volume is still down by 15% compared to the first half of last year, we expect to see a gradual recovery from the second half onwards. Our like-for-like sales volume was below the market rate in the period as our approach prioritizes prudent cost management and cash preservation. The lower sales volume was concentrated among non-loyalty customers as competitors aggressively intensified their promotional activity amid subdued food consumption levels.

In contrast, our loyalty sales demonstrate remarkable resilience growing by 9% year-on-year, which increased frequency and volume per ticket, as you can see on the next slide, #17. We boast one of the best known loyalty programs in the country with over 3 million active customers. Our loyalty sales account by a significant 63% of total sales during this period, marking a strong year-on-year increase of 7.8 percentage points. The digitalization of our loyalty base continues to progress. 46% of our loyalty customers accounting for almost 30% of our sales already interact with us via the app. This is a significant year-on-year increase of 11 percentage points. This increase in digitalization allows us to have a more direct customer contact and personalized offering to enhance their experience. Another factor contributing to our growing customer loyalty base is our high-quality fresh assortment and consistent product availability.

Sales of our fresh product also outperformed, growing by 7% year-over-year and increasing its presence in customer shopping basket to almost 9%. The sale of our private level product was affected by the increased promotional activity of national brands. It accounts by 31% of our fast-moving consumer good basket in the first half. Increasing loyalty sales demonstrates the resilience and value of our market position.

I will now hand over to Guillaume to elaborate further on our financial results.

Thank you, Martin. Let's start with Spain's strong financial results on Slide 19, which demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy and operations. As previously mentioned, gross sales under the DIA banner encompassing both company-operated and franchise operated stores increased by a robust 8% year-on-year reaching EUR 2.65 billion in the first half despite the negative impact of the national power outage and calendar effect. This strong growth was fueled by our enhanced range of fresh products and how our high-quality private label products, which improved particularly popular among a growing base of royalty customers and showed increasing use of our e-commerce platform.

Net sales excluding the franchise margin and value-added tax, grew by a solid 7% year-on-year to reach EUR 2.2 billion. The slightly lower growth rate of net sales compared to gross sales mainly reflects a 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of franchise-operated stores. Our adjusted EBITDA increased significantly by 20% year-on-year, reaching EUR 137 million. Meanwhile, our adjusted EBITDA margin on net sales expanded by 70 basis points, reaching 6.2%. This was driven by rigorous cost management and the dilution of fixed costs on higher sales.

Finally, I would like to highlight our strong bottom line performance. The EUR 23 million increase in adjusted EBITDA was fully reflected in higher net income, which almost doubled compared to the same period last year reaching EUR 48 million. Operational efficiency is driving one of the highest profitabilities in our sector. For comparative purposes, our EBITDA margin under IFRS 16, excluding lease expenses, reached a strong 9.9% in the first half, which is well above the industry average. Our high profitability also led to strong free cash flow generation, which totaled EUR 106 million, up by 33% versus last year.

This allowed for a significant net debt reduction as you can see on the next slide, #20. Cash flow from operations reached EUR 164 million. This figure includes the recovery of EUR 33 million in tax refunds following the Constitutional Court ruling in 2024 that overturn the regulatory cap on the use of certain tax deductions. Net CapEx amounted to EUR 57 million during the period, primarily due to the opening of new stores and logistic platforms.

Finally, following the refinancing of our debt in December 2024, net financial payments totaled EUR 28 million. This provided the stable framework needed to execute our 5-year strategic plan. As a result, we registered a net debt reduction of EUR 78 million in the first half of the year.

This represents a 24% decrease compared to the end of 2024 bringing the total down to EUR 253 million, as you can see on the next slide, #21. This net debt figure equates to just 0.9x our adjusted EBITDA over the past 12 months, evidence of our low leverage profile. We also ended the period with strong liquidity amounting to EUR 423 million in total. This comprised EUR 282 million in cash and equivalents as well as EUR 141 million of available credit facilities, providing ample financial flexibility. These figures clearly show that we are in an excellent financial position to sustain accelerated expansion while maintaining a low leverage profile.

Now let's turn to the financial results of DIA Argentina on Slide 22. Gross sales under the DIA banner demonstrated strong resilience, declining by 4% year-on-year to EUR 825 million amidst the slow recovery in food consumption. The difficult year-on-year comparison of sales volumes was partially offset by an effective price increase of 11.4% in euros, equivalent to a significant 23.4% rise in local currency terms.

We managed our pricing strategy prudently, keeping it below the country's general food inflation rate during the same period. This demonstrates our ability to adapt to changing circumstances and provide vital support to households when they need it most, strengthening customer loyalty. Net sales mirrored gross sales performance declining by 4% to EUR 655 million. Our adjusted EBITDA decreased by EUR 18 million to minus EUR 3 million. This was primarily due to our investment in commercial margin and lower fixed cost dilution, which was partially offset by cost-saving initiatives. As a result, the adjusted EBITDA margin on net sales shifted from 2.1% last year to minus 0.5%. Please note that our adjusted EBITDA does not include IFRS 16 accounting adjustments for lease expenses or international accounting standard adjustments for hyperinflationary economies. These are included below the adjusted EBITDA line. After depreciation and tax, these operating figures resulted in a net loss of EUR 22 million for the period.

Finally, free cash flow for the first half of the year resulted in a manageable outflow of EUR 9 million. This comprised plus EUR 4 million cash flow from operations and minus EUR 12 million of essential maintenance CapEx. We believe the worst is behind us and expect to see a gradual recovery from the second half of the year onwards.

As Martin explained, our ongoing action plan is designed to leverage our competitive advantages in order to capitalize on the expected recovery. This will help us restore profitability and maintain a positive net cash position. As you can see on the following Slide #23, DIA Argentina's net cash position stood at EUR 54 million at the end of the first half, providing the company with the flexibility to navigate the expected gradual market recovery. This was reduced by EUR 35 million after net financial payment of EUR 8 million and the currency devaluation effect and other adjustments of EUR 18 million. We expect that the operating recovery, coupled with strict CapEx control will allow us to preserve Argentina's net cash position and ensure that the business remains self-funded.

Now let's conclude the review of the financial results with a brief summary of the DIA Group's consolidated results in continued activities on Slide 24. Consolidated gross sales under the DIA banner increased by 5% year-on-year to reach EUR 3.5 billion. The group's adjusted EBITDA increased by 4% to EUR 133 million, maintaining the margin on net sales at 4.7%. Consolidated net income increased by 64% to EUR 26 million. However, please note that this figure does not take into account the impact of this continued operations. This has had a positive contribution of EUR 12 million in the first half of the year arising from the reversal of unapplied contingencies relating to the sale of the Portuguese business in 2024. Finally, the group's free cash flow reached a strong EUR 98 million. This resulted in a net debt reduction of EUR 43 million following net financial payment of EUR 37 million and an additional EUR 18 million arising from the effect of currency devaluation.

Now I want to turn your attention to our recent stock performance on Slide 26. This is a powerful endorsement of our strategy and the significant progress we've made under our fourth strategic pillar, showcasing DIA's value. DIA's share price has staged an extraordinary recovery. It has more than doubled over the last 12 months, demonstrating a clear approach trajectory. This includes an increase of more than 90% so far in 2025 alone. This is coupled with a tenfold surge in liquidity, which has been consistently trading nearly EUR 2 million per day during the second quarter. This robust top market performance is a direct reflection of renewed and growing confidence from institutional investors whose shareholding continues to expand. It clearly demonstrates that our strong operating performance combined with decisive strategic decisions are successfully consolidating DIA's ability to generate sustainable returns.

Since our successful Capital Market Day in March, we have significantly intensified our engagement with the institutional investment community, as shown on Slide 27. We've executed targeted road shows in London and Madrid. Our participation in 3 permanent investor conferences and numerous individual meetings enable us to effectively present our new compelling business model and clear growth strategy to over 90 high-quality investors. Looking ahead, we plan to further accelerate our investor outreach post summer. This proactive schedule includes participation in free leading conferences and organizing multiple roadshows across major European financial apps. Our aim is to continually build deeper relationships and broaden our investor base, ensuring the market fully appreciates DIA's transformational journey and its compelling investment case.

Now I hand you back to Martin, who will update you on our latest corporate governance enhancements and deliver its closing remarks.

Thank you, Guillaume. I am glad to highlight the significant development in our corporate governance that were approved at our recent Annual General Shareholder Meeting. The board skills and capabilities have been renovated and aligned with this new phase of accelerated growth and profitability as outlined in our strategic plan. Our Board change include, increasing the number of directors from 8 to 10 enhancing diverse perspectives, the appointment of 3 new independent directors, Rut Aranda, Sara Díez and Paloma Pérez. These are 3 outstanding professionals, each bringing extensive knowledge of the retail sector and the expertise in the critical areas such as digitalization, customer understanding, branding, sustainability and supply chain management, all essential to delivering DIA's value proposition.

Benjamin Babcock, who expertly oversaw the transformation as the Chairman has successfully transferred the role to Alberto Gavazzi. Mr. Gavazzi played a key role in designing our strategic plan and his valuable operational experience and a growth mindset perfectly aligned with DIA's currently strategy. Mr. Babcock will remain on the Board as a proprietary director and as a lead representative of our reference shareholder letter one. Finally, Marcelo Maia, who signed from his position after the General Shareholders Meeting. We thank him for his valuable leadership and the expertise he brought to our former business in Brazil. Following this renewal, our Board demonstrates significant enhanced governance standards. 70% of DIA board now comprise independent directors, exceeding good governance recommendation for listed company in Spain. Furthermore, female representation on the Board will reach 50%, also surpassing Spanish corporate governance recommendation.

Finally, I would like to highlight our new director remuneration policy, reinforce the alignment with the shareholders' interest and long-term value creation. This was achieved by increasing the weight of deferred share-based remuneration up to 1/3 of the total and extending the lockup period but 1 year. This marks another crucial step towards greater alignment between financial performance, long-term results and board compensation.

Let me now conclude this presentation with some closing remarks on Slide 31 before moving on the Q&A session. Our 5-year strategic plan is on track. The Spain is maintaining a robust profitable volume-driven growth outperforming the market. The company boasts a high operating margin and free cash flow generation. DIA Argentina is demonstrating resilience and making preparation for a gradual recovery of a food consumption as the economy improves. It is also maintaining prudent cost management and CapEx discipline to preserve its net cash position. We call a solid financial position driven by a strong free cash flow generation, low leverage and ample liquidity.

We have a robust corporate governance, a skilled and aligned Board of Directors and a capable management that is fully committed to delivering our strategic plan. We are not just transforming DIA. We are building sustainable, profitable and highly reputable proximity food retailer for the long term.

Thank you for your attention. We are now open for your questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session is now about to begin. [Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Paulo Fernandez from Renta Quadro.

Congrats for these solid numbers and execution. Three on my side, if I may. The first one is regarding the openings we must open -- we must expect for the second half of the year. Should we expect to keep the first half rhythm for the rest of the year or maybe stay around the 60 per year you guided in the strategic plan?

Thank you for your question, Pablo. Effectively, during the first year of our strategic plan, we are accelerating our store expansion by leveraging our unique franchise model to take advantage of the select locations. As you have seen, we have opened 45 new stores in the first semester, and we aim to keep this rhythm during the second one. However, you should assume that with the number of stores open each year will remain the same over the next 5 years. Our target remains to open 300 new stores until 2029.

Do you have more questions, Pablo?

Yes, yes. The second one is regarding profitability. How much do you think you can expand the margin in Spain in the next couple of quarters? Taking into account that you said you should be already in the higher ranges of the sector? And also, what would be the target in Argentina in 2026?

Thank you again, Pablo, for your question. Yes, Spain, just a bit in the first half was mainly driven by our higher sales and logistic optimization and for sure, our rigors on cost management. In terms of our ambitions. So looking forward, we keep our guidance that we communicated during the Capital Market Day, we expect to be in 7.5% to 8% by 2029.

Do you have further questions, Pablo?

Yes. Yes. The last one is on, maybe trick -- would be around the possibility of inorganic growth in Argentina, do you consider it in the short to midterm to accelerate your growth in a hypothetical economic normalization in the country?

No, we are not considering any inorganic option in Argentina in this moment.

Thank you, Pablo, for your questions. Are there any more questions for our speakers? [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Alvaro Bernal from Alantra.

I have two, if I may. So the first one is a bit related, again, to store openings. Just to be clear, given the performance you've been doing already in H1, you do not see room to anticipate the target -- the 300 target by 2029 that you have in place or accelerated?

Analysis in terms of opportunities and a good rhythm in terms of expansion get us to these 300 store opportunities in the coming 5 years, and we keep this vision so far. That's true that we are accelerating our path, but this is mainly because we are really getting excellent locations, and we are accelerating -- and we have this opportunity to accelerate this expansion this target for 2029.

Okay. Understood. Can you hear me?

Yes, Alvaro, we hear you.

Okay. The second question would be regarding the profitability ramp up of new store openings, if you can comment on this, please?

Regarding the maturity, we can say that for the new stores, the timing to reach maturity is less than 1 year. We talk about between 6 and 8 months to reach the maturity level. In terms of of REIT. We -- all our stores are above 25%.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Luis Colaco from JB Capital.

Congrats for the great set of results. Three questions from our side, if I may. The first one would be on the effective tax rate. Could you elaborate a bit on what happened over there so that you had a kind of positive effective tax rate this semester, please?

Yes, effectively, the low income tax in the first half is due to the one-off reversal of the fiscal provision for a net amount of EUR 8.6 million as the risk that had been provisioned for it did not materialize. Now taking out this effect, we reached an effective tax rate at 20% which is in line with what we expect with the possibility to deduct from our result, 25% of our previous tax losses.

Okay. My second question is regarding Spain. Given that you have been delivering such robust like-for-likes. Do you think there is room to revise your guidance in terms of like-for-likes going forward?

Luis, thank you very much for your question. Effectively, we have an excellent performance in terms of like-for-like this first semester. We -- however, we keep our vision looking forward, and we keep what we communicate in our Capital Market Day. We have to also take into account that already the second semester last year was already in a higher level of growth compared with the first semester of 2024. So we assume that we are going to keep a really good reason and superior to the market and we keep our guidance for the rest of the plan.

Okay. And my last question would be on Argentina. You said that you expect numbers to improve going forward. But maybe ask you when you expect profitability to come back to last year's numbers? And second thing, given that Carrefour has already announced its exit from Argentina. Is that something that you would consider if things don't improve in Argentina as expected?

Yes, Luis, as we already shared during the presentation has shown great resilience in the face of a really more challenging macroeconomic period. However, we see already Argentina economy already showing positive growth. And we expect this second semester to show a stability in terms of volumes and that will be the base for a gradual recovery next year. From our side, we are now implementing actions to also support our performance down there. And as always, focusing our operational efficiency and CapEx discipline to preserve the self-funded operations. We expect, as I mentioned, already a return to positive growth next year. However, the recovery of the volumes to the past years is difficult to assess in this moment.

Considering the opportunities of exiting Argentina directly to your question, Luis, we are not considering today the sale of Argentina. We really think the food consumption is going to gradually recover. And we strongly believe that the Argentina has significant opportunities of growth and profitability in the medium term.

[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions from our analysts. Let's now review the written questions received from our shareholders who are following us through the webcast.

We've got one question from Antonio Lopez. When do you expect the logistic platforms in Madrid, Catalonia, Levante and Andalusia to be built and become operational? What reduction -- cost reduction do you expect from these new platforms?

Thank you, Antonio, for your question. As you know, we have already opened this year Dos Hermanas distribution center serving Sevilla and We are already progressing in the construction of Leon that will open the first quarter of next year. For the rest of the plan, our target is to keep this annual opening each year of the plan, as we already anticipated in the Capital Market Day. For sure, that will not only benefit the logistics service to the stores, but also that will bring us also economies coming from this optimized operation.

Thank you, Martin. We have another question from another shareholder. Oriol, who is asking, if there are any plans to reduce our fixed cost at the Argentina, considering that is difficult to predict when the economy recovery will take place?

Thank you, Orion, for sure. We have already progressing in target reduction cost in Argentina. This is reductions that are going across all the operating and structural costs, head office, IT, logistic. We are already implementing savings in logistics, fleet reductions, closure of one of our warehouses and personnel optimization. At the same time, we are progressing also in savings in general expenses, maintenance fees and also a reduction in the head office personnel cost that it was implemented in the last month.

We have two final questions from another shareholder, Luis, who is asking, if you could tell us more about your recent agreement with BP? And how it could contribute to your growth and profitability?

Sure, Luis. Clearly, we have seen an agreement with BP to open DIA stores in some of their service stations across Spain. This agreement will enable us to leverage BP's brand locations to expand our store network beyond the 300 new stores outlined in our strategic plan. This store will replicate our proximity model, offering a balanced selection of our high-quality private level and top brands, and we have an average size of around 100 square meters. Customers of both the BP loyalty prams will benefit from cross promotional and discount combining the 2 company services and customers basis.

We will pilot the project by opening 10 stores in Madrid and in the Q4 of this year. And the success of this pilot, we could open up to 200 stores in BP service stations across Spain starting next year. Although the profitability margin of these stores are in line with the average of DIA Spain, the annual sales expected from these small convenience stores will only represent a fraction of our average annual sales per store. We're really, really happy to partner with such a great company and brand as BP.

Thank you, Martin. And we have a final question from Luis again. Given your cash flow generation and net debt reduction during the first half, have you considered refinancing your debt on improved terms?

Yes. The strong operating cash flow projected for DIA Spain should enable us to finance our strategic plan investment while maintaining low financial leverage. So this should open the door for a potential refinancing in the medium term.

Thank you very much, Guillaume, and there are no further questions from the webcast. If you require further clarification, please contact the Investor Relations department. You will find our contact details on the last page of the presentation or in the Investors section of our website.

I would like to thank you very much for your attention, and we really look forward to connecting with you again at our annual results presentation. Have a happy summer.

Thank you.