Rexel Aktie

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, welcome. My name is Agnes Touraine. I'm very happy to have you here as the Head of Rexel's Board of Directors, and we're now having an external meeting for shareholders with Guillaume Texier, General Manager; Laurent Delabarre Laurent, Financial Head of the Group; Isabelle Hoepfner-Leger, General Secretary and Secretary of the Board of Directors.

I now declare the session to be open. First of all, we need to set up the bureau. As Head of the Board of Directors, I'm heading the assembly. The 2 shareholders, in other words, the Rexel S.A. France represented by Madame Isabelle Pain and Rexel Actionnariat Classique International represented by Mr. Peter Aman present and concerning parties are appointed as scrutineers.

Isabelle Hoepfner-Leger will now play the role of Secretary. The KPMG SA and PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors of the company are present. The attendance sheet shows this that we reached a quorum of 1/5 of the shares for the ordinary part and the 1/4 of the shares for the extraordinary part. The shareholders share present, represented or have voted are now owning 247,370,000 shares. In other words, 84.48% of all the shares representing voting rights, I declare this regularly constituted assembly to be set up. And all of the documents stipulated by the law are available at the bureau. Those documents are made available to shareholders at the headquarters, and we're registered online on Rexel's website.

Within due time to make our lives easier, we're not going to read out all of the following reports of the management report of the Board of Directors on the company's business activities and the annual accounts, consolidated accounts for the year 2025, including the corporate governance report and the sustainable report. Board of Directors report on free shares attributed. Now those are the free shares. The Board of Directors report including detailed explanations on the draft resolutions. The auditors will be able to express themselves on their reports. And of course, we will be available to entertain any questions.

Let me just remind you that the general meeting was convened so as to deliberate on the agenda Pages 50 to 51 in the invitation brochure. Finally, the company has got no written questions or no draft resolutions to be included in the agenda from the shareholders. I will now kick it over to Guillaume Texier, General Manager. Guillaume?

Thank you, ma'am, Hello, everybody. I would like to start off by -- and go back to the highlights, highlighting events. I'm here to talk about the highlights in the year '25, and by talking about the objectives which we reached and outperformed the first of all, our growth in 2025 [indiscernible] is plus 2.5% below the initial objective, which had been registered in October, then the EBITDA -- the adjusted EBITDA margin is 6.0% which is quite in line with our objectives, illustrated once again the resilience of our margins in a difficult environment.

Finally, cash generation was quite robust and our conversion rates of cash flow before interest and tax, 76%, way above our 65% objective. Let's now distance ourselves from this and get back to the 2025 context. We could actually label the environment as a somewhat sluggish Europe, especially in the residential area and North America penalized by the tariff-related uncertainties in the Pacific region is now in the [ backer ].

The growth drivers were the data center markets driven by AI as well as the favorable price dynamic in the United States is supported by tariffs. In this uncertain environment, we outperformed and gained market shares on our main segments garnering the very specific results stemming from efforts made on -- in terms of commercial excellence, digital penetration and acceleration of high added value services. We also strengthened our presence in data centers and high -- well, in infrastructures in the United States, capitalizing on our investments and our acquisition of Talley.

Finally, we remained agile in terms of our portfolio management with the 4 acquisitions and 2 divestments. From a geographical standpoint, the performance of the year was driven by our 2 main geographical pillars, North America and Europe where the issue is different from one continent to the other. In North America, our priority was to conciliate growth and profitability. We were able to seize high growth segment opportunities and still be able to manage a tariff impact and maintain strict control over our costs. as reflected by the stability of our headcount. In Europe, the situation was different in a sluggish environment with lower volumes and stable prices.

We acted on cost by deploying adaptation plans which led to the reduction of headcounts amount up to 4% reductions. And this agility contributed to better margin resilience versus the last trough. I would like to go back to the active portfolio management, a key driver in our value creation strategy. 2025 was once again, an actor here with 4 acquisitions and 2 divestments. We strengthened our presence in the United States, thanks to the acquisition of our Warshauer and Schwing. We also strengthened our positions in adjacent activities with Jacmar operations in Canada and Tecno Bi in Italy.

These operations supplemented are situations stemming from the previous year. Since 2021, we acquired about EUR 2.8 billion in terms of turnover or EUR [ 2.0 ] billion without divestments with our 21 acquisitions over the period, about 60% regarding our key businesses, electrical distributions and 40% with adjacent activities where we're able to identify a structural growth potential and high added value opportunities.

We also were quite active in North America with 14 acquisitions representing over 70% of acquired sales. Finally, this external growth strategy shows that it's a value-added strategy. The aggregate multiple is 7x, and post-synergy EBITDA lower than the Rexel [indiscernible] multiple. Those actions reinforce the steadiness of our portfolio and provide enough flexibility so that we can keep investing in growth. Last point, which I'd like to make on those news, we today have a renewed executive committee in line with our organization and the group's strategic priorities here.

I will [indiscernible] as Head of Strategy and Transformation and Antoine Audureau also appointment as the Head of Procurement allows us to reinforce 2 drivers in our strategy, the transformation and performance of our value chain. The Executive Committee has now 9 members. This governance is tightened with all the various functions allowing to carry out our strategy, accelerate our decision-making process and reinforce collective priorities around operational excellence, digitalization and value creation.

The Executive Committee is fully engaged so as to steer the next Rexel development phase in a demanding environment and in a rapid evolution. I'd like to kick it over to Laurent Delabarre who's going to give you further details on our 2025 performance.

Thank you, Guillaume. Hello, everybody. I would like to get back to the nice performance of Rexel in 2025 in the uncertain environment, which was described in the first part. Let's get started with the sales analysis. We generated a EUR 19.4 billion 2025 revenue, 0.7% growth in published data at the organic performance was the main driver with sales growth at a constant day rate plus 2.5%, including 1.3% with volume effects and 0.6% price effects.

The external growth operations, we're also able to contribute it to plus 1.8% earned, outperformed the divestment impact. So those positive elements were partially impacted by external factors. The exchange impact had a negative impact of minus 2.2% mainly related to lower American U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar versus the Euro and the calendar effect was slightly negative.

Let's now have a look at the evolution of the group's profitability so as to better understand the factors allowing us to reach an adjusted EBITDA of 6% in 2025 versus 5.9% published in 2024. In a nutshell, our record productivity more than offset the negative impact of what we call the inflation deviation. In 2025, inflation of our costs was more important than the increased prices with a negative impact labeled as an inflation delta, minus 19 basis points. And globally speaking, the impact of delta inflation and operational lever were more than offset by the positive contribution of portfolio management operations and/or action plans so that we could actually reach a 2.8% record productivity.

Let's now talk about the other items pertaining to our P&L accounts. Other expenses and revenues, EUR 56 million, EUR 41 million of restructuring, mostly in Europe and most especially in the U.K. and in Germany. Furthermore, the financial expenses amounted to EUR 214 million, slightly above last year [indiscernible] offset the cost of debt of [indiscernible] 4.4% last year. Our tax rate is 30.2% because of the extraordinary tax in France.

And this -- hence EUR 609 million of recurrent revenue versus EUR 662 million in 2024.

Finally, our dividend proposal for the year 2025. Rexel is now proposing the maintenance of dividend EUR 1.2 per share for the fourth consecutive year. This represents a distribution rate of 32% of the net recurrent revenue that's in the above portion of our distribution policy. Hence, our confidence on our model's resilience and our great ability to generate cash. This distribution is subject to your approval and is part of the resolutions which are going to be voted in very soon. The payment should be carried out on the 13th of May 2026.

So let me kick it over to Guillaume for the presentation of the sales in the first quarter 2026 and annual forecast.

Thank you, Laurent. I'd like to share with you the sales of the first quarter, which we published this morning as well as the 2026 forecast.

Now globally speaking, we -- the beginning of the year is quite sturdy with a progression of 3.4% at a constant day context. Our 3 geographies are in a positive portion and we benefited in the first quarter. We benefited from the higher price increases, higher than expected. It offset the volume weaknesses related to the bad weather conditions in North America and Europe and because of our selection strategy in some countries insofar the geography. The progression in the first quarter was mostly driven by North America, Asia Pacific, whereas Europe is now making gradual headway.

We're now getting back to the -- to the improvement levers in those 3 geographical zones. Europe is now in a positive area. Thanks to the contribution of higher sales prices and the good positions of residential segments in the industry. Furthermore, in the Middle East crisis, we also are observing a better situation so far as electrification solutions, the government of France was quite ambitious with a EUR 10 billion per annum for electrification solutions in Belgium.

We also observed a great growth in terms of solar solutions in the first quarter with the acceleration in the month of March.

Now let's talk about North America. The dynamic is quite strong, mostly driven by data centers with our recent investments and our ability to store. Furthermore, our digital sales in the United States and Canada are also going up and represent about 30% of our businesses in the region. Thanks to the adoption of new digital tools, some of them are based on AI. Finally, 2-digit growth of our order lock in this region provides us with greater visibility in the forthcoming months.

In Asia Pacific, we are -- we registered a greater growth thanks to battery and solar activities and thanks to industrial automated solutions in China.

Let me now also mention the last acquisition, which we finalized Monday Tecno-Contact 360 in Canada. This acquisition will allow us to strengthen our offer in electrical distribution, industrial automated solutions and data centers and services Tecno-Contact is specialized in product management with a good control over design processes down to long-term services that the company generated, a turnover of CAD 85 million last year and has great growth -- great exposure to data centers.

Tecno-Contact will become the central component of a new industrial service platform which we're creating in Canada in addition to companies like Jacmar and Apex which we recently integrated. I'd like to conclude this part by reminding you of our 2026 objectives, which we confirmed this morning. Just as a reminder, we're 3% to 5% constant day growth in current adjusted EBITDA margin of 36.2%. A free cash flow conversion surpassing the 65% bar. Let me just talk about the strategic trajectory of Rexel and tell you how or to what extent this will make it possible to tackle the future with confidence.

Now was already mentioned, and let me get started with this, we reached our objectives in 2025 and we hence consolidated our position at the professional distribution market for electrical equipment. Rexel is #2 worldwide where performance is display reality. Rexel is more robust, agile company and better positioned for sustainable value creation. Now this was not done overnight. This is the fruit of work engaged by Rexel team and has been so for quite a number of years.

We progressively improved our model and adapted it to the transformation of our environments and markets and our client expectations. We reinforced our fundamentals, we focused on value creation and more recently reactivated new growth drivers and those evolutions reinforced our value proposal and our ability to carry out long-term evolution -- improvements. Since 2021, we've also reinforced our performance profile. We improved our profitability quite significantly and reached levels that are going to be surpassing those of the past in a sustainable way. We also were able to maintain sturdy growth, including in more sluggish markets. And this discipline is recognized by markets that value our ability to create value. Now what we also built up changed Rexel from top to bottom.

Our confidence is based on 3 major elements. Structural market dynamics, ability to capture growth and a clear strategy is just to accelerate potential. Let we go back to all 3 points -- of these points. First of all, we are using or harnessing deep and sustainable market dynamics. Movements are going to be really accelerating. Electrification is an example. You got an energy transition on the one hand and the digitalization on the other hand, and those trends generate different figures and electricity demand is going to be going up and surpassing global energy demand.

And this means one essential thing. We're now working on a sustainable -- on a market that expands in the long term. Europe, for example, we're now staying away or walking away from a sluggish era, and we're now witnessing better trends strengthened by tensions on energy prices. Port remains fundamental. The electrification potential in Europe is still very important, a significant portion of energy usages could still be turned into electricity and technologies are now mature and can guide this transition.

We're now seeing the emergence of a market that grows upward in North America, and what we were talking about in the first portion of 2025, the dynamic is more positive and driven mostly by data centers and sustained by strong investment cycles and figures are quite significant. Demand should actually be multiplied by 2 in the next years in data centers and announced industrial investments are also going to be reaching very high levels. And for Rexel, this represents a major opportunity because those dynamics are harnessing segments in which we're quite well positioned.

Now this driving environment is also an opportunity, but the difference actually can be seen in the way we execute things in the last 3 years, we showed our ability to transform those or turn those dynamics into actual growth for the benefit of Rexel we made very clear choices by focusing on a very, very strong areas. In North America, we're positioned on industrial automated solutions, various acquisitions, connectivity and data centers. In Europe, we're well positioned in terms of user electrification, connectivity and industrial automated solutions.

In Asia Pacific, we're quite strong in terms of industrial automated solutions, usage electrification and once again here in connectivity. And this positioning stems from a very [ finite ] analysis of market dynamics in each one of our geographical regions and countries and stringent management of our resources.

Now let's use a very specific example in terms of our data centers in the United States with a accelerating demand. We developed our models so as to acclimate ourselves to this model through the restructuring of a dedicated organization, the strengthening of our logistics capacities and development of very specific expertise to better guard our clients and those adaptations or those investments generated very nice and significant results with over 50% of growth in this segment in 2025 and an expected growth of above 20% in 2026.

Our growth strategy, so external growth strategy also contributes directly to our capacity to capture growth. Talley is a very practical example of this, as I mentioned. This acquisition allowed us to strengthen our positioning on a very strongly growing segment, which is of connectivity solutions, in particular, 5G towers and develop our exposition in North America. This integration was especially successful with significant contribution to the growth of our turnover in the U.S. in '25 and beginning of '26.

With this momentum, we engaged, for Talley, the development of their operations in Canada, so as to capture new development opportunities. We rely also on the evolution of our product offering to capture growth -- product and service offering. Our customers not only look for products, but full solutions. In this context, we strengthened our value proposition through the development of integrated offers, which, for instance, allow us to assist customers in the designing of their installations or help them optimize their performances.

This evolution transforms deeply the relationship with our customers and represents a strong differentiating level. We highlighted 2 essential elements, the structural market dynamics and our capacity to capture growth. To allow this dynamic to be long term, we need a clear road map, which is shared by the whole group. And this is the challenge of the strategic plan that we launched last year and that we are in the middle of. This is a plan that we called Accelerate 2028, and which is within the continuity of the Power Up 2025 plan previously and opens a new creation cycle for Rexel.

And the ambition is to accelerate the priorities, which makes up the foundation of our strategy for the years to come. These priorities cover all of our model and structure our actions. Profitable growth is a fundamental element of our strategy. To reach it, we rely on internal and external levers. Concerning internal levers, data is one of the central pillars. We have today a volume and quality of data, which allows us to significantly improve our sales performance.

This goes by, in practical terms, an increased capacity to anticipate the needs of our customers and personalize our recommendations. Another key pillar, our own brands, which is both a differentiating factor and a vector for growth of margins. We continue the development with a targeted deployment in some geographies and segments which have high value. The objective is simple, capitalizing on our strengths to generate new growth relays.

An important lever of our development also concerns external growth. In the last few years, we structured an acquisition strategy, which is well disciplined. As I said, which makes Rexel reference model in our industry, which relies on a complementary trip to consolidation on our core market of electric distribution, in particular, in fragmented geographies, expansion in adjacent segments that have strong value and differentiation, so as to strengthen our expertise and our value proposition through services.

We deploy our growth strategy in a selective fashion with demanding investment criteria. This discipline is essential and allows us to grow in a targeted way, while preserving quality and coherence of our model.

Operational efficacy now. This is a major element of our strategy and conditions our ability to maintain sustainable growth. We have already conducted significant progress in this respect and are still identifying good potential. We pursue the modernization of our operations through different levers, first of all logistics. With automation and digitalization of our network with deployments that are underway in Belgium, Sweden and the U.S.A.

Next, artificial intelligence, which we tackle as an operational tool, which meets specific needs for our customers. AI allows us to improve, in particular, access to information and making customer pathways more smooth And for our teams, it contributes to automating low value-added tasks and mobilizing more expertise in exchanges.

Let's take a concrete example of the application of AI. By facilitating the treatment of request, preparation of quotations or in putting of orders, we free up time for our 12,000 inside sales with productivity gains of between 10% to 15% depending on activities, which allows them to focus on more value-added tasks, which are closer to needs in a market that is strongly growing, for your reminder.

In this very competitive market, which is quickly evolving, the ability to differentiate relies first and foremost on the quality of experience that we offer our customers. We engage deep-seated work to enrich this experience by developing services that are capable of meeting needs that are more and more specific and complex, alongside which we have strongly invested in our digital platforms, developing more performing solutions that are better integrated and better connected to the systems of our customers.

The combination of services and digital makes up a differentiating lever, which is key and strengthens the loyalty of our customers and positions us as a long-term partner. No strategy can be successful without the men and women that carry it forward. We have therefore placed our teams at the heart of this model with the ambition of strengthening our capacity of execution. Our priorities are clear: developing our competencies, strengthening engagement, making security an absolute priority and pursuing our efforts in terms of diversity. All of these initiatives allow us to build an organization that is more engaged, more competent and fully aligned with our ambitions.

Sustainability is a key element in our strategy as well. We act in practical terms to reduce our footprint and make our offer more sustainable, in particular, through electrification of our fleet and the deployment of tools such as the carbon tracker. We mobilize as well our ecosystem with our suppliers through the program sustainability shapers and our customers through events such as Rexel Expo in France, which brought together over 30,000 participants in October '25.

Finally, we carry forward these subjects in-house and externally for instance, with the training of all of our group executives to sustainability and the participation via [ Codis ] through the working group on electrification in France. This structured approach allows us to accelerate the energy transition in practical terms while creating value. All of these elements allows us to tackle this new development phase with confidence.

We aim an annual growth of sales of between 5% and 8% midterm in EBITDA -- so EBITA, excuse me, margin. So adjusted above 7%, a conversion of -- so mid term free cash flow above 65%. So these are ambitious objectives, well controlled and translates our ability to transform dynamic -- favorable market by dynamics into sustainable performance.

Thank you for your attention. I'm now going to give the floor to Agnes Touraine, who's going to tell you about governance at Rexel and remuneration of its executives.

Thank you very much, Guillaume. As the Chairperson, I'm very happy to present the Board of Directors and its activities. Your Board is so at the level of best practices of the market and the code AFEP-MEDEF makes up -- is made up of 11 members, 7 independent members, 44% women, 4 Directors who are of other nationalities and 2 Directors representing employees administrators so here are in the first row and so the Directors, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them and thank them for their contribution to our work and their value added.

And I can tell you that this is a very engaged, contributive Board, where debates are always constructive and very diverse. And as you see with this table that draws up the skills so that are the most structuring per board. So the different Directors have the skills, competencies and experience that are central to value creation at Rexel from finance to digital, going by different sectors for services, energy and distribution, diversity of skills allows for rich debates and contributions to the Board with the right skills.

And so again, the Directors are engaged so [indiscernible] and contributive. And as you see here, on this table where you see that the Board got together 11 times in 2025, which bears witnessed the commitment of its members to assist the strategic orientations of its group with an average presence rate of 96%, just like every year. One of our meetings took place abroad during the visit of several days. on-site, we went to Vienna to meet with Austrian, German, Switz and Slovenian teams. This year, we will be going to Vancouver to meet with North American teams.

These meetings allowed for covering of all important topics for Rexel, in particular strategy of the group, of course; accounts and results; operations for M&A; risk and conformity, AI, digital and cybersecurity, governance; and finally, CSR and sustainability, of course. Each session of the Board was preceded by a preparatory exchange the day before, will allow Directors to share their prior analyses and prepare the work of the Board efficiently.

The evaluation of the Board led by Barbara Dalibard for 2025 confirms once again the very good functioning of the Board and continuity of progress made in the last few years. It highlights the continuous engagement of Directors, the quality of their preparation and the quality of the dialogue within the Board, just like with the whole executive team. For your reminder, next year in '26, the valuation of the Director -- the Board of Directors will be rendered by an external provider.

Now concerning the conclusions of the Board of Directors, so these committees are also independent and give recommendations to the Directors before decision-making. The presence rate of members of the committees was at 100%. And I'd like to thank especially the shares and members of the committee for their essential and remarkable work. In 2025, the committees, in particular, announced the following subjects: the Committee for Nominations, Governance and CSR so led by Barbara Dalibard worked on the succession plans of the succession of the Board of Directors and was informed of the succession plans for the 4 main executives of the group, the top 150.

The committee also looked into the strategy in terms of CSR and was informed of the state of advancement of the work concerning the CSR team. The committee for remuneration is led by Brigitte, focused especially on several structuring priorities, in particular, the preparation of new, so free shares allocation and locations, so market practices in terms of remuneration in the framework of -- so the renewing of the mandate of the Director General, Guillaume Texier, the committee worked on the updating of the remuneration to make sure it's -- [ coincides ] with the strategy of the group.

Finally, the work on the Audit Committee and the Risk Committee had to do with internal audits following action plans and validation of the risk mapping and internal audit. And we also so examined deeply the cyber risk in the context of growing digitalization and structuring of a dedicated governance. The committee has also examined the financial, so annual and semestrial financial statements of the group and also sales and performances quarterly and work and results linked to the implementation of CSRD.

I'd like now to come back to the examination by the Board of Directors of renewed mandate taking into account the -- so provisions of Article 14 Paragraph 2 of stature of the company, which provides for the renewal. So staggered renewal of Board of Directors by -- of quarter each year. The Board suggests that we ratified the temporary nomination of a new Director. And so I'd like you to ratify the cooptation of Robert Schuchna and renewing by anticipation his mandate for a duration of 4 years as a quality of nonindependent Director.

Robert Schuchna is associated at Cevian Capital Partners Limited and was coopted by the Board of Directors on the 14th of October 2025, replacement of Marcus Alexanderson previously, representing Cevian Capital Partners, who, for your reminder, holds about 22% of the capital. His expertise bears on -- so advice on investment, in particular, so European listed companies as indicated on Page 26 of your brochure and is also the member of the Supervising Board of Bilfinger SE in Germany. And I'm going to let you listen to Robert, who's going to tell you about his experience and track record.

Good morning. Maybe a few words on myself. So my name is Robert Schuchna. I'm Swiss German citizen based in Zurich. My background is in banking and finance and investments. I've studied at the university of Zurich banking and finance, then joined Cevian. For the last 15 years, I've been a partner at this firm, been responsible for investments of, for instance, ABB which is one of the supplier of Rexel as well as I'm nominated to join the Board of AkzoNobel, which is the Dutch Paints and Coatings company. My experience from industrial service comes from building a German industrial service company. And I'm really looking forward to work together with the Board on advancing the company of Rexel further.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Robert. And so we also suggest that we renew the mandate of Director of Barbara Dalibard, who was nominated for the first time in December '21 for a length of 4 years. Barbara, could you stand up, everybody knows you, of course, but just for everybody to see that you're there. The Board of Directors considered that her independence and expertise, in particular, in the fields of digital and CSR and so her -- so very concrete work and the governance of the company is an essential asset for the governance and strategy of the group in the next few year.

And we also suggest the renewal for 3 additional years of -- so the Director of Francois Auque who is nominated for the first time in May 2019. Francois, you have a fan club here. The quality of your implication in your functions as an independent Director, Vice President and President of the Committee for Audits and Risk has knowledge of the company and its governing bodies. His international expertise and financial expertise make Francois Auque an essential asset for Rexel as well and for our work at the Board of Directors.

To conclude, I'd really like to say again, the quality of the governance of your group carried forward by a Board of Directors that's both constructive and on the lookout, assisting a very performing and engaged management team as bears witness the results recorded in '25 and taking this opportunity to thank all the members of the Board for these results that were obtained up until now.

Let's move on now to a topic that you're all expecting, reviewing remuneration of executives. It's always a little bit lengthy. We're going to try to be as short as possible. One of the essential missions of the Board of Directors on recommendation of the Board -- the committee of remuneration is, of course, to determine the remuneration policy applicable to corporate officers at Rexel. The Board sets the remuneration policy applicable to the presidency of the Board, Directors, Director General for the following fiscal year and the framework of the ex ante remuneration policy, in other words, to come. Determination of remuneration paid or attributed to the previous fiscal year to the President of Board of Directors, Directors and General Director, including reaching of performance indicators in the year, so ex post remuneration.

I'm not going to give you the main elements of this remuneration policy. It is detailed in the universal registration document and remunerations that stem from there are subjected to your ex ante -- post and ex ante approval. And so you are going to be asked to approve them later. Resolution 5 to 10 are concerned in addition to which Rexel renews its plan for free shares attribution. And so you're going to be asked to approve Resolution 19. I think it's first important to recall that the remuneration policy as you approved last year is not going to be modified for the whole duration of the mandates underway, in other words, 4 years.

It is based on the strong principles that the Board of Directors holds you to heart. In other words, attracting, motivating, retaining high-quality managers were recognized and experience for your group to be as high performing as possible, aligning to the recommendations of the AFEP-MEDEF code and best practices on the market, as I said, ensuring stability of remuneration during the mandates and of course, aligning with the ambitions of the Rexel Group carried forward by the Accelerate 2028 strategy being focused on performances, short and long term and integrating criteria that are economic, social and environmental at the service of the group and especially engaged on topics of CSR.

Now concerning the Presidency of the Board of Directors, in other words, myself, remuneration '25, the say-on-pay ex post has not changed for an amount of EUR 400,000. This remuneration is -- remains unchanged for 2026. The say-on-pay ex-ante resolution 8 is also of the same amount. Now concerning the policy of remuneration of the Board of Directors, it's also nonchanged, since the 22nd of May 2014.

This is resolution #9. For your reminder, this remuneration makes up -- is made up of a fixed part and variable part linked to attendance to sessions of the Board and committee the overall annual envelope has not changed since 2014 and consumed so the amount of EUR 874,800, which represents about 70% and less actually of this envelope.

Let's continue with the Guillaume Texier Director General and his remuneration for '25, it is the say-on-pay ex post. So Resolution 7. All these pieces of information are again detailed in the universal registration document and the convocation brochure that you received. For memory, the remuneration of Guillaume Texier is not changed again for the whole duration of the mandate; in other words, 4 years from the 29th of April '25 and 29th of April '29. For memory, the year '25 was divided into 2 distinct periods. The first period from the first of January to the 28th of April '25, and made up of a fixed remuneration of EUR 800,000 and targeted variable remuneration, representing 120% of fixed annual remuneration; second period from 29th of April to 31st of December '25, including fixed annual remuneration of EUR 830,000 and variable targeted remuneration representing 130% of annual sales remuneration.

Taking these 2 periods into account for '25, so we have a fixed annual remuneration of EUR 820,227 to Guillaume Texier, so with your approval, of course. And so the -- Guillaume Texier will have variable annual remuneration of EUR 1,112,281, 97,940 performance shares were attributed estimated at EUR 1,859,881. So taking into consideration IFRS 2 of adjusted value of EUR 18.99 the date of attribution in the year, so different perks and pension funds stay stable.

Now let's look at the financial and individual objectives and whether they were reached. Now concerning the modality of determining of variable remuneration of Guillaume Texier for '25. The detail of performance indicators for each one of these objectives is presented in the universal registration document. Again, to summarize, the '25 results, as you saw previously, reflect a very sturdy year that generated value in a political and economic context internationally, that was very complex.

The financial criteria represents 70% of variable remuneration, and we reached 116.1% individual criteria, representing 30% of variable remuneration annually were reached at 85.6%. As a consequence, the Board of Directors determines the overall attaining of variable remuneration criteria at 107% of the target. In other words, an amount for the Director General of EUR 1,112,281. This amount is completely deserved considering the excellent work of Guillaume Texier and his teams and remains subjected to your approval, of course, for 2025.

Now let's move on to the remuneration policy of the Guillaume Texier for 2026. In other words, the say on pay ex-ante, in other words, Resolution 10. Again, and as I've said several times, not changed compared to what you already approved in '25. It is made up -- so of the following elements: repeat, fixed remuneration of EUR 830,000, unchanged again. Variable, targeted remuneration annually fixed at 130% of fixed remuneration with the performance conditions that are demanding and broken down between financial and individual objectives, respectively, 70% and 30% and individual objectives as each year were set according to strategic priorities and operational and strategic strategies of Rexel.

In other words, profitability, transformation growth and strategy, talent and sustainable development, each representing 25%. So pension, so funds and perks is unchanged, variable long-term remuneration, '26-'29 to recognize long-term performance, as described in the following slide. So severance or departure compensation unchanged and you are, therefore, so asked to approve the resolutions 5 to 10 for ex post and ex-ante remuneration of corporate officers of the Rexel Group, considering that all details are in the universal registration document.

Finally, just like every 2 years, we suggest you approve Resolution #19 concerning free shares that were so in the end, a very efficient tool to recruit the best talent, retain them and motivate them, of course. Free shares have been attributed to 1200, 1500 key employees in Rexel. 2 distinct plans, performance plan for senior managers and a presence plan for intermediate levels. This presence plan can only represent so up to 20% of the envelope and cannot bear on more than 900 shares per beneficiary acquisition period of shares over 3 years without a conservation period, not conversation, conservation for all beneficiaries.

Now let's move on to the performance criteria of the plan. The criteria have been decided upon by the Board of Directors according to the strategy and long-term objectives of the company. The performance criteria and their weight are the annual average of growth rates and of EBITA from 40% at the average ratio of the free cash flow before interest and taxes on EBITDoL for 20%, relative performance of the Rexel share compared to so SBF Index 120, so 20%, conducting of ESG index made up of 4 criteria, so in terms of the corporate social responsibility representing 20%.

The performance levels linked to financial and extra financial criteria are appreciated after the period of 3 years. as well as the level of performance relating to the Rexel share. The details of objectives and performance levels are detailed in Paragraph 3 to 15 titled Recap Table of Remuneration Policy for Fiscal Year 2026, say on pay ex-ante in the universal registration document '25.

I will, therefore, suggest that you approve this resolution. Thank you for your attention. And I'm now going to give the floor to the statutory officers who are going to present their report.

Thank you, Ms. Chairwoman. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, hello. I'd like to talk on behalf of the auditors commissioners, KPMG and PwC, which I represent. I'd like to talk about our mission in 2025, and I would like to make a presentation of our reports, which we established for your benefit and for the purpose of the ordinary and extraordinary general meeting.

Let us earlier recap the terms of our reports as we usually do the objective of our mission. Let me just remind you, is to provide you with the reasonable assurance that the consolidated accounts and annual accounts of the company taken as a whole, do not contain any significant anomalies and that the accounting methods are appropriate and that the assessment of risks, significant risks made by management are reasonable and that the tax and enforce laws are complied with.

We would like to remind you that the consolidated accounts were prepared on the basis of the IFRS accounting referential and the annual accounts were done on the basis of the French accounting rules. Our approach is adapted to the organization and the activities of our group, and we'd like to place a great premium on current and extraordinary activities, such as acquisitions, divestments, restructurings and financial operations. We're taking into account. Our conclusions are represented in a report sent to the Audit Committee and the Risk Committee as well as the Board of Directors on the 10th and 11th of February 2026, respectively.

Now we'd like to inform you of the other key points, which were identified on the basis of various factors. First of all, the relative weight in the accounts, the complexity of their evaluations, the importance of judgment carried out by management. And so far as the consolidated accounts, this is the evaluation of the recoverable values of goodwill and supplier discount evaluation. And so far as annual accounts, this is the evaluation of participation of shares or interest-sharing procedures. We also carried out a specific verifications pursuant to law and we can verify the Board of Directors management report and checked out the annual accounts and consolidated accounts presentations on the basis of the SEF. In conclusion of our work, we guarantee -- well, we certify the annual accounts without any reserves on the basis of the first and second resolutions. As an information, we'd like to make an observation on the accounting method change related to the first application of the ANC 2022 06 rule.

Related to the presentation of the account, we'd like to certify the consolidated accounts without any reservations in relation to the second resolution. And so far as our report on regulated conventions, we observed that none were authorized throughout the year.

Let's now go on to sustainability. In 2025, the company publishes its or included in its managed report information regarding sustainability for the second year. The pursuant to the provisions of the directive, our report was made on a limited assurance regarding the compliance of the elements. So 3 natures here, the compliance of the process, so the double materiality process as well as the compliance of information regarding ESRS sustainability.

Number three, the compliance to taxonomy related regulations and so forth. The work we did, we did not identify any mistakes in issuance, or inconsistencies of great importance. Finally, to conclude on a very special reports on the resolutions subject to your extraordinary general meeting. I'd like to make it simple here. Those resolutions -- The resolutions proposed in this extraordinary part are between 16 and 20 resolutions. We've got 4 reports reminded in this slide and the next slide.

Those reports are related to the reduction of capital to the cancellation of bought shares, the emission of ordinary shares and the emission of free shares. The described modalities in the report of the Board of Directors related to the mentioned operations do not require any remarks or observations from our part unless later exams are made in the contrary direction would then actually produce an additional report, which will include or would include the exam of the emission price determination conditions.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much. I would like to kick it over to those who would like to be vocal. And for that purpose, all you got to do is raise your hand, and hostess will actually give you a microphone.

Of course, as always, you made forecasts, which makes a lot of sense for next year. But given the fact that things are now happening today in the world, how are you able to make those very specific forecast? I'm talking about the situation, for example.

So far as future supply and the increased oil prices Guillaume Texier will answer the question, and I would like to then talk about the work done by the Board.

Yes, of course, now those forecasts represent a range, so you got some uncertainty in our forecast included the fact that the international contract is subject to changes. And we maintain those forecasts, as you may have observed, we're now leaving the call and the results of the first quarter, and we maintain those forecasts as we define them.

When having a look at the recent evolution of the international crisis and what is happening in the Middle East, what kind of impacts can we talk about and so far as Rexel works out?

There are different types of impact. Our product prices might increase. Our products when manufacturing the products and the products we sell, well, for example, our suppliers include energy, power, PVC, aluminum and the prices are impacted by geopolitical -- international geopolitical tensions. This is probably going to give way to further price increases, which would then actually be -- have a positive impact on our revenues, but we would like to have to transfer those price increases onto our customers. That's the first point.

Another point which also represents an impact this Middle Eastern crisis is a negative impact in our costs. For example, the operational costs, 10% of those costs are related to power. In other words, our transportation costs, the fuel component or the heating part of our buildings and the heating related prices. And of course, we'll have to make -- or do 2 things. We'll have to work to really try to really cut our expenses and so forth, energy sources and to some extent, also transfer some of those price increases or cost increases onto our customers because transportation will be affected.

The third effect, which we can actually identify in the Middle Eastern crisis, a more sluggish economic or macroeconomic situation. If economic uncertainty remains and inflation is important for example, people might actually be slow in the decision-making process, and this could have an impact on our market with a negative impact. But on the other hand, something which you can always already identify in Europe. For example, people are more attentive to the electrification process because one of the ways for non oil-producing countries is defend themselves against price increases is to transfer usages and focus on electrification, for example, nuclear electricity, renewable electricity could be used.

Local productions and less variable and less impacted by geopolitical situations. And we can see the premises here. For example, the electrification plan presented by the French government goes in that direction, but we also witnessed in Belgium, for example, in March, a very strong interest based on photovoltaic panels. And same thing happened in Australia for the same reasons. So there are positive and negative impacts and at the end of the day, it doesn't really make that many changes because we don't really know how they're going to be offsetting one another, but they're really going to head into different directions and that's how we actually define our forecast and update those forecasts throughout the year.

But as far as the Middle Eastern crisis is concerned, it's difficult to say whether this is a positive or a negative factor because all those different effects are going into different directions. I hope my answer was as close as passable, just to answer your question.

Thank you, Guillaume, and your question. Yes, go ahead.

And your question actually is an exact reflection of the work carried out by the Board, of course, the Directors are asking those questions. And there is a 3-year plan. This is the accelerated plan in every year in the budget each time and the Board convenes, we're really scratching our heads over the various challenges and impacts. And that's the reason why this work is highly constructive and a permanent dialogue with Guillaume Texier and management. Thank you.

Any other questions? No. Well, listen, in that case, I see no -- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sir -- sir/ma'am I'm sorry, I cannot see you very well.

Yes, I had a question with regards to American tariffs and the Supreme Court confirmed these tariffs imposed by President Trump. Are you able or would you like to wish for reimbursement from the American government?

The answer is very simple. We do not pay those tariffs directly. Where we're affected by tariffs because our suppliers in some cases, had to pay those tariffs for components included in the production of their products. But on our side, we do not pay any tariffs. And most of the products we sell in North America are produced in the United States or Canada, generally speaking. And so this is irrelevant as far as we're concerned. It could be relevant among our suppliers or our suppliers, suppliers but on our side, we're not going to scratch our head over this issue.

Thank you. Do you have any further questions? I see no further questions. I'm going to now kick it over to madame Hoepfner-Leger so that we can carry out the voting of the resolutions. Thanks for your attention.

Hello, everybody. My name is Isabelle Hoepfner-Leger, General Secretary and Secretary of the Board of Directors, Rexel's Board of Directors, and we're now going to vote for the resolutions. Let me just tell you that the final quorum is 84.9%, thus 247,387.48 shares represented here or voting by proxy. You can see the various modalities as to carry out the vote of those resolutions. I hope that we are clear, and we're now going to vote for resolution #1.

First resolution. Regarding the approval of the social accounts with a benefit of EUR 367,697,972.45. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. And the resolution is adopted.

Resolution #2, regarding the approval of consolidated accounts generating a profit of EUR 591.4 million. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. And the resolution is adopted. Let's carry on with resolution #3, with the allocation of revenues generated in 2025 and the distribution of a dividend of EUR 1.20 per share. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Resolution #4, regarding the approval of regulated agreements pursuant to Article L.225-38 of the commercial code. That the vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. And the resolution is adopted.

Resolution #5. Now this is the approval of the information mentioned in the 3.2.2 of the 2025 universal registration document compensation of corporate offices for the year 2025 ex post. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution #6. The approval of fixed variable and extraordinary components related to total compensation and all the various advantages paid out in 2025, Agnes Touraine, Head of the Board of Directors ex post. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. And the resolution is adopted.

Resolution #7. The approval of fixed variable and extraordinary items pertaining to total compensation and various advantages paid out or attributed in the fiscal year 2025 to Guillaume Texier, General Manager, this is the ex post vote. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted.

Resolution #8. This is the compensation policy applicable to the head of the Board of Directors for fiscal year 2026. And this is the ex-ante vote. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. And the resolution is adopted. Resolution 9 related to the remuneration policy for directors fiscal year 2026, same thing, ex-ante. The vote is open.

[Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Tenth resolution relating to the remuneration policy applicable to the Director General for the fiscal year 2026 ex-ante vote also. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

Moving on to the 11th resolution relating to the ratification of co-opting of Robert Schuchna as a director. The voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting closed. The resolution is adopted. In the same line of thought, moving on to the 12th resolution relating to the renewal of the mandate as a Director of Robert Schuchna for the next 4 years. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

13th resolution, relating to renewal of the Director of mandate of Barbara Dalibard for a duration of 4 years. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

14th resolution relating to the renewal of the Director's mandate of Francois Auque for a duration of 4 years. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

15th resolution, the objective of which is the authorization given to the Board of Directors to operate on the shares of the company.

Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

16th resolution, the objective of which is to allow the Board of Directors to reduce equity with the canceling of shares. Opening of the vote.

[Voting]

The voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

17th resolution, allowing the Board of Directors to issue with canceling of the preferential right to subscribe to the benefit to members with a savings plan.

Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

18th resolution, allowing the Board of Directors to conduct issuing with the canceling of preferential subscription right reserved to certain categories of beneficiaries to allow the conducting of employee shareholder operations. Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting closed. Resolution adopted.

Moving on to the 19th resolution, allowing the Board of Directors to attribute free shares to members of salaried employees and to corporate officers of the company and its subsidiaries.

Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted.

20th resolution, allowing the Board of Directors to attribute free shares to members of salaried employees and to corporate officers of the company and subsidiaries, which sign into an employee shareholder plan with Rexel Group.

Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution adopted.

We are now going to move on to the last resolution, 21st resolution, giving powers for legal formalities.

Voting is open.

[Voting]

Voting closed. The resolution is adopted.

Thank you. Thank you, Isabelle. Now the agenda -- all the items on the agenda have been covered. Thank you for your votes and your attention. And so thanks to all shareholders. I'm now going to consider the session closed and wishing you a very good rest of your day.

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining Rexel First Quarter 2026 Sales Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Guillaume Texier, Group CEO of Rexel. Please go ahead, sir.

Yes, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our first quarter 2026 sales presentation. I appreciate you making the time to be with us this morning. As always, I'm joined by Laurent Delabarre, our Group CFO, who will walk you through the detailed sales figures in just a few minutes. First, I'd like to take a look at the key highlights of the quarter, and then I will conclude this presentation by sharing how our strategy and ongoing transformation continues to support our performance while navigating an uncertain macro environment. With that, let's get started. I'm on slide three, and I could summarize the first quarter as follows. A solid start to the year with all three geographies in clear positive territory for the first time in the last 11 quarters.

As you know, the quarter was also marked by the Middle East crisis, with some impacts, albeit still limited. I will return in my concluding remarks to the potential risks and opportunities that could emerge if the conflict were to last. Overall, compared to our initial expectations, we benefited in the quarter from a better pricing contribution, offsetting temporary volume softness, mainly due to weather effects, project timing, and business selectivity in some countries. The better selling prices reflected our capacity to pass through price increases in the context of higher raw materials prices, including the recent rise in energy prices. The sales progression was driven by high growth segments in North America, such as data centers and booming solar activity in Australia, while Europe moved to positive territory. In Europe, the electrification rebound is a potential additional tailwind against the backdrop of the Middle East crisis.

With that, let me now hand over to Laurent, who will take you through the details of our first quarter numbers. Laurent.

Thank you, Guillaume, and good morning to all of you. Let's start on slide 5. With the different building blocks of our Q1 '26 revenue performance. Our sales stood at EUR 4.7 billion, up 3.4% on a same-day basis. This growth was mainly driven by a sequential improvement in selling prices, both cable and non-cable, contributing to 280 basis points, while volumes grew at a more moderate pace, contributing 60 basis points. More specifically, on the selling price increase, cable prices benefited from a good pass-through of higher copper price above USD 12,500 per ton in Q1 '26, and non-cable products benefited from higher commodity price, with US piping now back to positive territory. A few additional considerations. First, the scope effect was stable as the impact of the 2025 acquisitions of Warshauer, Schwing, Jacmar, and TECNO-BI was offset by the disposal of our business in Finland.

Second, our calendar effects stood at minus 0.9% and will reverse in Q3 and Q4 this year. Third, the currency effect was a negative 4.3% in the first quarter, mainly from the U.S. dollar's significant depreciation. We expect this effect to ease in the remainder of the year, assuming unchanged spot rates, and we anticipate a circa minus 1.5% impact for the full year of '26.

On Slide 6, you see the breakdown of our sales evolution by geography. As mentioned by Guillaume, Q1 '26 growth was driven by North America and Asia-Pacific, with Europe now in positive territory. Let me add that adjusted for solar, same-day sales in Europe would have been up 1.2%. More specifically, APAC posted very strong growth, plus 11.4%, mainly driven by Australia and Asia, to a lesser extent.

In Australia, sales were up plus 16.7%, boosted by our capacity to better capture trends in solar activity, supported by battery subsidies. In Asia, sales in China increased by 4.4%, and sales in India grew by 14.7%, with both countries supported by industrial automation activity. I will detail Europe and North America in the next two slides. Moving now to slide 7 on Europe. Same-day sales were up plus 0.6% in the quarter, improving sequentially from broadly stable sales in Q4 '25. Volumes remained negative in a market that was still soft and was also impacted by some temporary effects, including weather impact on business selectivity, while pricing continued to improve sequentially. It was also interesting to see growing demand in energy efficiency solutions at the end of the quarter, as illustrated by Wasco in the Netherlands.

Detailed information by countries provided on this slide, but let me highlight the main country dynamics. France benefited from strong demand in HVAC and solar activity, mainly from small commercial projects. The DACH region remained impacted by trends in solar, but improved sequentially, mainly thanks to Germany and Switzerland. Let me add that industry in Germany remained positive in Q1. Benelux was up plus 3.9%, driven by both Netherlands and Belgium. The U.K. was still impacted by a difficult macro environment and continued business selectivity. Finally, Sweden was broadly stable. Also, momentum improved month after month. On slide 8, we move to North America, which remained the group's main growth engine in the quarter. All three markets were positively oriented in the quarter, with non-residential remaining the main contributor.

Digital sales continued to accelerate, up more than 500 basis points, reaching 28% of sales, thanks to the adoption of digital tools. Concerning the United States specifically, first, growth continued to be driven by data centers, with a material contribution in the quarter. The non-residential segment also grew in such segments as hospital, mining, or water, wastewater. Second, industrial automation was up plus 3%, confirming the positive trend that we have started to see in recent quarters. Third, backlog was strong, up in double digits compared to the end of December '25. Turning to Canada, sales grew 9.1%, supported by data center projects and industrial automation. With this, let me now hand back to Guillaume for some concluding remarks on our outlook.

Thank you, Laurent. I am now on slide 10. As said in my introduction, the conflict in the Middle East started at the end of February and had a limited impact in the first quarter. Even though we have low visibility on the evolution of the conflict, let's assess what could be the consequences and how we could turn risks into opportunities. First, while higher energy prices could impact the overall macroeconomic outlook, it could also bring business opportunities, potentially spurring renewed interest in energy efficiency and electrification solutions. I will share more details in the next slide. At the same time, we are increasingly leveraging AI tools to optimize our sales efficiency, and that should support further market share gain. Second, we are navigating in a higher energy price environment, combined with already high prices for copper, silver, and other commodities.

This could raise potential additional price increases by our suppliers, and we have demonstrated our capacity to pass them through to customers. Finally, we are taking actions to offset the impact of higher energy prices, which account for circa 1% of our sales, mainly in our transportation and building costs. These actions include adding fuel surcharges when possible, increasing the use of green energy across our operations, and maintaining strong discipline on gross margin and SG&A. Let me provide a few illustrations on slide 11 of some encouraging signs we are seeing in electrification across some of our markets. First, in France, the government recently announced a new plan aiming at accelerating electrification and reducing the country's dependency on oil and gas. The program plans to double support to around EUR 10 billion per year, with investments notably focused on heat pumps and electric vehicles. Obviously, it's a positive.

Second, in Belgium, we are seeing a strong rebound in solar demand. Belgium is a country where energy price fluctuations have an immediate impact on the energy bill of households and businesses, and this is driving immediate reaction and rapid investment in more efficient solutions. As a result, for example, solar was up around 50% in the first quarter, with a strong acceleration in March. Finally, in Australia, the focus on energy independence continues to support a strong momentum in solar and batteries. Thanks to subsidies supporting batteries investments, solar now represents around 50% of our sales and is expecting to grow by more than 50% in full year '26. Those are just three examples showing how our positioning on different adjacent activities reinforces our resilience to economic cycles. Turning now to slide 12, which illustrates the strong momentum in data centers across North America.

Let me start with the U.S. Data centers now represent around 7% of our sales in the country, and they continue to benefit from strong investment activity. This reflects both the strength of underlying demand, obviously, and also the capability that we have built over the last few years. In particular, we are leveraging the additional storage capacity we recently added to ensure product availability in what remains a very constrained environment. We have also implemented a new organization to offer a unique value proposition to our customers. We support at every stage of their project, from the initial purchase phase through to MRO parts and services. As a result, we confirm our growth ambition for data centers of above 20% in 2026, with Q1 actually showing even stronger momentum. Turning to Canada, trends are also very positive.

Data center activity now represents around 10% of sales and grew rapidly in the first quarter. The business benefits from a well-balanced mix between domestic colocation contracts and also export activities from OEMs to U.S. hyperscalers. We also built a solid backlog and will benefit from additional expertise brought by the recent Techno-Contact 360 acquisition announced today that I will present on the next slide. Overall, data centers continue to be a strong growth driver for Rexel in North America. Let me now turn to slide 13 on our very recent acquisition of Techno-Contact 360 in Canada, which we closed on Monday. This acquisition strengthens our presence in Quebec while expanding our capabilities in electrical distribution, industrial automation, and services. The company also brings strong end-to-end project management capabilities from the design phase all the way to long-term service, which complements nicely our existing offer.

Techno-Contact 360 generates sales of around CAD 85 million and has significant exposure to data centers, which are expected to represent more than half of its sales over the next couple of years. From a strategic perspective, this transaction is fully aligned with our M&A approach. We continue to execute targeted bolt-on acquisitions while expanding into adjacencies and higher value-added service business. Finally, it also contributes to building an industrial services platform in Canada alongside the companies that we have recently integrated, including Jacmar from two years ago and Apex. With that, let me turn to our slide 14 to confirm our full year 2026 guidance. The first quarter showed positive momentum with solid growth across all regions and continued pricing discipline.

In the context that remains uncertain, marked by geopolitical tensions and continued volatility in energy and raw material prices, we are confirming our full year 2026 guidance, namely same-day sales growth between 3% and 5%, current adjusted EBITDA margin of around 6.2%, and free cash flow conversion above 65%. Thank you for your attention. Laurent and I are now, like always, happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Akash Gupta of JPMorgan.

I got a couple. The first one is on the weather impact that you had in Q1. Is there any way to quantify how big headwind it was to volumes? Maybe a follow-up to that then, can you also comment the exit rate in month of March, given some of the growth in electrification seems to have accelerated after the war. Maybe any comment on exit rate in March. Second question I have is on U.S., where you had strong double-digit increase in your backlog versus end of year last year. How much of this is seasonal and how much of this is showing acceleration in demand? Can you also comment on margin quality of this backlog? Thank you.

Okay. Many questions, Akash. I will try to take them all without forgetting any. Weather impact in Q1, it's always difficult to quantify exactly the weather impact, but it's true that we lost a few days in North America and also to some extent in Europe. The best estimate that I would have, and once again, very difficult to quantify, would be 0.5% approximately. A little bit more than that in North America, because North America was quite impacted, a little bit less than that in Europe. But that's the best estimate that we have at this stage. That's one thing. Exit rate in March. You're right, in the second part of March, we saw an acceleration in electrification trends in some countries. Not in all countries, but in some countries like, as we mentioned, Australia, Belgium, for example.

On the other hand, there was a little bit compensating that. There was a little bit of a wait-and-see situation because of the conflict in some markets. At the end of the day, I would say the exit rate in March was very consistent with the quarter. No particular either acceleration or slowdown at the end of March. The double-digit increase in backlog. That's a little bit unusual. It's not seasonal. There is a little bit of seasonality in the backlog, but not to that extent. It's mostly about the fact that, as you know, we have an increasing proportion of our business, especially in North America, which is dedicated to data centers. That has a tendency to enter a little bit more in the backlog.

Today we have in the U.S. approximately 2.5 months of backlog at the end of March, which is an increase compared to the end of December. In Canada, we are up to a little bit more than four months of backlog. Now, what is the quality of this backlog in terms of margin? I think it's relatively homogeneous to what we have in North America. There is no particular thing to say in terms of being relative or dilutive, and it's going to execute mostly in the rest of the year. Some of it may be pushed to next year, but I think it's a minority of the backlog. Most of it is going to be delivered in the second part of the year.

We are very happy with the increase of backlog, which is showing that our penetration in those important segments is progressing.

If I may ask a follow-up on the supply chain in the U.S. related to your data center business. I think a few weeks back, we had some headlines saying that there is some supply chain issues with some other components going in data centers. Have you seen anything in your scope when it comes to your data center offering? Thank you.

Look, there are lead times which are starting to lengthen a little bit, but I think most of the issues that you're talking about are specific products or objects which have a tendency to go direct from suppliers to data centers. It's not affecting that much the distributed part of the business, or at least not to my knowledge.

Next question is from Daniela Costa of Goldman Sachs.

Just wanted to ask one question actually, but just you had a higher price than you had expected. You're still talking about suppliers putting price further. Actually, I wonder how much do you think they will put price further, if you can comment on that. Why didn't you change your margin guidance? I guess, does that reflect a fundamentally weaker volume picture going forward? Or, because it sounds like some of the weaker volume was exceptional factors, I guess like weather. Can you kind of explain those ups and downs on the bridge and how it changes versus where we were three months ago?

Yes, no, absolutely, Daniela. First of all, we have a tendency not to change our guidance in Q1, except when we have very strong impressions about what the rest of the year is going to be like. You can understand that in the current context with the uncertainties which are linked to the Middle East conflict, including uncertainties on the macro economy, we prefer not to do that at this stage. It's really not particularly an indication of anything but the fact that we are still cautious. I mean, for us, to get further visibility into what the year is going to be like, we usually wait until H1 to be able to do that.

When it comes to price increases, yes, it's true that we have seen second round of price increases, with indications being around 3% or 3% to 5% additional round of price increases for many suppliers, for example, in North America. Now, we are at the beginning of that. We are at the beginning of the implementation of that. There is still a level of uncertainty linked to what's going to happen in the Middle East. I think that some of it is going to go through to the market for sure. Now, what is the proportion exactly which is going to stick? That's something which is a little bit difficult to say at this stage. That's a little bit what I would say. In positive, you're right. When you think about the margin, the positive is the price increases.

The negative could be the volume slowdown if the conflict has an impact on macro economy and on investment decisions. As I was mentioning to Akash, we have seen during March, a certain level of wait and see attitude from some customers. Hopefully, we see an end to the conflict and that disappears, but we prefer to be cautious at this stage.

Next question is from Aron Ceccarelli of BAML.

My question -sorry, I have one on the backlogs. You've mentioned 2.8 months at the end of March in North America. Would you be able to quantify what this number is in Europe, please? When it comes to pricing as well, can you help us understand how do you think about pricing going to offset potential volume losses in Europe, especially in the second half? Thank you.

I'm not sure I understand your second question, Aron.

Yes, I'm wondering if you think that additional price increase could potentially put more pressure on volumes in the second half.

Oh, Yes. I think, first of all, backlog in Europe, in our business, we tend to be much more exposed to large projects in North America than in Europe, which means that the backlog in Europe, it's usually minimal. We don't even count it. We have a very low visibility, and that's due to the structure of our business between North America and Europe. You can say basically that the backlog in Europe is nonexistent. When it comes to pricing and the impact of pricing and volume, what we usually say is that price of electrical materials in the balance, in the economics of a larger construction project, for example, has a minimal effect on the decision, on the go, no-go decision, because it's small compared to other materials and compared to labor.

It tends to have, especially in times of energy price, it tends to have a payback. Each time you invest in electrical materials, you tend to save energy. So at the end of the day, we have never witnessed, even in times of super inflation after COVID, we have not seen evidence of the price of electrical materials being a hurdle to the decision-making in terms of projects. So no, I don't think it's going to have an impact. Now, could there be here and there construction projects, not because of the price of electrical materials, but because of the price of materials and the cost of completion of the projects being delayed? That's possible, but that's really not the generality that we are seeing.

Just a follow-up on that, I saw that on your press release, you mentioned residential turning positive in Europe. Can you provide more color, please?

Laurent, do you want to give a little bit more color?

Yes, there are a couple of countries where people invest more with variable mortgage rates, and we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel also boosted by some solar investment, like in Belgium. We start to see a small pickup in resi. For example, I would say Belgium, Netherlands, and Sweden.

Yes, to be precise, I think first of all, the statement is impacted also by the electrification categories, you're right, by solar and by the pickup of solar and by other categories like heat pumps and EV charging. The second thing is, what the positive trends that we are seeing are more on the renovation side rather than on the new construction side. I think the new construction is going to take time to pick up, because renovation tends to be more impacted and quicker by interest rates evolution. That's the color that we can give. Perfect. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions] Next question comes from Eric Lemarie of CIC Market Solutions.

Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I've got a question on market share. Do you see any change in Europe or in North America, and in particular, notably in North America for the data centers market? Do you see any new competitors wanting to grab a share of this very dynamic market?

Yes, thank you for the question, Eric. In Europe, no, I don't think that there is anything specific to mention. I think market share, to the best of my knowledge, are relatively stable. I don't identify a country where we would gain a lot of market share or lose a lot of market share. Laurent mentioned several times during his comments what we call business selectivity, which means that especially in times of price increases, we tend to be very focused on pass-through, which means that even in the countries where we gain market share over the last few quarters, we have stabilized, I think, because of our attention to margin. That's one thing. To come to your question about North America, North America, those are countries where we don't have any official measurement of market share, so it's difficult to answer.

What I can say is that when it comes to new entrants wanting to penetrate the data center space in terms of distribution, I think for the kind of services that we provide to electrical contractors operating in data centers, they really want to be aligned with well-established and nationwide distributors, which means that there are four or 5 players in this game. What is very important is to have a proven track record of delivering those services. Because, as you can understand, what is really the name of the game is to be able to save time, to give assurance that things are going to be there and things are going to be done in time. Time is of essence in the construction of the data centers.

For those kind of services, being a new entrant and trying to shave a few dollars from the total bill is. I shouldn't say that, but it's probably going to be difficult because what really counts is a track record of services and of delivering. That's my answer. To answer more precisely, no, we have not seen new entrants.

The final question, sir, is from George Featherstone of Barclays.

I just wanted to come back to the margin guide. You were talking about an inflation gap before, but clearly the message is a little bit better on price. I just wondered if you could give us an update on what you're thinking there and whether or not you were run rating with an inflation gap in the first quarter. Thank you.

Look, because it's not a margin call, I'm not going to answer precisely on that. What we have seen is both, obviously, a higher than what we had budgeted price increase on the product side. We have seen a little bit more inflation on the other side, which is the cost side. I mentioned in my comments that we have seen an increase in the cost of transportation. We have seen an increase in the cost of heating our buildings. Even though those two costs represent, what, 10% of our OpEx, something like that, so it's not major. We have seen, in proportion, important increases there. I will update you a little bit. We will wait for the dust to settle on all of that, and I will update you a little bit more on all of that at H1. You have two moving parts.

The price of the product is not the only moving part from this perspective. That's all the details I'm ready to give you at this point, and you will have to wait for H1 to get a little bit more balance on that.

Sir, I apologize. There's another question registered from Martin Wilkie of Citi.

I will take the additional question from Martin.

Thank you.

It's Martin at Citi. The question I just had was coming back to electrification, and you've given some details already. One thing we saw last time back in 2022 was quite a big pricing effect from solar as well. I know that the pricing that you see is not necessarily what we track with polysilicon and all the rest of it. Are there signs that this can be both a sort of volume and a pricing element inside solar? Perhaps it's just too early to tell, given that a lot of this hasn't quite come through yet.

That's a great question, Martin. What we had seen, even before the conflict in the Middle East, was the price of solar turning positive. I think it's turning positive since one or two quarters. Laurent?

Yes, on panels.

On panels.

Still a bit of deflation on batteries.

Yes. We have started to see that on panels, especially because of raw materials and the situation in China. Yes, we may see that also in batteries if the volumes start to be high enough so that there are supply shortages. We are not there yet. We are seeing a level of interest in some countries, but we are not seeing the equivalent of what we had seen in 2022 at the start of the Ukraine war. That being said, we know how it works, which is that people are now thinking, it's the second time in 5 years that people are facing big increases in their energy bills. At the end of the day, it becomes a risk management topic rather than anything else.

That's interesting because those categories, electrification categories in Europe, which were very much pushed by sustainability topics, sustainability concerns in the past, are now very much reviving because of energy independence concerns, and that's exactly the case in France, for example. The government in France, as a priority during a few days after the Middle East crisis, decided to get out a plan about electrification specifically. The angle was a little bit sustainability, but very much also protection of the businesses and of the end users against the future variations of the price of energy. We think that's going to be a wake-up call from this perspective. We'll see what it translates into in terms of business. For example, once again, only green shoots, but interested by this evolution.

Sir, there are no further questions registered at this time. Back to you for any closing remarks.

No, no particular closing remarks. We're going to talk again in H1 for the full P&L this time, including margin. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over and you may disconnect your telephones.

Good evening. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Rexel Fourth Quarter Sales and Full Year 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Guillaume Texier, CEO of Rexel. Please go ahead, sir.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our full year 2025 results presentation. I'm with Laurent Delabarre, our Group CFO, who will take you through the financials and the detailed numbers in a few minutes.

And before that, let me briefly set the scene and share the key messages. 2025 was another year of market outperformance and margin resilience, and this is a particularly remarkable outcome as it was delivered in a mixed environment. It also clearly demonstrates the transformation of Rexel's model that is underway and gathering pace.

Beyond the results, an additional element of satisfaction is that behind the scenes, we continue to take initiatives to strengthen the group for the next phase. Building momentum in high-growth verticals such as data centers, actively managing the portfolio and accelerating our transformation through digital, AI and productivity initiatives, which supports our confidence in our midterm ambition.

With that, let's get started. And let me begin with a quick overview of the key highlights of the year. First of all, as I mentioned, our sales and margin performance offers an important proof point that Rexel's transformed business model is working, not only in favorable macro conditions, but also in a more mixed environment.

Second, we adapted quickly to a very different environment in Europe and North America. As conditions evolved through the year, we stayed close to our customers, and we accelerated execution progressively, adjusting priorities and protecting performance.

And third, as I said, we stepped up self-help actions through our Axelerate28 strategic plan. These initiatives are very operational and concrete, strengthening discipline, improving efficiency and ensuring we continue to build the foundations for future performance. So overall, resilient results today, rapid adaptation throughout the year and action plans that support the next steps of our journey to reach our midterm ambition.

With that, let's move on and take a look at the year in more detail. And turning to our full year achievements on Slide 4. We met or exceeded the guidance we set for the year on all KPIs. First, on top line. We achieved plus 2.5% same-day sales growth, above the initial guidance that we had raised in October. Second, profitability remains very solid. We delivered a current adjusted EBITA margin of 6%, fully in line with our guidance, again, illustrating the resilience of our margins in a challenging environment. And third, cash generation was strong. Our free cash flow conversion before interest and tax reached 76%, well above our guidance of above 65% when excluding the impact of the EUR 124 million French anti-trust fine. So overall, we delivered growth, we maintained margin and generated strong cash, providing a solid base as we move into the next year and execute our priorities.

Let me then take a step back on the backdrop. It was not a particularly easy environment. Europe stayed weak, notably in residential, North America was impacted by uncertainty and a delayed recovery in industrial automation. And Asia Pacific remained subdued. The clear area of strength was AI-driven data center investment and favorable pricing in the U.S., supported by trade tariffs.

In that context, Rexel did what we set out to do. We outperformed and gained share across our key markets. We are seeing a real payoff from the work we've been doing over the last several years on sales force excellence, higher digital penetration and the ramp-up of advanced services. We also leaned into data centers and broadband infrastructure, particularly in the U.S. with dedicated teams and branches, and we further strengthened our position in the telecom space with Talley acquisition. In addition, we stayed agile on the portfolio with 5 acquisitions and 2 disposals. Overall, top markets but strong execution, and we've continued to build momentum in the right growth areas.

From a geographical standpoint, the year really comes down to how we manage the 2 main engines of the group, North America and Europe. In North America, the focus was on managing profitable growth. We captured the trends in higher growth segments. And at the same time, we managed the tariff situation in a disciplined way. And importantly, we kept tight control of the cost base, delivering growth while operating with a broadly similar FTE level. In Europe, the environment was more muted with negative volumes and flat pricing. So we moved fast on costs. We rapidly implemented adaptation plans, leading to a workforce reduction of around 4%, about 600 FTEs in 2025, while keeping a strong focus on margins. Taken together, this is what drove improved margin resilience versus previous cycle downturns.

Let me now focus on data centers in North America on Slide 7. What began 3 years ago as a targeted initiative is now achieving scale to become one of our most attractive growth platforms.

In the U.S., we are reinforcing our position. We continue to significantly outperform the market with very strong momentum in Q4 and across the year, and data center already represents a meaningful share of our sales. To support that growth, we expanded our footprint and capabilities close to project sites, adding, for example, around 200,000 square feet of storage capacity in key locations like Atlanta, Mesa and Reno, with further potential to scale. Our model is simple, local branches and resources backed by national coordination. That allows us to be close to customers on execution while still bringing the breadth of Rexel expertise, availability and consistency across multiple sites. We also broadened our offering into new product categories that matter for data centers built, and we are continuing to add dedicated resources and expertise to capture the next wave of projects.

In Canada, also, we are off to a promising start. Here, the activity for us is concentrated in the Western region. We are active in the gray room offering from UPS to panels and datacom accessories. And we have a strong backlog that supports continued momentum for 2026.

So the key takeaways here is that our scale, logistics capabilities and technical expertise give us a clear advantage in this segment. We are well positioned with strong momentum ahead of us.

I'm now on Slide 8. Portfolio management remains a key lever of our strategy. 2025 was another year of active portfolio management with 4 acquisitions completed and 2 disposals, further sharpening the group's footprint and profitability profile.

We've strengthened our footprint through the additions of Warshauer and Schwing in the U.S. In Canada and Italy, we've expanded into adjacent higher-margin businesses with Jacmar [Technical Difficulty] while completing around EUR 2 billion net of disposals. And in total, we've closed 21 acquisitions over that period, including 4 in 2025.

And what I would like to stress is the quality and the direction of this M&A. Around 60% is in our core electrical distribution business, around 40% in adjacencies where we see attractive structural growth and higher value-added opportunities. We have been particularly focused on North America with 14 acquisitions, representing more than 70% of acquired sales, including about EUR 0.5 billion in adjacencies. And this is clear value creation.

On average, we see value creation from year 2, earlier than initially targeted. And our combined 2025 performance imply roughly 7x EV to EBITDA multiple after synergies below Rexel valuation multiple. And we also move forward on the other side of the portfolio with 2 targeted divestments completed in 2025, and these actions reinforce the robustness of our balance sheet and provide flexibility to continue investing in growth.

Moving to Slide 9. Digital is a very tangible differentiator for Rexel and it continues to gain traction. Today, we are a B2B leader in digital with more than 1/3 of our sales going through digital channels, and this is not slowing down. Digital penetration has been progressing by between 200 and 300 basis points per year over the last 15 years. What's driving it is a mix of constant improvement in the customer experience with more tailor-made features, including AI-powered capabilities, plus continuous data enrichment and also, frankly, a generational shift in how customers want to buy and interact.

The benefits of these long-term efforts are very concrete. And I believe this is one also of the explanation of our good set of results recently. Digital increased its customer stickiness and share of wallet. It widens the service gap versus smaller competitors who have increasing difficulties following the pace of the race to more data and more features. And finally, it also improves the efficiency and productivity of our teams, which is critical to our business model. All in all, it's a key engine of differentiation and performance for Rexel.

Beyond the short-term environment, we are accelerating a set of deeper transformation to pave the way for future performance as shown on Slide 10. First, we are boosting sales force productivity through organizational changes and increasing adoption of AI-based tools to help our teams spend more time selling and improve the quality of execution.

Second, we're optimizing the supply chain through more automation, stronger internal synergies and AI, improving service levels while taking structural costs out.

Third, we are resetting parts of the cost base in lower profitability countries. This is about staying disciplined, adapting the model to the reality of the market and protecting margins.

Fourth, we are leveraging our full offering, expanding in adjacent product categories and services where we can create more value for customers and capture more of their spend.

And finally, we continue to roll out smart pricing programs that leverage data to improve consistency and value capture. Those OpEx are not only to Rexel obviously as we constantly strive to improve, but 2025 was a year of clear acceleration. First of all, because the business environment pushed us to move faster and sometimes think out of the box. And secondly, because we launched our new strategic plan, Axelerate28. And most of those plans we are talking about are multiyear efforts, which means that you will see them progressively delivering benefits to our P&L.

Focusing on next slide on AI. AI is another area where we are moving fast. And it's not just -- I'm on Slide 11, and it's not just running pilots, but now scaling real use cases into day-to-day operations. On the left of the slide, you see the main areas where we had identified clear AI opportunities, tools to speed up RFQs, smart automation for order entry, automatic data enrichment and internal category expert capability, customer-facing chatbots. And on the right, you see where we are today, not in terms of shiny proof-of-concept demos but in terms of reduction by the teams and real-life industrial live tools.

In the U.S., more than 50% of the quoting teams, for example, are already using the new quotation tools. In France, around 25% of e-mails quotes are handled through AI tools. And on order entry, we now have over 65% of U.S. teams and more than 70% of French teams using AI-powered tools. We are also rolling out internal expert capabilities by categories, deploying customer-facing chatbots across additional countries.

So the message here is simple. AI is already improving speed, quality and productivity, and we are scaling it pragmatically use case by use case.

And Slide 12 is about productivity, a major KPI for us. The message here is that over the last 5 years, we have lifted the baseline of what we are able to deliver in terms of productivity every year. What differentiates this cycle from previous downturns is the speed and depth of our cost adaptation. Through workforce adjustments, productivity initiatives, tighter cost control, we protected margins despite lower volumes, reinforcing the resilience of our operating model.

Historically, between 2016 and 2021, our productivity ratio averaged around 0.9%. Over the last few years, it has stepped up and in 2025, it reached 2.8%. This improvement is not coming from one single level. It's a combination of structural initiatives that I just presented, including the ramp-up of digital and the early impact of AI tools, together with rapid cost adaptations in more challenging markets.

So 2025 was another demonstration of Rexel's resilience at the bottom of the cycle. The key takeaway is that we are not just managing through the cycle, we are structurally improving how efficiently the group operates, which supports margin readiness and future performance.

With that, let me now hand over to Laurent, who will take you through the detailed 2025 numbers, and I will come back for the guidance.

Thank you, Guillaume, and good morning to all of you. Evening. Good evening, sorry. On Slide 14, you can see how momentum improved throughout the year '24 and '25. With the quarterly same-day sales growth trend at group level and the regional breakdown, we moved from minus 4.6% in Q1 '24 to a progressively better trend quarter after quarter, and we closed 2025 with plus 3.8% in Q4. That's a very clear reflection of better momentum, disciplined execution in the field and better pricing management.

First, selling prices contributed positively in Q4 '25 by 1.7%, improving compared to Q3 '25. And more specifically, non-cable pricing were unshaded in Q4 '25 at 0.9%, with improving trends in North America, mainly offset by China. Selling price on cable improved to plus 0.8%, notably thanks to Europe.

And briefly on geography that I will highlight in the next 2 slides. North America remains the main growth engine. Growth accelerated through the year and ended it at plus 7.9% in Q4 '25. And Europe remained difficult, but the trend improved sequentially, and we are back to flat sales evolution in Q4 '25. And more specifically for Asia Pacific accounting for 6% of group revenue. China was up 3.1%, supported by industrial automation project in a better environment while selling price were just back to flat in Q4 '25. In Australia, sales growth accelerated in the quarter, notably boosted by solar activity, further supported by subsidies on batteries. Lastly, India, which is small, but sales increased by plus 16.9%, driven by strong growth in our industrial automation activity.

I'll now go into more detail in the next 2 slides on Europe and North America. So moving to Slide 15. Europe remained impacted by muted construction environment and delayed electrification trends. Despite this, Rexel gained market share in its most important countries and delivered a resilient performance.

Same-day sales in Europe were flat in Q4, improving from minus 0.5% in Q3. Volumes were broadly stable despite the political and macro uncertainties. And we also saw a sequential improvement in pricing in Q4 versus Q3, mainly driven by cable. And to put the underlying trend in perspective, our growth excluding solar, which represents about 4% of our sales in Europe, was up plus 0.5%.

By end market, residential was flat, excluding solar, with first sign of recovery in a few countries, notably Sweden and the Netherlands. Non-residential was broadly flat and we saw a slight improvement in industry.

Let me highlight the main country dynamics in the quarter. France was up plus 3% despite a challenging environment with broad-based market share gains and strong HVAC contribution.

Benelux was up plus 2.6%, driven by electrical distribution activity in the Netherlands, and the acceleration of solar growth in Belgium.

DACH was a key offset, deteriorating sequentially on business selectivity in a difficult macro environment. Also, we continue to take market share in Austria.

Sweden was flat with a sequential improvement driven by industrial segment and supported by a smaller drag from solar in Q4 compared to Q3.

And finally, U.K./Ireland was down minus 6.7%. Ireland remained positive with a favorable industrial market. But the U.K. market stayed tough with London showing the first sign of our recent investment.

So overall, still a soft market, but improving trends from Q4 and continued market share gains in several countries. In this context, productivity initiatives helped mitigate the impact of lower activity. And this positioned well to benefit from any market recovery, particularly as leading indicators in some countries begin to stabilize.

On Slide 16, we turn to North America, which remains the growth engine in Q4, driven by both volume and pricing where we saw improvement in non-cable, mainly driven by piping and conduit families. First, same-day sales were up strongly in the quarter with Canada driving the acceleration versus Q3 '25, specifically in data center project as presented by Guillaume. We also benefited from strong continued market share gains and positive contribution in datacom. And second, the U.S. continues to be driven by high-growth verticals, particularly data center and broadband infrastructure, which represents more than 55% of the growth in the quarter. We also saw strong activity in solar and EV charging. By end markets, all 3 markets were positive, with non-residential clearly driving the acceleration and the industrial automation up 8%. Lastly, the backlog remains solid, representing 2.7 months of activity at the end of December.

Moving now to the full year picture. I'll start on Slide 17 with the bridge of our full year sales, showing how growth was built between scope organic, FX and calendar. We delivered full year '25 sales of EUR 19.4 billion, up 0.7% on a reported basis. Organic performance was the main driver. As we saw, same-day sales growth was plus 2.5% for the year, with volume contributing plus 1.2% and pricing adding plus 0.6% in non-cable and plus 0.7% in cable. So a solid volume contribution plus disciplined pricing across both cable and non-cable. M&A also contributed meaningfully. Acquisition added plus 1.8% more than offsetting the minus 0.9% impact from disposals.

These positives were partly offset by external factors. First, the FX was a headwind of minus 2.2%, mainly from weakening of the U.S. and Canadian dollar as well as a calendar impact of minus 0.5%. That was the sales bridge for the year and we'll now move to profitability and margin performance.

In this Slide 18, we bridge our adjusted EBITA margin year-on-year and the key message is simple. Record productivity more than compensates what we call the delta inflation headwind. Adjusted EBITA margin increased from 5.9% in full year '24 to 6% in full year '25. First, portfolio and FX were positive, contributing 11 basis points, while the calendar effect was a drag of minus 5 basis points.

Second, you see the operating leverage, slightly negative because due -- mainly due to the new European environment and the underabsorption of fixed costs, notably in underperforming countries, mitigated by positive operating leverage in North America.

Third, the main headwinds in the year was what we call the delta inflation, which represent the gap between selling price increase and OpEx inflation, 19 basis point headwind, in line with our expectations. Cost inflation was around plus 2.2% in full year '25, while selling price increase were up 1.3%.

And these headwinds was more than offset by the 2 following actions: first, the gross margin improvement adding 9 basis points, supported by pricing initiatives; and second, our action plan delivered a further 33 basis points, in line with the expectation and already illustrated by Guillaume in the slide dedicated to productivity.

Let me remind you that FTEs was down 2.3%, while volume contribution to sales were up 0.7% in actual days. But operating discipline is what allow us to protect and slightly expand despite inflationary pressure. Lastly, and we are further investing in the business notably through digital and footprint investment that impact our EBITA margin by 11 basis points.

On Slide 19, we look at the bottom-line part of our P&L., with a zoom on other income and expense, financial expense, tax rate and recurring net income. Other income and expense stood at EUR 56 million, notably including minus EUR 41.1 million in restructuring, mainly in Europe, more than last year in order to accelerate adaptation to a tougher environment, notably in U.K. and Germany. EUR 36 million of capital gains on disposal. Minus EUR 29.7 million in asset impairment in the U.K. Minus EUR 20 million in others, including integration costs and pension settlement in Canada. Financial expense stood at EUR 214 million, slightly above last year with a rise in gross debt, offsetting the lower cost of debt now at 4% versus 4.4% last year. It includes EUR 72 million of interest on lease liabilities and pure financial cost of EUR 142 million. And for '26, we anticipate financial expense of circa EUR 250 million, including less than EUR 70 million of interest on lease liabilities and around EUR 145 million plus of pure financial expense, excluding one-off. And assuming current interest rate continues, condition remain unchanged.

Our income tax rate stood at 30.2% due to the impact of the exceptional tax in France. And going forward, we anticipate the tax rate to be at circa 30% in '26, take into consideration the additional tax in France that will apply for the second year. And for '27 onwards, we anticipate then the tax rate to go back to circa 27% in the absence of exceptional tax renewal in France.

And as a result, net income increased by 73% and recurring net income stood at EUR 308 million, up 2.4%.

Moving to slide 20. We generated robust cash flow before interest and tax, reaching a high level of EUR 938 million, implying a free cash flow conversion rate of 76%, well above last 4 years' above average, that stood at 69%. This is excluding the EUR 124 million fine imposed by French tax authorities and paid in April '25.

The trade working capital as a percentage of the last 12 months of sales increased to 15% versus 14.6% last year, mainly related to the sales growth acceleration in H2 and mainly Q4. In a number of days, embedding the last 3 months of sales, both inventory and receivables improved and were partially offset by lower payables.

Indeed, the DOI and DSO decreased by respectively, 1.5 and 1 days and DPO was down 2 days. Non-trade working capital was an inflow of EUR 24 million on an outflow of EUR 100 million, including the payment of the EUR 124 million fine. CapEx remained disciplined at EUR 136 million, with growth CapEx representing 0.7% of sales, stable versus last year. So overall, we converted earnings into cash at a very strong rate, supported by tight working capital and disciplined investment levels.

On Slide 21, I want to come back to free cash flow conversion profile over the last 5 years, a key proof point of the quality of our execution. As you can see, we delivered a record level again, above 70% for the third consecutive year. [ 7.6% ] conversion rate is at the top end of what we have delivered in recent years and clearly above our full year guidance of above 65% in our midterm ambition. And this performance is a result of two very disciplined execution. First, a well-balanced investment approach with roughly 55% of our CapEx in digital and about 45% in network and supply chain modernization. Second, active working capital management as we have seen, especially the quality and structure of inventory and receivables. So overall, this strong cash generation built on repeatable levels support our financial flexibility going forward.

As shown on Slide 24, our capital allocation focus on both acquisition and return to shareholders. Overall, net debt slightly increased by EUR 147 million, mainly resulting from 2 factors. First, the EUR 227 million impact from net financial investments, mainly the acquisition of Warshauer, Schwing, Jacmar and TECNO BI mentioned earlier by Guillaume. Second, the dividend payment related to the 2024 performance for EUR 355 million, corresponding to EUR 1.20 per share. Lastly, we also bought back shares for EUR 100 million, in line with our midterm objectives. And since mid-2022, we bought back EUR 400 million and reduced the number of outstanding shares to 296 million. All this leads to net debt close to EUR 2.6 billion, including earnout for circa EUR 30 million, and the indebtedness ratio stands at 2x, representing a strong achievement.

In short, we continue to invest in value-creating growth while maintaining a healthy balance sheet and a consistent return to shareholders.

Let's turn now on Slide 23 to the breakdown of our main debt maturity and liquidity. 2024 was a very active year in terms of refinancing. In addition to all operations presented in H1, the second half was also intense, and we further extended our debt maturity profile.

As a reminder, we have first issued a new EUR 100 million Schuldschein in July with a '29 maturity. Second issued EUR 400 million senior notes with 4% coupons maturing in 2030 but extended 2 securitization programs for more than EUR 800 million from '25 to '28. And finally, we increased our senior credit agreement by EUR 200 million to EUR 900 million and extended it to 2031.

Overall, we have a well-balanced funding structure, extending maturities and comfortable liquidity, and we can stay focused on executing the strategy. As always, we are evaluating market opportunities in the volatile debt market environment.

Moving to the next slide, we summarize our shareholder returns through the dividend. For the year, the Board will propose a dividend of EUR 1.20 per share, maintaining our strong track record. This implied payout ratio of 52%, which is at the high end of our guidance and reflect our confidence in the resilience of the business model and in our cash generation. Subject to the general assembly approval in April 22, 2026, the dividend will be payable in cash on May 13.

So overall, we remain fully committed to a disciplined capital allocation policy, combining value creation growth investments and an attractive return to shareholders.

Let me hand back to Guillaume before we move on to your questions.

Thank you, Laurent. And let me now turn to our outlook for 2026, and let me go to Slide 26. It's a busy slide, but it illustrates also well the way we see the short-term future. Many moving parts, a good level of uncertainty, but probably overall, more encouraging trends than the opposite. Starting with North America, prospects are clearer and we continue to expect further growth. Of course, there are still macro uncertainties, including around tariffs, and we see less traction in some electrification solutions. But structurally, the key growth engines remain in place. We expect continued progression in data centers, and we are also seeing more positive signals in industrial automation, supported by reshoring and the One Beautiful Bill.

In Europe, the environment is still challenging. Construction remains near the trough and confidence is not yet back. That said, we see more and more encouraging early indicators, and we do expect improving trends, especially in the back part of the year. The comparison base becomes easier for electrification. The lower interest rate environment is starting to improve. And as I said, we see leading indicators in residential improving. And in Germany, finally, the infrastructure plan could begin to materialize later in the year.

On pricing and inflation, we still expect OpEx inflation to remain slightly higher than selling price increases. At the same time, we should benefit from the carryover of 2025 pricing in the U.S. We may also see additional price increases reflecting the recent rise in copper and silver, but it is a little bit too early to tell with certainty.

And finally, self-help remains a very important part of the equation. We will benefit from the carryover of actions already launched, and we have also new initiatives to implement in 2026.

So overall, North America should remain solid and supportive. Europe should gradually improve. And in all cases, we stay focused on execution and self-help to deliver in an uncertain environment, which brings us to our full year 2026 guidance on Slide 27. On the top line, we expect same-day sales growth of 3% to 5%. On profitability, we guide for a current adjusted EBITA margin of around 6.2%.

At this stage, we still expect a slightly negative inflation gap with cost inflation running ahead of selling price increases although improving compared to 2025. And that will be offset by a clear set of cost and productivity initiatives, including the continued rollout of digital and AI tools.

In addition, copper price rose sharply recently. Of course, as a distributor, we will pass the price increases from suppliers. We don't know yet how much price increase will be passed by those suppliers. And we believe that the situation may vary by country, by suppliers, leading to progressive price increases. We prefer to be cautious that it is very early in the year, which means that we took the equivalent in terms of copper of $11,000 per tonne price of copper to design this guidance. And we will adjust during the year depending on the evolution of the situation.

And finally, on cash, we are guiding for free cash flow conversion now above 65%, reflecting our disciplined CapEx policy and continued focus on working capital.

So overall, our 2026 guidance reflects continued growth, resilient margins through self-help and strong cash generation in a global environment that remains marked by a little bit of uncertainty.

Turning to Slide 28. Before we conclude, I think it's worth taking a step back to consider how Rexel's ongoing transformation has taken roots over time and is still ramping up. Building on foundations laid in 2010 to 2019, particularly when it comes to digital penetration, we have been broadening and accelerating our transformation since 2020 to more dimensions of our operating model. We have raised the bar on operational excellence with more standardization, automation, discipline and execution.

We have also made portfolio management much more active using bolt-on M&A and selective disposals to improve the quality of the group. In parallel, we have scaled advanced services and focus more on the market where we see structural acceleration, electrification, energy efficiency and of course, data centers and datacom. And now we're entering a new phase where AI-boosted tools are becoming a real game changer in customer experience and productivity level, not a concept. What matters is that these levels reinforce each other, stronger digital, better operations, a sharper portfolio, more value-added services and higher productivity.

So when we talk about Axelerate2028 and our medium-term ambitions, it's the continuation and acceleration of the transformation that has been underway for years. The Axelerate2028 plan is now fully underway. And as I said at the beginning of the presentation, 2025 was a very busy year in a number of new initiatives launched. This gives us great confidence in our ability to deliver on our midterm ambitions, even in a less supportive market environment.

And I'm now on Slide 29. Since 2024, when we issued our midterm guidance at our Capital Markets Day, what has first changed is the market backdrop. The macro cycle recovery has been delayed. We faced a delta inflation headwind in 2024 and 2025 and electrification market in Europe has been a little bit more muted than expected. But on the other hand, several factors have moved in the right direction with some of them, many of them being in our control. So first, we are leaning even more into high-growth verticals, especially data centers. Second, the adoption of GenAI is accelerating faster than we initially anticipated, and this will prove clearly beneficial to our business model. Third, we have reinforced our focus on cost initiatives and productivity across the group. And finally, pricing is more supportive in '25 and '26 with higher selling price increases coming from U.S. tariffs, pricing programs and potential impact from copper.

So when you put all of that together, there are pluses and minuses, but the combination of that allows us to confirm our medium-term objectives, sales growth of 5% to 8%, including 2% to 3% from acquisitions, an adjusted EBITA margin above 7% and cash conversion of 65%.

In other words, the market is certainly not giving us a free ride, but the strategy and the self-help levers are stronger and this is why we are confident in our midterm ambition.

And in a way, the fact that we now rely more and more on our own efforts on what is in our hands than on the market is an element of security that is good news for the future.

So let me close this presentation with 4 key messages before we open the call for Q&A. First, 2025 was another clear demonstration of Rexel's resilience through the bottom of the cycle, proof that our transformed model is working.

Second, the momentum we saw in Q4 in both Europe and North America, that we continue to see in January, has carried into early 2026, which gives us a very good starting point.

Third, with the launch of Axelerate2028, we are accelerating transformational change across the group from productivity and cost efficiency to digital and AI adoption to unlock our next phase of performance. And despite slightly less market support, we are keeping a high level of ambition, and we remain fully committed to reaching our midterm guidance.

Finally, I'd like to finish by saying, our teams have once again shown remarkable commitment and agility in 2025. And with that, I would like to thank our employees, customers and partners for their continued trust. Thank you for your time and attention. And now Laurent and I are happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Daniela Costa, Goldman Sachs.

I have 2 questions, if possible. I'll ask them one at a time. But the first one is regarding the free cash flow. As you mentioned on the presentation, you've beaten your targets on free cash flow for a few years there. But you're once again guiding for around 65% on the conversion. Can you talk why you don't upgrade that target? And what would drive you back down to a weaker cash conversion than what you have had, for example, this year, excluding the charge? That's number one. And then I'll ask the other one.

Okay. Thank you very much, Daniela. And thank you, first of all, to recognize the important effort that we make to optimize free cash flow and to deliver good performance. Now we have upgraded in reality, the free cash flow guidance. You have probably noticed that, but we went to around 65% and then to above 65%, which is the guidance that we are giving. So it's progressing.

Now on this one, we prefer to be cautious because, as you know, the free cash flow delivery depends very much on the shape of the last part of the year. In a year of acceleration, which we experienced in Q4 2025, that's always a little bit favorable to free cash flow. And to the opposite, and we have seen that during COVID, for example, in a year of a deceleration, the free cash flow in terms of transformation is always a little bit more challenged because of working capital at the end of the year.

So there are many things in the free cash flow delivery that we master, inventory and number of days throughout the years in average is something that we control well. CapEx is something we control very well. But when it comes to payables and receivables, because of this uncertainty, we prefer to be cautious. But you're right, over the last 3 years, we have systematically delivered more than 70%. And in the last 2 years, more than 75%. I mean I don't know, Laurent, if you want to add anything to that.

Maybe on the CapEx side, we had years of more important logistic investment in the past where we were below this 70%. That's why I think the above 65% is a reasonable target.

If the question is, does it hide anything in terms of additional expenses or additional CapEx that you will have in mind, no, not really. I mean we feel that 2026 is going to be the same kind of profile in terms of CapEx as 2025. So no, no, no particular -- I don't know if it was your question, but I'm answering it.

Great. And then just on this AI productivity benefits that you talked about. I was wondering if -- when you planned your targets in 2024, was this what you were already foreseeing would happen in '25? Or should we look at this sort of productivity improvements as over and above what you were expecting back then? And once the market comes, what should be the incremental upside to margin from these extra initiatives or extra productivity that you find if this is extra?

So directionally, I think you're absolutely right. This was not completely in our minds, not to this extent when we did our initial midterm guidance in 2024. So the benefits of that, which is double digit in terms of productivity will come on top and above that. We have productivity targets. But clearly, GenAI potentialities are probably adding a layer to those productivity targets.

But to the opposite, as we showed on our Slide 29, there are a few things which are probably temporary. I mean when we're talking about delayed cycle recovery, that's probably something, which you're right, in the long term is going to come back. And the same thing about delta inflation headwind.

But -- so at some point, it will come over and above. So if you're talking about the absolute potential of Rexel, mid-cycle potential of Rexel, maybe that -- which is going to be an additional benefit to what we guided to in 2024, but I'm very focused on what we call midterm, which was 3 to 5 years. And in this time frame, I think this may be something which will help us offset potential macro delays. That's what we are saying.

Next question is from Akash Gupta, JPMorgan.

I have 2 as well. My first one is on copper prices dynamics because when I look at movement in copper price in Q4, we had roughly a 20% increase in U.S. We had 9% on LME. And when I look at your copper price, in Q4 of 0.8%, that looks a bit lower than implied by changes in copper prices. So maybe if you can talk about why it is not yet reflected in your growth rates?

And then when it comes to the outlook, and thanks for specifying that your guidance is on $11,000 per copper. So if we assume that the current level of $13,000 stay for rest of the year, is it fair to assume that we need to add probably 200 basis points annualized to your growth rates?

Laurent?

Yes. First, I mean, the copper is not as mechanical as you see. What we guided in the past is that a $500 increase in copper would drive around 0.4% of top line growth. But with this sharp increase in copper recently and in the current environment, and there are also FX components into that, what we see today is that the supplier, they are lagging effect to pass through the copper improvement into the cable price increase. And we turn also our inventory in 2 months, so there is also this lag. That's why at the end, it will gradually come into our performance into '26, and that the effect in Q4 is slightly lower than what you were calculating.

Yes. The wild card is really very much what the manufacturers, what the cable manufacturers and also what the other materials manufacturers, which include copper, are going to do with that. And in the follow-up, I'd say, I understand that it was very automatic. It's been a little bit less the case in the recent past because of strong variations. And so we'll see what happens there.

And as far as if things were completely automatic, what would it mean in terms of top line? I think your ballpark calculation is probably approximately right, maybe slightly high because Laurent said that it's a 5:4 ratio, but we are not that precise anyway. So yes...

And my follow-up is on the growth guidance. So at midpoint, you're guiding 4% organic same-day growth. And can you break it down into what sort of volume assumptions you have assumed in that calculation?

And when we look at the margin drop-through, is the margin drop through of additional 1 percentage point growth from volume versus price? Is there any difference on the drop-through on margins, like, let's say, if we have 1% higher growth from volume, would that have any different drop-through than 1% higher pricing?

Yes. I mean Laurent, do you want to answer on that. I mean first, I will answer the easy part of the question, which is that the assumption is half-half. Now Laurent, for the more difficult part, which is drop-through volume versus drop-through on price, et cetera.

No, that mechanically, the drop-through on price is a bit higher because you have less variable costs. You have just the commission of the salespeople and some bonuses whereas a drop-through on volume will include transportation costs and other cost, inventory cost. But again, it's -- yes, the drop-through on price is a bit higher.

But that's not exactly the way we calculate our bridge. I mean we look at the drop-through on volume. And if we look at -- if we try to do a back-of-the-envelope math, if we look at 2025 to 2026, we look at, let's say, 2% volume, we say, the drop-through on this volume is approximately 20 bps, so that's beneficial. Then you have additional action plans.

But on the other hand, as I mentioned in my comments, we also think that our inflation, which should be around -- inflation of our costs, I mean, which should be around 2.5% is going to be higher than the inflation that we assume in our gross margin and in our products, the price content of the gross margin, which is going to be around 2%.

So those 2 blocks should offset more or less each other. And that's the reason why, at the end of the day, and the drop-through on price is included in this calculation, in the second calculation between inflation of gross margin and inflation of cost. So that's the reason why at the end of the day, we are guiding for around 20 bps of improvement.

And to be specific, on the bridge '24 to '25 that I presented to the point of Guillaume on the operating leverage, we had a lot with op volume only. The pricing part is in the delta inflation of that, yes. That's the way we do it. So yes.

Next question is from William Mackie, Kepler Cheuvreux.

A couple actually, maybe looking at the bridge again. Last year, well, in '24, you made great progress with your action plans in dropping out cost. In '25, I think you've called it out as 33 basis points. Could you put some color or financial color around the expectations for how the action plans in '26 should play out, obviously partly contingent on the market development?

Laurent, do you want to take this one?

Yes, it was quite heavier, and you have seen it in the restructuring cost that we have factored in '25 For '26, we expect to have a bit less restructuring costs more in the EUR 20 million range. So meaning that we will have at the end a bit less benefits in terms of cost savings. We have additional initiatives plus the carryover of the initiatives that we implemented in the second half. The carryover is a bit less than 10 basis points, and we'll have additional action next year, but we are in a year which we will grow on the top line. So the productivity will more come from the volume than by the reduction of cost.

So I mean the answer is approximately half of what we had last year. We did a lot of the heavy lifting last year. And I think we have now a lean cost structure ready for growth. But still around 10, 15 bps of cost savings. 15 bps.

The follow-up would be related to the portfolio or the capital allocation more broadly, 2x net debt after a very positive year of free cash generation. And you've made great progress over 4 years with the portfolio development on acquisitions and disposals. But at this sort of level of leverage and with the portfolio today, is there much that could leave after Finland? And what is the sort of target opportunity looking like?

Look, I mean, I will give you -- I will not answer your question, but I will give you a very general and worthy answer, which is that everything is under review all the time. Whenever we are in a situation where we think that we can improve a country or a business to our goals, even if we have to invest, even if it takes some time, we do it.

But in some cases, and it was the case in most of the divestments that we have made in Spain, in New Zealand, in Norway and in Finland. There are situations where we feel that either we will not get to it because of the competitive situation of the country or the business or that there is a very attractive offer on the table from somebody who wanted to buy the business. And then we are very pragmatic in terms of value creation.

But our preference is to improve organically what we have in general. So which means that, no, we don't have immediate plans of selling something. But then everything is reviewed every year based on those criteria. One, are we able -- do we have a credible plan to the Rexel goals -- to contribute to the Rexel midterm goals? And two, is there a super attractive value creation offer on the table? So that's what we do. But at this stage, we have nothing in preparation in the next few months.

And on the buy side, how do you see the sort of valuation range and range of opportunities?

On the buy side, we will continue to be active in terms of acquisitions. We have a pipeline which is healthy those days. So you may see a little bit of that. We are talking small and midsized acquisitions. We are talking the same focus as we had in the previous years, which is mostly in North America and mostly focused on the most value-added parts of the business if we can, which are services, et cetera, but not neglecting the potential to do a synergistic consolidation, acquisition.

So I think you will see acquisitions in 2025 -- in 2026. If I had to bet, but it's always difficult to bet before the acquisitions are done, I would say that you're going to see slightly more than what we have done in 2025.

And in terms of multiple environment, look, I mean, the multiple environment is relatively rich. I mean there is competition out there when it comes to acquisitions.

But as you have seen over the last few years, and I think this is in the slides that Laurent mentioned, or in the slides that I commented in terms of acquisitions because we are able usually to add a sizable amount of synergies, we were able, and that's not a forward-looking, but that's a backward-looking calculation. We were able to deliver an average multiple, which is around 7x, which compared to our current multiple, which fortunately at the same time, has increased also to 10x, is a good value creation. So we will continue to be disciplined in that to make sure that we continue to build this track record.

Next question is from George Featherstone, Barclays.

I just wanted to come back to the price versus cost dynamic that you flagged. I mean it sounds like demand is getting better. Are you still flagging this headwind for 2026. So I just wondered what the main reason is that you're unable to sort of match the cost inflation with prices? Or is it simply just a timing? That would be the first question, please.

No. I mean let me be clear. When we are talking about that, we are not taking the price versus cost inflation. That's not exactly what we mean. On one hand, we have the price increases from our suppliers. And usually, we are very good because it's our core business, passing through those price increases to the market. Here, the pass-through is extremely good or if not perfect.

But that being said, we cannot -- if there is a price increase of 4% by supplier A, we cannot say to the market that the price increase is going to be 6%. We do not have this ability because those price increases are usually well-known in the industry. Now so that's one thing. This is a price effect that we get mostly by decisions of our suppliers about how they are going to go to the market.

And then there is the second part, which is completely separated, which is our own cost equation. In our SG&A, 2/3 of our costs are salaries. The rest is occupation costs with leases, et cetera. And that we also try to optimize, but we are also bound by different arrays of constraints, which are basically the average salary increase in the given country. We always try to optimize, but that's a little bit what it is.

And what we are saying, for example, for next year is that we think that our OpEx inflation, salaries, rents, et cetera, transportation costs, is going to increase around 2.5%. And that as far as we see today, based on what we see from our suppliers, but it's the early beginning of the year, and it may change.

We think that the price increases, which is the price component of the gross margin is going to be around 2%. So to be clear, what we are saying is certainly not that we are not able to pass the price to the market, which is what I heard a little bit in your sentence, but more than this particular equation, sometimes it's very favorable when there is a strong inflation in the industry because, for example, of shortages. And in this case, the salaries continue to increase with general inflation and the price of product is increasing by 5%. It happened to us in the past.

And sometimes in other years, the price increases passed by the suppliers are a little bit more shy because they want to protect their market shares. And in this case, we have to work on our self-help action plans, productivity, et cetera, to offset that. That's a little bit the way it works and the way we try to explain it. I hope I was clear.

No, that's perfect. That's makes total sense. Then maybe just a question on the backlog in the U.S. I just wondered how much of this is data center versus projects in other end markets? And just whether you can comment at all on how that backlog has evolved sort of data center versus non-data center, if it is split like that?

Look, you're asking a question to which I was not prepared, unfortunately. I think -- I don't know. I don't know in the backlog, how much is data center, how much is the rest. What I know is that overall, the backlog remains at the North American level, very stable, higher than the historical average, with maybe Canada increasing a little bit which may be the effects of data centers and the U.S. being a little bit lower than Q3, but very incrementally.

Now what I can tell qualitatively is that in data centers, we have a good degree of confidence that we will continue to deliver a good growth rate. And when I say the growth rate, you saw that our data center growth was more than 50% for the year and more than that in Q4. We think that we -- you can safely say that our data center growth next year is going to be at least north of 20%.

Next question is from Andre Kukhnin, UBS.

I'll just go one at a time. Firstly, on pricing, just to clarify what you said, if you talk about non-cable pricing specifically, and kind of low voltage and automation products, we've seen evidence of price increase letters being sent to customers by major suppliers in China. But your comments suggest that this hasn't happened in European countries or in the U.S. Is that the case?

Can you repeat your last sentence, our comments?

Yes. We've seen there was press that kind of published letters to customers announcing price increases by major international and local vendors in the voltage and industrial automation in China. And from your comments, it sounds like this hasn't happened in France, Germany, Netherlands, U.K. or the U.S. So I just wondered if that's the case, if I've got the right reading of that.

I mean first of all, we think that we are going to see price increases during the year. We talk to suppliers, and we feel that they are willing to increase price. Now what we don't know is the extent of that and by how much it's going to be proportional to the copper evolution when it comes to cable, et cetera. So that's what we are saying. We're not saying that suppliers are not going to increase price.

And as we said, we have an hypothesis of price increase for next year, which is around 2%.

Now what I would say also is that the dynamics between the Chinese market and the other markets is totally different in terms of price. Price, especially when it comes to -- I mean, China, especially when it comes to industrial automation, has experienced a price war around -- during the last 2 years, which is coming down in the second part of 2025.

And it's not a surprise that the suppliers would want to catch up and to increase price. So no, I want to be clear. If my comments were read as, we don't see suppliers wanting to increase price. It's not what I wanted to say. We think that there are going to be price increases very clearly. We have evidence -- I don't know if the letters were sent, but we have evidence of suppliers telling us that they will increase the price very clearly. Now the uncertainty is really about the quantum.

Got it. Got it. And then the other question I had is along the lines of a couple of sort of questions on the delta inflation or the inflation gap. I'm just trying to think about a macro sort of external scenario where you could have your margins expanding like really meaningfully by, say, 30, 50 basis points in the year. What would you need to see for that to happen? Does it just need faster growth than 3% to 5% for that to take place?

Look, I mean, that's very easy. If you look at the guidance for next year, we are guiding for 20 bps of drop-through improvement in volume on a reasonable year, which is a 2% growth year. I think a 2% growth year is a reasonable average year. So that's one thing. And we are guiding also to, as I said, 15 bps of cost savings improvement. So that's already 35 bps if you are in a balanced situation, which is going to happen on a given cycle between those 2 inflation figures.

So right there, on a year like 2026, you're delivering -- I mean, it's not done. I mean we have to deliver it, but you're delivering 35 bps of improvement. If you have a little bit more growth, which is not crazy to think of when you think about all the prospects of data centers, electrification, et cetera, and the recovery in Europe. If you have a little bit more growth, you're going to easily get to 50 bps. So I think it's not crazy to imagine a scenario like that because what I should say is that when I look at the 15 bps of cost savings, I am quite confident that this is something which is sustainable on a yearly basis.

You have seen our figures about productivity evolution. We are quite proud of what we have done in terms of setting the bar higher in terms of productivity. And when we come to cost savings, productivity is a good proxy of what we are doing. And we will continue to do that. And AI is a potential help in that.

So yes, absolutely. I mean that's a good question because when you look at the 20 bps improvement between '25 and '26, you may think, okay, 7% is far away. But in reality, when we look at the prospects of a recovery in Europe or the prospects of having a normalization of this effect of differential between our cost inflation and the rest, we are quite confident. And when we look also at the acceleration of our action plans, we are quite confident about that.

That's really helpful. If I may, just a very quick one. You mentioned solar and EV charging sort of prebuy in the U.S., I think, is what the comments implied ahead of some regulation change. Is that something we need to -- could you quantify that?

Mostly on solar. I mean overall, solar, if I look at the solar business, the solar business in the U.S. grew by 4.2% in Q4 2025, which is the first time that we had -- I mean, no, I mean, I think it's at a group level, it grew by 4.2%, which is the first time in many quarters that it grew, and that's because of this U.S. effect.

Now in the U.S., the situation is that there is on one hand some of the federal subsidies, which are going to disappear at some point during the year. So there is a little bit of to pre-buy to qualify the project, and it will be going to continue to go on for commercial projects during the year. And there is a fact also that there is also a lot of regulations which happen at state level and a bulk of our business is done in California, which means that on the other hand, I think California wants to try to offset that and to push solar.

So we see where it goes. But at the end of the day, we got good figures in solar in Q4 '25 and positive figures. Now that being said, you know that solar today in our mix of businesses represents approximately 3.5% of our total sales. A few years ago, it used to be at 6% when there was a boom in Europe. We continue to see -- we will continue to see growth in the future. Is it going to come back to 6%, I don't think so. Not anytime soon, but that's a little bit the situation.

[Operator Instructions] Next question is from Aron Ceccarelli, Bank of America.

I have 2, please. The first one is on Europe, in the presentation, you called out market share gains in a challenging market in France, but also in Austria. I was wondering if you can expand a little bit about how you think about the sustainability of these market share gains as we enter 2026, please?

Look, I mean, first of all, I'm always quite cautious about market share gains. Now what I feel comfortable with is that those gains were not acquired by price. And you have seen that, and we have been able to be quite disciplined in terms of margin overall at group level. But I can tell you that in France and in Austria, we didn't buy market share. We gained market share through better service and competition, through better value add that we bring to our customers.

And you have to understand that our B2B customers, they are obviously focused on the price of the products. But they are very interested in the value that we can add and in the value that they can lose if the distributor is not providing the right level of expertise, service, et cetera.

So because of that, I'm quite encouraged by that to the fact that it's going to be durable. Is it going to last forever? Certainly not. We have good competitors. They will do their homework. And at some point, in the midterm, they will rebalance things probably.

But right now, I think we are on the momentum, which is going to last for a few more quarters, I hope. And I have a good degree of confidence because of the way we have gained market share.

Got it. My second question is on your opening remarks. You mentioned several times, good momentum in industrial automation in different countries. Could you perhaps expand a little bit on this topic and how you see industrial automation at the moment for you?

Look, I mean, first of all, I should give you an exposure to where we are big in industrial automation. We are big in industrial automation in the U.S., in Canada, a little bit in Europe, in China and in India.

And I can also give you figures, our industrial automation business in Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 in the U.S., which is the most important country, was minus 4%, 1%, 3%, 8%. We saw a clear acceleration during the year of industrial automation, which is due to the fact that when you look at the recent publications, the [ ISM ] is now, for the first time, significantly above 50, which is a good sign. You have the clear effect starting to kick in of the tariffs, which is triggering reshoring.

We flagged since the beginning, the fact that at some point, it would happen. When I look at the prospects of the industrial automation suppliers, they seem to be quite encouraging also. So at the end of the day, what is happening is not a surprise. And because we are big in industrial automation in the U.S., we benefit from that.

When it comes to other countries, I think we commented a little bit on China and on the price effect in the second part of the year. Now that being said, in terms of volume, it continues to be relatively subdued, and let's put it this way. India is good, but it's small. And in Europe, the topic is the overall industrial investment, which is not great, the level of confidence in many countries in Europe, including in Germany and in France, which are 2 big countries where we have industrial automation is not yet mid-cycle to say the at least. So there is potential in there.

If I may, just a clarification on pricing. So you -- am I correct saying you mentioned 2% is coming from the suppliers so the cable one, and then the remaining is going to be flat? Is that the guidance for the year?

No. We said 2% overall average, including copper, including suppliers, including all suppliers. We think that there is going to be price in almost all categories. It's going to depend once again on the specific category, supplier/country situation, but we think there's going to be price a little bit everywhere.

Last question is from Eric Lemarie, CIC Market Solutions.

I've got 2. The first one, you mentioned at the last strategic update. You said roughly that 10% of the data centers market is addressable by distributors? Is it still the case today? Or is it now more than 10%?

And my second question regarding the so-called acceleration businesses you presented at the last Capital Markets Day this time. Could you tell us the growth generated by these businesses in 2025 and maybe the weight in the sales from acceleration businesses?

Yes. So I don't remember saying 10% of the market of data centers was addressable by distribution. And if said it, it was more order of magnitude. I don't think that I had in mind precise studies saying that.

What I can tell you is that, first of all, the proportion of data centers in our business is growing. When you look at North America, when you look at the U.S., I think it's North America, we are now at 7% of our business, which is data centers. So it's starting to be sizable. I mean a few quarters ago, we were talking about 3%. We are now at 7%.

The second thing I would say is that the range of products that we supply to the data centers industry is expanding. We started with -- and it may be particular to Rexel. Some other competitors may be more advanced than us, but I think we are catching up fast. We started with cable, and now we get a little bit more into more advanced things, like switch gear, et cetera.

Now we are staying in the gray part of the data centers. I don't think it's going to be easy for us to enter into the white part of the data center, which is very much going direct or through specialized players.

But we are expanding the proportion that we were able to address and we're expanding that quarter after quarter, which I mean, first of all, the opportunity is growing fast and our ability to grab a bigger part of this opportunity is also progressing.

I think on the acceleration businesses, I can give you the figure for Q4 because I have it under my eyes. I don't have the full year, maybe I'll find it back for the next opportunity.

Basically, the total business accelerators, including solar, HVAC, EV, industrial automation, datacom, utilities, is representing in Q4, 30% of our mix, and it's growing at 3.9% which is very slightly above the overall growth of the group in Q4 2025, which was 3.8%.

And so the fact is that data centers are not included in that. The datacom part is included in that, but data centers because we try to be consistent with what we have given you in 2024 is not included in that. If I was to add data centers, obviously, we would add 3% at group level, and we would add a 3%, which grew in Q4 at north of 50%. So it would improve a little bit the accelerating part of it.

And I think that's the beauty also of those acceleration businesses. There are years where things are accelerating in solar. And then the next year it's going to be less good in solar, but it's going to be good in data centers, et cetera. And the good thing is because there is not one trend, but 5 or 10 trends supporting the acceleration of our business, we're always going to see the benefit of that. I hope I gave sufficient answer even if I didn't find the full year results.

Can I ask a follow-up one?

Sure.

Yes. Could you -- you mentioned that your range of products are expanding for data centers, but could you tell us whether Rexel will be well placed in your view for the future deployment of 800 VDC solution within data centers. Is it something that you will be able to?

Can I come back to you later on that because I don't have the answer to that. I need to talk with my teams.

Mr. Texier, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Look, I mean, thank you very much for your questions and your interest in Rexel. As you can tell, we had solid results in 2025. We are proud of those results. And we think that we're entering 2026 with good momentum, both on the market side and also on our internal momentum side, so we have confidence in the future. And we'll talk to you for the Q1 sales in April. Thank you very much, and have a good evening. Bye-bye.

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Rexel's Third Quarter 2025 Sales Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Guillaume Texier, Group CEO of Rexel. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Third Quarter 2025 Sales Presentation. I appreciate you making the time to be with us so early. As always, I'm joined by Laurent Delabarre, our Group CFO, who will walk you through the detailed sales figure in just a few minutes. But first, I'd like to take a look at the key highlights of the quarter and share how our transformation continues to support our growth and performance, even in a complex and evolving environment. So let's get started.

We delivered solid top line momentum with Q3 '25 being the 6th consecutive quarter of sequential improvement. We are also maintaining rigorous pricing and we keep investing with discipline where demand is strongest. At the same time, we are progressing on our Axelerate 2028 road map, raising digital adoption, deploying AI to improve speed and accuracy across commercial and operations and reinforcing the balance sheet. You saw in our press release that we delivered EUR 4.8 billion of sales in Q3 '25, up 3% on a same-day basis, with North America continuing to be our primary growth engine. Three key highlights to keep in mind. First, the momentum is driven by high-growth segments where we are investing with success. Data centers and broadband infrastructure represent 12.5% of U.S. sales and contributed for more than half of our Q3 growth.

We are scaling to support this demand, including the opening of a new 80,000 square foot distribution center in Reno to better serve the Western U.S. Second, on pricing, notably in the U.S., we maintained strong discipline with effective pass-through of tariff-related increases in the competitive market. And lastly, in Europe, despite a softer backdrop, we saw sequential improvement notably driven by an acceleration in France, Benelux and DACH region with market share gains in key markets. Overall, Europe was positive in the quarter if you exclude solar, reflecting the strength of our diversified footprint.

Turning now to Slide 4. Let me take a moment to discuss our capital allocation strategy. Our Axelerate 2028 road map continues to pass important milestones. First, the digital penetration stood at 33% of sales in Q3 2025, reflecting sustained adoption of our e-commerce and omnichannel tools. Second, we are accelerating initiatives to harness AI across pricing, sales enablement, customer service procurement and logistics, improving speed, accuracy and the customer experience. Third, we remain disciplined in our capital allocation. We completed the disposal of our activities in Finland in September, issued a new EUR 400 million senior notes due 2030 to optimize our debt profile and deployed EUR 50 million in share buybacks since the beginning of the year. These actions clearly strengthen our operating model and sharpen our portfolio.

On Slide 5, let me spend some time to update you on our ComEx -- Executive Committee. As you know, we are a decentralized model with the country CEO being owners of their business under common best practices and governance. As you can see, the leadership team is very close knit, which helps us to be both agile and fully aligned to accelerate our transformation. And let me comment on the recent changes. As you know, we have reinforced the cluster organization to favor best practices sharing between countries. So Thomas Moreau has extended his responsibility and is now in charge of a Europe and cluster, including France, U.K., the Netherlands and Italy. Thomas Stadlhofer is currently CEO for Austria and will lead the DACH cluster in January 2026, replacing Robert Pfarrwaller who is retiring after having done a great job for Rexel.

Roger Little is still in charge of North America; and Pierre Benoît who hand over the cluster to Thomas, is our CEO for Belgium until he retires at the end of the year. Isabelle Hoepfner has also taken on HR in addition to her previous responsibilities as General Secretary. And Julien Neuschwander is now in charge of Digital. He was at Rexel, France and replaces Guillaume Dubrule, who is now in charge of Germany. And of course, Laurent maintain his remit as Group CFO as well as leading on China and India.

And talking about Laurent, with that, let me now hand over to Laurent, who will take you through the detailed numbers for the third quarter.

Thank you, Guillaume, and good morning to all. Let's start on Slide 7 with the different building blocks of our Q3 '25 sales performance. Our sales of EUR 4.8 billion were stable on a reported basis with organic and M&A, our 2 main pillars, both at work, but offset by currency effects. Indeed, while the organic growth stood at plus 2.7% on an actual day basis, our acquisition strategy contribute to plus 0.5% net of both New Zealand and Finland disposals. And we have closed the disposal of Finland in September, which has been excluded from our scope as of September 1. The scope impact includes the positive contribution of Itesa in France, TECNO-BI in Italy as well as Schwing and Warshauer in the Northeast region of the U.S. and Jacmar in Canada.

For full year '25, we anticipate the scope effect to be close to 0.9% based on already completed acquisitions and the 2 disposals I mentioned. The currency effect stood at minus 3.3% in Q3 '25, mainly due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the euro. Assuming unchanged spot rates until year-end, we now anticipate a currency impact of minus 2.3% for the full year '25.

On Slide 8, you see the selling price impact and the breakdown of our sales evolution by geography. Our trajectory is clearly improving with 6 consecutive quarters of better same-day sales growth. And at group level, we progressed regularly from minus 4.6% in Q1 '24 to plus 3% in Q3 '25, demonstrating consistent execution and pricing discipline. And first, on pricing, selling prices contributed to plus 1.4% to the sales growth in the quarter, including cable and non-cable, a similar effect compared to Q2 '25. Non-cable selling price were up plus 0.9%, mainly driven by the tariff in the U.S. We still have 2 product families that are deflationary. Solar products with an effect broadly similar to Q2 '25 and steel conduits in the U.S. sequentially improving with the second wave of tariff on steel and aluminum.

Cable pricing contributed for plus 0.5% in the quarter, similar to Q2 '25. And by geography, we saw North America remaining the main growth engine, up plus 7.4%. Europe stood at minus 0.5% and APAC improved sequentially, now close to breakeven. I will detail Europe and North America in the next slide and more specifically on Asia Pacific, accounting for 6% of group revenues. China was down minus 4.1% in a still challenging industrial market environment with export activities facing headwinds following the introduction of the U.S. tariff. The sequential improvement versus Q2 '25 is supported by a slightly better volume and easier base effect from last year.

In Australia, sales were close to breakeven, improving compared to Q2 '25, thanks to residential and nonresidential markets, boosted by solar activity supported by the introduction of subsidies on batteries. And lastly, India, which is small but grew very significantly with sales up 26% as we capture the growth in Industrial Automation.

The next slide, Slide 9, focused on our performance in Europe. Our Q3 '25 same-day sales stood at minus 0.5%, a resilient performance driven by market share gains in an environment that remains soft. As Guillaume said, this performance is positive, up plus 0.6%, excluding the solar segment. As a reminder, Q2 '25 was down 3%. The sequential improvement is mainly explained by better trends in residential, excluding solar, in several countries like Sweden, France, Netherlands, Austria and Germany. And more specifically, let me highlight the key change in the quarter. France continued to progress, supported by strong demand from small contractor, especially air conditioning, plus further market share gains and a favorable base effect since summer '24 was impacted by the Olympic Games. Benelux returned to positive territory, helped by air conditioning in the Netherlands and solar business in Belgium. The DACH region remains negative, but improved sequentially, thanks to Switzerland and Austria, while Germany stayed soft, mainly due to the difficult environment plus the selectivity strategy implemented to protect profitability.

Sweden was broadly stable, excluding solar and restated from September '24 one-off as we benefited last year from a cyber attack affecting one of our competitor. Lastly, the U.K. was still impacted by a tough market, along with business selectivity and branch closure.

On Slide 10, we turn to our performance in North America, where same-day sales were up a robust 7.4% with similar trends in both countries. While projects activity continued to be the main growth driver of the quarter in Canada, it was interesting to see the proximity business above projects in the U.S. The level of backlog remains overall at a good level, representing 2.3 months of sales at the end of September, very similar to the level at the end of June. And let's summarize the key highlights for our 2 countries. In the U.S., same-day sales growth stood at plus 7.4%, driven by nonresidential demand and continued strength in high-growth segments with data center and broadband infrastructure up almost 50%. Selling price, excluding piping, were up mid-single digit in the quarter. The pricing of steel conduit product is still negative, but improved sequentially. Canada saw same-day sales growth of 7.5%, a very strong performance, still driven by nonresidential and industrial projects, and we saw datacom accelerating, boosting by our commercial initiatives.

And let me now hand back to Guillaume before we move to our questions.

Thank you, Laurent. Before continuing to the guidance, let me give you a bit more color on our data center business because it was an important topic of discussion during our latest roadshows, obviously. I'm on Slide 12. Data centers are a major growth engine in which Rexel's scale and capabilities give us a clear advantage. 3 years after launching the initiative with the major acquisition and a dedicated national account team, data centers now represent about 5% of our U.S. sales and are growing rapidly, up more than 50% over the first 9 months of 2025 with double-digit sequential growth in Q3 versus Q2. Our value proposition there combines national coverage, strong product availability and deep expertise in gray space and power distribution, offering a complete portfolio with cable, busbar, gear, conduits and more.

We are adding logistics capability in Atlanta and Reno to further boost product availability and customer service. And as you can see on the map, our DC network is well positioned to serve leading data center markets. Lastly, the demand that was initially concentrated in the Eastern U.S. is spreading to Texas and California, giving us confidence in continued momentum and share gains in these high-growth segments.

Moving to Slide 14. We have confirmed our 2025 guidance. On sales guidance, we have narrowed the range with a 2.1% same-day sales growth in the first 9 months of the year, we are now targeting slightly positive same-day sales growth for full year 2025. As you know, we benefited in the U.S. from good momentum in high-growth segments and the higher selling prices that resulted from tariffs. On profitability, we have confirmed the 6% adjusted EBITA margin target. This represents a strong achievement as it compares with the 4.2% reached at the low point of previous cycles. Overall, while we are clearly benefiting from the tariffs in the U.S., the competitive environment remains intense. We are, therefore, maintaining our strong focus on cost initiative and productivity to be much leaner and agile compared to the past and reach our guidance. And lastly, we continue to target a free cash flow conversion of approximately 65%, excluding the EUR 125 million [ fine ] mentioned earlier.

And lastly, on Slide 15, you'll be hearing for those who participate more from us tomorrow during our strategic update from the Rexel Expo in Paris. So a few words about that. We'll take the opportunity to reaffirm our midterm ambition and showcase Rexel's transformation across energy efficiency and transition technologies, services, innovation and digital offerings. With 25,000 expected visitors and more than 200 exhibitors, Rexel Expo offers a unique opportunity to engage our customers and partners and to show them Axelerate '28 in action. We'll be delighted to welcome those of you who are able to join us during the Paris Expo, a major event in our calendar.

And thank you for your attention for this short sales presentation. And Laurent and I will now take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

The first question is from Martin Wilkie of Citi.

It's Martin from Citi. The question I had was just coming back on pricing, particularly in the U.S. You talked about mid-single-digit pricing excluding piping. But when we think about the pattern going into the fourth quarter, I think you previously said that piping could be close to flat year-on-year, just given the comp from last year. Is that still the case? And also just to clarify on the tariff benefit in the quarter, should we see some incremental benefit of that, particularly from Section 232 in Q4, so we can expect non-cable pricing higher both on the comp from piping, but also incremental tariff?

Yes. So in terms of piping, it's true that as the year progresses and the comparison base becomes a little bit easier and as the sequential pricing of piping is slightly going up, you will see improving figures on the piping category, which is one of the main detractors to the price figures in the U.S. Is it going to be positive? I don't think so in Q4, based on our calculations, it's still going to be slightly negative.

Slightly negative, but improving to Q3.

Slightly negative, but improving. Now when it comes to tariff benefits, what we are seeing is a full quarter effect of the price increases, which have been implemented. So we are still seeing an appreciation of pricing, but not that much in reality. So you will see a sequential improvement, a slight sequential improvement, I think, of pricing in the U.S. based on those 2 elements in Q4. Is it going to be super meaningful? I'm not sure. So I don't know, Laurent, if you want to add anything to that?

No, no. I mean we have this improvement in the piping, but the rest will remain overall flat between Q3 and flat or slightly positive as we have the full effect of the recent price increases. Now is there any additional price increases based on the recent events in terms of tariffs, not at this stage.

That's really helpful. And if I could just clarify also, you talked about intense competition in certain markets. Is that just in certain categories? And is that more intense competition earlier in the year? Or has that been a comment?

No, look, maybe the word intense was a little bit too intense. There is competition. It's something that we have flagged since the beginning of the year. So there is pressure, which leads us to carefully select the business that we are doing to maintain gross margin at the right level. But no sequential change compared to what we have seen earlier in the year. So it's not a signaling that anything specific is happening there. And this competition level is true for all businesses. It's true, especially in Europe, obviously, as the volumes being low, everybody is eager for volume. And it's also true to some extent in the U.S., where even though we have much better figures, there is competition in all spaces, including data centers. But once again, Martin, no particular change compared to what we have experienced in H1 and in last year.

The next question is from Daniela Costa of Goldman Sachs.

I have 2 questions. One, more on the short term and the other one more on the medium term. I'll start with a shorter-term one. I mean we've seen during pandemic that you have great data with weekly trends and so on. And France seems to have been very strong on the quarter. But given all the political things, can you talk a little bit of what you are seeing sort of like in your data throughout the quarter and towards the end of it? That's the first one, and then I'll ask the second one after.

Look, I mean, first of all, you've seen the figures for France in the third quarter. They were quite good at 3.8%, if I remember well. They were boosted by a specific demand in air conditioning during the summer. But that being said, still, those are good figures compared to other European countries. I think it's also due to the fact that we are gaining market share, as we said previously. Now are the recent political changes going to change anything? Look, Daniela, it's -- unfortunately, we've been living in this environment since 1 year with limited duration government, difficulties to have a budget and frozen initiatives, economic initiatives a little bit everywhere.

So I'm not sure the new evolution of politics in France is changing anything to the business environment. And as we are looking at our order intake, it continues to be very good and in line with what we have seen in Q3. That being said, I should say also that we are in the middle of what we saw in the last slide, which is Rexel Expo which is usually a short-term booster to the activity. So I'm not sure it's -- we have enough data to say that something is going to change in either direction. I would say that the political recent evolutions are uneven for France in terms of business.

Got it. And then just more -- you're doing some investments organically in data centers in the U.S. I guess there's a lot of talk about data center growth also spreading more globally into Europe. Is there -- how do you view sort of the need for CapEx and for more reinvestment to fulfill that growth potential in the U.S. and more broadly organically and inorganically going forward?

I mean, look, as we have explained, we are investing a little bit in there, but investing means constituting a team of centrally dedicated people. I think we have no more than 10 people and investing also in distribution centers, but those distribution centers are midsized distribution centers. And for the moment, we have done one in Atlanta and one in Reno. So you're not talking big CapEx, nothing which would change the overall trends in terms of the CapEx of Rexel in percentage of sales, even at the North American level. So you're talking relatively limited investment at the end of the day.

The next question is from William Mackie of Kepler Cheuvreux.

A couple of questions. One, about the DC business generally in terms of how you grow it. Could you maybe just describe a little bit about how your data center business differs from your proximity business with regard to your obligations to carry working capital and fulfill -- maybe that leads on to the second area of the questioning, which is the composition of backlog. Maybe just to talk a little bit more about how the backlog has been developing and how you see that evolving into the second half, fourth quarter?

No, absolutely. So the distribution centers business doesn't differ that much in terms of working capital requirement. I think -- I mean, Laurent, do you want to explain?

Your question -- it's on data center?

Yes.

Yes. Well, it's similar to large projects, meaning that we don't use the footprint. Sometimes it goes direct. Sometimes we may use for specific project, small dedicated warehouses to serve our DC customer. Usually, at the end, the gross margin is slightly lower than the one of the proximity, but the cost to serve is lower as well. So the EBITA contribution is very close.

But I think that William's question was probably more about working capital. And in terms of working capital, yes, we have distribution centers dedicated to that. But the way it works is that we stage all the material which is necessary for the data center job. This material usually is paid for and bought and is owned by the customer which means that in terms of working capital profile, it doesn't change much to what we are doing. So you will not see any particular evolution of the working capital profile based on data centers.

What was your second question again?

Backlog.

Backlog. Backlog evolution in the U.S. Backlog evolution in the U.S. is relatively stable. It's at 2.6 months of sales, similar to what we had in Q2 '25. So no particular evolution. We are executing the backlog, but in the same time, we are replenishing it with data centers, but not only with data centers with a little bit of everything, including commercial and infrastructure jobs. So it's a relatively healthy business at this stage with good order intake and good quoting activity also. So at this stage, the question is about Q4. I don't see any particular signal of that slowing down. I have no concerns about any evolution of this kind for Q4. It's stable. That's the only thing I can say.

And just a small follow-up with regard to your activity levels in M&A, which have been very high this year with 5 successful acquisitions and 2 disposals. Could you throw a little more color on your thoughts or what we should expect in the next 3 or 4 months with regard to your pipeline for additional M&A or perhaps your view on the rest of the portfolio and if there are further assets or businesses which may be noncore?

Okay. So in terms of further acquisitions, we have a pipeline which is not extremely full. So I don't think that you're going to see anything meaningful in the -- during the rest of the year. You're going to maybe see small or midsized acquisitions, but you're not going to see any -- I mean, small acquisitions, but certainly not anything meaningful at your level. When it comes to disposals, yes, since the beginning of the year, we have disposed Finland and earlier New Zealand. Now at this stage, we have no process taking place, but it's always part of the strategic levers at some point, if needed. But at this stage, I would say that we have no particular plans to divest anything.

The next question is from George Featherstone of Barclays.

Just wanted to touch on India. It's been a pretty good bright spot for you guys in the third quarter. Just wonder if you have some plans to expand at all in the region in line with the plans from some of your suppliers.

Look, I mean, in India, first of all, we have made the decision several years ago for India and China to be fully dedicated to industrial automation. So when it comes to construction, commercial buildings, et cetera, you're not going to see us anytime soon getting into this space, which is a complex space in those countries where the credit management topics is difficult. And sometimes the compliance topic can be difficult, too. So we will continue to stay focused on Industrial Automation. You're right that we had a very good evolution over the last few years in India with good success in progressing this industrial automation business. And I think you will see us continuing to build on that organically and maybe through acquisitions if need be.

That being said, it's a small business, and it will continue to remain relatively small. So you're not going to see it expanding and growing 10x because we are -- once again, because we are -- we have no plans in entering those big volumes activities, which are construction-related businesses. So you will see the kind of growth rates that you are seeing in India, which is very often double-digit growth rate. So we are happy with that. We will try to expand on it, but no plans to change the profile of our business and to go into construction.

Okay. And then just a second one on restructuring plans. You've been doing some FTE reduction through the year and as well last year. But clearly, now some of the volume trends are looking a little bit more encouraging. Do you think you've done the right level of restructuring now and we shouldn't expect any more plans in the year ahead?

I mean there is always -- I mean, we are in the middle of -- we are in continuous transformation, and we always try to optimize. It's true that the bulk of the adaptation that we needed, especially in the U.K. and in Germany is now behind us. You're going to see a little bit of that during the rest of the year, but less in proportion to what we have seen before. Laurent?

Yes. And in terms of restructuring costs, we said around EUR 25 million in H1 for the full year. And we have no very big plan. But at the end of the year, I will be -- because of phasing, we have accelerated some measure in some countries. I would be a bit north of EUR 30 million.

The next question is from Delphine Brault of ODDO BHF.

I have 2 and will ask them one at a time. First, can you be a bit more specific on the electrification segment by segment, so heat pumps, solar and EV and how this has evolved in the recent months?

Yes. So in recent months, what we have seen in terms of electrification is -- I mean, Laurent, maybe you can take the question.

Yes. I mean in global electrification is slightly up 3.8% overall with a very different mix of activity. So solar is still negative, around minus 7%. And where we are booming is the HVAC, especially in France and Netherlands, as we pointed out. Datacom also, this is the tally case. This is the 2 big fish. Industrial Automation is still mute, progressing, but in the around zero line so far. So that's the big bucket.

And then from what we see, Europe as -- well, has not really started to rebound on the residential segment. What is your central scenario as regard to the timing of the recovery in the residential market in Europe? I know that in some countries, it has started, but some are still lagging behind.

Look, it's a little bit early to talk about scenarios for 2026. What we can say is that, as you just mentioned, when we look at the residential part of our business, we see that especially if you exclude solar, which is troubling a little bit the figures. In Q3, we were positive in France, in Belgium, in the Benelux, let's put it this way, and in Sweden and in Switzerland. So we are starting to see positive evolutions compared to last year, which is a good sign. When we look at leading indicators, in several countries and some of them being the same one that I mentioned, we see also positive trends when it comes to transaction in housing and in terms of housing starts. So all of that is pointing in the direction of a progressive recovery. We are quite cautious about that, especially when it comes to our figures in Q3.

As you know, they were also a little bit impacted by the summer and by the air conditioning demand, et cetera. So we shouldn't read too much into that. But when we look at those figures, it allows us to be cautiously optimistic about a progressive recovery in Europe. Now when it comes to the scenario, I would prefer to wait until the end of the year to wait until we have budget discussions with the countries and to give you the guidance in February.

The next question is from Andre Kukhnin of UBS.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can hear you okay.

Okay. Great. Can I just come back to the non-cable pricing and that kind of sequentially flat evolution versus Q2 in terms of the year-on-year growth. Could you talk about the moving parts in that? Because we thought that you should get some sequential improvement or step up from the 0.9% that you saw in Q2 already, at least with the full effect of U.S. tariffs. Was this something that moved negatively? And maybe in the context of that, could you comment on what's happening in pricing in China Industrial Automation?

Laurent, do you want to get a little bit more into that?

Yes. First, in China, the pricing between Q2 and Q3 is very similar, slightly positive. What impact us in China is mostly the improvement in volume, not that much that the market improved, but there was a base effect last year. In North America, the evolution of the non-cable pricing, if we exclude the conduit is up 4.4% in Q3, and it is slightly better than in Q2. We were expecting a bit more inflation. But in fact, what has been passed through on the market with the competitive environment has been a bit lower on that. And for Q4, we expect that it should slightly improve, but not that much.

Very helpful. And just one more question. On the U.S. performance ex data centers, I think it implies that you grew about 4%. Was there a meaningful difference between the industrial versus commercial activity?

Actually, can you repeat the question, please?

And just looking at the U.S. growth ex data centers and broadband, I think it implies it's about 4% growth, if you said half came from data center broadband. So I just wanted to check if that's similar between the Industrial Automation versus the rest of the commercial? Or was there a meaningful difference?

Industrial Automation is positive. It's a little bit lower than the rest, but it's positive, which is a progress compared to the beginning of the year, and that's what I would say.

And the rest is non-resi activity and a bit of resi, but only in the Northwest of the U.S.

The next question is from Ben Uglow of OxCap.

I had a couple. First of all, Guillaume, on the cluster, the organizational changes, can you just sort of explain some of that a bit more? I just wanted to understand what's the strategic rationale? And how is it different? How is it going to be different in practice from how you've operated before? That was my first one.

No. I guess, Ben, first of all, this cluster organization is in place since 2 years. So we have changed a little bit the breakdown of countries between clusters. But the whole idea behind that is that the countries are still managed on a country-by-country basis. So the P&L is owned by the country CEOs. But that being said, what we wanted to do is to push a little bit more the synergies on some interesting topics like services, like also supply chain, procurement, et cetera. In most of those countries, there is a possibility to gain additional efficiency by doing more intense best practices sharing between countries. And really, what our experience is that it's better done in a small group of countries. So that's a little bit what we are doing here.

So those clusters are not going to be managed as one country, for example. I mean, we're not going to manage Ireland and France together for sure. But that being said, the intensity of best practices sharing between those countries, you're going to see it increase, and you're going to see more scale effect when it comes, for example, once again to purchasing, when it comes to services development, et cetera, et cetera. So that's a little bit the spirit behind that. We are not changing the relatively decentralized way we are operating, but we are adding a layer of harvesting the scale effect of Rexel.

Understood. And then on the, let's call it, the go-to-market or the approach with data centers. At the moment, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but really, what we're doing is essentially selling cables and busbars sort of ad hoc into data centers, that's what you're doing. Is there scope to change that product offering? Is there scope to broaden the range beyond there I say, standard products into gray space?

Yes. Look, I mean, I think what you're going to -- first of all, you have to understand that our progression in data centers has been starting from not much at the beginning because we were organized in a very regional way for historical reasons, which had the effect of making it difficult for national contractors to deal with us because they obviously want one price list, one logistics organization, et cetera. We changed that 2 years ago, and we are seeing very positive effects on that. And I would say that we are -- in terms of service offering on this particular part of the data center needs. I think we are on par with competition or in some cases, better in terms of the service levels.

So we have done that. Now you're right that we are mostly in the gray space. I think, frankly, that we are going to probably in the near future, stay in the gray space. Now there are opportunities within the gray space to enrich what we are doing -- and we are already seeing that. I mean, initially, we were mostly selling cable. And now we are enriching that to a little bit more switchgear, a little bit more complex materials, et cetera, as we are gaining credibility in the data center space. Now are we going to get into the white room? I'm not so sure in the short-term basis. It's not part of our plans. We have ample opportunities to gain market share without doing that.

The next question is from Miguel Borrega of BNP Paribas Exane.

The first one, just wondering with everything that is going on with aluminum and copper tariffs in the U.S., can you share how much was cable pricing specifically in the U.S. during Q3, please? I know it was 0.5% at the group level, but just wondering in the U.S. And then on non-cable pricing, I remember last quarter, you mentioning that some suppliers were pushing price between mid-single digit and some ranging to 20%. You don't seem that excited about pricing anymore. Do you also see suppliers not pushing for pricing that much after all?

And then one last question, just following up on data centers. If we take a step back, obviously, this is a segment that is booming. Everyone wants a slice of it. Can you just broadly comment on your competitive environment here? You just mentioned that you are at par or even slightly better than competition. How is the competitive environment here?

Okay. So in terms of cable pricing, which is in the U.S., mid-single digit in Q3. So it's still positive. You're right that there are many moving parts. There were tariff announcements at the end of July, followed by reduction of tariff announcements, followed by price increases in copper at the end of the quarter because of mine issues throughout the world. In all of that, the cable pricing saw a hike at the initial tariff announcement. and stayed there more or less during the quarter, which is a consequence of the pricing policies of the manufacturers. So that's a little bit where we are today, and we have a strong positive pricing in cable in the U.S.

Secondly, in terms of tariffs and the consequences of tariffs, you're right, Miguel, that compared to our initial expectations in Q2 or in Q1, we have seen a more, I would say, I don't know if it's reasonable or more modest price increase policies of manufacturers. I think manufacturers are trying to be as sensible as possible and to push price increases when the tariff situation is certain and trying to absorb a little bit of it in their margin. So because it's an environment which is good in the U.S. but which is not absolutely booming, which means that people want to pay attention to the way they push price. We still have healthy price increases, as we have said. But that being said, it's nothing in the range of the 20% that we probably were seeing in the initial announcement at the beginning.

So the reality is that we are in the mid-single-digit range. It will probably continue to progress a little bit as we see the full effect of tariffs. Is it going to get to 10% or 20% in some categories? I don't think that. But that's okay because you know that there are 2 parts to this equation. On one hand, we tend to like price increases. On the other hand, it's always a hurdle to the volumes, et cetera. So I think we are in this situation. And no change compared to what we were seeing at the end of H1, by the way. At the end of H1, we had already the same question and the same discussion about the fact that tariff price increases were probably more reasonable than what we had anticipated at the beginning.

Data centers and data center competitive situation, look, I mean, it's difficult for me to comment too much on that. I think we are not the leader in terms of data centers. If you look at the proportion of data centers that we have in our U.S. business, we are at 5%. And I think some competitors are probably north of 10%, very clearly because of previous acquisitions, because of historical presence in this space. It's obviously a negative in a way and a positive because the positive being that we have ample room to gain market share in this space once again. And it's all about the competition environment, obviously, like in any big opportunity is, is a disputed competition environment. I mean there is nothing where you wouldn't see competition with the big players, big national players, data centers are usually installed by national contractors, which means that they pay a lot of attention to having a national offering, which means that smaller regional players have more difficulties to play in this space. So that's one thing.

So the competition is limited to the big nationals. And in this environment of the big nationals, are we better, are we worse? I would say we are starting from a situation where 2 years ago, we were probably at a disadvantage compared to other national competitors. As I mentioned in my previous answer, I think that now we are in terms of the quality of service perceived by those contractors that we are talking to. From the feedback I get from them, it feels like we are on par or maybe slightly better depending on who you're talking to. It's difficult to give any more color to that, but I think we are in a good place, and we have the opportunity to continue to gain a little bit of market share in this fast-growing segment.

The last question is from Eric Lemarie of CIC Market Solutions.

I got a question on data centers. You mentioned this very strong growth of more than 50% for the 9 months in the U.S. in data centers. Could you tell us how do you see Q4 sales in data center in the U.S. Still in data centers, is there a possibility for Rexel to expand in data centers, but beyond the U.S.? And the last question on these 2 segments, data center and datacom. I understand why data centers are very dynamic, and I understand the megatrends behind. But regarding datacom and broadband infrastructure, is there any specific megatrends which could possibly explain the very strong growth in sales in datacom?

Yes. So first of all, in terms of data centers, we have a good backlog, and we will continue to enjoy a strong double-digit growth in Q4. I'm not going to give a precise forecast because it always depends on the timing of the projects. But you're going to see us continuing to see those very high growth rates in the foreseeable future and especially in Q4. So that's one thing. The second question was about opportunities in other regions. Obviously, I mean, the data center and the artificial intelligence business is much bigger in the U.S. than it is in other parts of the world. But it's true also that this business is also developing in other parts of the world right now.

So we have opportunities, and we will have opportunities probably in Europe at some point. Now with one element, which is that in Europe, as you know, large projects tend a little bit more than in the U.S. to go direct from manufacturer directly to the job site, which means that the participation of distribution in large projects is usually a little bit lower than what you would see in the U.S. because of the organization of the industry in Europe compared to the U.S. basically.

Now -- so which means that for hyperscaler equivalent in Europe, I don't think that distribution is going to participate a lot. Now when it comes to colocation data centers, when it comes to smaller edge data centers, which are also going to be part of the equation. I think I'm fully convinced of that at some point. Then you're going to see a little bit more business going through distribution. And so yes, it's going to be an opportunity. Is it going to be short term? I don't think so. But you're going to see that as an additional opportunity in Europe in the midterm, I think that's for sure.

Now your third question was about datacom. I don't know if you -- yes, we're going to have the opportunity tomorrow to talk about that and to expand specifically on the Talley acquisition. Now I would say in this call that globally, it's -- I mean, there are several reasons why we are growing so fast in the broadband infrastructure space. Some of them are linked specifically to the way we are integrating Talley. Some of them have to do with the specific strengths of Talley in their market, but some of them have to do with megatrends because if you think about it, the equipment in broad -- I mean, artificial intelligence, there needs to be computing capabilities.

And here, we are talking about data centers, obviously. But there needs also to be broadband network to make sure that people who are using artificial intelligence on their mobile are able to access it, which means that the requirement for additional bandwidth is continuous in the U.S. and accelerating. And the equipment, the 5G equipment was more of 4G plus equipment in most parts of the U.S. And so you're going to continue to see investment in the infrastructure by telecom operators to address those trends. So it's -- in general, it's a trend about more data, which is also a little bit linked to artificial intelligence and the promises of artificial intelligence because you need a terminal to be able to use artificial intelligence in the end.

Mr. Texier, there are no more questions registered at this time.

So thank you very much. For many of you, I'll see -- I mean, for the sell-side analysts, I think I'll see many of you tomorrow in Rexel Expo, and I'm looking forward to the discussion about how we make the midterm goals concrete in terms of day-to-day actions. And so hopefully, you're going to see an interest in those discussions. And for the rest of the participants to the call, next time we'll see you is going to be the full year results and the guidance for 2026. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones. Thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Rexel Second Quarter and Half Year 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Guillaume Texier, Group CEO of Rexel. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Rexel's First Half 2025 Results Conference. Thank you for joining us today, especially during this busy results season. I'm here with Laurent Delabarre, our CFO. And together, we'll take you through the key highlights of the first half and the second quarter, a period that saw Rexel gain momentum with accelerating sales growth driven by stronger volumes in North America and continued progress in our digital transformation.

After a brief overview of our operational and strategic highlights, including our resilient profitability, strong cash conversion and the successful execution of our M&A strategy, Laurent will provide a detailed review of our financial performance. I'll then return to discuss our outlook for the rest of 2025 and share an update on the additional initiatives we've launched to support our midterm ambitions as outlined in our Axelerate 2028 road map. And we'll then be happy to take your questions.

Let's get started. Let me walk you through our key highlights for the first half of 2025, which clearly demonstrates Rexel's ability to deliver robust results in the mixed environment. First, sales for H1 reached EUR 9.8 billion, up 1.6% on a same-day basis. This positive momentum accelerated in the second quarter with growth of 1.8%, primarily driven by a recovery in volumes in North America. In contrast, the European environment remained challenging with softer demand persisting across several markets.

On pricing, we saw a plus 0.9% increase in non-cable selling prices in Q2, reflecting the first positive impact from U.S. tariffs and our ongoing pricing discipline. Digital sales continued to be a strong growth lever, accounting for approximately 34% of total sales in Q2, up nearly 200 basis points year-on-year. This ongoing shift towards digital is not only supporting top line growth, but is also laying the foundation for future productivity gains. Free cash flow before interest and tax was EUR 251 million, representing a 42% conversion rate, significantly above our 5-year H1 average. Even after the exceptional EUR 124 million payment of the French Competition Authority fine in April, which we have appealed, free cash flow before interest and tax stood at EUR 127 million.

Turning to profitability. Our current adjusted EBITA margin remained resilient at 5.8% in H1 despite a mixed macroeconomic backdrop. This performance was achieved through additional cost initiatives, including a 2.2% reduction in FTEs, even as same-day volumes increased by 0.4%. In summary, these results illustrate Rexel ability to deliver robust and resilient financial performance even in a mixed environment. Turning to Slide 4 and starting with North America. We delivered a strong outperformance in the second quarter with sales exceeding our expectations, thanks to higher volumes.

This region was the main contributor to the group's acceleration in Q2. Growth was particularly strong in high potential segments such as data centers and broadband infrastructure, which together now represent around 12% of our U.S. sales and contributed about half of our Q2 growth. This reflects our increasing exposure to fast-growing markets, supported by our targeted acquisitions and the reorganization of our sales force to better capture these opportunities.

We also began to see the first positive impact from U.S. tariffs with non-cable selling prices up 0.9% at group level in the second quarter. This progressive accretive impact is expected to continue supporting our margins in the coming periods. Turning to Europe. The environment remains challenging with the region still at a cycle trough. Momentum slowed compared to the first quarter, mainly due to more difficult base effect, a softer solar market and the anticipated lower contribution from cable pricing. Despite these headwinds, we continue to gain market share in key countries, including France, which demonstrates the resilience of our commercial teams and the strength of our customer relationship.

Let me now highlight the actions we have taken to ensure margin resilience in a challenging environment. First, we maintained gross margin at 25% despite ongoing competitive pressures. This reflects our disciplined approach to pricing and our ability to manage our product mix effectively. Our current adjusted EBITA margins remained resilient at 5.8% in the first half, supported by targeted action plans across most countries, particularly in Europe, to address a tough environment, competitive pressure and OpEx inflation.

As I already mentioned, we achieved notable productivity gains with a 2.2% reduction in FTEs compared to last year. This is especially important as wages represent circa 40% of our total operating expenses, and these efforts have helped to offset OpEx inflation of 2.2%. Our Axelerate 2028 program continues to drive the execution of our transformation, further strengthening our operational efficiency and our ability to adapt to changing market conditions.

Free cash flow generation was also strong in the first half, reaching EUR 251 million and a conversion rate of 42%, significantly above our 5-year average. This robust cash generation provides us with the flexibility to invest in our strategic priorities and navigate the current environment with confidence. Finally, we confirm our full year guidance, the strong performance in North America, combined with ongoing profitability improvement action plans is expected to compensate for lower activity in Europe.

Finally, Slide 6 highlights how we continue to execute on our strategic road map. These acquisitions -- these deals reflect our 3 strategic M&A priorities: consolidation, adjacency and advanced services. We have completed 5 acquisitions so far this year. In North America, we've strengthened our footprint through the additions of Warshauer and Schwing.

In Canada and Italy, we've expanded into adjacent higher-margin businesses with Jacmar and TECNO BI. We have also completed the Apex operation in Canada, a well-recognized system integrator. Each one of those acquisitions reinforces our competitive position, and I'm confident in our ability to integrate and extract value from these platforms. And with that, let me now hand over to Laurent, who will walk you through the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Guillaume, and good afternoon to all. Let's start now on Slide 8 with the different building blocks of our Q2 '25 sales performance. Our sales of almost EUR 5 billion were up 0.6% on a reported basis, a positive performance, thanks to our organic growth as reflected by the same-day progression of plus 1.8% and our acquisition strategy, which contributed for plus 1.7% net of disposals. This scope impact include the positive contribution of ITESA in France, Talley Electrical Supply Inc., Schwing and Jacmar Automation in North America as well as the disposal of New Zealand.

And for full year '25, we anticipate the scope effect to be at circa 0.9% based on already completed acquisitions and taking into account disposals of both New Zealand and Finland. The currency effect stood at minus 2.3% in Q2 '25 due to the U.S. dollar depreciation and assuming unchanged spot rates until year-end, we now anticipate the currency impact of circa minus 2.1% for the full year '25.

On Slide 9, you see the selling price impact and the breakdown of our sales evolution by geography. First, on pricing. Selling prices contributed for plus 1.5% to the sales growth in the quarter. Non-cable selling prices were up plus 0.9%, mainly driven by the U.S. with introduction of tariffs. Overall, selling prices increased in the majority of our product families, offset by the deflation mainly in piping in North America and in solar to a lesser extent. The deflationary impact improved by decreasing compared to Q1 '25.

Cable pricing contributed to plus 0.6% in the quarter, benefiting from a less favorable effect compared to Q1 '25 as copper price peaked in Q2 '24. And by geography, we saw North America significantly accelerating versus previous quarters at plus 8.7%, Europe stood at minus 3%, mainly on base effect on solar activity and APAC deteriorated down 6.5%. I will detail Europe and North America in the next slide. And more specifically for Asia Pacific accounting for 6% of group revenues.

China was down 10.2% in a competitive industrial market environment driven by negative volume. In Australia, sales decreased by 5.4% in a challenging environment, mainly reflecting lower volumes in residential and non-residential segments. Slide 10 focused on our performance in Europe. Our Q2 '25 same-day sales stood at minus 3%, a resilient performance driven by market share gains in an environment that remains challenging.

Overall, our 3 end markets remain negative and non-cable selling price are broadly stable. As a reminder, Q1 '25 was down 0.7% and the sequential deterioration can mainly be explained by the more difficult base effect, lower solar contribution for minus 80 basis points and lower cable price contribution for minus 90 basis points as copper peaked in Q2 '24. And more specifically, let me highlight key change in the quarter. In France, we continue to significantly outperform the market. Month of June is back to positive territory after a disruptive month of May, which is often volatile because of its public holidays.

The DACH region is down minus 4.1%, impacted by the unfavorable German macro environment and the lower solar activity exacerbated by factors such as Austrian regulatory change on solar. Nordics, excluding solar, is positive. Lastly, the U.K. and Ireland were down minus 8%, impacted by the branch closures and the increased selectivity on projects in the U.K.

On Slide 11, we turn to our performance in North America, where same-day sales were up a robust 8.7% with a sequential acceleration driven by volume growth in non-residential segments such as data center and datacom. While projects activity continued to be the main growth driver of the quarter, it was interesting to see the further improvement in the warehouse business. And in addition, backlog was broadly stable in North America despite the very high execution of projects showing the good level of completions.

Let's summarize the key highlights of our 2 countries. In the U.S., same-day sales growth stood at plus 8.2% with all 3 markets growing. data center and broadband infrastructure accounts for 12% of sales and contribute to more than half of the growth in the country. The quarter was marked by the introduction of the tariffs, notably on steel and aluminum. Excluding piping, selling prices were up mid-single digit in the quarter.

Canada saw same-day sales growth of 10.9% and also accelerated significantly, mainly driven by non-residential and industrial projects. On Slide 12, we show you the building blocks that led to the adjusted EBITA margin of 5.8% in H1 '25 versus 6% in H1 '24. First, the calendar effect was negative in H1 25, impacting the adjusted EBITA margin by minus 13 basis points. And this effect will partially reverse in H2 '25.

Second, operating leverage impacting our profitability by a net 19 basis points, mainly from underabsorption of fixed costs in Europe, while operating leverage was positive in North America. Gross margin was broadly stable, representing a strong performance in a challenging and competitive environment. And the so-called inflation gap between selling price and OpEx inflation stood at minus 70 basis points. And this reflects the lower selling price increase of plus 1.2% in H1 '25 compared to the OpEx inflation of plus 2.2%.

This inflation gap was fully absorbed by our cost initiatives in the half, resulting from restructuring and structural productivity plans from digital transformation, bringing plus 31 basis points. And by geography, Europe posted adjusted EBITA of 5.5%, down 55 basis points, mainly explained by the underabsorption of fixed cost, mitigated by active OpEx management. North America was more resilient with adjusted EBITA margin at 7.1%, up 23 basis points, thanks to a stronger top line.

On Slide 13, we now look at the bottom line part of our P&L with a zoom on other income and expense, financial expense, tax rate and recurring net income. Other income and expense stood at EUR 36 million, notably including minus EUR 11.4 million in restructuring, mostly in Europe, notably Germany and U.K., minus EUR 10.1 million in fair value adjustments for increased earnout on Talley following their very strong performance and circa EUR 15 million in acquisition costs, loss on disposal and asset write-down.

Financial expense stood at EUR 107 million, higher than last year, resulting from the rise in gross debt, offsetting the lower cost of debt now at 4% versus 4.3% last year. It includes EUR 36 million of interest on lease liabilities and pure financial cost of EUR 70 million. And for '25, we now anticipate financial expense of circa EUR 220 million, including EUR 70 million of interest on lease liability, taking into account recent acquisitions and EUR 140 million of pure financial expense, excluding one-offs and assuming current interest rate conditions remain unchanged. Other -- our income tax stood at 34.5% due to the impact of the exceptional tax in France recorded for 75% in the first half.

And going forward, we anticipate the tax rate to be at circa 30% for full year '25, taking into consideration the additional tax in France that should be applied for 1 year, so '25 only. So from '26 onwards, we anticipate the tax rate to be back to below 27%. And as a result, recurring net income was EUR 308 million compared to EUR 341 million in H1 '24.

Moving to Slide 14. We generated robust cash flow before interest and tax, reaching a high level of EUR 251 million, implying a free cash flow conversion rate of 42%, well above last 5 years' average that stood at 36%. This is excluding the EUR 124 million fine imposed by French authorities and paid mid-April. The trade working capital stood at 15.8% versus 15.3% last year, explained by higher receivable, mostly due to mix effect with higher activity in projects in North America that have slightly longer payment terms. Interesting to see the good management of inventories with slightly lower days of inventory with good adaptation on both main geographies.

And lastly, the CapEx to sales ratio stood at 0.7% of sales, similar to last year. As shown on the next slide, on Slide 15, our capital allocation focused on both acquisitions and return to shareholders. Overall, net debt increased by EUR 408 million, mainly resulting from two factors: first, the circa EUR 200 million impact from net financial investments, mainly for the acquisitions of Warshauer, Schwing and Jacmar, 3 good opportunities already presented by Guillaume.

Second, the dividend payment related to the '24 result for EUR 355 million, corresponding to EUR 1.2 per share. And lastly, we also bought back shares for EUR 30 million. All this leads to net debt close to EUR 3.1 billion, including earnout for circa EUR 130 million that will be paid if acquisitions deliver on promising expectations.

The indebtedness ratio stands at 2.4x, including circa 20 basis points from the EUR 124 million fine just paid. And this ratio at the end of the year is expected to be lower due to the normal seasonality.

Let me turn now on Slide 16 to our liquidity picture. 2025 has been very active in terms of refinancing. We increased medium-term liquidities through a new EUR 100 million Schuldschein issuance in July with a 2029 maturity. In addition, as usual, we have extended 2 securitization program for more than EUR 800 million from 2025 to 2028. Our financing is well balanced between receivable securitization and long-term financing, including 3 sustainability-linked bonds for EUR 1.4 billion and the Schuldschein for EUR 300 million.

Our liquidity stood at EUR 900 million after the fine payment of EUR 124 million. This includes the undrawn senior credit agreement, and we have no short-term refinancing needs. Let me now hand back to Guillaume for closing remarks before we move to your questions.

Thank you very much, Laurent. As we look to the remainder of 2025, Rexel is well positioned to deliver on its commitments, thanks to the strength of our North American business and the tangible impact of our self-help action plans. In North America, we continue to benefit from solid market fundamentals and strong backlogs in both non-residential and industrial segments. The efficient pass-through of tariff-related price increases is already supporting our results, and we expect this effect to intensify in the second half.

Our datacom and data center activities remain key growth drivers with positive momentum expected to continue. In Europe, while the environment remains tough, we are seeing the first signs of stabilization in construction markets, helped by a more favorable interest rate backdrop. The temporary pause in electrification trend is something we are monitoring closely, but the additional working days in the second half should provide a boost to fixed cost absorptions.

Crucially, our self-help levers are delivering. We are gaining market share in our core countries, optimizing our portfolio and driving more than 1/3 of our sales through digital channels, which is enhancing customer loyalty and operational efficiency. We are acting swiftly to adapt our workforce and leveraging advanced pricing and AI tools to further optimize our back office. In short, we are taking decisive actions to control what we can while capitalizing on growth opportunities where they exist.

This gives us confidence in our ability to deliver on our 2025 objectives. Moving to Slide 19. And as a reminder, we anticipate for 2025 a stable to slightly positive same-day sales growth, an adjusted EBITA margin of around 6%, a free cash flow conversion of approximately 65%, excluding the EUR 124 million fine mentioned earlier. The full effect of our 2024 cost actions, combined with additional initiatives launched this year and the continued success of our M&A strategy gives us confidence in our ability to deliver our financial targets. And that concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you all for your attention. And Laurent and I now look forward to taking your questions.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Martin Wilkie, Citi.

It's Martin from Citi. Obviously, a very strong set of results in North America. I just wanted to clarify just a comment you made about the contribution to growth if data center and broadband is about 12% of sales but drove half the growth. On my very quick math, which may be wrong, it sounds like it's growing at more than 40%. Could you just clarify, is that a base of comparison that changed from last year? Or was there a big acceleration in that business in the second quarter? Or just a little bit more detail behind that would be welcome.

No, there was no particular -- I mean, there was a little bit of acceleration in the second quarter, but not meaningful. The first quarter was also strong. I think we didn't comment on that specifically. I think what you are seeing is 2 things. First of all, the effect of the Talley acquisition that we made last year, which is growing, as you said, double digits, strong double digits in Q1 and in Q2. And by all means, this will continue in the second part of the year.

And on the data center part, which represent approximately 5% of our business in the U.S. today, as you know, we have initiatives in place since many quarters to increase our penetration of this market, where compared to some other players, we are a little bit less exposed. And those efforts are paying off with today, as I said, 5% of our business now being exposed to data centers with also strong double-digit growth in this segment in Q1 and in Q2. So I think that's what we are talking about.

That's really helpful. And if I could just have a follow-up on the U.S. I mean you mentioned about pricing from tariffs. Just how you saw that through the quarter? I mean, obviously, you commented last quarter about some potential range of price increases. But obviously, tariffs were a bit of a moving target in the quarter. And I'm guessing some of the price increases came late in the quarter and therefore, went effective the whole time. Any sort of number you can give us in terms of how you're seeing pricing going into the third quarter?

Look, I mean, in terms of the pricing situation in the U.S. in Q2, what we have seen, if I summarize is, first of all, a tariff implementation from the manufacturers. And as we commented during our results in Q1, we have seen price increases in the range of 4% to -- anywhere between 4% and 20% on a few categories. Now that being said, as Laurent mentioned, there is also a negative effect on the other side of one category, which is steel piping, where despite tariffs on steel and aluminum, we saw strong price deflation compared to last year. And I think I can say that the price deflation in this category is double digit. So on one hand, you have a majority of categories growing at around mid-single digits basically.

And you have one category, which is not that big, but still meaningful when you are decreasing double digit, compensating for that, which at the end of the day, makes for the 3% price increase in North America or 2.2%, excluding cable. That's basically what we are seeing. Now in terms of the momentum of pricing during the quarter, obviously, we saw progressive implementation of that. And as you know, in some situations, price increases are delayed. There is price protection on certain projects, et cetera.

So I'm expecting to continue to see a progression on that. And depending on how the situation evolves, we could also be seeing additional price increases on additional categories because there are still balls in the air in terms of tariffs, in terms of tariffs on -- I mean, copper is not in the air anymore, but still a little bit in the air because I think there is a deadline here.

You have also the question of the tariffs with Canada and Mexico. And even though in all the negotiations in all what we see, U.S. and CA products are excluded from that, it could have an impact also. You have the potential effect of European tariffs, even though in North America, there is not much of products or components being imported from Europe to my knowledge.

But all of that may have an additional impact. For the moment, what we have seen from the manufacturers is a relatively cautious implementation of those price increases. I don't think that people are jumping on the announcement, and they're waiting to see the end game before pushing the price increases to have a meaningful ground on which to push it. That's what we have seen, I think, in the market in the first half.

Next question is from Marianne Bulot, Bank of America.

The first one is on Europe. I was wondering if you could share a little bit more colors on what you're seeing in the field. I know you mentioned some early signs of rebound. So just wondering if you could give a little bit more details on this.

Yes. Look, I mean, maybe I'm a little bit ambitious by saying early signs of rebounds because in our figures, we have negative figures in many of our markets. We have seen a little bit of slightly positive evolution in residential markets in Switzerland and in the U.K., but really, it's only the early [ beginning ]. What I was alluding to when making this remark is the fact that in more and more country, you see the number of transactions, which is an official KPI rebounding from the trough. And you see also in some countries, the loan activity to residential rebounding also, which is always an early sign of a pickup of the market.

At some point, we know very well that interest rates have a direct impact, although delayed on the market. And usually one of the indicators, which is the most reactive to that is the number of residential transactions. And once again, in many countries in Europe, you have seen, even though it's not -- those are not stellar figures, you have seen a slight rebound from that. And we know that those transactions are in turn usually driving residential renovation business to which we are more exposed than to new construction. So that's what I'm saying when I say, oh, I see early signs of maybe something happening. But right now, in our figures, I have to say that the figures continue to be negative and that our assumption when we look at H2 is certainly not for a European rebound. But it could happen in...

Yes. No, I understand. Very clear. And just a second question on the U.S. Just wondering if you think about the increased exposure to data centers and infrastructure, just wondering what's the impact on your margin in the region. Does it benefit in terms of mix or pricing dynamics?

Look, in terms of the margin that we make on those jobs, it's not meaningfully different from what we do in other businesses. Those are large projects. So usually on large projects, we tend to have a slightly lower gross margin, but also a slightly lower cost to serve, which means that in terms of EBITA margin, it's equivalent to the rest. Those are large and attractive segments, but also quite competitive, obviously, because we are not the only ones being interested in serving this fast-growing market. So I would say it's neutral. Neutral, but with obviously any volume means better fixed cost absorption. So it's not completely neutral, but you understand what I mean.

Next question is from Akash Gupta, JPMorgan.

I got 2 as well, and I'll ask one at a time. The first one is on North America. I think you mentioned in the press release that the backlog was broadly stable versus March 2025. And I'm wondering if you can elaborate a bit on why it is flat given the strong growth you're seeing in data center and datacom. And maybe how does the backlog compare versus a year ago? Is it stable, up or down? So that's the first one.

So the reason why it's stable is because in the same time as we are getting additional orders, we are also able to service existing orders in the backlog. I think the supply situation has clearly been improving over the last few quarters, which means that there is -- the balance between what we are able to get in and what we are able to get out is roughly -- I mean, it's balanced basically. Now in terms of the backlog, the total amount of backlog that represents approximately between 2 and 3 months. And how does it compare to 1 year ago? Laurent, do you have the answer to that? I think it's roughly equivalent. We have been around this level since a few years now, which is higher than the history, obviously, but I think we have been around that, Laurent?

No significant change to last year.

So yes, it's roughly the same, which is a little bit more than 2 months of sales in the U.S. and approximately 4 months of sale in Canada.

Exactly.

And my follow-up is on a comment that you mentioned in the press release that U.S. warehouse activity sequentially accelerated in the quarter. So what do you mean by warehouse activity? Is it warehouse automation or something else? And maybe you can talk about what sort of product you're supplying?

That's internal lingo and maybe we should have eradicated it from the press release. That's by opposition to project business.

Yes, it's a flow business through a branch distribution center where we have our own inventory, whereas on project, it is specific logistic arrangement. I mean the flow business is stronger.

We mean our warehouse rather than outside -- I mean, our warehouse -- going through our warehouses, which is, I mean, the pickup, and we need to confirm that is always a good news because we like to have our business balance between projects and flow business, knowing that the flow business is usually a slightly higher gross margin. Also, obviously, because we have to manage the distribution centers and the branches, slightly higher cost to serve, but it's good to have a balance, and it's a good sign about the economy.

Next question is from William Mackie, Kepler.

A couple of questions. First one, just going back to North American growth. If you -- you said half of the growth is DC and network, broadband infrastructure. If we break that out of the other half, I mean, how would you describe the trends that are driving the other half of the growth in North America from which verticals? I'll save the other 2.

Yes. So on the other half, we have growth a little bit everywhere. I mean, first of all, I would say that the other half is probably a little bit lower in terms of price effect. I would say that probably on the data center and datacom side, there's a price effect because it's very exposed to cables is probably a little bit higher. So the volume effect in the other half, we have positive figures, slightly positive figures in the industry. So that's one. And within the commercial segment, the verticals which are working well, Laurent?

We have food and bev, pharma, hospitality are doing quite well. Mining also...

So it's a relatively contrasted situation by sector. But the important thing is us being exposed to many sectors in the same time, we have the ability to take advantage of the sectors which are growing and which right now are the ones that Laurent mentioned. So I hope it answers your question. So there is not one very weak segment. Everything is slightly positive, solid, robust, not explosive growth, obviously, but resilient trends.

The second is you've talked about the inflation gap and the weaker sales in Europe and the restructuring or adaptation measures were marginally higher. I mean what are you -- what should you be planning or what are you planning in terms of adaptation costs for the year now? Is that going up? And what sort of actions are you taking to ensure the productivity and efficiency hold on to the margin in regions like Europe?

I mean I could leave you, Laurent to...

Yes. Yes. So we continue to intensify our OpEx discipline and to execute on both restructuring plan, mostly U.K., Germany and our Axelerate '28. All of that will result in about a bit more savings in H2 '25 compared to the 31 basis points in H1. We still have some carryover of the '24 big restructuring because some of them were implemented late in Q4. And then we have all the new plan that starting in H1 and that will benefit to H2. So at the end, it will be around 20 basis points of savings that we will get on the full year basis based on what we are going to implement in H2.

And maybe let me comment on what is the right level and how do we know that we are doing it at the right level. To make a few comments about productivity. As we mentioned, we had more than 2% productivity, 2.2% FTE reduction for plus 0.4% volume evolution, which is a good performance in a difficult environment. Usually, in a difficult environment, you have more difficulties delivering productivity.

And if I get into the details, there was positive productivity in North America, which is not that easy, but still a little bit easier because there are positive volumes, obviously. But there was also in H1, positive productivity in Europe, which is an incredible performance. Now where do we [ stop ]? I mean, first of all, the main topic for us is to continue to deliver outstanding service to our customers.

At the end of the day, we are a services business, and we cannot cut to the extent that it would damage the service to the customers. The customers continue to expect a perfect service from Rexel. Now -- so what we do and the reason why we are able, despite that, to reduce the headcount more than the reduction of volumes is because of all these action plans that I was mentioning, action plans about automation, action plans about use of artificial intelligence in our back offices, et cetera, et cetera.

So I think we are quite proud of the performance that we have delivered, and we will continue to push those projects, which are fundamental, which are not just a short-term adaptation to volumes, but which are going to continue to deliver effects even after the cyclical recovery.

My last question just goes back to when we reflect on the great inflation wave in '22 and '23, your gross margins were boosted temporarily. As we look forward into the second half of this year, as the tariff pricing effect accelerates, are you building in any accretion to gross margin in the U.S. from inflationary-related effects?

Look, I mean, the way we look at those exceptional effects is that we tend to be relatively strict and to restate them in one-offs once they pass a certain threshold. But as you've seen in the first half in the U.S., the price effect -- non-cable price effect was 2.2% in North America, which is not that crazy and which is not triggering the need for us to restate that as a one-off effect. It will depend very much on how price evolve in the second half. We are -- we think that we're going to see probably a little bit more price overall, but we don't think that there is going to be an explosion of pricing. That's not the environment we live in.

At this stage -- I mean, the environment of tomorrow may be different. But at this stage, I don't see a strong acceleration of pricing in North America, probably a little bit more accretion to that and a little bit more tailwind on pricing in North America, but not super impressive. So I'm not absolutely sure that we will need to restate this in one-off.

But that being said, as you mentioned, any time there is a little bit of inflation, it helps us in terms of absorption of the fixed costs, especially because of the fact that on the other side, our cost base continues to inflate every year, a little bit more than 2% every year in terms of inflation embedded in the cost base, which is mostly salaries. And so we need to offset that, and it's obviously a help.

Next question is from George Featherstone, Barclays.

Couple of questions, please, and some of them are follow-ups. So I'll probably just give you them all and then you can take it how you'd like. First one on France. You've taken quite a bit of share again. You mentioned similar comments in the first quarter. So can you help us understand exactly what's driving this in your commercial practice in France? Maybe is there anything to call out there? Second thing, on the U.K. and Germany, you talked about restructuring.

There were 2 countries before that you called out as being profitability that were below the group average. Can you talk about the progress you've made on closing that gap? And then finally, just on current trading. Could we read from what you said so far that the July trading environment has been very similar to the second quarter?

Yes. So why are we gaining market share in France? I think it's -- I mean, it's not because we have lower prices than the competition. I think it's a combination of many things. It's a combination of perfect basic service and reliable basic service when it comes to logistics. That's one thing, availability of product logistics. Those are the basis of our business. And I think we have established over the years a reputation of having a flawless service. You have to understand that one delivery missed is one day lost for our customers. Their crews are waiting for the product, and it's a catastrophe for them.

So first of all, it starts with having a flawless track record in terms of delivering to our customers. It continues with having a range of additional services, which go very far. It can range from basic or advanced logistics services delivery in 2 hours. It can continue with the ability to help our customers design systems, preassemble systems, preassemble deliveries, all kind of things, and it continues with expertise and deep expertise on some advanced projects going to the extent that we can even, in some cases, design, operate, install on behalf of the customers when needed.

And so we have built over the years a full range of value-added services, which help us, I think, gain ground over competition. So it's a combination of all of that, plus I shouldn't forget the quality of our teams because when you are successful, usually, you attract the best teams. And so you enter into a positive momentum, which lasts. Now obviously, it's a combination of things. There is not one magic thing, which explains the fact that when you are there, you continue to benefit for a few quarters from a good momentum.

So it's not a surprise that we continue to gain market share. But it's also an explanation to the fact that in the U.K. and in Germany, where we are not in this situation, but rather in the reverse situation of having to rebuild all of those elements, which are part of the success. It takes a little bit of time. So we are progressing on a qualitative basis. We are also progressing when we look in details at the KPIs on a financial basis, but those countries remain less profitable than the average of the group.

And they have also -- they are also exposed, as you know, to markets which are in the same time, quite difficult, especially Germany. So we are progressing, and we will see the effects of that. I cannot point this quarter at meaningful financial results rather meaningful qualitative results. So that's what I would say. Current trading in July, according to expectations, so which means that it's a little bit higher than the figures that we have delivered for Q2.

Next question is from Max Yates, Morgan Stanley.

Could I just start on the growth, and I guess, particularly focused on the U.S. and where the price rises have occurred. Do you -- are you able to have conversations with your customers around sort of prebuying and whether you're feeling from sort of checking with some of your branches, whether those results may have seen any benefit from prebuying given the prices that you're putting through and I guess the expectation that prices will continue to go up in the second half? Or is it -- if it is just too hard to say, then I guess I understand as well.

Look, I mean, we don't like prebuying. We don't like prebuying on our side, which means that we don't do that, and we publish our inventory in number of days every quarter, so people can see that we are not doing that. And we are not advising our customers to do that, especially in the current situation because the uncertainty around pricing is still relatively high.

So we have not seen prebuying from our customers, and we have not done any prebuying on our side. We do not have the feeling from what we know that many of our competitors have done a lot of prebuying. So I would say that the supply chain is in a normal state, if that's your question. But that's a little bit the answer that I would give. I don't see a lot of impact of advanced buying in the results of Q2 or in what we are seeing right now.

Yes. No, that's helpful. And then just could I ask about your China comments? Sales obviously down 10%, and you talk about a competitive industrial market, yet the industrial automation selling prices are still positive. So could you maybe outline a little bit what's happening there? And I guess if I read between the lines, it feels -- or it sounds like you're losing some share with the products you're selling, maybe to some local competitors. But maybe if you could just sort of flesh that out, that would be helpful.

Laurent, do you want to answer this one?

Yes. I mean the market is very tough, especially with the tariff. We implement customer selectivity to protect the margin. But as you can see in the APAC gross margin, it's difficult to pass through all the inflation, and we have some squeeze on gross margin. We faced also supplier issue with our supply chain with the uncertainty in pricing and delivery issue.

And at the end, the domestic demand is very low and the export because of the tariff has reduced compared to the beginning of the year. So overall, in a very tough environment where the market is down, it's clear that we are quite exposed to large international supplier that are losing a [ bit ] ground compared to a local supplier on which we start to have relationship, but at a lower scale compared to the rest.

Okay. And that makes sense. Just final one. So you mentioned data center has now gone sort of 5% of your North America sales. And I think you said it felt like it was sort of below where it could potentially be and where you looked at versus other competitors. When you look at those competitors and when you look at the markets and you think about this business on maybe a 3- to 5-year view, how much could data center be of your sales if you maybe got your kind of rightful share in the U.S.?

No, clearly more than today. I don't want to give a figure, but there is very ample potential for us to -- I don't know what are the figures of our competitors. I would say they are probably more for the best competitors around double digit in terms of the percentage of their sales. So with 5%, we are really under par. To what extent can we organically reach the same level? I wouldn't be too ambitious on that. I mean that's a business which is competitive. Once again, it's not as simple as writing it on a piece of paper on a slide. You have to deliver, you have to prove your value to your customers, obviously, but we can certainly continue to progress.

Next question is from Andre Kukhnin, UBS.

I just wanted to follow up on a couple of things first. On the second half growth in North America and the pricing comment that you said that you're not seeing a substantial tick up. I think you saw 2.2% ex cable and 3% all in, in H1. And then you also mentioned high single digit or mid-single-digit to high single-digit increases of prices by suppliers. So I'm just wondering what is stopping this from going up by about 5 points in the second half.

What will be stopping it from going above 5 points is the category that I was talking about, which is steel piping. Steel piping is negative to the extent of double digit negative. And how much does it represent in the mix, Laurent?

A bit less than 10%.

A little bit less than 10%. So there is an adverse effect between 1% and 2% created by the steel piping deflation, which is probably going to sequentially improve progressively because we are starting to -- first of all, there is the tariff impact and there is also the fact that the comparison base is getting easier. But still, that's the adverse effect, and that's a little bit explaining what we are talking about. And there are a few categories which in terms of pricing are also a little bit lower than the mid-single digits that we were mentioning. Lighting is one of them where we are low single digit, for example.

Lighting is now -- okay. Is lighting not coming kind of under pressure of tariffs as well and hence not seeing price increases?

It is, but it's also a competitive...

And just also another one of these sort of first half, second half questions. On self-help, you helpfully guided for 20 basis points. And I just wanted to make sure I have the right H1 base. Is this the 31 that you gave in the first half on the profit bridge and hence...

Yes. It will be a bit more than 31 in H2 bridge. So on the full year -- it's around 20 bps on the full year bps.

Okay. Maybe I'll follow up. I thought the 30 and 30 should be 30 for the full year, not 20.

31 basis points in H1, and you will have a bit more in H2.

Okay. I'll take that. And then just last piece on North America, when you talked about market growth, I think you mentioned everyone growing apart from one or my line was maybe breaking up. Was that the case? And if that was -- what's the one end market that isn't growing?

End market, I mean, all end markets in Q2 are growing. I think residential, commercial and industry, all 3 of them are in growth mode, the weaker being probably residential. And in residential, once again, I mean, I will do my usual comment, which is that we are very local, which means that our exposure is mostly the Northwest of the U.S. So I'm not sure we are a reflection of the global residential market in the U.S., but we are slightly positive in the U.S. -- on the U.S. resi market, very slightly. So yes.

Great. And sorry, something else just come in, if I may. On the China question that you gave, you talked about one particular international supplier, I think, not performing. Is that one of the kind of large international players that you cited there? Or is that...

No [indiscernible] supplier that is suffering...

Last question is from Miguel Borrega, BNP Paribas Exane.

Two questions from me. The first one, just in Europe. I see your gross margin was up 5 basis points, but your adjusted EBITA down 55. On G&A, it's basically flat versus last year, but that trend was coming down sequentially. So have you basically reached your limit to how much you can take cost out?

Can you repeat a little bit slower, Miguel, because you're going too fast for my brain. Say it again.

Well, your gross margin is basically stable versus last year, but your adjusted EBITA margin is down. And the reason for that is your SG&A is basically flat on your sales being down. So the question is, have you basically reached the limit to how much you can take out from the cost base?

Look, I mean, no, we never reached a limit from this perspective. There are timings involved. If I take examples, in Germany, we have started to optimize our cost base, and we are now entering into a second phase, which is going to help. The other thing in H1, when you look at H1, don't forget from H1 to H1, the fact that there is an important calendar effect between '24 and '25, which is weighing adversely by 14 bps. So this one has to be taken into account when you look at the absorption of fixed cost and the overall profitability of H1 to H1 in Europe.

Kind of the same question for North America. Your growth was 6% in the first half, but your adjusted EBITA margin has only gone up 23 basis points with most of that coming from the gross margin. Can you try to give us some kind of color on the split between non-cable and volume in the first half? Because if there was more price than volume, I'm surprised to see so little margin expansion. So what is limiting that margin then? You talked about steel pipe, but I'm imagining that, that's a small percentage of your product envelope.

Laurent, do you want to take this one?

Well, first, the operating leverage is lower than in Europe because we have -- we are on project. We have transportation cost and a couple of additional costs that are factored into the operating leverage that bring it lower to Europe. When we look at the bridge, we see exactly the same effect as in Europe with a calendar effect also when we compare last year to this year. And then we have also some inflation in our costs that are [ weighing ] and with commission on the top line that are [ weighing ] a bit more than in Europe in our evolution to last year.

Okay. So in the first half in North America, was there more volume or non-cable pricing in the growth contribution?

There have been more volume...

We have an additional question from Eric Lemarie, CIC.

I got 2 questions, please. The first one on digital sales. You mentioned in the press release that in Europe, it's 43% of your sales and 24% in North America. And I was wondering if you continue to see a relation between the penetration of digital sales and operating margin level. That's my first question. I got another question, if I may. Can you give us a bit of color on your current M&A pipeline, please?

So on the first one, yes, I mean, you know that there is -- and I think we highlighted that at our Capital Market Day last year. There is a broad correlation between being highly digital and being profitable. Why is that? It's not really because there would be higher margins in digital. You are talking to the same kind of customer base, and you're giving them the same pricing when they buy digital compared to when they buy by phone. So it's not because of gross margin. It's mostly because of 2 things. One small effect, which is the productivity that it allows you to unlock the fact that you are going digital, everything is seamless, the order taking.

So it gains time, obviously. But more importantly, going to high levels of digital penetration forces a given Rexel country to be good at many things, in terms of the offer plan, in terms of the supplier selection, in terms of the logistics organization, in terms of the pricing programs that we have. All of that needs to be perfectly in place for us to be able to go digital. And one good example is pricing. If by going to a branch, you can get 1 or 2 additional percent because the counter guy is your friend, then you're going to go to the branch. So to be able to go digital and to convince your customers to go digital, you need to have a consistent pricing metrics, both in digital and in the branches.

And the effect of going to a consistent pricing metrics are positive for the overall business, not only for the digital part of the business. So that's one of the reasons that we see a correlation. It's not causality, it's more correlation. The fact that you put the building blocks in place to go digital are forcing you to be good at many things. So yes, in the end, it's one of the reasons why we push digital, the fact that only excellent countries can have a high level of digital penetration. And I already [indiscernible] question, which was the M&A pipeline. Okay.

So the M&A pipeline, as you saw, we have done 5 small to midsized acquisitions, rather small sized and midsized acquisitions in the first half. I have to say that the M&A landscape, and it's true for us and from what I can read, it's true also from the rest of the industry is not super active, especially because the economic uncertainty on many things, including tariffs, including tax environment, et cetera. is not helping deciding people to sell. So the pipeline is not super full at this stage. There are a few opportunities that we are pursuing, and you're going to continue to see us active in the second half. But it's probably overall not to be a record year in terms of M&A.

Mr. Texier, there are no more questions registered at this time.

So in this case, I'd like to thank you for giving us your time this evening in a busy results season. I know that you have many other releases during the week, and we'll discuss again in October for the Q3 results. Thank you very much, and have a good rest of the summer.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.