Saint-Gobain Aktie

Good morning. It is my pleasure today to present our first half 2026 results together with Maud Thuaudet, our Group CFO. Once again, we delivered a very strong performance in the first half.

To show our Lead & Grow plan in action, as always, I start with a few examples of Saint-Gobain solutions being used around the world in iconic residential or nonresidential buildings such as this Brazilian medical center, also this airport in Singapore, where we leveraged our waterproofing solutions to enter early in the specification stage in the project and subsequently specified 12 other Saint-Gobain solutions, both in the building and on the runways. So Lead & Grow in action very actively across the board.

Now moving to our financials. We have delivered strong operational execution in H1 2026. Organic sales growth up 0.7%, strong EBITDA margin at 15.4%, robust EUR 1.7 billion recurring net income and also strong free cash flow with a 65% conversion ratio on EBITDA.

In the first half of 2026, we have also delivered successfully on our key Lead and Grow strategic priorities. On outperformance, first, all regions have been growing strongly in the second quarter and have accelerated the rollout of their solutions in nonresidential and infrastructure markets. Altogether, the group has delivered plus 3.5% organic growth in the second quarter.

Second priority, we continue to invest in high-growth markets. Our Construction Chemicals solutions have strongly outperformed. It's a strategic priority as well, strongly outperformed with 8.5% organic sales growth in the second quarter. And 13 out of our 14 new lines and plants have been opened in H1 in North America, in Asia and emerging markets.

So a very decisive and clear capital allocation on growth markets. And finally, as you have seen, we have moved decisively on M&A with 23 acquisitions and divestments being signed or closed in the first half with around EUR 3 billion of sales rotated since the beginning of the year. That is 1/3 already 1/3 of our sales rotation target of more than 20% by 2030. So altogether, I'm very pleased with both the strong operational and the strong strategic execution of the group in the first half of 2026, which bodes well for the rest of the year and for all our Lead & Grow plan for the next 5 years. I now leave the floor to Maud, who will take us through our financial metrics.

Thank you, Benoit. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to give you the details of our financial performance for the first half 2025 -- '26. And I will start with the top line, where we achieved sales growth of 0.7% like-for-like in H1. This was driven by a robust Q2, up 3.5% like-for-like with growth in all our regions.

We saw strong growth in Asia Pacific, up 7% like-for-like, a return to growth in Europe, up 4% and positive like-for-like growth in the Americas. Prices were up 0.8% in H1, stable in Q1 and up 1.6% in Q2, thanks to the price increases and the transportation surcharges that we passed as the cost environment turned inflationary. This reflects again the value added of our solutions and the disciplined execution of our teams. As you know, the situation in the Middle East is volatile and changing day by day.

We continue to expect mid-single-digit inflation on our EUR 12 billion raw material, transportation and energy bill, but this is a moving target for 2026. Overall, we remain confident to deliver a slight positive price/cost spread for the full year. On energy specifically, I would highlight that our energy bill is below 4% of group sales, half gas, half electricity, and we are well hedged for the year and beyond for this year at 75% plus in 2026.

The exchange rate impact was minus 1.3% in H1, including around minus 6% in North America and Asia. It turned slightly positive in Q2. For the structure impact, it was minus 0.5% in the first half, reflecting our active management of the group's profile. We have announced or closed divestments and acquisitions close to EUR 3 billion year-to-date with an accretive impact on the margins of 40 to 50 basis points on a full year basis.

We are again strengthening the profile of the group, allocating capital to our investment priorities. Regarding EBITDA and margins, we delivered strong operational execution with an EBITDA margin of 15.4%. This benefited from the return to growth in Q2. Foreign exchange still had a negative impact in H1 as the regions most impacted by the depreciation versus the euro were North America and Asia and have higher margins than the group's average. Hence, there was a dilutive effect.

Depreciation increased by 3% in H1 with the recent opening of new lines and plants. Now if I move to EPS, nonoperating costs were similar in H1 2025 and we continue to expect a bit below EUR 250 million average per year. The capital gains and losses line is particularly low this half, but should improve once we close the Dahl divestment. Net financial expense was slightly down with the decrease in gross debt.

The tax rate on recurring net income was 25%. And lastly, EPS decreased 2.6% in local currencies. Let's look at cash now. We generated free cash flow of EUR 2.1 billion in H1 with a cash conversion ratio of 65% on EBITDA and 125% on recurring net income. Operating working capital was stable at 24 days sales in June 2026, a very good level.

CapEx was at a similar level to last year, and we expect it to remain around EUR 2 billion for the full year. We maintained a strong financial discipline and a strong balance sheet. The net debt ratio is 1.6x. We once again made disciplined capital allocation decisions towards value creation for shareholders with EUR 1.4 billion returned to shareholders in H1, including EUR 292 million of share buyback year-to-date, reflecting our opportunistic approach to our share buyback program and around 90% of our growth CapEx and investment in M&A were deployed in high-growth markets.

Return on capital employed over the first half reached 13.5% in local currencies, impacted in actual terms by the foreign exchange. Now let's look at the results by region, starting with Europe. Looking at Europe overall, we saw a return to growth in H1 with sales up 1.7% like-for-like. This was driven by Q2 with like-for-like growth of 4.1%, the strongest growth in the region since 2022. In terms of local dynamics, first starting with Northern Europe, we delivered 3.7% organic growth in Q2, driven by all countries with the exception of the U.K., which faced a softer market.

Elsewhere, Nordic countries grew, also benefiting from the mix improvement with high value-added solutions. Germany returned to growth, supported by good trends in insulation and light construction. And Northern Europe continued to outperform with double-digit growth in Poland and in the Czech Republic, including an additional 1 percentage point achieved, thanks to cross-selling by the teams.

Now turning to Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, which delivered 4.5% organic growth in Q2, driven by new construction, Industrial Solutions and market outperformance. We continue to outperform in France, thanks to our large offer in terms of solutions and services. Spain and Italy grew with continued market share gains in interior solutions and construction markets. The Middle East achieved double-digit growth in Q2 with a strong performance from Turkey and all the tribute going to our exceptional teams in the region.

In terms of margins, Europe were flat over the half and the start of the year was affected by unfavorable weather conditions, but by return -- balanced by return to growth in Q2 and good pricing and cost management. Moving to the Americas. North America saw 1.2% organic growth in Q2, a strong improvement compared to Q1 with the normalization of weather conditions.

Despite new construction remaining down, volumes were driven by roofing, plasterboard, siding and construction chemicals, where we continue to outperform strongly with double-digit growth. Prices increased slightly year-on-year in Q2 and sequentially, the price increases led to more substantial improvement. Latin America decreased 1.3% like-for-like over H1 on a high comparison basis.

The region saw slight volume growth, but prices below last year given lower raw material and energy prices in H1. Prices were up in May and June, however, as the environment turned inflationary. If I look now in Brazil, new construction market is soft, but we continue to gain market share in light construction and construction chemicals. Mexico and Central America continue to benefit from the double-digit growth of Cemix. Overall, the Americas region delivered an EBITDA margin of 19.5%, stable versus H2 2025 as we expected. Turning lastly to Asia Pacific, which grew 8.4% in local currencies and 7% like-for-like in H1 with growth in all our major countries as well as in Industrial Solutions.

India once again delivered double-digit growth, volume growth and further market share gains, thanks to our complete innovative and sustainable offer. We participated to a number of infrastructure and nonresidential projects, thanks to a particularly well-fitted construction chemicals offer from FOSROC. Southeast Asia continued to show dynamic growth with double-digit growth in Vietnam, in Indonesia and the Philippines. Australia saw growth accelerate in Q2 in an improving new construction market. We are benefiting there from our specification model.

Last, in China, once again, we outperformed, continuing our growth seen in -- since H2 2025. The EBITDA margin for the region reached a record of 18.5%, supported by volume growth and good price and cost management. So to sum up, we delivered robust Q2 growth with positive like-for-like in all our regions.

Operational performance was strong with good price realization. Our priorities from here are clear: outperformance, margin, cash and disciplined capital allocation. We are fully committed to deliver value creation for our shareholders. Now Benoit, I turn it to you for the strategy.

Thank you, Maud. Let me now give you an update on our strategy. We are the only provider of comprehensive solutions, delivering both performance and sustainability across all construction markets. And this is a crucial competitive advantage and our solutions through a push and pull dynamic deliver value for Saint-Gobain with cross-selling, upselling and specified sales that increase our share of wallet, our mix and our margin. We have also broadened our addressable markets to target EUR 500 billion across residential, nonresidential and infrastructure markets. And as you know, we systematically roll out our solutions across all our geographies. So let's start with a look at Europe first. New build is improving, driven by better affordability since 2023.

We see today strong improvement in housing starts across multiple countries. We also continue to see policies that are supportive for energy-efficient renovation. And importantly, this is what you have at the bottom of the slide, Green value continues to increase, up 8 points on average, reflected in real estate overall prices. We are well positioned with our unique one-stop shop offer.

We are the partner of choice for more than 400,000 craftsmen in France with, for example, a unique customer journey dedicated to energy efficiency performance upgrades. We track our solutions on added value products, 47% of sales in Germany, on specified sales, 37% in Czech Republic, -- staying in Eastern Europe, you have seen that it's a very strong dynamic as we speak for us.

So in Eastern Europe, cross-selling gains generated approximately 1% of additional growth in the first half. In Europe, we also leveraged our full range offer to expand in nonresidential and infrastructure markets. Take schools, for instance, we know it was a very acute topic in the last weeks in France, but across Europe.

They have been severely disrupted by the successive heat waves in the recent weeks. We can decrease indoor temperatures by at least 10 degrees during a heat wave, thanks to our full range building envelope offer for summer comfort, including solar control glass, cool roof waterproofing, attics and facade insulation, distribution digital services and so on.

Once again, climate adaptation is an urgent need. The cost of inaction starts to escalate rapidly. So climate adaptation is growing in Europe and around the world. Saint-Gobain is there to deliver the best comprehensive offer. I now turn to North America, where we are the preferred partner for our customers in residential.

Our strong leadership allows us to further roll out cross-selling actions. And I can tell you that having invested more than $8 billion in the last years makes us extremely credible in the eyes of this win-win partnership with the large distributors. With our full exterior solutions, we are the best player to address the increasingly extreme weather conditions in North America. We have, for instance, a differentiated offer, including our patented integrity roof system that exceeds the Fortified standards and can reduce insurance premium by at least 22%. So a very meaningful economic impact.

As a result, we have a 7% increase in our contractor engagement program and strong brand loyalty across our multiple products. In North America, we are also expanding in nonresidential and infrastructure markets. We are well positioned to serve fast-growing segments such as hospitals, data centers and airports.

We have established strong dedicated offers, and we differentiate with highly innovative solutions, not only on building materials, but for instance, like our chip-level liquid cooling tubes for data centers, very, very close to the processing units.

As announced this week, we have also signed a framework agreement with Microsoft to help them accelerate the build-out of their data center footprint using the full set of group integrated solutions. On infrastructure, we will soon further enrich further our offer with the recently announced Xypex acquisition in Crystalline waterproofing. Let's now turn to India, Southeast Asia, where we outperformed with our solutions.

We have delivered double-digit sales growth in local currencies in the first half in those geographies. In India, first, where we have the undisputed #1 position on buildings that has been the case for several years already. We are expanding fast on infrastructure with our sales being multiplied by 4x last year, thanks to our leadership in construction chemicals that we have acquired with FOSROC delivering extremely well altogether in India.

In Southeast Asia, we have also delivered strong sales growth in H1, leveraging dedicated specification teams and catalogs on our priority end markets. Look at Australia, where we have a #1 position in interior and exterior solutions with extremely strong and iconic brands and also a very strong key account management approach across architects, builders, contractors, and we leverage all this towards the full Saint-Gobain offer accelerating in Australia and New Zealand.

In Mexico, we are also accelerating on cross-selling and specification with Cemix leading the way and continuing with a double-digit sales growth now for 18 months since the acquisition in early 2025. So I've gone through the first 2 pillars of Lead & Grow, which are the rollout of our solutions both across geographies and also end markets. Now the third pillar of our strategic plan is to continue to optimize with determination the profitable growth profile of the group, which has created over the last years, a lot of value for our shareholders and will continue. We continue to actively steer our portfolio optimization.

We have rotated around EUR 3 billion of sales since the beginning of the year, of which EUR 2.8 billion with divestments and a bit more than EUR 200 million in acquisitions. We continue to build and work on a healthy pipeline of value-creative acquisitions. And we are always very disciplined on capital allocation with the same clear priorities day in, day out. We invest on the higher growth regions in North America, Asia, emerging countries with 90% of our acquisitions and growth CapEx being invested in those regions on the first half.

And we invest on construction chemicals. This is our journey towards EUR 9 billion of sales by 2030. So it's both a very strong performance on organic growth plus acquisitions with very attractive ones in the first half, such as Xypex in North America that I already mentioned, AGC waterproofing in Japan that we have announced at the beginning of this week and also Morteros de Europa in Dominican Republic.

You know that at the core of our value creation model, we have our country platforms with experienced and empowered country CEOs compounding profitable growth. Take, for example, North America, where our teams have increased our sales by 60% since 2019. Mexico, Eastern Europe, India, Southeast Asia, where we have multiplied our turnover by 1.5 to more than 2x over the same period.

All our country CEOs, I can tell you, are committed to creating value and outperforming our market by rolling out operational excellence and the full offer, the full solutions offer towards all their end markets. In order to do that, our country CEOs, they are helped by multiple group expertise platforms. One of them is on AI. We leverage on artificial intelligence, the group scale, expertise, master data. We have been a very large organization.

We have a lot of data. This is extremely important to train the LLMs. And we are rapidly rolling out our advanced purpose-built AI solutions that create a significant competitive advantage for the group. In distribution, we are multiplying our sales opportunities with very fast automated quotes. It's a big job within the sales outlet to answer quotes for the craftsmen and the faster you answer the higher the chance for the craftsmen to win the ultimate job.

This is what we call internally our DeviGo solution, enhancing customer experience and salespeople productivity for, at the end, a larger average basket, saving time. So they have time to work on something else and follow up with customers, so increasing customer intimacy and also better mix in terms of sales.

We also rely on in-house AI tools to increase the conversion rate of our specification sales. On R&D, another example, we leverage AI to substantially increase material discovery and time to market up to 40%. And in our plants on manufacturing, we roll out tailor-made AI tools to increase efficiency. For instance, when you have a changeover from product A to product B in manufacturing, you can use AI quite a lot. And of course, we are generalizing the use of AI tools across all support functions to boost the group's efficiency. Let's now turn to our outlook for the rest of the year. You can see our expectations for each geography with overall like-for-like sales growth in the second half.

Europe growth with contrasted trends by country, Americas growth in an uncertain environment and Asia Pacific growth led notably by India and Southeast Asia. We expect an EBITDA margin of more than 15% in 2026. To conclude, we are well on track to succeed in our Lead & Grow strategy, leveraging on our 2026 momentum. Lead & Grow gives us a very powerful road map for the next 4.5 years. First, deepening and reaching our value-enhancing solutions and expanding them across nonresidential and infrastructure markets where we have a lot of market share still to gain.

We have seen the momentum in the first half already. And second, sharpening constantly the group's business profile through active and value-creative portfolio rotation. All this with ongoing excellence in execution supported by our proven operating model by country. So I'm very confident that all this will continue to deliver strong value creation for all Saint-Gobain stakeholders and that 2026 will be a good year for Saint-Gobain.

Thank you very much, and we now turn to your questions for both Maud and myself.

[Operator Instructions] There are no questions in the room. I see a lot of Saint-Gobain faces. So we will take questions from Saint-Gobain a bit later on. So let's start maybe Jean-Christophe, one question from the room.

I have a question on the construction chemicals. Recently, there was an agreement -- framework agreement between Chryso, Bouygues, Point.P and regarding Ecocem regarding to provide better solutions for ready-mix concrete. Can we have more flavor on this? And does it mean that step by step, the value will be transferred from cement to ready-mix concrete?

Well, thank you. Maybe not everyone is familiar with your topic. Indeed, we have a participation, which is very interesting in Ecocem, which is very low carbon cement out of slag. And with the addition of Chryso, of course, you need special mixtures for that. So it's the journey of Saint-Gobain to deliver sustainability and performance across the value chain of construction.

We all know the big, big topic is to decarbonize both concrete and cement. So Ecocem with the innovation of Chryso is important. Of course, Point.P is also part of the equation and using that. So it's our journey towards decarbonization, sustainability performance. So -- each time you do that, there is more value indeed on the special admixtures or the special additives. So it's good. And it's very important now that we have the full presence across the value chain.

So it has been almost a 20% partnership with Ecocem, but the addition of Chryso in the last 4, 5 years, of course, has been extremely important to align all the dots on the journey. And Ecocem is growing fast indeed because we need to move towards more low-carbon cement. So there are multiple investments from Ecocem going forward, but I think some of them are confidential. So -- but yes, it's a growing journey and very important for Saint-Gobain for Chryso both on growth and innovation.

The ABCD agreement, or ABCD is not only for ready-mix concrete also for cement or the solutions will be priority dedicated to concrete ready-mix concrete.

No. Ecocem is active on cement. So it's also valid for low carbon cement.

Thank you. Any other questions from the room? I don't see. So let's come to the call. I think it's a question from Elodie. If you can see also the screen on Saint-Gobain screen.

Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes.

I'll start with price/cost spread. So you've reiterated that you expect positive price cost for the year. But I was wondering if you can give us some color on H1 price cost. I imagine it was a bit difficult with the U.S. And second, staying on the U.S., if you can give us some color on margins for H2? You kindly gave us some guidance into H1 at around the same level of H2 '25.

So now that we're normalizing weather, should we expect H2 margins to be above H1 -- and then lastly, I don't want to take too much time, but if you can give us some color on the pricing already secured for Q3 and how it compares to the 1.9% impact in Q2? And out of that 1.9%, how much of the price increase was due to fuel surcharges that could potentially be given back if this decrease?

Thank you, Elodie. So I suggest Maud you take #1 and #3, and I will answer number 2.

Sure. So regarding price cost spread, indeed, we said we confirm we would deliver slight positive price/cost spread for the full year. If I look at how we have delivered in H1, again, I mentioned that we have seen pricing realizing through Q2 to indeed overall reach 1.8%.

We are slightly negative as we speak in terms of price/cost spread, and we'll continue to work towards this slightly positive price cost for the full year. It's been a very hard work from the teams, obviously, to deliver country by country, and I'm quite happy with how we have taken measures from day 1 from the beginning of the conflict and ramped up on the price realization, and it's going as planned as far as price cost spread is concerned.

Question number two, so your questions on margins in the second half. Margins in the second half should not be very different from last year, probably a bit below.

We have new construction, which remains weak versus some of the past last year. We have the assumption also of continued inflation, which is still going on in North America. And of course, we are working on it on the pricing on the pricing side to catch up and continue to catch up in terms of pricing, also keeping in mind the strong timing of price increase that we had last year.

We have a good momentum, a very good momentum on nonresidential infrastructure and particularly construction chemicals, which should continue. The weather impact has been normalized. So any weather impact could be an upside, of course, in roofing going forward. Now there are still a bit of volatility in the U.S. in the second half.

So this is the picture all in all in North America. It's still early in the second half, but I can tell you that the teams are very dedicated on the ground, and we have been happy about the performance and the delivery in the second half, both in terms of volumes and also pricing improving strongly in the second quarter.

Yes. And the third question regarding in particular surcharges. So we passed transportation surcharges in some geographies, transportation being quite volatile with the fluctuation of the oil price. Just to remind you that transportation costs are about EUR 2 billion out of our EUR 12 billion total raw material, energy and transportation costs.

So that gives you an order of magnitude. And obviously, in terms of where we are in pricing, again, we've seen good momentum and good mobilization from the team as soon as the conflict started. So again, I'm looking at -- with quite a lot of confidence on H2 with us, of course, being opportunistic on the surcharge and being very watchful of all the situation in terms of inflation, where, as I said, the situation is quite evolving day by day.

Thank you. Now we have questions from CIC, I see. Please go ahead. If not from CIC with second on the list, we'll go to Arnaud from Bank of America.

Hello.

I think it's Yes, go ahead one of you.

It's Arnaud from Bank of America. I'll go ahead.

A couple of questions. Firstly, on volumes, a decent performance in both Europe and Americas in the second quarter. Do you think there was any element of prebuying that supported Q2 volumes that could maybe a little bit of a payback effect in the third quarter as the price increases have not been implemented.

But on the other hand, you've upgraded the qualitative comments in the guide to growth for all 3 regions. So I guess the question is, do you think the volume momentum can be maintained in the second half or Q2 was supported by prebuying effects? And my second question is on AI. You mentioned a lot of initiatives. Have you put a number on the potential savings or productivity gains that AI could generate for Saint-Gobain?

You take the first one, Maud.

Yes, sure. In terms of pre-buying, as we said also at the end of Q1, it's quite limited, as distributors have limited ability to stock in the supply chains. We would not anticipate a very significant pre-buy impact. And that was -- yes, that was it.

And I can tell you that in July, we see a continuation of Q2 good momentum. So obviously, we clearly expect like-for-like growth in H2 for the group.

With, of course, depending on the duration of the conflict, you might have a bit more of pricing versus volume. So that will evolve as the situation evolves because, again, it's quite fluctuating.

And on AI, Arnaud this is, of course, a moving topic, but I can tell you that all the group is strongly mobilized, and I highlighted just a few examples. Fundamentally, we go after growth. Of course, there will be efficiency gains. But fundamentally, it's a fantastic tool for us to outperform the market.

I shared the example of this unique the DeviGo tool for our distribution business in France. But I can tell you on the cross-selling, all the opportunities on specified sales, we have designed, for instance, multiple suites of initiatives for sales, for salespeople on how to get trained on all the offer of Saint-Gobain, how to look at quotes, how to go after specification, how to cross-sell. So it's more a growth agenda than a pure cost savings.

Of course, we will gain efficiency and have some resources that we will redirect elsewhere, if you can improve so much with customer service, that means you have more time to pick up the phone and call on additional customers. So it's more this sales growth momentum that we are looking at the time to market on R&D. If you are faster to launch new products, it's more growth rather than taking 10%, 20% or 30% of the R&D capabilities of Saint-Gobain, which are unique. So it's a growth momentum.

And it's already delivering some outperformance. If you think of the example of Brazil, where we have a dedicated AI tool to train the sales forces, that's already part of the explanation of the outperformance that we see in that country.

So I guess we lost the question from CIC, which disappeard from the screen. So maybe we will have answered that already. And we go to UBS, Julian Radlinger, please.

I think Elodie wanted to follow up on just for clarification before I ask my 2 other questions, which is what you just said about margins being down. Can you repeat that? I just wanted to make sure I got it correctly. Did you say group margins in the second half of the year down versus the second half of last year, possibly?

This is not what I said. Elodie asked specifically about margins in North America. And I said that margins in North America should not be very different from last year. If I take the group margin, you have the target for the year, above 15% EBITDA.

As you know, we are always very ambitious on the margin. I think there was a nice beat on the margin in the first half. Remember that we delivered semester by semester on the margin. So we stay very ambitious for the margin at the group level in North America, we said that it will be more or less. In the Americas, it will be more or less the same than last year, if anything, slightly below.

Again, it's early in the semester, and there is a bit of volatility or unknown midterm election in November, et cetera, et cetera, in the U.S. And any weather impact, which we have not factored could be an addition and an upside also in North America.

Okay. Super. Second half of the year, you're referring -- you're not saying full year similar to full year last year, second half similar to that.

I think I've been clear on second half. I commented answering the question of Elodie, which was specifically on second half Americas margin.

Okay. Okay. Perfect. I apologize. Okay. So my 2 other questions are. Number one, it looks like return on capital employed went down in the half year and dipped below the 13% floor, which is the guidance for the strategic period right now. Is there anything specific that's driving that, that you want to call out? And when might that turn around?

Yes, I can answer that. And I think I partly answered in my speech, which is basically at constant foreign exchange rate, we reached 13.5%. So you have a strong dilutive effect from the FX at this stage, but we definitely plan to be within our guidance of above 13% for the full year.

Okay. Super. And then the other one is for you, Benoit. So you recently gave a media interview where you spoke about increasing your exposure to North America quite substantially. I think you said that you see it going from 20% roughly to 30% over a number of years.

Now some of your core business lines there, of course, you have quite substantial market share. So I guess that wouldn't be an option. So my question is, what's the key focus there for you in North America in terms of organic and especially inorganic growth?

And specifically, is commercial roofing, can you remind us what your stance is on commercial roofing? Is that something that's interesting to you? You're obviously not really there yet in a big way. Is that something that you might think about looking at?

Indeed, yes. What I said basically, it was an interview in the Financial Times that was published earlier this week, if I'm correct. It's to basically grow from a 20%, 22%, depending on the exchange rate share of the group towards 30%.

This is, by the way, what we highlighted already at the time of the Capital Markets Day of Lead & Grow. So remember, there was a specific slide on the evolution of the different regions within Saint-Gobain, less Europe. And I can tell you that in the first half with the sales rotation we have done, we have already changed by 3 points, the share of Europe versus North America, Asia, emerging markets and investing faster as we have done towards North America and Asia emerging markets.

So it's highlighting and putting numbers on this interview. Many fronts, I would say. First, continue to deliver well on organic growth, leveraging our solutions. We do that. We gain share. I think some of our performance in the second quarter versus the market, again, is that, notably on construction chemicals. So we continue to gain share, thanks to our solutions. We have a lot still on organic to do on nonresidential and infrastructure market on organic.

After that, on top of it, yes, we will look at acquisitions. And most of them, as you highlighted, will be directed towards increasing our presence on nonresidential and infrastructure market. Xypex is bang in line with that. Interstar last year in Canada was also construction chemical, bang in line with that.

So we have both organically and inorganically, a lot to continue to build in terms of offer, market share and therefore, sales growth within Saint-Gobain on nonresidential and infrastructure markets where we have now dedicated teams on construction chemicals, specifically, we had double-digit growth in the second quarter in North America. So that shows the strength of the teams on which it is quite powerful to build further momentum.

Commercial roofing specifically for us, it's around $400 million. That's something we could grow organically or inorganically. We have no specific project as we speak. But clearly, any meaningful value creative evolution on nonresidential and infrastructure, we will look at it with always the same discipline but continue to build on our platform, both in the U.S. and Canada.

Let's not forget about Canada. We are #1 in Canada on building materials with a very good presence and quite a good momentum. So it's both U.S. and Canada. So it was basically expliciting on the FT, what we said maybe a bit too fast during the Lead & Grow Capital Markets Day.

There was a lot of information. Thank you very much.

Next question from Bernstein.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

So my first question, again, on U.S. roofing. So last year, obviously, the segment was negatively impacted because of the lack of storms. And this year, for Q2, you highlighted that you are starting to see strong roofing volumes already. And I believe this is the big hurricane season. So what are your expectations for the segment going into H2?

Are we starting to see some of the big storms yet? So that's my first question. And my second question is on M&A. So you have already made a very strong start to your M&A target of rotating to 20% of your assets by 2030. And the Nordic distribution sale was at a very attractive multiple. So congratulations on that. So now basically, the other big divestment area that remains is potentially Autoglass. What are you seeing on that? What's the interest like?

And also if you can talk about some of your -- what your acquisition pipeline looks like at the moment?

So on the first question, we -- what Maud said is that we are seeing a normalized weather in Q2. It's still early in, I would say, the hurricane season in the second half. And so far, Saint-Gobain is not a weather forecaster. So I can tell you that we see normal volumes as we speak.

Again, still early in the season. Any meaningful weather activity, so-called weather activity will be an upside going forward for roofing. But we have not banked anything like that in our overall forecast. On M&A, Well, we have done a very large portion of what we wanted to do in terms of divestiture.

As you know, we are always looking at opportunities with not. So we will continue to do that. But there is no specific project as we speak. Autoglass, I said it multiple times, it's very intricated in the glass overall performance of the group with a lot of innovation, a lot of joint sites, a lot of joint R&D, notably all the technologies on coating. We are performing well, well above the market, both in terms of margin and growth on that business, which delivers growth. So it's part of the core strategy of Saint-Gobain going forward. We have fantastic growth in Mexico, in India, in all those emerging markets. So there is no particular idea for Autoglass divestiture.

As I said, now we are on the acquisition side, mostly. Part of that was already asked by UBS analyst a bit earlier. So we have a rich pipeline of accretive and attractive targets that we will roll out in the coming years along the same lines and the same criteria, high-growth regions, North America, Asia, emerging markets and construction chemicals.

You have seen that also we announced something on plasterboard in Vietnam. We are #1 in Vietnam. That's a country which is moving towards EUR 250 million, EUR 300 million of sales. So it's a meaningful country with double-digit growth. So we continue to have those acquisitions pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions, and this is how we can continue to create very significant value for the shareholders.

Ebrahim is back.

Yes. Ebrahim, please turn.

I have 2, if I may. The first one is about the price effect. How much of this 1.6% in Q2 will mechanically be carried over into H2? And my second question is about your cross-selling strategy. Could you please quantify the contribution of this strategy to your outperformance in H1?

Yes. Regarding your question, I think I understood about the carryover in terms of pricing. Is that correct? So, yes, indeed, we will see that carryover. Of course, being, again, very agile based on the situation of where inflation goes, and we will pilot that very thinly.

It's always a very -- on the field for the teams, for the commercial teams always a very thin trade-off of commercial aggressivity and then putting the pricing. At the end, the target is slight positive price cost spread, and that's what we target, maximizing the growth, slight positive price cost spread and delivering a good year for Saint-Gobain.

And on your question on cross-selling, we have highlighted some examples country by country because I think it's important to go on the ground country by country. So it's part of the 1% to 2% outperformance that we want to deliver. For instance, I said cross-selling specifically in Eastern Europe was 1% of additional growth.

But more importantly, it's not only growth, it's also margin because when you cross-sell, you tend to have the same SG&A resources. And of course, you have then a better impact on the margin. So -- now outperformance could be bigger. If I take construction chemicals, 8.5% in the second quarter. It's more 3 points of outperformance than 1 to 2 points. So this is cross-selling, upselling and also specified sales. This is the way we monitor our solutions rollout country by country. We have a question now from Rothschild on the call.

Will Jones from Rothschild & Co Redburn.

Firstly, maybe just going a little deeper on volumes in the second half. Clearly, you talked about sales growth across each of the regions. I just wondered whether you'd be willing to give a view on what the like-for-like volume picture might be either at group or by region?

Second, on energy and raw materials, I'm sorry if I missed it in the initial presentation, but are you still confirming where you were before on energy and raw materials for '26? And as you think about hedges rolling off into next year, would you have any view as to at spot levels, what the carry, if you like, into '27 might be?

And then lastly, perhaps you just help us with some below line items. I think in the first half, a few of those came in better than I might have thought from the finance bill to tax. I think there was a nonrecurring or a noncore business contribution. But just with the full year in mind, I don't know if you could maybe help us with a few of the technical items below EBIT, please?

So maybe I'll take the first and you take the rest, Maud. So turning into the second half, clearly, we see like-for-like sales growth in the second half. Depending on how the situation goes, there could be a bit more pricing than volumes.

But clearly, all this moving in the right direction. If I give you a bit of color by region, in Europe, we continue to expect sales growth driven notably by new construction. It will still be a bit contrasted by country, for instance, U.K. being down.

But in other countries, we have double-digit housing starts, be it in France, Germany and some of the Nordic countries, Eastern Europe being also very, very strong. North America, we will have an easier comparison basis.

We are a bit cautious going forward on new construction, which remains weak. As I said, we have no crystal ball on the weather demand, but it could be an upside, potential upside for roofing. And Asia Pacific, we enjoy and we continue to expect to enjoy strong growth driven by the market demand, the penetration also of our solutions, the outperformance that we have clearly by 3 or 4 points in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam or India in particular.

So we are confident that we will have good growth in Asia Pacific. You have seen that also Australia turned to kind of mid-single-digit type of growth, which is a good momentum as well in Asia Pacific and in Australia specifically. So moving in the right direction for the second half.

Okay. So regarding your question on energy, again, EUR 2 billion of energy bill. We are hedged half gas, half electricity. We are hedged, what I said is 75% plus for this year. And of course, the way we hedge is always year 1, year 2, year 3. So you can imagine that we have taken some -- we are well hedged ahead of 2026.

To your question about the below-the-line items, if I go line by line, I would say that on the capital gains and losses on disposals, there we -- once we close the Dahl divestment, we will get a positive on this line.

On this particular half, we have had an impact from the currency translation effect from the Telhanorte distribution in Brazil. But again, when we close the Dahl distribution, and we indicated that should be by early 2027, that should turn -- that should be reversed.

If I look then at net financial expense, it is slightly below last year and should remain so. Income tax was for this half at 25%, which is roughly where we are. It can fluctuate a little bit, but this is roughly where we are.

So let's turn now to the questions from the Internet. We'll start with Paul Roger. I will read the question because I'm not sure everyone reads or sees the question. So let's read them.

From Paul, you have reference AI tools helping drive outperformance like DeviGo in France, for example, are your platforms global? How much are you investing in AI and are capabilities built in-house or outsourced?

So some platforms are local. If I take distribution in France, it's for distribution France because this is the business which is growing fast and outperforming. So others are global, for instance, what I mentioned regarding the sales tools and all the training and the help on specification, on conversion rates on how to help on the solutions, the salespeople. This is something we will roll out globally, and we have someone dedicated to that.

Are they built in-house or outsourced? Of course, we use LLM tools from outside, but then we have in-house capabilities and talents. Remember that we have more than 2,000 IT developers in India. We have some in Europe, but also leveraging our in-house capabilities in India, which are extremely powerful to accelerate on AI development across the board. We have more than 700 bots across the group. Maud, yeah.

And leveraging our data because we have also a strong data governance. And of course, we leverage that to implement all of those AI use cases, which are very beneficial.

And the last part of the question is how much are you investing? So it's not so much on the token we pay. It's more on the people. So that's something I would prefer to keep confidential, but we are accelerating and investing substantially on the time of the people. Even I can tell you, the Executive Committee has spent a lot of time together with external push and help and training on best experts to truly lead the way on AI.

So we are also strengthening the governance of the group on AI in terms of capabilities and focus with someone that will be at the executive committee level driving AI. So that's going forward, extremely important.

Second question from Paul. Are there any green shoots in the U.K., not specifically as we speak.

There was some delay because of the different building codes and regulations that now have been cleared. So I think we should see some acceleration, notably on nonresi in the second half. But so far, it's not really meaningful, I would say.

And the last question from Paul, did you reverse strategy and prioritize volume over value in U.S. roofing during Q2?

It looks like Saint-Gobain outgrew the market. No, we are always extremely disciplined on pricing and continue to push. I think you heard it, we continue to have some actions to land pricing in roofing in Q3 versus last year. We, I think, outperformed in Q2, but we underperformed the market in Q1. So within Roofing, keep in mind that there are always swings quarter-by-quarter, depending on whether you are a bit bigger in retail, a bit bigger on professional roofing. So yes, we outgrew in the second quarter. And I think we outgrew slightly in the first half altogether, but not meaningfully.

And we made progress on our contractor engagement program, which is also a great way to secure the pricing and the strong brand equity of CertainTeed in the U.S

Now we move to a question from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Please elaborate on the key drivers behind Saint-Gobain's remarkable organic growth in construction chemicals in H1. Well, first, it's not only in H1 of this year. It was during all the year last year, full year. So it's not just a one-off effect in the quarter. It has been now almost a bit more than 2 years, if not more.

I think it's a combination of multiple things. First, we have all the best brands. When you take GCP, Chryso, FOSROC in India and in the Middle East, we have the iconic brands of construction chemicals. We have also all the available technologies that we need to have the right offer. We have very strong teams on the ground, and we have a lot of people joining the party because they saw the acceleration of Saint-Gobain in construction chemicals. And after that, the second parameter is this push and pull effect of our solutions.

Sometimes it's the glass facade that could pull something on an airport because you start with the design of the facade with our Sage electrochromic glass on airport. We have specified it on 30 airports in the U.S. And then you can talk to the owner, the lead on the airport to drive additional solutions. It could be fireproofing, it could be acoustics, it could be flooring solutions.

It could be admixtures for the runway. So it's a push and pull. And sometimes it's the other way around. It could be all the construction chemicals components driving and pulling the rest of Saint-Gobain. So this is this push and pull effect that we'll continue to leverage having this unique offer across the board on holistic solutions.

I think, Benoit, you have a question on the phone from Martin.

Okay. So let's go back on the call from Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, please.

I had 2 quick ones, please. My first was on Americas categories. Benoit, you made some comments around roofing and construction chemicals versus peers. I'd be interested in some of your other categories, how you think you performed relative to some of the industry data and peer performance that you've seen? And then finally, my second question would be on data centers. What would data centers as an end market represent at a group level now in terms of your revenue exposure? And in particular, in Americas, what would it represent as a percentage of that business?

So maybe I'll take the first on categories, of course, gypsum also is an important category for us, Siding. Siding is performing well, and it's a smaller category within Exterior Solutions than roofing, but we I think, outpaced the market on siding with multiple product lines. On gypsum, I can tell you that I think we are on par with the overall market statistics we have seen.

I think we have done better than some of the public figures we have seen recently because we are in a kind of minus 2% like-for-like in the second quarter. So we have -- I think on gypsum, and it's part of the strategy of Saint-Gobain is that we have, for instance, flattish volumes in the second quarter because we have this commercial presence.

We have a mix on added value products on plasterboard towards hospitals, data centers, which is richer than some of our peers, which are extremely powerful, extremely strong, but on standard boards. So this ability to play with different markets, not only residential but also commercial buildings is important and helps also gypsum when new construction is a bit weak as we see in those days.

So all categories are important for Saint-Gobain because they play together as one solution. So overall, in Americas, we are pushing all solutions. I can tell you that gypsum on top of construction chemicals is doing extremely well in Brazil. We have 3 lines of plasterboard that are sold out, and we think of additional investment going forward. So all this is also powerful on gypsum across Americas.

On data centers, it's a few hundred millions of our global turnover, but it's growing, of course, fast. We have a pipeline of around 1,000 projects across geographies, and it has nearly doubled in the past year.

So clearly a growing segment where we have a dedicated offer and that is declined country by country and pushed country by country with quite a lot of success. And we have those hero products, which actually enable to just open the door of the data center and then from there, funnel in the full offer of Saint-Gobain.

And those can be, again, construction chemicals for waterproofing, for self-leveling floor and static floor, but as well as specific ceilings, which we have developed in partnership with some of those actors in the sector, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And you might have seen as well our partnership with Microsoft to specify our solutions as part of their specification for data center with the objective of speeding up the construction of data center, which obviously is the criteria on this specific market vertical.

So let's go back to the questions on Internet from On Field. Could you also give us more color on the pricing momentum across your geographies and division in H1 and what you assume for H2? I think you gave quite a lot of color already. Maud, do you want to add anything?

Yes. I think, again, we are -- we will deliver slight positive price/cost spread being very agile in terms of how the situation evolves in the Middle East in particular.

Another question from Citi. Can the growth in the region, North America accelerate in H2 '26 even without help from weather conditions? As we said, we will have growth in Americas in the second half, keeping in mind that in terms of volume momentum, we had a rather slow momentum last year. So overall, we expect in the Americas like-for-like sales growth in the second half.

We will not comment on specific product line. Question from Morgan Stanley. We have seen a strong inflection in volume growth in Q2 versus Q1. Can you give some perspective on how much of the improvement you think is down to a catch-up post weather impact in Q1 or down to prebuy?

Maybe a quick answer on that. We have seen in March within Q1, a catch-up after the very bad weather in North America as well as in France and Central Europe. Remember the snow, the flood in France, et cetera. So that was March in Q1. And in Q2, not specifically and not meaningful prebuy activity as Maud already answered in Q2.

Another question from Morgan Stanley. Can you talk about volume development in Q3 so far? Which regions are seeing sequential improvement versus Q2 versus a sequential slowdown? I think I highlighted the fact that in July, we see a continuation of the Q2 good momentum with different colors by region. But yes, we continue to see the momentum so far that we have seen in Q2.

And we have seen same question or another question from Morgan Stanley. We have seen Eagle Materials report a double-digit decline in pricing for wallboard recently, while we see competitors in roofing talking about higher pricing. I'm not going to comment specifically on one publication versus the other. I can tell you that we are always working on the price cost spread, including some catching up in North America.

We have seen a moderate low single-digit type of price erosion in some of those categories in North America, keeping in mind that we have U.S. and Canada together. I think also we should keep in mind what I mentioned is that we have a mix towards added value products towards specified sales, including on gypsum and commercial buildings, which is quite different than some other peers.

One element to keep in mind also is the different pricing timing in North America this year versus last year. Last year was more January and April, and this year is more April and June, July. So that is parameter.

And sorry, because there was a second question from Kepler Cheuvreux that I had skipped. Sorry about that, Martin. Can you please provide a range for your target of a slight positive price/cost spread in full year 2026? I didn't skip it on purpose. I truly skip it because I roll the iPad too fast. Maud?

Yes, nothing much more to add. I think we've commented quite a number of times on the price/cost spread. Again, slight positive price/cost spread for the full year. We have a 1.6% pricing in Q2, which shows how fast we have been in terms of implementing the pricing starting from 0% of pricing in Q1. And again, we will be very agile, keeping in mind the mid-single-digit inflation of our -- on our EUR 12 billion raw material transportation and energy bill. So that's all in all.

Of course, what we leverage in those price increases and how we drive the price spread is everything that Benoit has described in terms of differentiation, in terms of cross-selling, upselling, specified sales, all of that enables us to clearly outperform and push and push for the value to customers.

There was a specific subquestion from Morgan Stanley about any notable difference between Canada and U.S. I would say no. And actually, what we need to do and what we are doing on the ground is to dig deeper because it's more differences between regions in the U.S. or between provinces in Canada.

For instance, Ontario, no surprise because of the overall geopolitic has been more impacted than the West or the East of Canada. So it's more by province. And for instance, if I take Canada, we have 6 plasterboards across the country from Vancouver to Quebec, Winnipeg, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, et cetera. So that's the way we leverage the local differences.

Same in the U.S. the different regions are different in terms of dynamics in the U.S. So -- and we are granular, as you know, because we have 125 plants in the U.S., 39 in Canada. So those are more the local differences in the U.S. and Canada. Since we have exhausted all questions. Again, thank you very much for your time.

As a conclusion, I would like to say again that Lead & Grow is in good order and moving up nicely and with a very good dynamic internally and externally also from a customer perception. We are there to deliver in more difficult times or uncertain times around the world.

I've been amazed by the double-digit growth we had in the Middle East in the second quarter. So thanks to fantastic teams. So Lead & Grow is delivering on solutions. You have seen some examples on cross-selling, upselling and clearly outperformance. We have a fantastic avenue for growth in nonresidential and infrastructure markets.

We are very committed to continue to rotate the business sales of the group and continue to strengthen the profitable growth profile of Saint-Gobain because it's something we have done successfully over the years. We have a dense and rich pipeline, also teams on the ground ready to integrate them extremely well, like FOSROC in India and Middle East, like Cemix in Mexico and Central America, like Xypex out of North America.

So all in all, Lead & Grow is a good, solid, very robust strategic program for Saint-Gobain to create value for our shareholders and to take again a lot of good dynamic and outperformance. Thank you very much. I wish you a very good summer. And last point, I should not forget last point, which is important. We have some time for you on December 1 with a visit for investors in Milano.

You will have the pleasure for the analysts who have followed Saint-Gobain for multiple years to see Gaetano Terrasini in exercise as a super powerful country CEO for Italy and Greece. This is the correct date, December 1. So we will give you more details, but please save the date on Milano December 1 for a fantastic showcase of what we are doing across multiple end markets in Italy and all the product lines of Saint-Gobain. Thank you, and I wish you a very good summer.

Welcome to this special briefing. Just a moment ago, Kesko announced that it will acquire Dahl's operations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark from the French company, Saint-Gobain. Through the transaction, Kesko will significantly strengthen its position in technical trade business in the Nordics. But without further ado, I will hand over to President and CEO, Jorma Rauhala. Please, Jorma, the stage is yours.

Thank you, Hanna. Welcome also on my behalf. These are indeed great news. We have had a very busy weekend and the acquisition was actually signed just a moment ago. I'm very pleased to announce that our long-term strategic target to grow significantly, particularly in technical trade is now becoming a reality. For years, we have been looking for major acquisition opportunities, especially in technical trade in the Nordic region and attractive targets are extremely rare. When I have previously been asked what would be a strategic theme target? It would be exactly this. Dahl is a strong player in Sweden, Norway and Denmark with no overlapping operations. Technical Trade is based on centralized logistics, strong digital services and skilled personnel. This is exactly what we are now acquiring.

After the completion, this acquisition will take us to the next level in the growing technical trade business in Nordics, and I'm extremely pleased and happy. Now to our presentation. Kesko strengthens technical trade by acquiring the operations of Dahl in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Like I said, Kesko has been seeking notable large acquisition targets, especially in Nordic technical trade for years. Interesting companies rely available. Kesko has agreed to acquire the Dahl technical trade companies in Sweden, Norway and Denmark from Saint-Gobain. The combined net sales of the companies to be acquired totaled some EUR 2.1 billion and EBITDA EUR 146 million, making this the largest acquisition in Kesko's history.

The companies to be acquired are an excellent fit for Kesko's growth strategy. They will complement Kesko's current building and technical trade business and strengthen our position in Nordic technical trade. Right timing. underpinned by megatrends, there is a significant growth potential in technical trade in the stable and affluent Nordic markets. The Dahl acquisition in brief, primarily a strategic acquisition. Supports Kesko's growth and strengthening of profitability synergies, not the main driver. Significant sales and earnings growth potential, strengthening market and megatrends that supports growth benefits derived from higher volumes, strong own brands, continuous digital development, respecting Dahl's history and valuable brand. Preliminary plan is to likely integrate the acquired businesses, which would continue as separate business units under their existing brands.

Transaction price, the debt-free transaction price is EUR 1.2 billion, excluding lease commitments or EUR 1.518 billion, including lease commitments. Financing. Kesko will initially finance the acquisition in full using bridge financing, which will be refinanced with equity and debt once the completion of the transaction is secured, while maintaining the interest-bearing net debt-to-EBITDA ratio below 2.5, excluding the IFRS 16 impact. The plan is for the equity component of the financing to be implemented through a share issue estimated at approximately EUR 500 million to EUR 700 million. Authority approvals, the completion of the acquisition is subject to approval by competition authorities as well as the fulfillment of certain other conditions. Timetable, the acquisition is estimated to be finalized by the beginning of 2027.

The acquisition marks the beginning of the next chapter in Kesko's growth story. Kesko sees net sales of some EUR 20 billion in the early 2030s through the acquisition and growth strategy execution. Building and technical trade would become Kesko's biggest division following the acquisition. Net sales expected to amount to nearly EUR 10 billion in the early 2030s. Long-term profitability target for building and technical trade continues to be 6% to 8%. Growth in technical trade supported by megatrends, renovation building, steady growth in renovation building and in renewing technical infrastructure.

Urbanization, building new technical infrastructure, dense urban development, green transition, increasing EU regulation and volatile energy markets, growing demand for energy solutions, technological development and digitalization, construction becoming more technical, smart building technology solutions. Dahl is an iconic leading operator in technical trade, a company with over 160 years of history. Our current business in technical trade, Onninen has 113 years history and Kesko has 85 years old history. So Dahl has 160 years old history and very respected among technical trade B2B customers. A leading operator, especially in HPAC products and infrastructure construction. Combined net sales of businesses to be acquired in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, some EUR 2.1 billion. Digital accounts for 35% of sales, combined network of some 190 stores, 3 automated central warehouses, some 2,700 employees and over 70,000 customers.

Dahl has a strong foothold in HPAC and infrastructure products, stable business. More than half of sales come from renovation building and 1/3 from infrastructure construction and 100% is B2B trade. Particularly strong HPAC and infrastructure product sales. Over 50% of sales come from HPAC products, some 25% from sewage and plumbing network infrastructure products. Strengths, modern technical trade expertise, extensive product portfolio, own brands, good availability and reliable deliveries, efficient logistics, skilled technical sales staff, good digital services. Good strategic fit, no overlap with Kesko's existing operations in Sweden, Norway or Denmark would complement our current product offering considerably.

What would the acquisition mean for Kesko's building and technical trade division? A significantly stronger foothold and sales growth in technical trade in the Nordic countries, raising technical trade share of the division net sales to 65%, raising B2B trade shares of the division net sales to 88% raising international operation share of the division net sales to 71%, strengthening the stable infrastructure and renovation building business. Stronger expertise in technical sales and technological expertise, expanding our offering with Dahl's modern and extensive product portfolio, for example, own brands. Synergies due, for example, higher purchase volumes. Kesko nearly triple its sales volumes in HPAC products from Onninen's current EUR 1 billion. So profit improvement in line with the division's operating margin target of 6% to 8%. Kesko gained strong expertise in technical trade and experience in major integration by acquiring Onninen.

Of course, it could be asked how we manage this kind of business, what we -- what is the Dahl. But I think we have quite nice track record what we have done with Onninen. So Onninen has been part of Kesko since 2016, successful integration in 7 countries, operates under the independent Onninen brand, strong expertise in technical trade, strong development of digital and logistics capabilities, extensive store network and skilled sales staff, business-specific strategies in each country. So Onninen's net sales have grown by EUR 820 million or 56% and operating by 232% as part of Kesko. So if we look at Kesko today, so grocery business is the biggest division, something like EUR 6.4 billion and building and technical trade, a little bit less than EUR 5 billion.

After this acquisition, building and technical trade would be your biggest division with almost EUR 7 billion. And then if we look how this technical trade business is in its countries, we can see that very stable business set in Finland and in Norway, we would be clear #1 and in Sweden and Denmark, #3 operator in technical trade. So key takeaways. Kesko has been seeking notable large acquisition targets, especially in Nordic technical trade for years, interesting companies rarely available. Dahl is a leading technical trade company in the Nordics with a long history, a strong and well-respected brand, a comprehensive and efficient distribution platform and a stable business model. The business to be acquired are an excellent fit to Kesko's growth strategy. The acquisition would complement the current building and technical trade business and clearly strengthen our position in technical trade in the Nordics. A strategic acquisition, the largest in Kesko's history that supports growth and strengthening of profitability. So -- and I think now it's time for questions.

Thank you, Jorma, for your presentation. Yes, it's time for questions. Please ask your questions using the chat function. There's a slight delay if you ask a question before I see it. But now it's a perfect time for that. I will ask one question, which I got before. Can you describe what's the difference between Dahl and Onninen and what is difference between technical trade and building and home improvement trade, just like briefly basic things.

Yes. First of all, Dahl, for example, in Norway, it's only HPAC products. And Onninen in Norway only electric products. That's the main difference. Dahl is only HPAC products. Onninen Finland has both HPAC and electric products. That was the first answer. And the difference between building and...

Home improvement business.

Of course, first, I would say that customers are totally different. They are different customers. And in building and home improvement, we have also consumer as customers. But building the technical rate is only B2B business. Maybe also one difference is that this technical rate is based on kind of central warehouses, automated central warehouses, digital orders, but the building and home improvement, it's very much based on store network business. I would say those are main differences.

Very good. One the question here. What does the deal imply for your net debt to EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16 target? And is there an impact on your dividend payout? So dividend and the target of net debt to EBITDA?

Yes. Net debt to EBITDA, as we told, our target is that we can keep them below 2.5. And of course, temporarily, it can be a little bit higher before -- when we take this kind of bridge financing first. What comes to dividend policy, we don't have any reason to change our dividend policy, 60% to 100%. Was it so that Anu and Sami should join us.

Yes. We -- at this point, if we get more questions there, I could ask our Building -- Head of Building and Technical Trade, Sami Kiiski; and CFO, Anu Hamalainen, to join us as we are now getting more questions probably. Thank you. And I, my name is Hanna Jaakkola. If you have any questions after the presentation, you can contact me. I'm responsible for Investor Relations. Very good. And then there's a question about the profitability. Profitability development of the acquired businesses during the past 5 years. Can you comment on targeted synergies and time line -- synergies, time line and profitability?

Profitability, yes, we have agreed with the seller that we are not disclosing the historical figures. But I could say so that, of course, Dahl's profitability was much higher than, for example, '21, '22, '23 when we are comparing now '25 figures. As we know, '25 has been extremely weak market. Also, we can see that from our figures. So I would say that those go quite hand-in-hand when it comes to Onninen figures and Dahl figures. So very, very low seasonal cycle now, and we really much believe that the market will improve in coming years.

Very good. And then was synergies and time line.

Yes. So first of all, this is not a synergy case. We have made many acquisitions, and I think we know how to implement those ones. We have to bear in mind that Dahl is a great company. It's a great company, very strong in Sweden, quite nice businesses in Denmark and Norway. We shouldn't disturb that business. The market will recover and our kind of first, what we are doing is carve out the business out from Saint-Gobain operations. There are some common operation in Dahl, Saint-Gobain, something like HR, IT and things like that. This is the first what we'll do.

And that's crucial because we shouldn't disturb the business. And of course, we are seeking also synergies. And I would say that the most important one, of course, is sourcing, sourcing and private label, also IT and things like that. What comes about those synergies, of course, the timing, of course, the sourcing is the first one. Of course, we start that immediately after closing that deal. But for example, other possible synergies from IT come a little bit later. But we already know that, for example, our IT systems, our cost level is quite low compared to Dahl. So there are some potential in there.

Very good. There's plenty of synergy questions, but this was a good answer.

I think that -- like I said, it would be so easy to say that we are gaining so much synergies. But we know how to do this business. We know which are the synergy case, which are carve-out case. And we know that because those businesses, those companies, they are doing well. They are doing well and the market will improve. And those EBIT will improve significantly after that. But of course, we are also searching synergies.

Very good. There's a question about the EBITDA margin. Dahl's EBITDA margin is 7.1%, similar to your own building and technical trade division, 6.8% in '25. If margins are already comparable, where exactly does the value creation come from? And can you quantify the expected synergy benefits in absolute terms?

I think we already discussed about the synergies. But all in all, the whole deal is a strategic deal. It's -- it is not so easy to acquire these kind of companies. Like I said, that was the best what you can get from the market. And this is kind of growth story about building and technical trade and whole Kesko. And we know that the market has been now very, very weak, and we can see already that the market will improve. And I'm very confident that also Kesko's building and technical trade figures, also Dahl figures will improve in coming months and years.

Yes. And of course, Dahl is technical trade, and that was the whole building and technical trade to our figures.

That's true.

So it's not comparable in the business-wise.

That's true, yes.

How does Dahl Nordics business develops in '26 versus '25? Wondering if there have been signs of the cycle turning. So any news about spring '26 compared to last year? And is there.

Sami, do you have those figures? And can we disclose those figures. But of course, we can see from our figures that the market has.

Exactly. We can describe the market.

We can describe the market and 2026 numbers we don't disclose from Dahl business. But of course, we can see the market that activity levels are step-by-step coming better, so increasing. Of course, new buildings still not much happening to say so, the starts of the new residential building starts. But in general, we see that activity is going in the right direction. And of course, we need to remember that this business, what is also great in Dahl business is that it's much of that -- half of that is renovation -- building renovation business and also infra business, which is stable, and we see a lot of opportunities there.

Very good. Thank you. There's a question about what is the tax rate of Dahl. I don't know, Anu, do we have the figure?

Actually, we do not disclose that. But the thing is really that if I were you, I would be like using the local tax rates what we have in the countries.

Very good.

This we already discussed, but if there's anything you want to add, can you talk about potential earnings accretion? Even at the top end of the equity raise, should we assume low single-digit earnings accretion? So how earnings potential and also in the light of equity raise, we discussed already what are the potentials. We don't get any synergies, exact synergies. Any other comments you would like to add at this point?

I think we are pretty much there what Jorma already said so...

And we don't have any details about the equity issuance yet.

Exactly.

So we will come back to that. Was Dahl's '25 earnings more distressed if comparing to Kesko's technical trade business in total? So '25 Dahl, Kesko difference in profitability?

Yes. As you mentioned already, our figures include also home building and technical trade. But I see that all in all, we can see the same pattern what has been in Dahl and with Onninen, if you're looking at '21, '22, '23 and now since '24, '25, '26, they have been very, very weak markets. And I see that we can see the same trend in the figures, what we have on the figures. And also, we can see that the market has now started to improve.

Very good. And what is the expected closing time line? And is there any reason to anticipate remedies from competition authorities?

Yes. We think that this will be closed end of this year. And if you look at this competition situation country by country, first, Sweden there shouldn't be any problem. We are only -- our only is in electric intra business and not so big one. In Norway, we are strong in electric products, electric business, but we are operating at all in HPAC business. In fact, we have a small HPAC business some years ago, but we divested that one in Norway. And Denmark, of course, we don't have at all that kind of business. So there shouldn't be any problems with that one.

How many locations Dahl have in Sweden, Norway and Denmark?

So it was all in all 190, but Sami, do you remember how much in different countries?

Yes, different countries, we can check that, but 190 and of course, Sweden being the biggest. So I would say, 88 stores or pickup stores.

Sweden, yes. And I think that, of course, stores are important. We have those stores, but I see that even more important are those automated warehouses. They have excellent automated warehouses, especially in Sweden, Norway and also in Denmark. And that's the heart of the business.

Exactly. Very good. I can come back to the questions that if -- we will put in Q&A afterwards. I take these questions and answer this later on as well on our website, if anything is unanswered. What risks do you see from the transaction?

I would see so that this acquisition don't have any special risks. There are kind of normal risk what you -- every time you have when you are making those acquisitions. Like said, this is kind of a carve-out case, but there is nothing new, I would say so. They have some cooperation in Dahl with Saint-Gobain, like I mentioned, in HR, IT, finance, something like that. So first, we can carve out that from the Saint-Gobain businesses. And then we -- very light integration.

One example is that those country directors, for example, in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, they will report direct to Sami, our President of the division. They won't be part of our current setup. That's why we don't want to disturb current business, and we don't want to disturb this business because we also know if you try to put them together, you most probably will have also some problems. And we want have to those ones because we can see that the market will be -- will recover, and we want to take everything out of that.

Very good. So we have a lot of experience from acquisitions and how to do them.

Yes.

How about Dahl in Finland? Will Saint-Gobain continue long term with Dahl in Finland? That is not our...

Yes, we are not disclosing that one. But of course, for us, it was clear that it was not possible to us to acquire Dahl Finland because Onninen is so strong in Finland.

Does Dahl have similar EBIT margins to building and technical trade of Kesko? We don't disclose the EBIT margins in this year.

We already discussed about that one that can I say that Sweden is very strong even last year, Dahl Sweden and in Norway and Denmark, there are, I would say, more potential there on those.

There's a question about Dahl's earnings in Denmark, they has been close to 0 in '24, '25. How can you plan -- how do you plan to make it profitable?

Of course, the first reason why the EBIT has been maybe that level is the market. Of course, we know that one. And if we look the differences between Denmark and Dahl Denmark and Sweden, for example, I think that maybe they haven't kind of in Denmark cut enough costs when the market kind of collapsed, maybe they didn't cut the cost enough. And the one difference is also the share of private label in Sweden, it's much higher than in Denmark. But I would say those 2 are kind of normal business cases.

Very good. Then I have one last one. So if you have any further questions, now it's time to ask those. What is the interest rate on the extra debt you need to think of?

Well, the question is really that are we talking about the bridge financing or the final financing? So from the bridge financing perspective, I would say that we are pretty much on the margin level on the same level as what we have in Kesko today already. And of course, the future refinancing is really depending also on the market conditions, but our aim is to keep it on the same level as we would be like having normally without this kind of deal. So -- and if we think about our average interest rate at the moment, we are at 3.3 to 3.5 percentage points on average level on this kind of financing today in Kesko.

Very good. Thank you all. I think that was it. No further questions. If any questions, don't hesitate contacting me. And I will put, like I said, the Q&A to the website later on. Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. We have convened you for today's ordinary AGM to discuss the items on the agenda that we'll be reading to you and very shortly.

This year, I will be chairing the AGM as Chairman and CEO. Beside me, I have Maud Thuaudet, who is our Chief Financial Officer; Claire Pedini, who is our Deputy CEO in charge of HR and CSR; and Antoine Vignial, who is our Company Secretary. [ P Eric Millet ] is our [ bell ], and he will also be attending this meeting in person.

Antoine Vignial will now explain the safety instructions for the [indiscernible].

Thank you, Benoit. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Safety is Saint-Gobain Group's top priority. This is why before beginning the meeting, I would like to explain the safety instructions to be followed. In the event of a problem, you will hear an evacuation message, followed by the sounding of an alarm. If that is to happen, you should head calmly towards the closest exit. There will be blue arrows, as you can see. We will go to the assembly point at the angle of [indiscernible]. Please take your advice, take your instructions from the safety personnel.

Thank you. I now propose to set up the bureau and to read the agenda for today. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, I have the great honor of chairing this AGM. Our [ tellers ] will be the 2 shareholders present and accepted with the largest number of votes. These 2 shareholders are, respectively, the [ Fund Housing ], the group savings schemes plan represented by [ Sibyl Denis Aframan ] and Amundi, represented by Madam [ Bernadette Selsiti ]. With the approval of our tellers, I propose that we appoint Antoine Vignial as Secretary for today's Annual General Meeting, and to whom I now give the floor.

The agenda and resolutions were sent to you with the notice of meeting. I propose not to read them out, but rather to move directly to our observations authorizing the AGM to conduct its business.

Now this meeting only has ordinary resolutions, so it's under the authority of an ordinary AGM. We require, therefore, a quorum of 20% of shares with voting rights. According to the indications that we already have on the attendance sheet, the votes by correspondence alone exceed by some distance, this 20%. So we have a quorum already.

I have here a photo in which all the documents required by law to conduct an AGM, and particularly, the documents convening the meeting, the reports of the Board of Directors, the statutory auditor's reports, the sustainability report, text resolutions, as an example, are a copy of the articles of incorporation, the list of non-share registered shareholders. All these documents provided by law are at the disposal of the shareholders as required. Therefore, the assembly is now duly constituted and can conduct this business.

Dear shareholders, here are a few words. First of all, I will talk to you about the group's strategy and prospects. Then we will talk to you about our financial and nonfinancial performance with Maud Thuaudet and Claire Pedini. Thirdly, Jean-Francois Cirelli will present his findings as Senior Independent Director and Deputy Chair of the Board, but also his findings as Chairman of the Nominations and Compensation Committee.

[ Frederic Gou], speaking on behalf of the auditors. We then have a presentation of the resolutions by Antoine Vignial, followed by an exchange with you, the shareholders, in the form of a Q&A session. We will then vote on the resolutions and close the AGM. After the AGM, I propose that we convene together to share a drink.

I now propose to begin by showing you a video on the highlights for Saint-Gobain in 2025.

[Presentation]

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, as you've just seen in this video about our highlights, Saint-Gobain once again in 2025 has shown the relevance of its strategy as a worldwide leader of sustainable construction.

In a few words, in a nutshell, Saint-Gobain is a highly efficient group which creates value for the stakeholders, [ Ineviten Group ], which reinvent itself for the past 350 years and a worldwide leader which is committed and for which sustainability is at the heart of its strategy and business model. Saint-Gobain plays a key role as leader and opinion leader.

For the third time, our barometer has shown that sustainable construction is very highly appreciated within 30 countries, which makes it possible for Saint-Gobain to be really in the vanguard of innovation topics, for instance, with its Action Paper, a summary of recommendations of sustainable construction, ordering the Brazil [ COP ] in November 2025, or in last April technical report, which was published with a major U.K. consultancy firm. The group is also official partner of the global award for sustainable architecture. Each year, it gives an award to the 5 architects which puts sustainability in the core of their project.

Social and environmental responsibility is at the core of our strategy at Saint-Gobain. And from an environmental point of view, we have again invested more than EUR 200 million in decarbonization in 2025, making it possible for the group to lower the CO2 emission for the group. And those emissions are 35% below the level of 2017.

From a social responsibility point of view, our human resource policy continue to be recognized worldwide, and our group has been certified top employer global for the 11th consecutive year. And all our employees and their family are protected by our social protection programs in all our countries. And this is shared by all the stakeholders of the teams. First of all, the employees hold 7.7% of our capital. 75% of the French employees have bought shares during the employee savings plan campaign in April 2026. And of course, our shareholders have received EUR 1.5 billion in 2025 in dividends and share buybacks.

And also, we work for the communities. Saint-Gobain has paid EUR 1.2 billion in taxes and in expenses. And of course, Saint-Gobain gives a lot of value to the value chain, the suppliers and the clients everywhere in the world. In France, it represents almost 500,000 [indiscernible] and building companies that we support in many ways, logistics, advice, consultancy or credit.

Now we have a very efficient strategy in terms of results and value sharing with all the stakeholders. You will remember, we have in 2021 initiated my term of office as CEO. And we had initiated our strategic plan in 2021, Grow & Impact 2021-2025. This plan has been completed in 2025 very successfully.

From a financial point of view, all our objectives set in 2021 have been reached, achieved with an internal organic growth average of 3% per year. And from a strategic point of view, the group profile has been enhanced with a rapid internationalization in Northern America, Asia and emerging countries and a worldwide leadership in construction chemicals. We have been determined in that because we have invested EUR 14 billion in growth and acquisition. And EUR 7 billion, dear shareholders, have been allocated to you from '21 to '25. Over the same period, our share price has increased by 127%. So it's 3x more than the CAC 40.

And we have rolled out our strategic plan, Lead & Grow 2026-2030. Saint-Gobain would like to step up its profitable growth. We would like to target the megatrend upholding sustainable construction. We want to develop and enrich our offerings in solutions which can create value for our customers. We want to expand our solution-based approach that we have well developed on the residential market, and we would like to expand this approach towards nonresidential building and infrastructure market, of course, on the basis of our organization based on the country platforms, which are the megatrends supporting sustainable construction.

Saint-Gobain Group brings all the necessary replies to the challenges of our period in each major region, rapid urbanization and population growth, housing crisis and aspiration to quality habit, energy renovation and adaptation of all the buildings to climate change, reversal of globalization, relocation and local infrastructure needs. And finally, the resources are becoming more and more scarce, which makes it necessary to make circulate savings.

In order to meet those megatrends, we deploy a whole range of unique solutions year after year on a country-wide basis. Saint-Gobain is the only player able to bring a complete range of solutions for the building, roofing, ceilings, facades, flowings and so on. These solutions meet all the buildings' requirements: energy performance, acoustic welfare, natural light and digital comfort.

We developed the solutions country by country in order to step up our growth. Let's take the example of India. Saint-Gobain was already -- had a footprint in this country 10 years ago with 2 ranges of product, external or exterior building and support. Now we have progressively expanded our offering with organic growth and with acquisitions. And now we can offer -- supply a whole range of complete solutions for buildings and infrastructure, and we have a leader position. The results in India has been multiplied by 6. Our income has been multiplied by 6.

The same approach has been rolled out methodically in all our main countries in order to step up our growth, whether it's in North America, in Latin America or in Asia. Saint-Gobain is a precursor concerning the low carbon supply. And I would like to talk about low carbon across the board or insulating materials in fiberglass with recycled content and also at [ mixture ] for low-carbon concrete.

Of course, the Saint-Gobain solutions make it possible to increase resilience of the buildings in view of the extreme weather conditions. In the United States, for instance, we propose construction -- constructive systems, rainfall systems able to resist to withstand the storms. The solutions, of course, bring a lot of benefits to our customers.

On the left-hand side of this slide, you have the global renovation of the country with the Saint-Gobain solutions in order to improve the thermal comfort of the inhabitants, but increasing also the real estate value of the property. In France, there is 30% price spread difference per square meter between the energy-efficient buildings and those which are not energy efficient. Another example in nonresidential construction, Saint-Gobain's solution makes it possible to reach the highest level of environmental performance and considerably improve the life quality of the people working in the offices, for instance. Those benefits for our clients also have positive results for Saint-Gobain. For each project, more sales in the various families of products, more innovative product promotion and prescribe to adapt. This results in increased margin and growth for your group.

Saint-Gobain rolls out innovative solutions in some very demanding industrial markets. For instance, our panoramic roofs, which can become opaque, on requests for cars and also they bring visual comfort, safety, thermal performance and acoustic comfort. Also, ceramic technologies to decrease the carbon content of industrial processes. Our high-performance polymers for many critical applications in the industry.

Now those are the solutions that we roll out to bring value to our clients. This approach that we have historically developed on the residential market makes it possible for us to expand or to increase our market shares in the nonresidential and infrastructure markets. Even though we have generated already EUR 15 billion in sales, we can win -- gain market shares -- major market shares in the nonresidential and infrastructure markets. You can see that on the slide.

One of the strategy drivers is in Lead & Grow. It means that we can take many opportunities in growth opportunities. In order to do that, we have to adapt our offering in order to meet the specific needs of each market segment. Let's take the example of hospitals, hygiene, comfort, air quality, safety, security, resilience, climate resilience in view of the increasing number of heat waves. All this is very important for doctors and patients.

Saint-Gobain proposes a whole range of solutions, for instance, for floors and easy to clean ceilings, [indiscernible] board, which can protect against X-rays, for instance, in the hospital. We have 26 different solutions prescribed by specialized teams in the health sector. Data centers, which [indiscernible] power efficiency, security resilience [indiscernible].

Saint-Gobain has a whole range of technical solutions that notably include Chryso solutions. Chryso reduces the carbon footprint of concrete by 20%. In 2026, we have now embarked on 600 data center projects spanning 26 countries.

At the same time, Saint-Gobain is continuing to reinforce its position in infrastructure, thanks to its leadership in the field of construction chemicals. Our platform in this field has a value of EUR 6.5 billion, spanning 76 countries. This meets to the critical requirements of infrastructure and buildings with tightness solutions, very often technical solutions, concrete [ admixes ], technical floors, rendering that insulate facades and many, many others. We are continuing our growth in construction chemicals through acquisitions and by investing over EUR 9 billion now through 2030.

Now I've described our strategic outlook, which is very promising. Let me now tell you how our people are going to implement these strategies. As you know, the quality of execution is absolutely essential if the strategy is to be successful, particularly in the very uncertain world that we live in now, the deglobalized uncertain world. To roll out the profitable growth of Lead & Grow, Saint-Gobain is using a multi-local organization model in the form of country platforms. This is in all our regions, and it's an essential asset. This organization by country makes the group more resilient and robust and enables it to react with great agility to the volatile macroeconomic context and a highly fragmented geopolitical situation.

This organization is also particularly relevant in the construction markets, which are local markets by nature. These are very close to our clients, and they are very close to our people in the field. Most of our managing directors and country directors are from the country that they manage. So they know their ecosystem. And they can promote a complete multiproduct offering, a very broad offering that's well suited to their local markets in terms of distribution channels or technical proportion.

Now to optimize performance, these country platforms obviously reap the benefits of the group's operational excellence. First of all, it's industrial excellence, with over 4,000 robots in our plants and shared know-how along all our production processes. This, another operational lever is innovation through our 5 hubs in each of our large regions. Then there's commercial excellence with a very structured approach to our large accounts. Or of course, digital. For instance, the whole series of digital services provided to our craftsmen who are clients of [ Quant ] in France.

Now the rollout is accelerating, but the rollout of artificial intelligence, which is gathering pace in the group, be it in R&D, in the applications along our supply chains, in our plants, in our production processes and, of course, our support functions, not to mention the various services that we propose to our clients. We will continue to develop these country platforms with special emphasis on North America, Asia and the emerging markets where our markets are higher growth markets on average. For that purpose, we will continue with our very determined resolute policy of opening new plants, new production lines. 2025 was a very active year in that respect, with 24 new production lines or plants opened in Denmark.

We also intend to continue making acquisitions and proceeding with disposals, always aimed at reinforcing the group's strategic profile in terms of growth and profitability. On the one hand, there will be acquisitions that will create value, such as the 4 acquisitions made since the start of the year in construction chemicals, but also targeted disposals, such as our recent disposal of the distribution businesses in Brazil and [ Belgium ].

The active management of our scope is an essential part of our strategy if we are to optimize unrelentingly, the growth potential and the profitability of Saint-Gobain. Our target is to evolve over 20% of the group's sales between now and 2030, be it in the form of acquisitions or disposals.

Let me finish with Lead & Grow. The success of our new strategic plan is, of course, borne by our men and women, men and women to whom I'd like to pay tribute and I'd like to thank them warmheartedly for the talent, for their extraordinary commitment and for their outstanding performance. In 2025, 89% of our employees in the world declared they were proud to work for Saint-Gobain. That energy and this great commitment that we see day in, day out in our logistics centers, in our R&D centers, in our production plants. This commitment, which brings us together around a common vision at Saint-Gobain, which we call aiming higher.

Now our new strategic plan and this ambition that I've just described and I just explained to you mean that we can aim higher in terms of financial objectives and environmental objectives financially at 1 to 2 points, outperforming the underlying market by 1 to 2 percentage points. Sales growing in the mid-single digits, EBITDA margin of between 15% and 18% by comparison with the average of 14% [indiscernible] in recent years. And of course, the continued pursuit of our ambitious environmental objectives.

By way of conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I am confident. I have confidence in the strength and relevance of our Lead & Grow strategic plan to take advantage of Saint-Gobain's global leadership in sustainable construction, in extracting value from our strength of wealth, particularly in residential, nonresidential and infrastructure and of course, to generate high added value for all of our stakeholders. I'd like to thank all our directors, all our members of the Board for their interesting discussions and for their continued support.

Let me reassure you, ladies and gentlemen, that your group is very solid and that its profitable growth trajectory is on the right track. Let me reassure you that as Chairman and CEO, I am committing myself to reap the benefits of all our potential with every single person in the group.

I thank you for your attention. I give the floor to Maud Thuaudet and Claire Pedini, who will talk to you about our financial performance in the first case and extra financial performance in case of Claire Pedini.

Thank you, Benoit. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. I am delighted to have this opportunity to tell you about your group's financial performance in 2025.

In 2025, Saint-Gobain, as Benoit told you, performed well in a contrasted environment. In local currency, the group progressed its sales by 2.1%. Its EBITDA grew by 3.4% and its operating income grew by 3.8%. The operating margin continued at a very good level in 2025 at 11.4% despite the adverse effects of exchange rates and the market environment, thus reflecting the strength of our strategic positioning and the good operational performance of the group.

The EBITDA margin was also stable at 15.5% and was on par with the record level of margin we achieved in 2024. Recurring net income totaled EUR 3.3 billion. And the return on capital employed at 14% is a good reflection of the priority that we attach to the creation of value for our shareholders.

Let me now give you the breakdown of performance by region, beginning with Europe, Middle East and Africa, where the group sales were virtually stable in local currency. After a first half year where we were down 2%, the business progressed in Europe in the second half year, rising by 1.1% in local currency. This was, for the first time since 2022, a return to sales growth driven by Southern Europe, particularly France, thanks to the improvement in new construction, and in Spain and Italy, where Saint-Gobain continues to gain market share. The operating margin remained virtually stable for the year at 8.5% after 8.6% in 2024.

Moving on to the Americas. The Americas posted growth of 1.5% in local currency. In North America, sales were marked by the downturn in the new buildings and the event of any -- the absence of any major climatic events in the second half of the year. As you know, Saint-Gobain has a very good offering in terms of adaptation to climate change.

Latin America saw its business rise by 13.5% in local currency, in particular, with the integration of Cemix, a very successful integration of Cemix in early 2025 and the gain of market share in construction chemicals, particularly in Brazil. Overall, the operating income that's not including foreign exchange and the operating margin progressed well to a new record level of 17.2%, up from 16.8% in 2024, thanks to a very good first half. The second half was stable, supported by very good discipline in the management of prices and costs.

Let's now move on to the Asia Pacific region, where sales rose sharply by 16.9% in local currency. This was driven by the very successful integration of FOSROC in early 2025. This is in construction chemicals. Then very good dynamics with double-digit growth of India. India now is the third biggest country in terms of contribution to the results of your group. Southeast Asia also posted very strong dynamics, particularly Vietnam, driven by infrastructure projects and the recent launch of the first zero carbon production of exterior boards. Operating margin reached a record of 13.3%, up from 13% in 2024.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, a few words about your group's very strong financial profile. In 2025, free cash flow remained at EUR 3.8 billion. That's up 29% by comparison with 2021, which you will remember was the first year of our Grow & Impact plan that was 2021-2025. So the rate of conversion of free cash flow, that's cash flow -- free cash flow and EBITDA reached 58%, thanks to a very, very good of our working capital requirements. The gearing or net debt over EBITDA was a ratio of 1.4. And of course, the rating agencies have once again confirmed the very good strength, very good solidity of our group.

A few words now about the first quarter of 2026. Sales were down 2.3% in local currency. Comparable -- that's less than anticipated despite difficult weather conditions in January and February in North America and in Europe. Asia Pacific saw its growth accelerate by 9% in local currency. Europe is flat, and the Americas are down.

In the course of this first quarter, we continued to optimize and reinforce the group's profile with 3 acquisitions in construction chemicals and the starting of 11 new production lines or production plants, 10 of them in high-growth countries, I mentioned, but India, where we opened up a new ceilings line on Malaysia, where we opened up a new plasterboard line. Finally, since the start of the year, we have continued to optimize the group's profile with notably, the disposal of our distribution of ventilation and tiling in the Nordic countries. Also, our final exit from the distribution of construction materials in Brazil.

At the end of April, we confirmed the guidance for 2026, aiming at an EBITDA margin above 15%. The first half year was affected by the weather conditions, extreme weather conditions at the start of the half year in Europe and North America.

What about the return to shareholders? Well, your Board of Directors has recommended that we pay out a dividend of EUR 2.30 per share. That will be a 4.5% increase over last year and an average annual increase of 12% since 2021, which is the first year of Grow & Impact. Furthermore, at the start of 2025, the group bought back shares for a total of EUR 402 million. We will continue that buyback policy with EUR 2 billion earmarked to buy back shares between 2026 and 2030, as we explained at our Investor Day last October.

Finally, concerning the stock market performance, you will see on this chart, how well the Saint-Gobain share price has fared by comparison with the CAC 40 Index since January 2021. The Saint-Gobain share has risen 109%, CAC 40 has risen 47%.

In a word, ladies and gentlemen, Saint-Gobain has continued year in, year out to perform very well in a contrasted environment, thanks to its very good strategic position, but also thanks to its -- the high quality of its operational execution. You can count on highly mobilized staff who are championing this ambition of profitable growth within the general framework of strict financial discipline. So I have every confidence in our group's ability to achieve yet another year of overachievement in 2026.

I now give the floor to Claire Pedini to tell you about our extra financial or nonfinancial performance of [indiscernible], which, as you know, is an integral part of the group's strategy.

Good afternoon, dear shareholders. I would like to talk about the nonfinancial performance of our group and particularly, the climate strategy results. Our strategy and our leadership in CSR is based on 2 bases, maximizing our impact on our value chain in order to benefit our clients. Benoit Bazin has given a lot of examples of that. And we would also like to minimize our footprint, our carbon footprint, and I would like to dwell on that point.

In order to do that, we are working in 3 directions. We want to contribute to decarbonize the world. We want to improve the performance of our ecosystem by reducing our footprint, and we want to participate in a safer, fairer and more inclusive world. As you can see, the strategy of our group is making progress and has good results, very successful. Our company has continued to decrease its carbon footprint in 2025. By comparing to 2017, we have reduced our direct CO2 direct emissions and the electric consumption that could generate in CO2, what we call Scope 1 and 2, by 35%. Our electricity is decarbonized up to 70% at present.

And this for all the regions, all the countries. In India, plus plasterboard and seeing cars in [ Vizag ] operates at 100% with biomass in order to avoid the emission of 35,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Biomass comes from waste. We don't want to compete with the agricultural users. In Canada, we have inaugurated last year the first plasterboard plant, zero carbon plant in North America, avoiding us 40,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, thanks to the electrification of our production.

So we have reached in 2024, our target, which is to decrease by 33%, our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, which have been set by 2030. So we have increased that ambition. And now we target, as you can see on the slide, a reduction by 2035 compared to 2017, a 40% to 45% reduction. That objective is -- target is very ambitious because it takes into account the future growth of our group, such as Benoit Bazin has depicted. We work, of course, in order to decrease our impact beyond our direct emission, that is, Scope 3, in order to take into account our whole value chain for our clients and suppliers. Those targets, our actions and our road map are in line with our net zero emission objective by 2050.

Our whole organization is involved in the climate strategy, thanks to our governance with our committees within the Board and within the Group Executive Committee. We use an internal carbon price for our investment projects and R&D. We have incentives for compensation, short-term as well as long-term incentives. And we have committed teams everywhere in the world.

Now for instance, we have trained over the last 3 years, more than 80% of our employees to the climate [ trust ] within -- worldwide. I think that Saint-Gobain is the group which has trained the largest number of employees. We also want to reduce our footprint.

And we want, first and foremost, to promote water preservation. You know that we have made a lot of progress over the past years. If we compare our results to 2017, our water withdrawals have been reduced by 26%. We make a lot of efforts in facilities located in very -- in regions where the water stress is very high. 70% of those facilities have no industrial water discharge. That represents 94 facilities out of the 130 facilities concerned.

And Saint-Gobain has invested, for instance, in [indiscernible] in France, thanks to complex investments, making it possible to circulate water in a better way and with an enhanced follow-up of our circuit. And last year, we have decreased our withdrawals by 30%. And by 2030, we want to divide by 2, the number of water withdrawals compared to 2017. And we don't -- we wish not to discharge water at all in those areas where water stress is very high. Those measures year after year are part and parcel of the continuous improvement plans of our plants.

Now we want to reduce our footprint, of course, and increase circularity. We have decreased by 27% the non-recycled waste within our plants versus 2017. 16% of the commodity consumption has been replaced in 2025 by alternative content, recycled materials, [indiscernible] products. For instance in Finland, a whole brand-new [ skorage ] processing plant makes it possible to replace 70% of cement in NAE Motors. Or in Austria, where our group has opened its first recycling plant for the gypsum in this country. Of course, we want to stay the course with our 2030 objective. That is to say, 80% reduction in our non-recycled waste versus 2017.

Now we want to participate in a healthier, fairer and a more inclusive country. We want to want to promote health and security at work. We continue to improve our performance. We have decreased by 61%, the occupational accident rate versus 2015. It's a good result, but we have still too many serious accidents.

In order to decrease the number of accidents, we have a systematic follow-up of those accidents resulting in serious injuries in order to draw all the lessons possible. We have decided to roll out this year, a new training session for security online, which will encompass for all the employees of the group, and of course, additional to what already exists. It will be given to the permanent -- to the employees working on the permanent basis in our subsidiaries. We also want to continue with the dedicated programs for the subcontractors in Brazil. In Poland, for instance, where we use artificial intelligence to detect risks that could be related to security, and we want to automatically generate alarms and warning signals.

On a wider scale, we want to continue to act for a more inclusive work. We want to work on our value chain, of course, for instance, in our sustainable construction schools in France. We train the craftsmen of the future. More than 1,000 apprentices have been trained to sustainable construction since 2022, and we intend to train 2,500 additional craftsmen by 2030.

We want to develop programs, giving access to a decent and sustainable housing for an underprivileged population through a program called [ Build Change ] or via the Saint-Gobain Foundation, supporting solidarity-based projects and professional integration programs within local communities. More than 500 projects have been rolled out in 44 countries that have been supported since the [indiscernible] Foundation has been set up in 2008.

And we share our values with all our stakeholders. Our objective is to create a confidence-based framework, a healthy and committed framework. Of course, we have an ethical code and we have a due diligence framework or policy with our employees and suppliers. And you can see that on the slide. Our teams are fully committed to those targets.

Now all this makes out of Saint-Gobain a recognized leader in social and environmental responsibility. For instance, we have a very good ranking by the main nonfinancial agencies. We are amongst the 10 best companies and also have a strong recognition by first-party labor flat top employer, which has awarded its certification on a worldwide basis for the 11th consecutive year.

We also are part and parcel of the stock exchange indexes recognizing the companies that are having outstanding results in the CSR area. Of course, our ambition is to reduce our CO2 emissions by 2030 and 2050, and it has been validated by the reference institute, the SBTi Institute.

The company has an integrated approach concerning performance, financial performance and also nonfinancial performance. One that doesn't exist without the other. And we can, in that way, propose our clients different sustainable solutions, which is a source of competitive edge for us. And our group is a recognized opinion leader in sustainable construction.

Thank you, Maud. Thank you, Claire. Let me now give the floor to Jean-Francois Cirelli, who will tell you about his work as Independent Director and Vice Chair. And of course, [indiscernible] Compensation and Nominations Committee.

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I must now report to you as senior independent auditor -- Senior Independent Director, I should say, of our group. You will remember that when the Board proposed to combine the role of Chairman of the Board and -- was back at the AGM of 2024. It also referred to a balance of power with the Board and in particular, not only by increasing the importance of the role of the Senior Independent Director, which has led to a change in the bylaws of our group.

In that framework, the framework of our bylaws, which specify my duties, I, first of all, draw your attention to my role as passer, should I say, between the Chairman of the Board and the Directors on matters of governance and on how the Board operates. The assessment of the Board's performance is an annual event. The meeting of -- with the main shareholders every year and what we call governance roadshows, which are a time to talk with shareholders about how the group is governed, how it all fleshes out, so to speak, what we talk about on the Board, what our areas of focus are. So this is a very interesting exercise for our large investors.

There's also the work on the agenda of the Board. And of course, last year, Benoit and I worked together, and this is a very good illustration of all that. We also review the independence of our directors. So it's a useful task, which requires good cooperation between the group's management, the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer, but also the Company Secretary, Secretary of the Board, Antoine. Of course, Maud, Claire, and the -- all the members of Saint-Gobain's ExCo. Now this cooperation from the [ word go ] has always gone very, very well. And the Board's appraisal, which was carried out by an independent firm at the end of last year confirms what I'm saying.

Concerning the appraisal of the Board, it is universally appreciated by the directors themselves. And each and every one in their respective roles underscore the quality of the interaction within the Board. I should also point out how well aligned everybody is strategically with the management's objectives. There also been a very careful inclusion of risk management.

The Board operates in a very structured manner with an outstanding transparency, excellent on the part of management, which creates an environment of trust that contributes considerably to the quality of our discussions. Of course, there's always room for progress. I'm working on that. But I think I can say as of now that your Board works with discipline, commitment and confidence with the sole goal of making the company successful.

I'm going to leave it at that for that part. Could we have a jingle, please before moving on? There we are. That's all I want.

I now have the honor of reporting as Chair of the Nominations and Compensation Committee. This is on our work conducted in 2025, and my presentation will come in 2 parts. First part, which will be a review of how the Board performed in 2025. And the second part on the components of the compensation package of our Chairman and CEO for 2025, what we call [ ex post ] say on pay. And in respect to 2026, which we call [ ex anti ] say on pay. Bearing in mind that you will be voting on both of those aspects, [ ex anti ] and [ ex post ].

Now you have the key figures concerning the Board. A brief reminder, first of all, the size of the Board, composition, the degree of diversity, the origins, the seniority. You have all that on the screen. I wanted to say too, it's very simple. As you can see, your Board is a balanced Board. It's a diversified Board. It's also independent. And it's a Board that is committed with an attendance rate of 100%.

As for the competence, this is something that our main shareholders are very attuned to, particularly in terms of our diversity. As you can see, 5 out of 11 members, 45% are non-French nationals. It was 36% before last year. This increase in the number of non-nationals was due to the appointment of 2 new directors at the AGM of June last year, Maya Hari from Singapore and Hans Sohlstrom, who is Finnish. Two regions, by the way, in which Saint-Gobain has very strong position that it continues to develop, Benoit told us earlier. These are 2 remarkable additions to the Board that we needed, and we're very, very pleased that they accepted to join us.

Now French law being French law, when we calculate these proportions, it does not count employee representatives on the Board, which is probably a shame, but we have 3, who represents the employee shareholders. And you know just how important it is for us that our employees own a substantial amount of the share capital. So Lydie Cortes and Philippe Thibaudet both represent the other employees. Now these 3 people make a significant contribution, a much appreciated contribution to the work of the Board. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them for that.

So overall, with this new Board of Directors, it took us 2 or 3 years to reconstitute it with the various departures. But I think I can now say that the skills and competencies are particularly well adapted to Saint-Gobain's business model.

Now to prepare our work, we have 3 committees, 3 expert committees. The first is the Audit and Risk Committee, which is chaired by Thierry Delaporte. He's been Chair for the last 2 years and he is now up for reelection. We also have the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, which has been chaired since last year by Sophie Brochu. And thirdly, the Nominations and Compensation Committee that I have the great honor of chairing myself.

Now we have 1 renewal this year. Thankfully, only 1 committee present is up for renewal, that is Thierry Delaporte. I can tell you as of now that if today's AGM approves the resolution, we will reappoint him as Chairman of the Risk and Audit Committee. Thierry, thanks to his great broad professional experience, makes a remarkable contribution to the work of your Board. And indeed, he chairs the work of the Audit and Risk Committee very, very efficiently. So excellent collaboration with our CFO and the whole financial department. That's the first part.

Second part now is the compensation of your Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. This information is brought up by the Board, but is subject to submitted to you for your say on pay. The idea is that compensation and achievement of strategy should be aligned.

By way of brief synopsis, nothing like a nice, simple chart. This is the compensation of Benoit Bazin for 2025. Two comments I'd like to make. The first is that this is a continuity of the [ palace ]. No changes were made to the structure of the Chairman and CEO's compensation, which is based on 3 components: fixed compensation at the top line; variable compensation, which is capped; and a long-term incentive in the form of share-based performance or performance per share, I should say.

Second thing I'd say is that the overall compensation of our Chairman and CEO is below the median of his colleagues in the CAC 40 or even of the CAC 40 of industrial companies. Concerning variable compensation, the chart is maybe a little denser than the previous chart. But let's take 3 things to take away. First of all, that there's a cap. The cap is 170% of the fixed component. So you cannot -- the variable compensation cannot exceed 170% of the fixed compensation.

Secondly, there are quantitative and qualitative data, 75% quantitative, 25% qualitative. Of the quantitative, 60% are financial indicators, have we achieved our financial goals or not, and 40% are extra financial, in particular, corporate social responsibility, CSR, and environmental criteria. Concerning financial quantifiable criteria, which represents 60% of his variable compensation, all the goals were achieved. We can only be pleased about that. A wonderful achievement, a wonderful achievement of our previous program, which ended in 2025 despite a global context that was anything but simple. So I think the Board can say just how happy it is that we have achieved all our goals. I think that's a remarkable performance over the last 4 years.

As for the qualitative criteria, here again, we felt that the Board, in its wisdom, because it is a value judgment that these goals have been achieved, particularly the management of stakeholders and of the rollout of broad impact, the working of the Board, the Chairmanship of the Board by Benoit Bazin. Here again, we were perfectly satisfied that all the objectives have been achieved.

Maybe one point that I should point out to you, Benoit has mentioned it. Claire Pedini also spoke about it at some length. It's the objective regarding safety. At Saint-Gobain, as you will have understood, for an industrial company, safety is absolutely of the essence. Every time we meet, we start every Board meeting with a quick update on safety. I think it's the way to proceed.

The rate of accidents in the workplace. We talk about the TF2, that's the frequency rate. Not just our employees, but there are people who are subcontractors and temps who all work on our sites. Our TF2 is one of the lowest in the whole profession. We're at a rate of 143 last year. We were last year, which is very good. So we're very pleased about that. Every year, the Board pushes for better performance. But of course, management takes us on the Board very successfully to improve our TF2.

Last year, we achieved our goal. You saw that we've achieved our goal. Unfortunately, as Claire mentioned, the number of serious actions has increased. Benoit decided that this particular criteria was not achieved, so he would not accept any additional compensation on the strength of this criteria, which I think emphasizes how much importance we attach to safety. So we are fully supportive of Benoit's decision, which explains that the Chairman and CEO will not receive the full amount he could have received in view of his decision not to receive any compensation on the basis of safety. And this is something that -- a decision that I can only applaud.

Moving on to long-term compensation, which is the third component, fixed, variable and long term. Saint-Gobain has a performance-based plan of action for, I think it's 2,500 top executives in the group, and Benoit Bazin is one of the beneficiaries of this long-term incentive plan, a plan that was decided at the end of the year. And the Board wished to grant him the maximum amount, that's 75,000 performance-based shares given the excellent operational performance of the group in a difficult environment. But this is what we will be asking you to approve when you vote on the [ ex post ] say on pay.

Moving on to 2026. Again, the structure is exactly the same. It's the same slide that you saw earlier on, the figures out there because we haven't got the performance what we will have achieved. But we haven't changed the structure of compensation by comparison with 2025.

Beginning with the variable compensation. Of the financial objectives -- and as you know, there's a new strategic plan, new strategic plan, which will for the period 2026 to 2030. So we've adopted the financial criteria to align them with the management's objectives, particularly as explained in our Capital Markets Day last October, that's EBITDA in excess of [ 15% ]. Maud give you the main components of those objectives. So we've adapted the compensation. It couldn't have been any other way. So the group has made commitments to certain objectives. We have made commitments to these objectives, and they will be aligned in the compensation plan.

Regarding CO2 emissions, no change, except that the important thing with CO2 is millions of tonnes of -- that's our carbon footprint. But we want to do more. As Claire said, 30%, 45% reduction by comparison of 2017 by 2035. Now that may seem a very ambitious objective. It is because as Claire said, you make acquisition very often when you acquire a company, the carbon footprint is actually higher than our own carbon footprint. And of course, the demand increases when you sell more, well, you generate more carbon arithmetically.

So it's quite an undertaking to actually abide by these objectives. We have decided to be very ambitious, but realistic all the time. It's important to keep improving without necessarily targeting figures that are impossible to achieve. So we will continue to organize ourselves in that way to arrive at 40%, 45%.

As regards to safety, which is the final point I wanted to mention, we felt that we should continue to be very demanding about the reduction of the TF2. And despite the fact we're at a very low level, we must now take on board serious accidents. The fewer there are, the more serious they are.

So we now have a new indicator that Claire hinted out. The Board wanted that the safety indicator include a new acronym. I apologize for this. It's what we call high consequence injuries, the very serious cases. So the 5% of that compensation package next year will gauge whether we've abided by our safety goals. And within that particular target, have them ensure high-consequence incidents.

Of the quantitative data and quantitative criteria, we will continue in the same way. We feel the right criteria. And of course, the first area that we focus our judgment on is the rollout of the Lead & Grow strategic plan announced last year. There are other components, but it's the same chart every year. Pension funds and other considerations, which are highly unlikely. I think we have many, many years ahead of us before we look at any of these.

One final point is the compensation policy for directors, for members of the Board. Again, no changes by comparison to what you approved last year. The same envelope, EUR 1.6 million for the Board in its entirety. We have made 1 or 2 small minor adjustments in-house, particularly for the Audit Committee. But otherwise, nothing very substantial. They are just small internal adjustments.

As you know, we have some special conditions for our non-French directors who, if they have to cross the Atlantic where it takes more time and there's greater costs involved. So that's all built into the overall budget that you've already approved. That's what I wanted to say to you about the work of the Compensation and Nominations Committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Jean-Francois. Let me now call on [ Frederic Rue ] to join us to report to us on behalf of the statutory auditors.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to speak on behalf of the college of statutory auditors and give you my account of the reports that we have drawn up for you. Now we've issued several reports as part of our assignment in respect of financial year 2025.

First of all, our reports certainly find the information as regards to sustainability, but also our reports on the statutory accounts, and indeed, the consolidated accounts as well as our report on the related party agreements. These reports can be found in the universal registration document, which is available on the company's website and have been there since the 11th of March 2026.

I propose to report in a synoptic way, beginning with our report on sustainability, which was issued on the 26th of February. Our task consisted in doing the work necessary to form an opinion, expressing limited assurance regarding compliance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, ESRS of the process used by the group to arrive at these data, the compliance of the data itself for the ESRS data, and finally, compliance with the demands in line with the green taxonomy.

Concerning compliance of the process with the ESRS, we have not identified any errors, emissions or major inconsistencies. We should point out that we paid particular attention to the updating of the analysis on double materiality. Concerning the compliance of information on sustainability with the ESRS, we haven't identified any errors, omissions or inconsistency. Two areas give rise to particular attention. First of all, the greenhouse gas emissions; and secondly, the transition plan for limitation of climate change. Concerning the compliance with the demands regarding green taxonomy, we have not identified any errors emissions or inconsistencies.

Let me now move on to our report on the consolidated and statutory accounts issued last February 26. These reports conclude that we have unreservedly certified the accounts which are consistent with the IFRS system as adopted by the European Union for consolidated accounts and the French GAAP in the case of the statutory accounts.

We have formed our opinion on the work carried out or conducted by the auditors, which give us a reasonable assurance that the accounts of information are both sincere and full compliance. Our works have been adapted to the particularities and characteristics of your group and include ongoing operations and the more nonrecurring events of the financial period.

We use the procedures and internal control systems in the group and focus on the entire group worldwide. Our conclusions were submitted to the Management and Audit and Risk Committee of your group.

Our reports further comprise a description of the key points in each audit. These are areas with significant risk of anomaly that we think are of significant greater significance for 2025. These are the main issues that we discuss with management and the Audit Committee. For each of these items, in our reports, we explained the reasons that we selected them, the type of risk identified, but also the response we received from the audit department.

For the period ended December 31, 2025, these key issues concern in the case of consolidated accounts, the appraisal of goodwill and tangible and intangible fixed assets, but also the appraisal of the provision for the asbestos lawsuit in the U.S.A. In the case of the statutory accounts, this concerns equity investments and related receivables.

We point out in our report on the statutory annual accounts that we have an observation during the first year of application of the ANC 2022, 2026. This observation had no bearing on our opinion. We also point out in our reports that we have no observation concerning the specific verifications, particularly concerning the sincerity of information provided in the group's management report, but also the exactness and sincerity of information provided concerning the compensation paid to corporate officers.

Moving on to the special report on related party agreements. We have pointed out in our report that we had reported to us an agreement between company Saint-Gobain, Revedin concerning a partnership for the editions 2026, '27, '28, '29 of the Global Award for Sustainable architecture.

We were also notified that there is a continued agreement ongoing between Compagnie de Saint-Gobain and Jana Revedin concerning a partnership relating to the organizational production of the 2025 edition of the Global Award for Sustainable architecture. This report can be found on Page 285 of the universal registration document and does not contain any particular comments or observations.

That brings the end of our report on. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention.

Thank you, Frederico. I give the floor to Antoine Vignial, our Secretary General, and he is going to present in a nutshell, all the resolutions that you have to approve or not.

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Antoine. I would like to say that a certain number of written questions have been asked before the assembly. And we also have given the opportunity to the shareholders to ask questions by e-mail until 10:30 this morning. And the answers of the Board have been posted on our Internet site and the entry finance general assembly. And sometimes one single answer has been given to several questions pertaining to the same topic.

Mr [indiscernible], individual shareholder, has asked a question about artificial intelligence, which is a very important topic, very topical issue. And I think that I would like to give you the answer here. rather than give you the answer in writing. So the Saint-Gobain Group enters the area of artificial intelligence in laboratories and in operational business, in industrial maintenance or industrial manufacturing. What are going to be on a long-term basis, the impact on employment at Saint-Gobain. Of course, we have been working on artificial intelligence for years, 3 or 4 years ago, it was at the stage of ideation of ideas, which were rolled out in the group. And then now we have an actual operational reality in the group. We are controlling a whole set of AI technologies, and we also have internal tools for cybersecurity and privacy of data.

We have about 500 cases of huge concerning AR in the group. cases concerning several countries. We are reorganizing our governance, AR governance in order to make it a strategic issue. We have trained a little more than 16,000 employees on AR and AI tools. A few examples, of course, because it pertains to all the company functions, for instance, formulation of materials, speed at which we can have a convergence on formulation, for instance, in construction chemicals, we need to have specific applications for concrete, sand and ad mixtures. So we are able now to have a convergence on a certain number of samples much more quickly than before. And we can divide by 3 or 4 the convergence time compared to a few years ago.

It is also true for material research and for a circular economy because we can retrieve a lot of research that has been made over the past few years. It's true also for industrial research, and the Saint-Gobain Group has reorganized its database over the past years. So we are lucky because we have a lot of data concerning all our industrial processes. We have about 100-plus board plants generating a lot of data. So we have a lot of relevant tools, and we have organized those tools in order for them to be used by our employees. And this is an asset for industrial processes as far as AI is concerned.

It concerns all support functions, procurement, legal department, HR department, customer service and also it concerns use part B, material shrinking. Now if you have energy renovation projects, those are complicated projects. So it takes some time for craftsmen. And then this craftsman is going to talk with the customers at plant B. And he is going to help drafting a cost estimate. So thanks to AI, it is possible to do that very quickly. And it will take time for the sales representative in order to draft the cost estimate with customized solutions. So it's a good example concerning interaction with our customers.

So artificial intelligence in a way to give support to our teams from an industrial research point of view, support point of view, commercial or business sales point of view. So it's an acceleration of the Saint-Gobain offering and growth strategy and efficiency strategy rather than search for efficiency.

And it's not about cutting jobs. It's part of our strategy, and I have given you a few examples concerning the whole of our Saint-Gobain chain of value, and our teams are very much committed to using AR everywhere in the world, not only in France but as well as in the United States or elsewhere.

Now this was my answer to this question, which was asked in writing, but it could have been asked by you today. Now what about the questions in the room? You have the floor. Please wait for the mic.

And we can spend about 30 minutes to our exchanges. Question number one, Pat.

I've been a shareholder for about 6 years, 2 questions. The first question, Lead and Grow 5-year plan, Lead and Grow. The objective a 20% increase in sales or turnover in local currency. Between '24 and '25, there was no increase in sales. Same thing the third quarter 2026. It's even minus 2%. I think that there are some headwinds in the world. Trump administration. In Europe, the European Parliament has voted in 2019 for a major green deal, more than EUR 100 billion, and it's being, in fact, reduced.

Same thing for the French government. Is it a megatrend here that the government and the countries are over-indebted and they can't afford to have those major green deals anymore? So I think that you are ambitious for the 20% by 2030.

Second question, are you involved in the carbon capture in the plans for instance. Just as Veolia, the Veolia Group is doing, can you do that? Do you plan to do that?

[Interpreted] Thank you for this very relevant question. First question, 20%. 20%, it concerns the renewal of our sales. So we want to continue to make disposals and acquisitions. We have EUR 50 billion in sales at present. So EUR 10 billion in sales are going to be acquired or disposed of. It could be EUR 7 billion or another figure. This is in order to compare that with what we have done in the past years, around 40%.

Now mid-single-digit growth of between 4% and 5% per year of sales growth. So what do we want to acquire? And what do we want to dispose of in each country? So we are ambitious as far as the continuation of the group growth.

Now the impact of exchange rates. The euro is a strong currency. And if we had published the group sales in dollars since 2022, then the growth would have been much higher. But we're very glad to have a strong euro. But let's not forget the exchange rate impact on our sales.

So indeed, you're right, the overall situation is not very good. But it does not pertain to -- it does not impact on sustainable buildings. Those are the best buildings in Europe and elsewhere. Of course, the governments can make a stance about that. But I can tell you that in the United States, in the residential area, there are no insurance companies willing to ensure you when a hail storm has destroyed your roof if you have not used more sustainable material to build your home.

So there is an accelerating climate change. And you have 14 states in the United States having defined tax advantages for people having used, for instance, waterproofing materials for their buildings. So this in order to fight against climate change.

In the office building, for instance, in April last year, we had met the Chairman of LEED, L-E-E-D, leader in Energy and Environment, and he explained that in the United States, the office buildings is 25% higher value if it has a good energy performance label. So on the one hand, we have political statements. And on the other hand, you have the actual value, financial value of an office. You have the insurance companies, which we choose to insure some buildings.

In Europe, we had a lot of standards for the past 5 years, creating a lot of confusion and slowing down the implementation of those energy standards. In France, we had 16 definition of eligibility criteria to the renovation bonus over the past 5 years. And this has not had a negative impact on renovation. But we have tax advantages. We have renovation bonuses and there is a 30% difference between good energy diagnosis and poor energy diagnosis. And people are going to look into whether there is light in the paint or whether there is a seismic or flooding risk. So those are the facts in spite of all the governmental statements or the simplification of stance on the European level.

However, those renovated buildings are better buildings, bringing some benefits to our customers in energy efficiency and purchasing power. We had forgotten about the Ukraine war impact and the war in Ukraine. So electrification is not going to be all and end all. And even if we have a heat pump in schools, we had a heat wave last week in France, and this didn't change the fact that the schools were much too hot for the children.

And you're right, people -- the governments are over indebted. Countries are over indebted. And so insurance companies have to help us. So I think that fundamentally, Saint-Gobain proposal concerning sustainable building brings a lot of advantage and benefits to the customers, and it has an impact on the planet.

So CO2 capture, no, we're not involved in that because we want to reduce our CO2 footprint rather than capture. And we have done that on a very high level, minus 35 since 2017. So you can see that this is due to the Saint-Gobain acquisitions. So we make a lot of efforts. We electrify our plants. We have built the first in the world, the first plasterboard plant in Norway working with electricity.

Even if we did nothing to reduce our CO2 footprint, our facilities do not emit enough CO2 that would make CO2 capture profitable and interesting because we are not major emitters. Our plants are not major CO2 emitters, and it would not be possible to gather or to pull all those emissions and borrow them in the North Sea. So we can reduce emissions in another way.

The CO2 capture processes are very expensive. For the cement manufacturers are talking about projects costing EUR 1.5 billion. So we do not spend as much to reduce our CO2 footprint, but we are very successful in doing that, and we want to make a lot of progress, and we want to bring a lot of sustainable building in the world.

[Interpreted] I would like to congratulate you because we do not only restate figures. I think that those figures are as big as official figures because companies restate figures a lot. And for instance, some companies have negative sales figures and they restate the figures and they become positive. So you're not afraid of mentioning real figures without restating them. My question concerns what you have mentioned, digitalized building.

First question what impact is going to have this vegitalization? Of course, insights are going to be attracted by this vegitalization and they are going to enter your building and your apartment. Has Saint-Gobain developed some kind of system in order to prevent insects to come into the apartments?

With AI, we can make extraordinary things. Now in my house, when I grow veg, I know what happens with insects. So what are you going to do about that?

[Interpreted] Thank you for your first remark. Of course, we want to publish true figures. And concerning vegitalized buildings, what is important is to keep in mind, and you can see that in urban planning because Saint-Gobain does not only selling of plasterboard, but sells a whole solution concerning a home building in a city.

So sustainable building is part and parcel of an ecosystem. And what is challenging is together -- to bring together several players. We have vegetable islands in Paris, for instance, which are very important to lower the temperature. And this is why we have vegitalized roof in the United States. them in white.

And it's very important to have waterproof membranes in order to avoid flooding through the roof with a poor waterproofing process. So don't worry about the printing being deteriorated because we have taken that into account, particularly waterproofing. I'm not a specialist as far as insects are concerned. And when you switch off the light, you can repower insects and also mosquito nets.

In the United States, we sell mosquito nets with some [indiscernible] attractivity which glass [indiscernible]. I think it's the best response. Now I'm not going to talk about biodiversity. But when there are more intake, are more birds and biodiversity is protected. So we are very glad to hear the bird thing in Paris, was the case during COVID. And I think that it's a wider topic, urban planning.

For instance, the Louvre museum. In 2028, we are to celebrate the 40 years of the Louvre pyramid, everything in mineral. You've probably been there and you wait for too long a time before you can enter, the temperature is very, very hot. So this has been designed 40 years ago. The Louvre is entirely mineralized, but we have to think about the temperature. And those are very significant and important topics in order to make cities more sustainable and cooler in order to lower the temperatures and capture the CO2.

But I can't give you the perfect answer concerning the insect topic. What would happen if more roofs were vegetalized in our cities? I think that digitalization in cities is a very important topic. And we know that in some cities, green spaces are much more -- much wider than in Paris, much larger than in Paris.

[Interpreted] my name is I'm an individual shareholder. First of all, thanks for the WiFi. It's very practical. My back book is very happy about that. I have a question about the price per tonne of CO2 that you reinvoice internally at EUR 100 per tonne. It's about EUR 85 in the open market. Are you adding a margin to the price per tonne? What's happening? Because the real value of the tonne is less than what you're reinvoicing within the group.

My second question concerns your compensation. I think 100% of the qualitative variable will be attributive, bearing in mind that there were a few [indiscernible] to staff. I have some difficulty understanding that you get 100% despite the fact [indiscernible]. And my final question concerns your shareholders. You're biggest shareholder is the fund, the employees fund with 7.5% BlackRock has 7%. Nobody between 5% and 7%. And I see some individual shareholders something like 8.5%. Air Liquide has a lot of individual shareholders and has decided to give its shareholders a fee or a gift when they come to attend the AGM. Is that something that your Board is looking at? Are you drawing inspiration from Air Liquide rather than gadgets or projects that actually consume CO2?

[Interpreted] Thank you for your questions. Firstly, the ton of CO2 is something that we impose upon ourselves within the group. My predecessor lost it at EUR 25 for investments, EUR 50 for R&D, which is more long term. We've gradually increased to the price of EUR 100 and EUR 200 per tonne. This is not something we pay in cash outside of the group. This is the way we go about modeling and justifying our investments and our R&D.

Let me give you an example. If you look at a glass of, if you just look at the heat recovery system, your return on investment will be over a little over 10 years. You obviously do that shows return on investments 4, 5 years. But if you grant EUR 100 per tonne, this is fictitious.

But if in India, that's where the tonne is EUR 100, it's EUR 85 in Europe, then we apply that throughout the world. And you see that our heat recovery system at EUR 100 a tonne, if I recover that and don't lose it then I have a return on investment, I prefer to go ahead by comparison with materials that are expensive. You see that the carbonated material that we burn to produce glass or whatever.

But if I have decarbonated materials and I apply EUR 200 a tonne in 10 years' time, I would have to learn to make glass with the [indiscernible] world, which is -- contains no carbon by comparison to what we've been using historically. So that type of dynamics that enable us to progress. And irrespective of the market, you need quotas or buy those quotas in the market. This is how we progress, especially when we look at our R&D projects or our investment projects.

Your second question with my compensation. First of all, you've seen it was 155% of a maximum -- out of a maximum of 170%. Now I think it was -- financial performance was 95%, and that includes safety. At the time, we had a measurement called the frequency rate, TF2, we achieved our objective.

However, there were serious accidents. And I felt that from my own point of view and from the exco's point of view, who agreed with me, I felt that it was important because that's not going to bring anybody back unfortunately, but to receive no compensation whatsoever in respect of that criteria. So it's 155 out of a potential 170 because the safety issue, which is 15% of variable was at my behest reduced to 0 and approved by the ExCo.

Your third question was the large shareholders, we're very happy to have our group savings scheme of the main shareholder and BlackRock. BlackRock isn't just a fund. BlackRock is a whole series of funds. Individual shareholders are important to us and the proportion has increased. I think our individual shareholders will have appreciated the annual average increase of our dividend by 12% over the last 5 years.

It's very important for us to continue to help increase the number of individual shareholders. So all sorts of events, your physical presence here today, individual shareholder meetings in Paris or in the provinces that [indiscernible] and I do with our Investor Relations teams. We also organize visits to facilities and production sites. We would receive something maybe not a fee, but a gift that I hope you will appreciate when you leave that I think is good -- I hope that will give you a binding memories. And yes, we are very keen to continue to grow our number of individual shareholders. I believe it's 8%, much happier than when it was at 6.5% a few years back. So yes, we would like to have more individual shareholders.

[Interpreted] If I could just add a word. Maybe I can ask you if you'd like to join the club of our shareholders because this is where all this happens. This is where we have all sorts of dealings with individual shareholders. very happy to be in touch with you directly by means of you'll find the inscription form on our website. I think the person here had a hand raised. Please go ahead.

[Interpreted] I'm speaking as an individual shareholder. I have 2 questions. On technical questions that I feel it's important and a more of a more general nature. The latter concerns your results, which had a historically high level and EBITDA margin of 15.5% and an EBIT margin of 11.4%. Given the headwinds we face briefly in construction chemicals, can we reach or even exceed these historically high levels?

If we look at the about job indicators, we know that the price of chemicals has risen sharply over the first 4 months, with downstream, the pass-on has only been in the region of 2%. My technical question is Ecocem, which we don't speak very often is an important part of Saint-Gobain. Ecocem has 3 facilities in and one in the Netherlands. Could you tell us a little bit more about them?

[Interpreted] Ecocem is an investment we made about 20 years ago, a little over 20 years ago. It's in decarbonated cement made from slag from our high furnaces, the clinker. This was an important issue 20 years ago. It's still an important issue today. We have a minority stake in Ecocem. The -- I think it's become increasingly important since Chryso joined the group because Chryso has important admixes for low-carbon cement. We will, of course, continue to develop Ecocem with our major players in the civil engineering -- if I take concrete, this is Ecocem cement with Chryso admixes used in a number of the major construction projects in Paris.

So yes, essentially in the same way, Saint-Gobain owns Leca. Leca produces calcine clays, which are important factors of substitution in cement in our low-carbon cements, and this is an important aspect -- it's become increasingly strategic and increasingly important as we increase our involvement in construction chemicals.

So thanks for your comments on our results. We always want to do more and better. And of course, the strategy with Lead Go is 15% to 20% as you heard, that's evidence of our ambition. Our goal for this year is to be over 15% EBITDA. We said at the start of the year that the weather in the U.S.A., France and Germany had not been very conducive in January and February, but that things should pan out after that.

I can't say much more at this point in time. I don't think it's the right place, but I'm confident about the fact that 2026 will be a good year for Saint-Gobain. I'm confident that as we've shown in 2022, for instance, where there was a big increase in the cost of raw materials, we succeeded in increasing our raw materials by more than inflation. That's what we have decided to do. We have our people mobilized around that objective. And I expect that by the end of the first half year that what we've been doing with prices will materialize.

I think with our roofing products, we pass price increases on April, the whole series of things we've done. And of course, our know-how and how we coordinate local purchasing, global measures that enable us in times of crisis to eke out opportunities, including in construction materials. We have outperformed our main competitors by 2 percentage points, almost 3 percentage points in the first quarter -- first quarter of this year.

This is part and parcel of our system of seeking out solutions. I'm confident in times of crisis, the crisis are also opportunities for us to outperform others, particularly in the financial field. Gentleman here with #7, I think.

[Interpreted] I have a question concerning the 40th anniversary of the privatization of Saint-Gobain. It was in 1986 that Saint-Gobain was privatized. Saint-Gobain had been nationalized in 1982. It was a huge popular success because 1.5 million people subscribed to Saint-Gobain shares.

Last year, for the 360th anniversary of the group, you did not invite the individual shareholders to join the other stakeholders to participate in the festivities. This year, 2026, when we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the privatization for Saint-Gobain, was my question, have you any plans for a great big party that will bring together the people who place their trust in you back in 1986?

Those shareholders and their descendants, the individual shareholders who represent 8.5% of your share capital. Will they be acknowledged for their loyalty and their longevity? I believe they will buy more and more Saint-Gobain shares to reach by the end of your term of office, Mr. Bazin, 2028, hopefully, they will reach 10% of the group's share capital.

[Interpreted] thank you very much. And congratulations for your ambition and the objectives that you set us. It's true that I think people who subscribe to the shares when the group was privatized. I think they can boast, I think, almost 10% growth per annum on average over the last 40 years, which is very good. 360 years. yes, we did a trip around the world with our partners and -- that was located in our large regions with major accounts. That said, we associated shareholders with a whole series of events in Paris, the events that I took part in myself that took part in. We're doing everything we can to include our individual shareholders.

But more specifically, I'm going to tell you what our share is. The gift for you is for a ticket to attend the waterworks event in the [indiscernible], the Galler Glass. It's an invitation. Okay, it's [indiscernible] event, but a very spectacular one. I hope you'll be able to attend. hopefully, on a day that will be as warm as recent days, but -- we believe that you will remember that one of the first things that Saint-Gobain was the Gallery mirrors, the Gallery Glass.

Now you've given us until 2028 to reach 10% individual shareholders' ownership of the share capital. I thank you for that. I don't have full control over the tax measures that will apply to you or that will soon apply to you because unfortunately, this has adverse effects on individual shareholders.

We are doing a lot to solicit a new generation of shareholders in terms of the transmission values. This is part and parcel of what we do as corporate officers. So thank you for your testimony, which I think should be a good example for younger people to encourage -- younger shareholders to become involved. I meet with students from business schools. And last year, I was with one of these business schools, all sorts of students talk about Saint-Gobain's strategy. And I hope that they either join us or become shareholders.

But we try to do quite a lot with younger people because clearly, it's young people who are the future of each of our countries. That's why we invest in education and youth and including the future of our shareholders. So thank you for the challenge.

We're not going to wait another 40 years to reach 10%. We will certainly improve, I think, the share price. It would be all too easy if we would just reduce the share price, make it more affordable. Thank you for your support. Also thank you for the great encouragement that you have given us. Thank you.

[Interpreted] One question, another one here. Sir, I have noted in your presentation concerning some product recycling like what you said I noted what you said and you are also ambitious concerning construction chemicals, which has to guarantee a certain development in the group. My question is the following. What about the products that are going to result from that construction chemicals? Are they going to be recycled themselves?

[Interpreted] Very good question. Very relevant. Construction chemicals, -- let's take the mixtures that we put into concrete. Now we can have a wall that is demolished and then we are not going to find the original molecule. Concerning the waterproofing solutions, yet, we are working on this type of solution in order to recycle some membranes. But there are a certain number of initiatives that are taken in construction chemicals.

For instance, facade rendering, everything that is exterior insulation, insulation, glass grade and facade rendering. We want to be able to give [indiscernible] and rather to crush everything and lose everything, we prefer to have surfaces that can be separated easily one from the other. If we want to recycle materials, we have to separate the flows in order to find materials quite rapidly. It's part and parcel of our project. We also have some work being done on green chemicals with polymers. So yes, construction chemicals is part and parcel of our work.

Motors, for instance, tiling, we have cement there, and we substitute cement with alternative products in Indonesia. We have replaced 45% of concrete with flying [ acid ] from palm trees. We have palm trees in Indonesia, as you know. And they are cutoff furnishing for furnitures and everything is not cut off. So we use palm tree ashes in order to decarbonize. So we have a lot of sustainability initiatives in construction chemicals and the formulation or the ability to recycle some materials. And this is important for this business line of the group to be involved in our efforts.

[Interpreted] Question number 5, [indiscernible], individual shareholders. I have 2 questions concerning distribution of payout distribution. Your PP brand used to be a leader a few years ago. And this distribution brand has been overtaken by other groups, for instance, in the U.K., I can't remember the name of the U.K. group.

And my second question, [indiscernible], the company which manufactures materials with the mining extraction. Are you interested in that company which has a lot of difficulties right now?

[Interpreted] I am very confident in the leading position [indiscernible] and CDO and [indiscernible], which are affiliated companies. We have more sales than #2, and we are gaining market shares in France. The brand names, I'm not going to give you the brand names that you have mentioned concern do-it-yourself. DIY. And you know that our customers are mainly craftsmen. So [indiscernible], you have heard our distribution manager and [indiscernible] is very much ahead of competitors concerning, for instance, connected software for swift cost estimate in order to support craftsmen and train the craftsmen.

I know no other distributor in the world, whether it's in the U.K. or the U.S., which is able to draft cost estimate with AI. [indiscernible] is doing that. So sometimes, of course, there is some competition from craftsmen working shadow economy and they come to [indiscernible]P because they have the right products, the right services and the right advice, particularly concerning energy performance in households.

So at [indiscernible], we continue to make a difference. And this is very much in line with our industrial business line. Saint-Gobain is leading a group concerning construction building in France in residential and nonresidential markets.

Now concerning your second question, we have a very specific know-how in ceramics in order to [indiscernible]. For instance, for ceramic in order to extract lithium and brine evaporate for 18 months. So I know that I've had some problem from Indonesia. I had the opportunity to talk about that with the Eramet Chairman last Tuesday.

And we have a specific ceramic know-how, expertise, and we have a lot of industrial expertise. So the extraction of lithium from -- with ceramic, I think, is part and parcel of our expertise. I don't really know much about the outlook for Eramet, but we can support them with outstanding and innovative solutions. Of course, they have to be able to implement the solutions in their operations. Thank you for your question. Question #3, and then we will move over to the voting period. I am an individual shareholder.

[Interpreted] As far as I remember, we're talking about Saint-Gobain Pont-à-Mousson. What about Pont-à-Mousson? What is the lesson that we can draw from the past?

[Interpreted] Now you're right. In 1970, Saint-Gobain was called Saint-Gobain Pont-à-Mousson when we had this merger with Pont-à-Mousson. We still have this logo, which is modernized by my predecessor. Pont-à-Mousson is a subsidiary of the group. And we have continued to invest in Pont-à-Mousson mainly on the water market.

We had a footprint in China, but not anymore. We have a footprint in Europe at present with a minor business line in Brazil. But the core business of Pont-à-Mousson is Europe with several plants in France. Pont-à-Mousson is 4,000 employees, half of them in Pont-à-Mousson in France, and we continue to invest in this facility with a plant in Fug. So this is a profitable business with electrical furnaces.

So we have an electric furnace in [indiscernible] in order to manufacture pipes and also in pipeline in Santander in Spain. There are huge requirements and needs in the water market in Europe. Sometimes there are funding issues from the various governmental water agencies. You've heard about the water stress.

Spain and Italy and other infrastructure plan have invested a lot in piping, in pipes. So France has to do that as well. But we continue to invest and develop that business line with technological transitions concerning, for instance, the move over to electrical furnaces. Question #7 and then question #2, individual shareholders.

[Interpreted] Mr. Chairman I would like to congratulate you as well a very good manager. Now of course, this is encouraged by the renovation business, which is becoming more and more significant. In my house, primary and secondary house, I have tried to change the glazing. And I was confronted to triple glazing, double glazing and many sorts of double glazing. So it's difficult to choose.

I had put a big question a few years ago, you were still General Manager at the time who were not CEO and you hadn't given me the right answer. Maybe your technical experts are going to give me the right answer.

Now maybe what you could do is to have a booklet where you could have a list of possible ladies and glazing with their advantages and drawbacks and the price of the materials. I was a little bit angry because I had to trust the craftsman who did the job. I tried to choose myself, but I couldn't. I was not able to do that because I didn't have any knowledge about that.

[Interpreted] Now I would like our communication team to take your address, your mail address in order to give you the answer. We have done a lot of work over the past years in order to streamline and simplify this matter. You need one specific type of glazing and you need one answer.

Now we have the ECLAZ, E-C-L-A-Z range of glazing and you have all the possible information about the ECLAZ glazing on the Internet, and you will have the right answer. It's on the Internet. Maybe the quant did not explain that to you.

So this is the ECLAZ range. It's margin glazing. It's a new innovative gazing, which has been put on the market 5 years ago with luminous transition and a good thermal performance, whether in winter or in the summertime. Now we are going to take your details and in order to be sure to give you the right answer this time.

Now we are talking about electrification right now, but it's not electrification that is going to make it more comfortable to read your newspaper by the window in the winter or when there is a heat wave to give you the opportunity to have a cooler house.

So [indiscernible], who is the shareholder or shareholder representative has organized a material tech a few months ago. with a glass window, low carbon window. And the craftsmen told us, I have natural light, it's cool. So that was the return. It was last week, in fact, when a heat wave struck France. And so we had this meeting.

So we have the necessary know-how, but it's true that we have progress to make as far as communication with craftsmen and with the individual customers is concerned. Thank you for your question. One last question, and then we are going to vote.

[indiscernible] Saint-Gobain who retired from Saint-Gobain Pont-à-Mousson. Concerning the high furnaces or polluting high furnaces at Pont-à-Mousson, they are going to be replaced by an electrical furnace, which is a major investment. And the Pont-à-Mousson, senior management, senior management has said that the employees and retired employees should participate -- should be involved in that investment.

Social agreement has been imposed, which has a negative impact on employees and retired employees. Any way the pensions is quite at Saint-Gobain? So for retired persons receiving a certain level of pension -- having received a pension for the past 10 years. This is going to result in a smaller amount of pension. I don't think that it's a good idea. And is it a good social policy to have employees and retired employees involved in the industrial renovation and industrial policy of the group?

[Interpreted] Now welcome to the [indiscernible], including the ex Saint-Gobain employees. I have answered this question. It has nothing to do with the Pont-à-Mousson investment project. I think that there has been a problem with communication with the pensioners. We have communicated with the employees. And this agreement has been validated by the CGT, that is to say the main trade union of the Saint-Gobain employees.

You probably know the situation at Pont-à-Mousson. It incurred a loss, and it worked in a very competitive environment to faced with confronted with Turkish and Chinese competitors. So I think that we have to rebound at Pont-à-Mousson. It's our duty. And we did that with the incorporation with the majority trade union, the CGT.

So we have asked for the employees' efforts, for the employees to join us in our efforts in order to ready the Pont-à-Mousson company. And there were some anomalies at Pont-à-Mousson number of hours worked compared to the average number of hours worked at Saint-Gobain. Also, they had at Saint-Gobain 6 additional leave days compared to the average vacation days in the group. So if we want to be successful in the 21st century, we have to work more, not less.

And also, the -- there is a death insurance, which is given to all our employees. And when you are retired, it's true that as far as life expectancy is concerned, you are getting closer to death, but you are not going to pay this death insurance to the pensioners.

We had annual bonuses for all the Pont-à-Mousson retirees or pensioners. I don't think it's very interesting for everybody to go into all the details, but we decided that we had to look into the future and that it was normal to have the Pont-à-Mousson benefits at the level of the benefits given to the other employees in the Saint-Gobain group shifted work was 28 hours, and now it has been increased to 32 hours at Saint-Gobain Pont-à-Mousson.

So we have besides made all those decisions in order to increase the Pont-à-Mousson profitability. It has already been improved during the past 2 years. I think that it's quite normal, and the Saint-Gobain Group is quite exemplary as far as those topics are concerned, whether it's for the employees or for the -- whether it's for the pensioners, the retired employees.

And the Pont-à-Mousson subsidiary is not the most profitable subsidiary of the group in France as well as in the group. But I recognize that we have not been very good as far as the communication is concerned, but the General Manager of Pont-à-Mousson has given the necessary explanations about that.

[Interpreted] One last question. Now you have mentioned Foug, Foug location. And it's very interesting for me. Now what about smelting, decorative smelting? I think that you have also taken back the market of production smelter. Now this is smelting for water supply. So you are talking about pipes for water supply and sanitation. Thank you for your answer.

[Interpreted] Yes, you're right. Thank you very much for all your questions. Very relevant and interesting questions.

[Interpreted] Okay. Now I propose to move on to the vote on the resolutions. I can now give you the final number of shares present. 74.81% of shares present voting as a result of which our quorum has been more than reached. But before voting on the resolutions, we're going to hear about how to vote. This is in the form of a short video.

[Presentation]

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

[Voting]

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

[Voting]

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] Approved 99.6%. Third resolution, approval of the accounts and appropriation of -- sorry, appropriation of earnings and determination of setting of the dividend. Voting underway.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is over.

[Interpreted] The third resolution has been approved by 99.79%. Fourth resolution concerns related party agreements. Please vote now.

[Interpreted] Voting is now over.

[Interpreted] The resolution has been approved by 99.7% Fifth resolution is say-on-pay of Chairman and CEO, Benoit Bazin. Voting on the way. It's the sixth resolution, by the way, not the fifth.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is over.

[Interpreted] Authorization has been approved by 9.31%. Seventh resolution concerns the report on the compensation of corporate officers. Voting underway.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is over.

[Interpreted] And the resolution has been approved by 93.27% Eighth resolution, that's the say on pay concerning the compensation of Chairman CEO Benoit Bazin. Voting underway.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is over.

[Interpreted] And the resolution has been approved by 89.9%. This is the ninth resolution say-on-pay ex ante concerning corporate officers or executive directors. Voting underway.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is now over.

[Interpreted] And the resolution has been approved by 99.5%. 10th resolution asks you to approve trading in the company's shares. That's the share buyback plan. Voting underway.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] voting is over.

[Interpreted] And the resolution has been approved by 99.9%.

Now we're going to come back to Slide #5. That's the fifth resolution, which I think we skipped. This concerns the term of office of Thierry de La Porte's. We are asking you to renew fifth resolution, and we apologize for this little sup. Voting is now underway on resolution #5.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is over.

[Interpreted] Thierry de Laporte sees his term of office renewed by a majority of 93.4%.

[Interpreted] congratulations, Thierry. And thank you for your support and your high standards as Chairman of your committee. Final resolution, no, we didn't vote. 11th. The 11th resolution concerns powers for formalities to carry out the decisions voting underway.

[Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is now over.

[Interpreted] And we are reassured that resolution has been approved by 99.84%.

[Interpreted] As we have now completed today's agenda, I now declare today's meeting closed at 5:51 p.m. next January. And in the meantime that we convene for a drink together, if you would pass -- hand back the voting devices to as you leave the meeting. I will give the opportunity to receive the gift that I told you. Thank you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good evening, everybody. I hope that you have received our press release and that you have been able to go through the highlights. So together with Maud, our CFO, we will present our Q1 2026 sales performance.

Saint-Gobain sales decreased 2.3% in Q1 in local currencies and also like-for-like, a good performance given the unfavorable weather conditions in January and February in North America and in Europe. We delivered strong growth in Asia Pacific, up 9% in local currencies. Europe was nearly stable, and the Americas decreased as expected due to weather effects and the weakness also in new construction. The geopolitical situation has changed since our full year results at the end of February. I remind everyone that our Middle East presence is limited to 1% of group sales. Our priority has and continues to be the safety of our teams in the region.

Since the start of the conflict, the raw materials and energy environment has become inflationary. We know how to manage this as we have done it very well in recent years, and we are confident to deliver a slightly positive price/cost spread for 2026 as planned.

Our commercial teams and our key account managers are present with our customers, supporting them to be more than ever their partner of choice, limiting also the volatility that our customers experience. Our objective is to continue to deliver on the margin for the group while strengthening customer satisfaction and intimacy for long-term loyalty and outperformance for Saint-Gobain. We have a very solid and seasoned supply chain organization, combining the local nature of our business and also our global purchasing capabilities. Our R&D capabilities allow us to adapt formulations and use our large-scale footprint as needed. Of course, each crisis and situation is different, but you have seen how we managed it in '21, '22. We are thus well placed to manage inflation and supply chain, and I'm confident to continue to outperform in such a changing environment.

We have no crystal ball on how long the Middle East conflict will last and its impact on the macroeconomic environment. So far, we have not seen any significant impact on demand overall, and we are confident about the structural needs and megatrends that underpin the strategic direction of our planned Lead & Grow. We will continue to focus on delivering our strategic objectives of Lead & Grow, looking for opportunities across our broad geographical footprint, driving outperformance, thanks to our competitive advantages, being proactive also in terms of cost and continuing to focus on our growth priorities. You know them, deepening our solutions offering, expanding in nonresidential and infrastructure and continuing to optimize our portfolio.

Indeed, we have taken further steps to enhance our portfolio in the first quarter with 3 bolt-on acquisitions in Construction Chemicals. We continue to see a strong dynamic in this area, one of our target areas for growth investment, as you know. In Q1, we outperformed in Construction Chemicals with 4.3% growth in local currencies and organic growth of plus 1.7%. On the portfolio, we have also announced the divestment of our ventilation distribution business in the Nordics. We will continue, as we told you end of February already, we will continue to be active on both acquisitions and divestments in line with our target of more than 20% portfolio rotation between 2026 and 2030.

I now hand over to Maud, who will discuss our first quarter sales in more detail.

Thank you, Benoit, and good evening, everyone. I'm pleased to give you some more details on our Q1 sales release and starting with Q1 sales growth. As usual, let's get first the technical effects covered off. In Q1, we had a negative currency effect of minus 2.6% due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and Asian currencies against the euro. Based on spot rates, we expect Q2 foreign exchange to be slightly negative and therefore, H1 to remain negative. The effect of profit is much more significant. But remember that foreign exchange is purely a translation effect for Saint-Gobain.

Sales were down 2.3% in Q1 in local currencies and like-for-like, a smaller decrease than expected. March was better than expected, not easy to read, but likely thanks to a good catch-up in regions affected by adverse weather in January and February and also in anticipation of price increases. The scope effect was neutral for the quarter with the impact of FOSROC and Cemix acquisitions in Construction Chemicals, offset by our continued portfolio rotation streamlining, divestments of distribution businesses in Belgium and Brazil and dry mortars and off-site construction in Germany.

We saw a continuation of Q4 volume trends, but with North America and Europe impacted by the unfavorable weather conditions in January and February. Growth in local currencies accelerated in Asia Pacific to 9%. Prices were stable at group level with a high comparison basis in the Americas in the context of a flattish inflation environment in January and February. And given the conflict in the Middle East, we now expect raw materials and energy inflation for 2026.

Our commercial teams, as Benoit said, are on the ground with our customers, country by country, pushing for price increases needed, and it's a strong attribute of Saint-Gobain to know how to deliver on pricing while supporting our customers through a time of volatility. We currently expect around mid-single-digit inflation on our EUR 12 billion energy, transportation and raw materials bill for the full year. We remain confident to deliver a slight positive price/cost spread for the full year.

Now on energy specifically, I would add that we are much less energy intensive than some may think with an energy bill below 4% of group sales, around half electricity and half gas. So our gas bill represents less than 2% of group sales. We are well hedged for this year and beyond. And in volatile times, we like to be hedged around 75%, and this is a good indication for this year, including Q2.

Now let us look by segment. Sales in Europe were down 0.9% like-for-like in Q1, resilient despite the unusual weather conditions in January and February. Northern Europe was down 1.7% like-for-like with different trends from one country to another. And starting with Eastern Europe, which saw good growth driven by Poland and the Czech Republic, especially in Industrial Solutions and light construction. Activity remained mixed in the Nordics, not helped by the negative weather conditions, and the U.K. started the year down in a soft market. Germany showed good growth in construction chemicals, but decreased overall, and this was due to restructuration measures taken in 2025 to optimize our platform for growth.

Turning now to Southern Europe, which was stable over the quarter. We continue to outperform in France, thanks to the success of our solution strategy supported by AI tools, which are accelerating, cross-selling and specified sales. As a result, sales in France were down only 0.8% like-for-like despite the record rainfall and flooding in January and February. And new construction continued to grow with good advanced indicators. Spain, Italy grew slightly, once again driven by market share gains in Interior Solutions with specified complete solutions for the renovation of the Cascina Monluè historic buildings in Milan, bringing energy efficiency and comfort benefits for occupants. The Middle East and Africa region was stable over the quarter, where Turkey was strong, but the Middle East itself was affected by the conflict.

Moving on to the Americas. The Americas region saw a 7% decrease in volumes similar to Q4 2025 despite the unfavorable weather conditions in North America. The price effect was down 1.5% against a high comparison basis. Starting with North America was down 11.3% like-for-like, continuing the volume trend seen in Q4. Activity in March picked up after a slow start to the year due to the harsh winter. New construction remained weak. Q1 was also affected by a high comparison basis given that H1 2025 benefited from roofing demand linked to 2024 storms.

Pricing was down in Q1 on a high comparison basis as Q1 2025 saw price increases at the start of the year. Price increases were implemented as planned in April across different product categories. We saw growth and further market share gains in construction chemicals. And lastly, I'll just highlight one interesting example of nonresidential solutions. Our North American teams are specifying solutions for 180 data centers projects currently versus 80 last year. We bring construction speed, safety, resilience, sustainability and performance to these customers in particular.

Latin America now decreased 1.6% like-for-like. We saw volume growth but lower pricing given the adjustments due to the drop in energy costs in Q1. We are methodically rolling out our solutions offering country by country and final market from individual and multifamily residential through hotels, health and education facilities to transport and mining infrastructure as well as data centers. We continue to gain market share in Brazil in light construction and construction chemicals. Mexico and Central America are benefiting from the success of Cemix, which again grew double digit.

Lastly, moving to Asia Pacific, which grew 9% in local currencies and 7% like-for-like in Q1. All main countries grew as well as Industrial Solutions, where the group is very well positioned in terms of value-added and innovation. India delivered another strong performance with double-digit volume growth and market share gains, driven by its complete innovative and sustainable solutions. We won new projects in nonresidential and infrastructure, for example, the Pune Metro or the high-speed train line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, thanks notably to FOSROC in construction chemicals. We have developed as well an AI augmented vendor program to enhance product expertise and accelerate cross-selling.

Southeast Asia continued to be dynamic, benefiting from the widening of its specified brands, especially for infrastructure projects such as the Changi Airport in Singapore and data centers. Vietnam has launched the first zero-carbon production of cement board, Scope 1 and 2 using biomass and renewable electricity. Australia returned to growth in an improving new construction market, benefiting from its expanded solutions offering. And China continued the good growth trends seen since H2 2025.

So to sum up Q1, sales were down 2.3% in local currencies and like-for-like with a better month of March. Given the more inflationary environment due to the Middle East conflict, we have been pushing for price increases that will materialize over Q2 with additional price increases tailored to the evolution of the situation and full realization in H2. We are confident that we will deliver a slight positive spread for the year. And of course, we remain focused on continuing to deliver strong operational performance.

Benoit, I now hand it over to you for the conclusion.

Thank you, Maud. A few comments. So you know we drive the business for profitable growth. In an uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop, we are well positioned to deliver a strong performance. We have a balanced footprint with roughly 1/3 of our results coming from each of North America, Western Europe and Asia emerging markets. This is a real strength. It gives us the ability to capture growth opportunities in multiple geographies. There are clear structural needs and strong megatrends in construction across multiple end markets and geographies, and I'm confident that we have the right local business model to thrive and to overcome any external shock.

Our country CEOs are proactive and hands on, very experienced also and focused on a small set of priorities, pricing, cost management and outperformance. So we confirm our 2026 outlook in a contrasted macroeconomic and uncertain geopolitical landscape, the group expects an EBITDA margin of more than 15% in 2026 with the first half affected by the extreme weather conditions at the start of the year in Europe and in North America.

Thank you for your attention. And now Maud and I are happy to answer any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Elodie Rall, JPMorgan.

So the performance in the end came better than you had expected, I think, when you last guided at full year results. I think you told us Q1 would be down like 3% to 5% like-for-like. So what drove that better performance overall? Is it the prebuying that you mentioned? How much do you think that represented? What was the exit rate? Or what are the current trends that could help us? And you had said that Q2 volumes would not be able to offset the weakness in Q1. So I think you had guided for H1 volumes to be down still. Is that still the case or given the better start in Q1, we could expect H1 volumes to be positive?

And my second question is on margins. So obviously, you reiterated guidance, and we expect H1 margins to be impacted in particular in Americas. Could you maybe be a bit more specific about where we should be landing. You had mentioned around the 16% mark for Americas, I think, for H1. Is that still the case?

Thank you, Elodie. So I will take the first one and Maud will take the second one. We have seen indeed a good March, a good month of March. So clearly, versus where we were end of February with very half weather, we have seen a good catch-up, and we have been able to deliver on that in March. So broadly speaking, across all regions, a good situation in March. You have seen also that we outperformed in construction chemicals overall. I've been impressed by our performance in Asia, 7% like-for-like and all major countries, India, China, Southeast Asia growing. So overall, construction chemicals, Asia were good, a good month of March. Clearly, some catch-up after the weather. On the price increase anticipation, it's always hard to guess estimate what it could be in some areas. I don't think it's meaningful, but there might have been a bit of that in March and we expect this good trend to continue.

Regarding your question on Q2 and going forward, I'm optimistic that like-for-like should turn positive in Q2 with a progressive improvement. You can understand that there are a lot of uncertainties on things that we don't control day by day with the geopolitics. So it's a bit hard to predict things, and we don't give a precise guidance on Q2. We might still be slightly negative in like-for-like in H1, but I'm optimistic again that things and current trends continue to turn positive.

Maud, you take the second question. On the margin overall, we -- full year margin for the year, and we confirm this guidance. So this is what we told you end of February, but...

Yes, yes, sure, Benoit. So indeed, we have a strong focus on the margin delivery across all the teams. We have some technical effects for specific to H1, and we discussed that during the full year. Maybe I can remind a few of those. First, FX, of course, is going to weigh negatively in H1 because it's negative in Q1, minus 2.6% you've seen, and it will probably it will remain negative in H1 overall with a dilutive effect on the margin. Then scope will have no meaningful effect. Then you have, of course, the geographical mix and you mentioned the fact that indeed, we discussed that point in February, the weaker market in North America and abnormal weather at the start of the year leads to saying, as we said again in line with what we said at the beginning of the year, H2 '25 EBITDA margins being a good indicator of H1 2026 EBITDA margins.

Then in terms of other regions, Europe, again, should be resilient, slightly impacted by the slower start of the year. And Asia Pacific should continue to show, again, some sales and margin growth. Then, of course, you also have to keep in mind the timing for nonoperating costs and some versus last year when we had EUR 50 million in H1. So it has a little bit of a seasonality effect there.

And last but not least, of course, and this is extremely relevant in those times, it's about cost management and price/cost spread, where, as you know, we are confident for the slight positive price/cost spread for the full year and working again on pushing the price increases as we need in Q2 and beyond. So those are a bit all the moving pieces of it.

Next question is from Cedar Ekblom, Morgan Stanley.

Can we talk a little bit more about pricing? It's not a surprise, I think, to hear that you're going for price increases and being quick, which is encouraging. It would be helpful, however, to get a little bit more detail around sort of pricing in Europe versus the Americas markets. Obviously, Europe has got the sort of bigger headwind from energy.

And maybe you could also elaborate a little bit on pricing trends in the North American roofing business. I think that's been a focus for people around sort of stickiness of pricing considering weak volumes and new capacity. So a little bit more color around regional pricing and then also specifically talk to the U.S., please.

So I will start the question and maybe also Maud can give you some color on the inflation on raw materials energy we expect, which, of course, is aligned with our pricing actions. So in all geographies, we have pushed prices up as early as we could, as always, like we did in 2022. And again, it's not a new experience for our country CEOs, be it in Europe, be it in India, be it in Latin America, be it in North America. So it's going across the board. It will materialize progressively in Q2 and full speed in H2.

I can tell you that, for instance, in roofing North America because you asked specifically, we have already a sequential improvement in April on pricing versus the start of the year where we had to cut some deals here and there to start the season, but we have already seen the intimation of some sequential pricing improvement in roofing in April. And we have already announced, I think it's today or yesterday, an additional price increase for sometimes in June up to 10%. So that's the roofing situation. And we are confident that the momentum overall should be positive in terms of sequential improvement on pricing in North America. So that's the picture notably for roofing.

It will be true also for siding. PVC is an important raw material for siding. So we will push up prices for siding in North America. So it's a broad type of actions. And as you know, we follow that in a lot of details, not on a monthly basis, but on a weekly basis across the board, and we combine this view on global purchasing and also the local commercial actions on pricing. So yes, it's moving with a lot of energy and momentum and all our country CEOs are hands-on and they are incentivized, as you know, on their margin. So this is what's going on, on the ground.

Maybe Maud on the color on the...

Yes. And their mandate is to protect their margins. So basically, they have -- they need to pass the -- what we see in terms of inflation on energy, transportation and raw material. And there, we expect around mid-single-digit inflation on our EUR 12 billion bill. And that's -- of course, this is a moving target, not the same region by region. We are -- people on the ground and country CEOs and their teams are very agile and very proactive. So we push again the price increases to protect the margins based on what we are seeing in terms of inflation.

Next question...

There is, of course -- yes, maybe I can dive a little bit into categories of inflation. There is some inflation on energy. But again, we are hedged at around 75% in Q2 and around for the year as well. We see some inflation, of course, in some very specific -- the highest increases are in chemicals and in resins, but we are mostly non-oil-based raw materials, mostly minerals. And therefore, we are, again, seeing mid-single-digit inflation on our raw material, transportation and energy. And maybe a small zoom on transportation itself, which is an impact as well. There, we are moving a lot with energy surcharge or transportation surcharge so that we pass directly that inflation in particular to our customers, which is very good in terms of commercial transparency, I would say, and easiness of implementation.

Next question is from Arnaud Lehmann, Bank of America.

I have 3 questions, but they'll be quick, hopefully. Firstly, on your '26 outlook, if I'm not mistaken, it's work for word exactly the same as the one you gave in February, including a gradual recovery in volumes in Europe. I mean, obviously, the world has changed a lot in March, April. So what made you think that it was the right call at this stage to keep the wording exactly the same despite a potentially more challenging outlook, especially on interest rates and volumes? That's my first question.

My second question, have you experienced in Asia or in the rest of the world, any supply chain disruptions? Are there any raw materials that are more challenging to source? And could there be a little bit of disruption from that? And lastly, in a more volatile world, do you still have appetite -- the same appetite for M&A activity, including acquisitions?

Thank you. '26 outlook, no, we didn't change. A few comments on that. First, the structural needs and the momentum, for instance, that we see on new construction, be it in France, be it in some countries is there, and we don't see that being impacted going forward. So that's important to keep that in mind. We keep the same type of like-for-like trajectory. Of course, based on what happened in the last 6 weeks, there might be a bit more pricing versus volume compared to the scenario we had 6 to 8 weeks ago. But the direction of travel in terms of like-for-like and evolution of the different markets in terms of like-for-like performance and trend is indeed the same scenario. So that's how to answer on the outlook for 2026 with a bit more pricing, of course, but maybe in some areas, a bit less volume. For instance, if I take some of the renovation markets in Europe, there has been a bit of negative sentiment about what happened in the last few weeks. So that could weigh a bit on some renovation markets in Western Europe. But you have seen that nonetheless, in France, we outperformed.

On your second question regarding supply chain disruption, no, we have not seen disruption in terms of lack of materials or problems of availability. Of course, we have to be extremely agile. So based on past crisis, be it COVID or Ukraine war, et cetera, we managed and we optimized also multiple sources for raw materials, polymers. And this is a good strength. We leverage as well our R&D capabilities when you have to reformulate some of the materials in order to go for different ones or cheaper ones. So it's a lot of not only supply chain, but also R&D and product reformulation from time to time. We had just in the beginning of the war, 1 or 2 days of gas supply issue in India, but it has been solved and India has been doing very well in March. I'll be in India next week with [ Sreedhar ], but it has done very well in the last 4 to 5 weeks. So no supply chain disruption in Asia or elsewhere. We have sometimes to adjust the ports and the destination, but all this is so far well under control.

And on your third question, we have a very solid balance sheet. We have a crystal clear strategy in terms of rolling out Lead & Grow and working on the portfolio. You have seen that we have done some bolt-on acquisitions in construction chemicals. We have been able to divest the distribution business in the Nordics. So we will continue to be active on M&A, and we have a good pipeline of discussions as we speak. It's also during those times that it could open up some good opportunities because we are there to execute. We don't need to raise financing or whatever.

So when you talk to sellers, not only do we have the country-led organization, which was extremely beneficial for Cemix. I was 2, 3 weeks ago in Mexico, and I could see directly the performance of Cemix in Central America and Mexico. So we have this country-led organization, which is a good final home for family businesses, plus we have the certainty of execution when we talk to the sellers. So price does matter in terms of valuation, but have a final good home plus certainty of execution from Saint-Gobain in those times is also quite critical. So we are still with a good appetite on M&A, of course, with all the same discipline on strategic alignment, cultural alignment and, of course, financial value creation.

Next question is from Ebrahim Homani, CIC Market Solutions.

I have 3, if I may. The first one is about North America. It has been difficult in Q1. Do you expect any catch-up in Q2? My second question is about your price cost spread in Q1. Could you give us maybe more detail on it? And maybe on the margin dynamic you expect between H1 and H2? And my third question is about the distribution consolidation in North America. What could be the impact for you? You are one of the biggest producers in the country. What could be the impact of this consolidation for Saint-Gobain?

So I will take the first and the third, and Maud, you take the second. So in North America, Q1 last year was very, very strong. And as Maud mentioned, we had a price increase at the beginning of the quarter. Normally, we do it just in April, but still have January. So good volumes, good prices. So the comparison basis was high in Q1. We don't expect to turn positive as soon as in Q2 in North America. Why is that? Because we still have new construction down in North America. So we don't expect to turn positive as soon as in Q2. The second half comparison basis is much easier. We are back, I would say, to a normal weather pattern overall in North America. So we expect H2 to be much easier and therefore, much better for North America. So that's what I would say on Q1, Q2 dynamic in the U.S.

Yes. And on your second question, Ebrahim, the price/cost spread for Q1, we communicate on a full year basis on the spread. And again, we are -- I think you understood very confident about it. We are pushing -- we have been pushing for price increases since the -- actually for traditional price increases in some countries at the beginning of the year, as we discussed in our full year results. We have been pushing for additional price increases based on the inflationary situation, and we will see that materializing. Inflation right now is a moving target. So it's -- again, it's early to say, and we continuously adapt, but we have that clear confidence about the full year spread.

Then on your second topic, H1 versus H2 margin seasonality, we might not have the usual seasonality given the impact we have -- I have discussed before on the H1 margins. And therefore, that's overall in line with the guidance, which is delivering on the margin for the full year above 15%. And again, it's clear from every country CEO to Benoit and ourselves that we are -- we have a strong focus on delivering on the margins.

And on your third question, overall, as we discussed over the last 1 or 2 years, distribution consolidation would favor big partners, big manufacturers. So that's overall, a positive trend. We have seen it. If I take the last 2 years with Home Depot getting into SRS with roofing, GMS with plasterboard. As you know, we are the only one large player with the full offer, exterior, roofing, siding and interior gypsum and insulation. So as we speak, we have some good discussion to expand a bit into retail, leveraging the very good relationship we have with GMS and SRS under the umbrella of Home Depot.

By the way, I was -- when I was in Mexico, I spent almost 3 hours with the CEO of Home Depot in Mexico because Cemix is very strong with Home Depot in Mexico. So all this show that, yes, we can be a good partner, not only in U.S. and Canada, but also in Mexico. So that's, again, a large partner, not only in terms of product offer, but also in terms of coverage of different countries is in favor of Saint-Gobain. It was the same with ABC and still the same, of course, ongoing in terms of exterior products, interior with L&W on plasterborad.

Now more recently, on the move with QXO, Beacon Roofing, of course, and TopBuild. Again, we have good relationships with QXO Beacon Roofing on the roofing and siding. We are one of the important partner, and we are an important partner for TopBuild. So all this, again, is a very solid relationship. As you know, insulation is not the largest business of Saint-Gobain in the U.S. It's actually our #4 business, if I compare with roofing, gypsum siding and insulation or ceilings. But we are, I think, a good, solid, reliable partner with TopBuild, and we will continue to adapt going forward with QXO and Beacon Roofing.

So overall, I think it's up to us, of course, to have the right innovation, the right service, the right teams on the ground, but continue to deliver good service and good investment. I think it makes us very credible in the eyes of the big names when you invest and commit yourself in terms of CapEx to the country. We have seen that on acquisitions. We have seen that on CapEx. We have seen that on acquisitions in Mexico, as I mentioned. So it's, I think, a very solid framework in this overall consolidation.

Next question is from Ben Rada Martin, Goldman Sachs.

My first is on pricing strategy. I'd be interested in, I guess, how you're seeing competitors' pricing actions given the changes in the last month or 2? Where I guess, have you seen the industry move faster on pricing? And where have you seen maybe a bit of a slower response?

And then the second question would just be on capital allocation given the kind of buckets you outlined at the Capital Markets Day. With the share price a little bit lower than where we were at that time, does this change, I guess, your capital allocation priorities in the short term? I'm thinking in particular relating to the $2 billion in buybacks you are targeting by 2030.

Thank you. So Maud will take the second one, and I'll answer your first. We are super committed within Saint-Gobain to do what it takes to drive the performance of the group and deliver an immaculate service to our customers, thanks to the value of our solutions and the intimacy that we have with our customers, which we measure with Net Promoter Scores, with loyalty club, with contractor engagement in the U.S., et cetera, et cetera and so forth. We don't look at the side. We move on what is right for the P&L of Saint-Gobain. We are a very reliable partner to our customer. So for me, the question is not, again, in a specific product line, is country by country. Of course, the impact of the new situation that we face and we have been facing over the last 6 weeks have been slightly different.

So if you take India, as I mentioned, in 2 days, there has been a gas problem. So it was very quick to solve it, and now it's done. But the impact on pricing was immediate in India. So it was more country by country, at least within Saint-Gobain. Again, I'm not going to talk about competitors. But I think the reaction has been fast, but it's more country by country than a specific industry versus others. If you think of some -- if I take insulation, for instance, I know that some of the foam plastic -- plastic foam manufacturers, they have a super high cost increase on chemicals. It's 40%, 50%, 60% with maybe some worry about the supply chain. So I guess, in their shoes, they have to act extremely fast, which could open up some opportunities when you are in glass, stone wool, which is more mineral-based sand than anything else. So I think it's -- you have those kind of dynamics from one product to the other in terms of criticity to the raw materials or to the energy.

And I think it's also important to what mentioned that sometimes I think we are a bit less energy intensive with 4% of sales than some missing. So you have a bit, I think, on product substitution or moves or pricing dynamic that are a bit different based on the criticity of some raw materials, notably all the ones related to oil derivatives, which is not the case for gypsum, which is not the case so much for insulation because our furnaces are more than half of them are electrical, and we buy sand to make glass. So it's more that kind of dynamic. But I would say, overall, the reactiveness on the country with the customer acceptance has been swift on the ground has been quite swift.

Yes. On the second point, first of all, no change, of course, in our capital allocation. And I think this quarter shows very well how we stick to it because we opened 11 new plants and lines and 10 of them were in high-growth countries or regions. We also made 3 bolt-on acquisitions, as Benoit mentioned, which were in construction chemicals. So again, very clear and sticking to our capital allocation framework.

Then in terms of share buyback, obviously, we are very opportunistic. And when the share price is a bit weaker, then this is an opportunity. So far, we are -- we have done a bit less than half of -- if you take a very year-by-year allocation of our EUR 2 billion program, we have done a bit less than half of what we should do this year. But again, this EUR 2 billion are spread over the 5-year period of our plan, and we are opportunistic based on the share price where it is, where we believe that we should be buying back a bit more shares to show our commitment to share price appreciation and value creation for the shareholders.

And maybe a side comment, which might be interesting for you is that once a year, we have a group savings plan for employees. And I'm happy to say that this year is the second best ever in terms of subscription from the employees. So it shows their confidence about the share price and the strategy of Saint-Gobain going forward. So it's the alignment, which is good and always important, of course, to us. And also, they are confident that, yes, there will be some good trajectory for Saint-Gobain going forward. So it's always a good indicator of the morale of the foots on the ground even during difficult times because the subscription of the group saving plan is between early March and end of March.

Next question is from Martin Flueckiger, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I've got 2. I've been following the European house purchase loan volumes recently and noticed an interesting stagnation in January, February in spite of the encouraging development in European building permits. Just wondering whether you track these financing data by the ECB as well for residential construction markets and what your interpretation is there, whether you would also infer that there's a current wait-and-see attitude due to interest rates may be worsened now by the geopolitical tensions. That's my first question.

And the second one is if you could be a little bit more clear with regards to your outperformance in construction chemicals. Does that entail the entire construction chemicals business, so including motors, for instance, or does that just pertain to FOSROC, GCP and the other newer acquisitions that you've done?

So I'll take the second one, and Maud will answer to you on the first. Yes, it does capture the total perimeter of our construction chemicals exposure. It's north of EUR 6.5 billion. Now I think we -- again, we have, I think, a good presence, of course, in this segment across multiple geographies. It's almost the 80 countries of Saint-Gobain. As you know, we are outperforming because it's leveraging in and out the broad range of solutions of Saint-Gobain. Sometimes construction chemicals will pull the demand of other products and sometimes it will be [indiscernible]. So it's a good showcase of when you have a broader portfolio, of course, you don't win all the time, but it's the ability when you talk to a data center, not only do you have the antistatic floor, but you have the fireproofing on the partition, you have the sailings, you have all this together.

So we are gaining market share in North America. As you heard, we are extremely happy with the Cemix and FOSROC acquisitions, be it in India for FOSROC, Cemix in Mexico and Central America, growing double digit. Some thing that we have not highlighted, which I think is a good complement our digital applications with VERIFI, which was a kind of growth gen within GCP is doing well, and we are capturing growth with VERIFI, this IoT to measure on the traffic, the formulation of the ready-mix in the truck. So that's interesting. We bought last year Maturix. It's a way to digitally measure the performance of the concrete, how fast it would drive, et cetera. So digital applications, I think, are part of the overall solutions.

And last but not least, we have dedicated teams by segment, on tunnels, on bridges, on windmills, on airports. We have key account managers in all countries. This is the Saint-Gobain solutions with on-site technical support and training. And this is the way we win infrastructure projects. It's JFK Airport, I think we discussed that in February. It's the metro line in Chile. It's good infrastructure projects in India. So multiple examples. So it's not one single reason, but it's across the board that we have been able to accelerate the momentum on construction chemicals with also a good playbook on M&A to integrate well what we buy, which creates a snowball effect and appealing effect for other family businesses to join us.

Yes. On the first question, Martin, yes, we are tracking this data as well. I would say, as you said rightly, a little bit of a wait and see. What we track as well is for new construction, indeed, the permits and the starts, which are still quite pointing in the right direction as well as transactions. So we -- it's a bit early to say, honestly. But we are seeing, again, some growth in new construction, which is anyway at a very low point. And therefore, we don't -- we expect that to be on a trajectory of improvement.

Next question is from Pujarini Ghosh, Bernstein.

So my first question, again, a little bit broader picture and the implications of the war. So between the time when you had your full year results and now a lot has changed. So could you give a little bit more color on how you are seeing the outlook on a region-by-region basis or on the different end markets, resi, non-resi, infra. You mentioned a little while earlier that maybe the war means that pricing could be a bit higher, whereas volumes could be a bit lower. So could you give a little bit granularity on your expectations more by region and end markets?

And my second question, if we go back to Americas pricing and for Q1, you mentioned that you had to take some price cuts in Q1, and we see that in your press release as well. So could you provide some color on which specific products or end markets you had to cut prices and whether this still means you have a positive price/cost spread in Q1 in the Americas?

Yes. On your second question, Maud mentioned that we have seen some deflation in Latin America, for instance, on energy for the full first quarter. And therefore, if I take flat glass in Brazil, we decreased our prices because we had quite a significant deflation in Latin America, not impacting negatively the margin. So that's one example.

In North America, to kick start the season, you have always some discussions with some distributors to again restock a bit at the start of the year. So this is why we had a slight negative price in Q1 in North America. So that's what I would say.

Yes, maybe also to add in North America itself last year, remember that we had a price increase in January and then a second price increase, whereas this year, that was based on the traction from the carryover effect from the 2024 hurricanes where this year, the price increase actually came in April. So that's also a high comparison basis that you see for Q1, in particular in North America, sorry.

And to your first question, of course, it's -- I don't have any crystal ball. So it's difficult to have a long-term view on that. What we said is that as of today, we don't see a negative impact on the demand. I think back to the earlier question that if and when interest rates go up on a long-term basis, if the conflict would last, then it could have a negative impact on some construction activity, new build if interest rates go up. I take the U.S., we were slightly below 6% mid-February. We went up 6.3%, 6.4%. We are below where we were a year ago. But of course, on the long term, we have to watch the impact of the inflation, if it lasts versus interest rates and therefore, the broader activity on new construction, keeping always in mind that we are from a very low base. We need to build everywhere. It's true in every single country in Europe on new housing. It's true also in the U.S. So that's something to keep in mind for the long run.

After that, yes, of course, there is an impact in the Middle East. I can tell you, I've been extremely impressed by the way they delivered in March, and I would say so far in April. We had -- I was in Turkey last week. It's not exactly the Middle East, but we had a very good run in Turkey since the beginning of the year. So -- but yes, Middle East, which is around EUR 500 million -- a bit more than EUR 500 million of sales will be impacted. So that's one area. Too early to say. We may have less hospitality end markets, hotel going forward, more infrastructure, more defense infrastructure. Keep also in mind that the fact that energy goes up again is always a wake-up call, if need be, on energy efficiency.

So if I take France, if I take Germany, we see again all those discussions on energy efficiency, energy renovation surfacing quite brutally again for everyone. So we know that energy will stay high even after the end of the war. So the energy efficiency measures, if I take Europe, will continue. And we see that in renovation, renovation may be a bit impacted short term by the consumer sentiment, et cetera. But the energy efficiency part of renovation will continue to be supported. So that's what we can say.

You take Australia, we have seen a good trend on new build in Australia. You take India, it's a double-digit growth. I don't see that changing as long as, of course, we can deliver, but we have secured everything we need in India. So overall, again, and we are not on a different planet, and I don't want to describe a rosy situation based on the geopolitics of today, of course, and we don't underestimate the current environment. And we prepare all our countries for a tough scenario, be on pricing and contingency plans, et cetera. But I would say we are confident that energy efficiency is there, structural needs on new construction are there, need for infrastructure, be it on defense and other areas are there. We are grasping a lot of market share on data centers. So all these so far are quite well oriented going forward, and this is part of the long-lasting trend of Lead & Grow. So that's what I would say. As I said earlier, we might see a bit more prices for sure than volumes in some areas, but the like-for-like type of trend is in line with what we had in mind.

Next question is from Julian Radlinger, UBS.

Three quick ones. So firstly, could I just get back to something I think you just said -- you said earlier in the call in response to a question from Cedar, I think, Benoit, you said in Q1, in U.S. roofing, you had to cut some deals here and there to start the season. Could you just -- could you please elaborate on that? What exactly does that mean?

And then secondly, in light of some of the price increases now coming, could you talk a little bit to how your conversations with the homebuilders are going right now, both in North America and in Europe? Homebuilder margins are quite depressed these days, obviously, due to the rate environment and lack of demand. And so digesting additional building products cost inflation is, of course, not as easy in this environment as it's been in the past. And so how are you working with them to get the price increases you need without putting them under too much pressure at the same time?

And then a very, very quick last one, just a mathematical question. If you've got mid-single-digit cost inflation on a EUR 12 billion input cost bill, that's around EUR 600 million, you could offset that with less than 1.5% price on a group basis. Is that the magnitude of price that we should think about for the coming quarters? I guess I'm a bit surprised it wouldn't be more just based on many of the price announcements that we can see in the market these days.

Thank you. So Maud will take the third. I will take the first 2 questions. What I mentioned is nothing significant. You always have to have a good commercial discussion with your distributors. What is significant in the U.S. is the fact that -- so as you all understood, we are on a slight negative pricing comparison versus Q1 of last year. Why is that? Because first quarter of last year, we had a significant price increase in January. So the reason why we are slightly below last year is purely based on this effect that January price increase last year. This year, it's April plus the one we have announced for June. Last year was January and April. So this is not a mathematical, but I would say a timing reason of the pricing dynamic.

You know also that, for example, last year, Q4, we gained market share in roofing versus the statistics. I guess that Q1, we might be because there are always some swings. Q1, Q4, we might be slightly under. Q2 will be slightly above. I don't know yet, but you have always quarter-to-quarter, those kind of dynamics. So this is by far, the biggest parameter and notably on the pricing from last year.

Discussion with homebuilders, ultimately, the homebuilders, they want to save cost and improve their margin based on productivity. And all the efforts, and it's true around the world, the effort and the direction that we have put together on solutions help them save on productivity and therefore, improve or restore some of their margin. So these are the kind of discussions we have with them. This is the performance in terms of thermal efficiency, in terms of productivity, in terms of air quality that we will deliver to you. If you put all those solutions of Saint-Gobain together, and the products, the bill of materials as part of the job site, it's 1/3 of their total cost. So we have, of course, to be competitive. We have to be innovative. We have to have a good service. But the high-level discussion and the most important ones we have are on these kind of solutions.

I don't know, Julian, if you were there during the visit of the Scale 1 Salford test we have with Barratt in the U.K. It's a perfect example of having this -- it was a visit that we had in July '24, if I'm correct. It's always possible to come back and visit that but it's a long-term partnership that we have with Barratt to deliver on the performance, design the home together and for them to build thousands of homes later on, on the Saint-Gobain solution. So that's the kind of country-by-country discussions we have with the homebuilders. And on the...

Yes, on the pricing, so indeed, Julian, no question about your math. We are talking, of course, of a moving target, as I said, in terms of inflation. So that's our assumption as of today. And then we are also talking of implementation of pricing, of course, starting from Q2 with gradual implementation of that along the year. And again, we will adapt very proactively based on the situation country by country based on the evolution of that mid-single-digit inflation and based on what's happening on the ground from our teams. But that's the kind of direction of travel, again, that we are seeing as of today.

Next question is from Yassine Touahri, On Field Investment Research.

I think like in the past couple of quarters, you disclosed your roofing volumes in the U.S. I think it was down 18% -- 17% in Q3 and Q4. Could you give us this trend in the first quarter of 2026? And then I'm trying to understand the outlook for margin in the Americas in the second part of the year. So if I understand correctly, the weather pattern looks a bit more normal. You have increased prices by, I think, 6%, 7% were announced in April, another 10% in June. The base effect is easy. Does it mean that we could go back to a margin in H2, which is closer to the 18% that you delivered in H1 2025? Or it's too early to say because the new build is uncertain and could negatively impact your operations in plasterboard, siding and insulation?

Okay. So I will take the first. You have seen the like-for-like North American performance in Q1. It's a combination of multiple products. We are a bit below that on roofing. So this is the picture that I would give on roofing without being more precise, a bit below the overall performance that we have delivered for Q1 North America. Why is that? Because again, Q1 roofing last year was extremely strong. So no surprise that on roofing specifically versus the average of North America, we are a bit below the average because we didn't have such a strong Q1 across the other product lines, if I take gypsum, siding, et cetera. So that's the detail or the color I can give you on the on the roofing volume in North America.

And then the second question was on...

The second question was on H2 margin in the Americas, if I'm correct.

Yes. Could you go back to something closer to 18% in a context where you would have had 2 successive price increase in single or it's too early to say because there is too much uncertainty on the horizon?

I think it's pretty early to say. What we said is that there will be an easier comparison basis in H2 for Americas. But then it's, again, very early to say. And again, the commitment we have, and we are super committed to that is margins for the group with the guidance that Benoit has restated before.

Next question is from Harry Goad, Berenberg.

I've got 2 questions, please, both really just point of clarity. Ben, I think in response to Elodie's first question, you talked about an expectation for organic growth or like-for-like growth in the second quarter. Can I just be clear that was reference to both European divisions? Or was that just an aggregated group number?

And then the second question, and I just want to check I heard it correctly. Did you say that you think there's been no impact on demand in Europe in Q1 from events in the Middle East? I appreciate there's an issue on the cost side, but in terms of demand, are you saying no impact?

So first question, yes, it's a group answer that I gave for the Q2 progressively positive, et cetera. And in Q1, of course, it's extremely difficult to -- we are not behind every single customer, but I would say ballpark with the exception of the Middle East, which, of course, was directly impacted. But I don't think we can say that we have seen an impact of the war in March. Now whether a few renovation customers here and there in France may have been a bit in a wait-and-see attitude in March, maybe not, frankly, I don't know. I don't think it's the first order of magnitude in terms of impact. So I don't think in Q1, we have seen on the demand side, the impact of the war. So again, that's end of March. And I would say the -- so far, we -- I cannot say we have seen a significant or meaningful impact of the war in terms of demand. And as we said, the March months have been good and all teams are on the ground delivering good solutions, good service and good commercial actions.

Next question is from Will Jones, Rothschild & Co Redburn.

A couple, please. First, just coming back to North America pricing and specifically, I think you mentioned what you've announced in roofing, but have you announced price increases in siding, wallboard and insulation for Q2?

And the second one is really around the Nordic markets. You mentioned mix trends there, but any color by country would be helpful. And just coming back to the ventilation disposal and distribution, perhaps you could just help us with your thinking around that sale? And should we think of it as quite specialist and one-off in nature? Or might you be willing to consider other parts of Nordic distribution as well?

So in North America, we have had some discussions on pricing around gypsum. I don't think I'm not sure it will stick. We will see going forward, but there have been some discussions and some later out on gypsum. It's too early to say what's going to happen. So we might not realize much there. Siding, I think we will announce or we have announced. I think we have announced already on siding. Roofing, I mentioned it because they've been tried. So different dynamics, again, country by country, and we have done it also on ceilings. So across not all the geographies, but we have done it. We have done it, of course, on construction chemicals because there is more inflation on polymer for construction chemicals than elsewhere. So across -- we have done it on -- if I take Abrasives and sand paper in North America, we have done it. So again, all the different product lines have had their share in terms of pricing actions sequentially versus the start of the year or the end of the first quarter, that's a lot of sequential improvement and effort.

On the Nordics, there is not much to say. We have been happy about this divestiture. I think it's a good transaction. As you know, on acquisitions, on divestitures, we look at all the situation country by country, how we can maximize the performance, the outperformance, the value creation of the group. So this is how we are going to continue to look at different geographies, including in the Nordics. And I would say country by country, we have seen Norway improving a bit on new build recently, which was not the case last year. Sweden being okay like Denmark and Finland also improving a bit. So it's a bit better. It's still mixed because one good month, so months. Weather impact was quite terrible in January, February. So frankly, we have only 1.5 months of normal weather, even though they are used, of course, to hot weather, but I can tell you, January, February were extremely tough in the Nordics. So it's a bit too early to say whether the year will be so much better in the Nordics or not. For me, the only piece of good news versus last year was a bit better on new build, if I'm correct, in Norway.

There are no more questions registered at this time. The floor is back to the speakers for any closing remarks.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thank you for all your time and your questions. So I look forward together with Maud to speaking to you after the release of our first half 2026 results, which will be on the 30th of July 2026. So thank you again for your participation, and have a good evening. Thank you.

Good morning. It is my pleasure today to present our 2025 results together with Maud Thuaudet, our CFO. Once again, we delivered a very strong performance in 2025. 2025 was the last year of our grow and impact plan, which has been a very clear success. We have demonstrated our capacity to execute year after year and deliver on strategic initiatives, value creation, margin and cash. Saint-Gobain is now an attractive business profile, thanks to our decisive portfolio optimization, which will, of course, will continue. We are positioned Saint-Gobain as the leader in sustainable construction, and we have achieved all the financial targets that we had set with our 2021 Capital Markets Day.

Here are a few examples of Saint-Gobain solutions being used around the world in iconic residential or nonresidential buildings, such as this inspiring results in Saudi Arabia. On infrastructure also, we have provided, for instance, 17 solutions at the new Noida airport in Delhi in India, bringing clear benefits in terms of climate resilience, regulatory compliance and fire safety.

In 2025, our teams have once again delivered very well against very different market backdrops. Europe improved in the second half, returning to growth in North America. As expected, we outperformed, and we delivered a broadly stable margin in the second half. In Asia and emerging markets, we delivered strong growth, up 12.6% in local currencies. And finally, we have taken new strategic steps in construction chemicals with CEMIX and FOSROC acquisitions, in particular, achieving almost 16% sales growth in local currencies. Let me congratulate and thank very warmly all our talented and very engaged teams all around the world. Now moving to our financials.

In 2025, we have delivered a strong set of results despite contracted market. Growth in sales up 2.1% in local currencies with over proportional growth in profit, both EBITDA and operating income, a robust EUR 3.3 billion recurring net income and a 4.5% increase for our proposed dividend at EUR 2.3 per share. We also continued to deliver strongly on free cash flow with a 58% conversion ratio. So a very strong set of results and very, very strong execution.

Now, Maud Thuaudet yours to go through all the financial metrics.

Thank you very much. Good morning to all of you, and I'm very happy to share with you our strong 2025 results this morning. I'll start with the top line. We achieved sales growth of 2.1% in local currencies. On a like-for-like basis, sales were virtually stable. They were supported in H2 by good growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America a return to growth in Europe despite the decline in North America. Volumes were down 1.3% over the year, reflecting these mixed market trends by geography. Prices were up 0.8% and with a positive 0.7% effect in H2 in a softer inflationary environment, inflation was broadly stable -- this actually reflects the added value of our solutions and disciplined execution from our local team. Currency effect was minus 2.3% for the year. It became more negative at minus 3% in H2 with the depreciation of most currencies against the euro. And we expect similar impact in Q1 2026 of around minus 3% on sales. We had a positive scope impact of 2.6% and reflecting our continued portfolio rotation and in particular, CEMIX, FOSROC, Bailey and CSR.

Regarding operating income and margins, we delivered over proportional operating income growth, up 3.8% in local currencies and slightly up like-for-like. We were able to deliver a stable operating margin despite the environment and the negative currency impact. This was driven by our ability to proactively adapt our operations throughout 2025 as market conditions shifted from our initial scenario. We had a greater impact from FX on the operating income at minus close to 4%, close to double the impact on sales. This is because the depreciation versus the euro was particularly seen in regions where the group, where the margins are above the group's average. This strong margin performance reflects a very good operating performance, including a slight positive price/cost spread.

Moving now to EBITDA and EPS. EBITDA rose 3.4% in local currencies with the EBITDA margin stable at 15.5% and Nonoperating costs remain below our group guidance of around EUR 250 million on average per year. And as explained in July, there were more in H2 than in H1. Net financial expense was up, reflecting the rise in gross debt and less interest earned on cash placements. The tax rate on recurring net income was stable at 24%. Last, EPS increased 2.5% and 6.4% in local currencies.

Now looking at cash and balance sheet. We generated free cash flows of EUR 3.8 billion with a cash conversion ratio of 58%, above our target of 50%. We continue to dynamically optimize the operating working capital, reducing by 1 day to 11 days sales at the end of 2025 despite the dilutive effect of our portfolio rotation. And in terms of CapEx, we remain stable at around 4.5% of sales and planned for the same this year. We also maintained in 2025, a strong financial discipline and a strong balance sheet. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was stable at 1.4x and we made clear capital allocation decisions toward value creation for our shareholders with notably 95% of our gross investment either through gross CapEx and M&A put in our high-growth markets and EUR 1.5 billion returned to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

Now let us look at the results by region, and I'll start with Europe overall, where we saw a return to sales and operating margin growth in the second half sales were up 1.1% in local currencies and up 0.6% like-for-like. The margin held up well despite the lower sales in driven by firm price and cost management. In terms of local dynamics in Northern Europe, a contrasted situation from one country to the other with the U.K. reporting further growth with a strong outperformance, thanks to our specified sales and our full solutions offering in the country.

Eastern Europe was slightly up even if Poland was impacted by weaker Industrial Solutions, Germany remained down ahead of the stimulus plan in a wait-and-see attitude and the Nordics remained mixed overall, but we won several large infrastructure projects there.

Lastly, it's worth noting that we are well placed to capitalize on major infrastructure and defense spending in Central and Eastern Europe, thanks to a network of 100 plants and representing over 10% of our sales of the group sales.

Now moving to Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa. We improved noticeably because in the second half, sales were up 1.7% in a market that remains uncertain, France stabilized in the second half and reported growth in the fourth quarter, driven by the rise in permits and housing starts, which should continue to support new construction. We outperformed the market in both new construction and renovation. Spain and Italy continued to show growth with particular market share gains in Interior Solutions and the Middle East and Africa achieved double-digit growth, supported by the successful integration of FOSROC, in construction chemicals and major infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

Moving now to the Americas. Sales in North America were down 4.2% over the year and by 7.3% in H2 with Q4 down 8.2%. U.S. roofing volumes remained low as expected in Q4, down 17% and given the lack of major weather events. The new construction market was down, impacting Interior Solutions, but construction chemicals accelerated throughout the year with market share gains. Despite this challenging environment, our North American teams outperformed the market and delivered a very good operating performance, maintaining a positive price effect and optimizing production cost and industrial plant maintenance. As a result, margins held firm for the full year and in the second half.

Latin America delivered a strong performance, up 13.5% in local currencies and 6.9% like-for-like. Growth was slower in H2 on a tougher comparison basis and with prices slowing at the end of the year due to lower energy costs. The integration of CEMIX in Construction Chemicals has been a great success with 15% growth in local currencies and clear spillover effect in Central America for the full Saint-Gobain solutions offer. The Americas region delivered a slight increase in its operating margin over the year to 17.2% and held firm at 16% in H2, as we said last October.

Turning lastly to Asia Pacific, we delivered 17% growth in local currencies and 2.4% like-for-like. The operating margin reached a record supported by volume growth and good pricing management. India saw double-digit growth and further market share gains with our comprehensive range of solutions, we were awarded new projects in nonresidential and infrastructure with increased share of wallet, thanks to our leadership in construction chemicals and the successful integration of FOSROC.

Southeast Asia, so growth with a widened range of specified solutions and the delivery of 20 data centers in Indonesia and Malaysia during the year. The integration of CSR is going well. both in operational performance and in the enhancement of the solutions offering for the local market. The Australian construction market remains lackluster but leading indicators are improving. And last, China was down slightly over the year, but progressed in H2 with market share gains despite continued market weakness.

So in a nutshell for Saint-Gobain, 2025 was a strong year focused on discipline and execution despite a contrasted environment. And for 2026, I can tell you that all the teams are fully committed. Priorities are crystal clear outperformance, margin, cash portfolio rotation and we are all set to deliver. Benoit, I'll leave it to you for the conclusion.

Thank you, Maud. Let me now update you on our strategy. Saint-Gobain is opening a very exciting new chapter with our strategic plan, Lead and Grow that we announced at our Capital Markets Day last October. We benefit from strong supportive megatrends in sustainable construction, population growth and urbanization, notably in Asia and emerging countries, job site productivity and energy efficiency renovation notably in Europe and the adaptation of buildings and infrastructure to extreme weather, especially in North America. We have an unmatched breadth of addressable markets across residential, nonresidential and infrastructure totaling EUR 500 billion. And to capture this, we are rolling out a value-enhancing solutions approach and leveraging the well-established growth compounding country platforms.

Let's start with our solutions. We are the only provider of a comprehensive solutions set delivering performance and sustainability. We have everything for buildings and infrastructure from roofing to facades flooring partitions, savings and so on. And our solutions bring thermal acoustic air quality, visual performance and even productivity benefits for job sites. This is altogether a very crucial competitive advantage for Saint-Gobain.

A key part of Lead and Grow relies on our expansion of these solutions into nonresidential and infrastructure markets where we have many growth opportunities and where we can tailor and specify our Technical Solutions segment by segment.

If I take the hospital segment, for instance, where hygiene, safety, air quality, contort are crucial, we have a full range offer, including easy to clean floors and ceilings, x-ray protection across the board, antibacterial wall finishings and so on. We provide technical support in high performance and code compliant materials and we have dedicated local teams for the health care market. Similarly, data centers have their own specific requirements centered around construction speed thermal performance, fire safety, sustainable construction. And also, we have a full catalog of technical, specific what we call hero products that address these needs.

With our global key account management, we are currently working on an active pipeline of more than 600 data center products in 26 countries around the world. In infrastructure, airports have their own specific requirements in terms of customer experience, regulatory compliance and climate resilience. We have also tailored comprehensive solutions to address both the billings, which, on average, is 60% of the CapEx for our airport and the infrastructure part of airports. As you know, we are growing fast on infrastructure, thanks to our attractive leadership in construction chemicals, which has been a very dynamic buildup in the last years. Our EUR 6.5 billion leading platform across 76 countries can address all critical parts of infrastructure and buildings. As we highlighted at our Capital Markets Day, we plan to continue our acquisitions and also our CapEx to reach more than EUR 9 billion of sales by 2030 on construction chemicals. This is a bit of a highlight by segment.

Now let's look at how we deploy our solutions by region. In Europe, we see improving leading indicators with strong commitments from government, even the EU level to address the housing crisis, also some rising affordability and better housing starts. On the renovation side and energy efficiency, we see policies supportive of energy efficiency renovation and green value is increasingly reflected in real estate prices. We are well placed to benefit from this improving lending indicators, thanks to our solutions approach across the board that brings share of wallet, cross selling and margin benefits for Saint-Gobain.

We also have very attractive digital solutions. One example is for architects on faced specification. We are the clear leader, the second one as a go-to partner for thousands of craftmen in France, we have a full suite of digital tools enhanced by AI that bring to them speed and value on quotes, regulations, invoices, deliveries and, therefore, attractive stickiness and volatility of those contractors to Saint-Gobain.

In North America now, we work also on strong contractor engagement and loyalty to drive and enhance our brand reputation across our multiple products and solutions offer. We are the #1 position in North America on Interior and Exterior Solutions. This allows us to further roll out cross-selling actions and more importantly, to build up and strengthen win-win partnerships with the top national distributors across the country. In North America, we are the best player to address the increasingly extreme weather conditions with the most comprehensive climate resilient offer on the market. But the core of that offer is our leadership in roofing across U.S. and Canada. And I'm convinced that it will continue to benefit from strong fundamentals.

Although, as we know, the 2025 storm season was unusually calm with no hurricanes for the first time in 10 years, there is an increasing number of extreme climate events in the U.S. Second, more than 12 million homes built in the early years of 2000, need valuation hedging of the roof. And third, we have this structural housing shortage that persists in the U.S. and in Canada. To build up on that momentum and the strong fundamental drivers of Roofing, we are replacing a nearly 50-year old line with a modern, highly competitive roofing capacity in the undersupplied region in the Southeast. Altogether, I'm confident that this positions us altogether on climate resilient offer, including, of course, Roofing, to outperform and continue to outperform in North America, like we have demonstrated again last year as one of the only meaningful national players in roofing in North America.

In North America, we're also expanding in nonresidential and infrastructure, we are well positioned to serve fast-growing segments such as data centers, airports, I mentioned pits a bit earlier on. We have dedicated sales teams and we differentiate with highly technical products like our Sage Electro Gobain Glass. We are the only in the world to provide that, that has been specified in 29 U.S. airports over the last 2 years. Altogether, I'm confident about the structural growth drivers and outperformance of Saint-Gobain in North America and what will continue to grow in North America across the board in the coming years.

Let's now look at how we are deploying our solutions in Asia and emerging countries, a very important profit pool and growth pool for Saint-Gobain. In India, we are the undisputed #1 on billings, and we are expanding on infrastructure, already 200 major infrastructure projects in '25. In Southeast Asia, we systematically complete our offer country by country. And we differentiate like in China, differentiate ourselves with high value-added solutions that represent 45% of our sales, which brings good resilience and margin also in China. In this region, we are significantly increasing our penetration on nonresidential markets also through specification.

Take the fast-growing hospitality market in the Middle East we are very well placed to service this market with our leadership positions in the Middle East and Turkey. In Mexico, nearly 30% of our sales stem for specification, and we are leveraging our widened offer, including our construction chemicals offers, thanks to the very strong profitable CEMIX acquisition.

So this is the view by region, after the view by segment. And as you know, to roll out our strategy, of course, quality of execution, which we have demonstrated being -- Saint-Gobain out in the last 5 to 6 years, quality of execution is crucial. And this is what we have delivered consistently and will continue to do so. We benefit from our country-led operating model, which is well suited to our markets, of course, but well suited as well to our current geopolitical environment. This Saint-Gobain operating model has been tested and proven with proactive and empowered CEOs very close to their teams and customers. They work -- we work on all levers, commercial excellence. I highlighted quite a lot of examples by systematically tracking the rollout of our solutions, margin by proactively driving cost and productivity gains as well as positive price cost price based on the value that our solutions bring to our customers and cash, of course. This operating model by country is a great growth and value creation compounder for Saint-Gobain.

A few examples of what we have done in the last year, take, for example, North America, where our teams have increased our sales by 60% since 2019 in Mexico, India, the Middle East, which are meaningful size for Sangoma, not only in sales, but of course, in profit where we have more than doubled our turnover over the same period. And in all these countries, Saint-Gobain has significantly outperformed the market. As you know, one of the strong, very strong pillars of Lead and Grow is that we have done in the past, our ongoing portfolio optimization that has brought a lot of successes. So we continue to actively steer our portfolio optimization. I'm happy to say that the integration of FOSROC and CEMIX in construction chemicals are going very well with 11% organic sales growth in local currencies and 20% combined EBITDA margin. We have created a lot of value in the past acquisitions, such as -- GCP and Continental, and we are on track to deliver value for our most recent acquisitions.

In 2025, we rotated EUR 1.2 billion of sales, and our country platforms are nurturing an active pipeline as we speak. As you know, we intend to vote it through acquisitions and disposals more than 20% of our sales by 2030, keeping a strong value and continue to work, of course, under value creation for our shareholders.

Indeed, our strategy is delivering attractive shareholder returns in 25 total return to our shareholders from dividends and share buybacks amounted to EUR 1.5 billion. If I take the last 5 years, we have returned over EUR 7 billion to our shareholders. In 2026, the Board that we had yesterday proposed we proposed to the AGM, a dividend of EUR 2.3 per share. Shareholder returns will continue to be a very important part of our capital allocation framework from '26 to 2030 we plan buybacks of around EUR 2 billion and dividends of around EUR 6 billion, so EUR 8 billion altogether for our shareholders. Now

let me finish and turn to our outlook. You can see our expectations for each geography here on the slide, in a contrasted macroeconomic environment and still uncertain geopolitical landscape. Saint-Gobain expects an EBITDA margin of more than 15% in 2026 with the first half affected by the extreme weather conditions in Europe and North America that we have seen since the start of the year. As a conclusion, we have established a very strong track record over the last 5 years.

Lead and Grow gives us a very exciting and very powerful road map, very clear for the teams, for the customers, for the shareholders over the next 5 years, deepening our value-enhancing solutions, expanding them across nonresidential and infrastructure; and second, sharpening the group's business profile through portfolio rotation. All this being delivered with ongoing excellence in execution supported by our proven operating platform country by country. So I'm very confident that all this will continue to deliver strong momentum, strong value creation for all our stakeholders. Thank you very much. And we now turn to your questions for Maud and Michael.

As always, we start with the questions in the room, and then we will go on the call or Internet.

Elodie Rall from JP Morgan. Maybe I'll ask them one at a time. First of all, could you give us some color about your expectations about volume and pricing for '26 and I assume you confirm price cost positive, we'll continue that. Second, you're guiding for a weaker H1. Does that mean that we should prepared for -- preperformance to be down before recovering in H2? And overall, do you think you can defend 2025 margin, noting that consensus is already a bit above. Third question is actually on the difference between EBITDA margin and EBIT margin. So I know you confirm at the CMD that more than 15% EBITDA margin equals more than 11% EBIT margin. But what we've seen in H2, is that actually EBITDA margin was down 40 bps when EBIT margin were flat. So maybe you can give us a bit of color what's going on in D&A and other nonoperating costs and how we should forecast that in '26?

And just 2 quick ones more. other in Europe. I think the disappointment was that volume was sequentially lower there versus Q3, and we were expecting some improvements. So when should we expect volume to turn positive in the region? And lastly, well done on North America margins indeed flat in H2. But I think you indicated tougher comps in H1 '26. So what is the magnitude of decline that we should prepare for H1.

So we took notes because it's a long list. Do you want to take the technical one, the third one.

Yes. So difference in EBITDA and EBIT. So what we said at the CMD, 15 equivalent to 11%. That doesn't change. Then you have indeed some H1, H2, end of July, we had said that we had lower nonoperating costs. They were at that time around EUR 50 million. And then you have overall for the full year, EUR 130 million. So you have had that mix in terms of semester on nonoperating costs. And especially, of course, that has weighed on the EBITDA margin in Northern Europe, where we have done a bit more in H2 of restructuring and nonoperating costs, therefore, being a bit upper in Northern Europe especially obviously -- but message remains the same, which is EBIT plus 4% and EBITDA then in terms of depreciation, we anticipate more or less the same figures in terms of depreciation.

Maybe we'll go back to the first one. So yes, we continue to target positive price cost -- like we have done last year on H1, full year and H2. Now let me clarify a bit the -- your question on volume and price and notably on Q1 weather because I'm sure it's a question I hate, the first time I mentioned weather, but it's a fact that we have a very significant weather impact.

Now if you take trends, we have -- we have seen now, but more importantly, we have seen a lot of floods in the last weeks. First time ever in the last 50 years, we have so much rain, and we have half of our regions, which are down double digit. So it's significant. You have seen also all the huge storms in the U.S. with, I think it's 24 states on emergency status in North America. So all this has an impact. So we are assuming, of course, the normalization in Q2 because we think the weather will normalize. So Q2 and second half normalization improvement, as I highlighted in the outlook. So it's a transition weaker volume, we think we will have bottom actually on Q1 in North America, assuming the weather will normalize in the second quarter. So all in all, when you take the impact on North America and U.S. we should expect a low to mid-single-digit volume down in Q1 because of this whether it's unfortunate, but that's the fact that we see in France and North America. And from there, normalization improvement, we expect a lot of the green shoots we have seen in Europe to continue. France turned positive in Q4. And outside of this weather impact, it should continue.

We have seen some positive momentum in the U.K. We have seen some very strong performance in Asia and Latin America. All that will continue. But yes, there is this volume impact on the first quarter, which has again, low to mid-single digit impact on Q1 volumes in 3 to minus 5, it's too early to tell because we are not completely out of the woods, but that's the magic of the impact. And to sum up, on Q1, we were expecting Q1 to continue like Q4 outside of the weather impact, but the weather impact has been significant notably for France and the U.S. -- on H1 margin. We don't guide again margin by half. As you know, we are ambitious on the margin. It will stay ambitious, so there is, I think, a different seasonality to expect this year on the margin like on the operating profit because it's about the same.

Don't forget these external items last year that we are different in H1 and H2. So that's the slight difference between operating profit and EBITDA, but we might see a seasonality different year between H1 and H2 on the margin because of this weather impact and because of the fact that we will see improving trends in our end markets starting in Q2, but more importantly, in H2. So it will be a bit of 2 halves of the year with a different momentum. I think your other question was on North Europe volume that one?

Yes, sure. So Northern Europe, it's really a story of mixed and contrasted evolution country by country. Again, U.K. outperforming clearly. Then Germany down, and we are quite happy to see that finally, the stimulus plan, you see some money starting flowing into the economy, but not yet into clear spending in construction at least. That's not what we're observing. So ahead of that, for sure, we have done some restructuring. We have optimized our setup in Germany, and we are ready to capture. The teams are already -- have key accounts in place discussing with all the major customers and with all the major people in charge of this public spending to prepare for the project and to get the impact. But it is low, and it is taking a little bit of time.

Then looking at Nordics, again, within the Nordics, mixed and contrasted dynamics Norway is still difficult. Finland and Denmark are in a better shape. So we will see how that evolves, but that's overall for..

Last question on North America. As you have seen, Q4 was a bit softer than in Q3, so we outperformed the market when you look at our self-delivery and margin in the second half. We don't have the carryover, therefore, effect that we had starting Q1 of '25, [ Q4 ] was a bit softer. So all in all, H1 '26 margin in North America will be below H1 '25, no surprise. And I think in terms of magnitude, the better indication is more the H2 '25 margin, of course, than H1 '25 margin because of the volume momentum we have seen in H2 that we will continue to see at the start of the year, notably in Q1. And then it will progressively normalize. So as a reference, it's H2 margin, H1 margin that we expect for H1 margin in North America.

So that's 200 basis points decline then?

In all these years. But that's -- of course, it's too early to tell, but the order of -- more the refunds of '25 second half than first half, second half, where we had this carryover from late '24 expecting again in Q2 a normal weather pattern, which is what we expect, and we'll see the replenishment of the inventories from the -- and keeping in mind that roofing is 35% of our total exposure in the U.S. We grew in siding in Q4. We are growing as we speak in siding. So we gained market share in construction chemicals. I think we should not overemphasize roofing picture, which as we have seen on the slide I shared with you, a very abnormal hurricane season.

And on top of that, even on the storm from health storms, we were 13% below the last decade. So I think it was a transitory weaker volumes in North America due to weather impacting roofing, whether impacting across job sites in Q1. I think we can say it all, but have bottomed in Q1 in North America. And from there, it will improve. We have seen that you take collective housing, the starts and the figures are moving in the right direction. I think the affordability even if it's a bit slow, is improving versus where we were some months ago, and we have delivered very well on our commitment in North America and all the teams are hands-on how to continue to...

Ebrahim Homani, CIC CIB. I have 3, if I may, a follow-up on the roofing business in North America. -- if the weather conditions are more normal than last year, what could be the organic growth and the margin in 2026, especially in H2. My second point on your CapEx and the investment strategy for 2026. And do you expect an increase in free cash flow to EBITDA? And my last question is on Europe, price and volume dynamics that you expect, especially in Southern Europe?

I take the first. You may conclude. I repeat again, Roofing is a very strong business in North America. We are the only, the 3 only national players. So when you talk to the large distributors that are consolidating the market, they need national payers. So you win because you are national players across U.S. and Canada. I had a chance to meet the top 3 national distributors we have in December. I can tell you they are happy to continue to win with Saint-Gobain I know that some competitors thought about entering the market. They may have relied, it's not easy to be a meaningful player in residential roofing in North America across the board. So it's a very good business, driven by strong fundamentals.

Again, you have seen the multiplied by 4 of the weather patterns. If I take the last 30, 40 years, it's not going to diminish. It's accelerating with an exceptional low year in 2025. we have also all the hedging of the roof and on top of that, the housing shortage that everyone is working on it across all the states of the U.S. and also in Canada. So yes, we expect the weather to normalize. You may have seen -- we are not the only one to say it, Home Depot, which is a good proxy of the U.S. market, said it beginning of this week. So all this is there. We could expect -- again, it's too early to say that all the ice and snow storms we have seen across the board in the last 2 months would trigger some additional above and beyond renovation by how much it's a bit early to tell, but yes, the momentum in roofing will continue to be good, assuming, of course, a normal weather pattern starting in Q2 and H2. So yes, we will find it back in the second half. And that's the equation that we have computed because all the fundamentals drivers of -- are still there, and we are happy that we have this Georgia competitive plant ready to go. Again, it's a 2% addition on the market, which had been sold out in the last 5 years. And even the region of Florida and Southeast today are pretty busy. So we are happy to be the first to have a competitive plant ready to go when the market will improve, and it's very meaningful for the national distributors when you continue to invest on your roofing business, like when you invest on your plasterboard, siding business and when you have the complete offer.

So I'm not worried at all about 8% new capacity additions that we have seen over the next 3 years on the market and again, 2% coming from Saint-Gobain we shut down a plant, which was 50 years old. We didn't ask you to visit, and we'll be happy to ask you to this the new one, but happy to have a new one versus in Georgia, which is a very busy -- region.

Yes. So in terms of CapEx, 2025, we were around 4.5% of sales. We will be the same for next year. 80% of our growth CapEx were in those high-growth markets, as you might have seen. It's very important that we allocate those CapEx to growth. And there are clear allocation on this topic. And we are, for example, in India, building clearly very fast our footprint to grow in the country, and it's working extremely well. We are enlarging the offer, and we are gaining shares as well in the categories where we are already.

In terms of free cash flow generation, our target is to be above 50%. You have seen the results this year. We will obviously remain there and continue to optimize all the elements of the free cash flow.

You had a question on price and volume in Europe. Yes, we expect what we started to see in the second half of last year to continue. Now keep in mind that it has been 4 years in Europe with a negative trend. So I was happy that for the first time in H1 '22, if I'm correct, we had growth in Europe in local currencies in H2 of '25. We should continue to see that pairing in mind, notably in France, the negative impact of the flood in the last 2 months. So yes, it would continue. We have announced a price increase at the beginning of the year in Europe across multiple geographies, be it in France, in the U.K., in Germany, so that should continue and progressive evolution as well in Europe. We have seen all the green shoots of new build, if you take France, the starts are up 5% to 7%. The permits up double digits. So all this will trigger some additional activity going forward. Another question in the room. Also, we made turned questions to the call, who wants to start? Is it Goldman Sachs? So go ahead, please.

I just had 2, please. I guess, thanks for the comments on the U.S. margin impacts in the first half. if we're thinking about the European margin impacts, is it right to think they're less significant than the 200 basis points you expect for margin pressure in Americas. And I guess the second question would just be on portfolio rotation, in light of the 20% target by 2030. I'd be interested, do you see 2026 as a year where you can make more progress than average on -- against that target? And I guess do you see the upside more from divestments or acquisitions this year?

So EU margins, they will continue. You've seen what we have delivered this year, and we will continue maintaining the positive price cost spreads at group level, obviously, and focusing on strong pricing, and we will continue delivering on the margins. Of course, we will have some benefit from volumes when volumes are back, and that's have said in the past about operating leverage of around 25% when you have some kind of significant volume to take.

And on the portfolio, so yes, we are seen that we announced on Tuesday or Wednesday, 2 small acquisitions on Construction Chemicals. That's part of the add-ons and bolt-ons, we are happy to say and to deliver. We will continue to do that. We are working, as we speak, on acquisitions and divestitures. Depending on your average, I don't know whether it is -- if you take the last 5 years, we -- 40%. So roughly 10% per year, we want to vote at 20% in the next 5 years. So is it going to be 10% just this year, it's a bit on the high side. But yes, we will be active on portfolio rotation in '26, both in terms of acquisitions and divestitures.

On acquisitions, we have a very solid balance sheet. So we are ready to capture good opportunities, but we are always extremely conscious about the value creation, like we have delivered in the past, integrating well when you have double-digit growth in CEMIX and FOSROC it's a very good solid acquisition and delivery. So yes, we will be active in '26, and we will show more progress as you ask on the portfolio rotation to continue to strengthen the business profile and you know the criteria, financial criteria and also the strategic criteria, both on acquisitions and CapEx in high-growth geographies, protection chemicals, and divestitures in the businesses which are a bit far from the strategy or a bit far from the financial performance of the group.

Excellent. And Maud, maybe just coming back on the margin question, just thinking about the French weather impacts that we could expect on margins in the first half -- is there any way to quantify what kind of headwind that might pose against, obviously, the improving volume outlook and positive price contribution?

So you've seen that in the past we've been able to manage quite well in the margin in Europe, and we will be, again, always very demanding with our teams who deliver really well on the margins.

Next question is from Cedar, Morgan Stanley.

Just 2 questions for me. Can you talk about your relative performance in the U.S. market in the fourth quarter. It does look like your volumes outperformed Owens Corning and outperformed the broader Arma data from a roofing perspective. Do you think that, that's just a comp effect? Or do you think that there is something to say there in terms of how you're engaging with the customer and then can you help us put some numbers around how to think about energy cost inflation into 2026? These markets have been quite volatile, but is there a potential for a tailwind on energy costs as we move into 2026? Or should we still be thinking about an inflationary backdrop?

There are multiple reasons for this outperformance in the second half. Clearly, I think the fact that we have a full breadth of offering, when you talk to the big distributors, they are happy to have -- because a lot of them, they have more exterior and interior solutions. Take the Omdipo-SRS GMS, you take on -- so they are happy to have the full set of solutions, exterior and interior, and are the only one to product all this when you compare to the roofing or to the other players. So that's part of the equation.

Like I would say, when you look at our Construction Chemicals overperformance, we delivered almost 3% in the second half. Of course, the other set of the clients had a good effect on our Construction Chemicals performance and VSR. So versus a pure play silo business. Yes, the fact that we have the red is meaningful. We have also enhanced our contractor customer engagement on the ground that helps on the delivery. After that, yes, there is a bit of outperformance versus [ RMS 36 ] and we hope are working hard to continue to do that going forward. There was also -- if you take the gypsum performance in the U.S., we did much better than some of the public years we have seen because we were in a mid-single digit decline in the kind of minus 5%, minus 6% decline in North America in the second half when I have seen some other figures being down double digit. So that means you can have this win-win effect on exterior/interior solutions.

Energy. So energy, as always, we have our hedging policies which are in place. Indeed, it's a volatile market. We don't see much inflation. We anticipate around stable energy inflation for this year with, of course, volatile situation, but point on energy. And overall, for inflation, we anticipate stable to slightly positive inflation. And of course, we will keep this positive slight positive price cost spread for the full year.

I think the next question is from Bank of America, Arnaud.

Three questions, if I may. Firstly, you, Maud, just commented on energy. Could you please comment on raw materials. We've seen industrial metals moving higher I guess, cement could be moving higher. So do you see meaningful inflation on the raw material side? That's my first question.

My second question is coming back on U.S. resistance roofing. Sorry about that, but we've seen some price increase announcement from the industry for April. Are you confident that this could happen? Or are you trying to be a little bit defensive trying to prevent price decline and you expect prices to be stable?

And lastly, in France, we've seen quite a few headlines around housing targets, boost to social housing, -- we've seen Mapi Marino coming back after the budget. Could you try to frame things a little bit for us in terms of what's going on in France in terms of housing activity?

So raw material, again, stable to slight inflation. We have some categories which are seeing inflation, send paper, raw material -- sorry, packaging, transportation or seeing some slight inflation. Coming to your specific point, you mentioned cement, so cement, we are substituting quite a lot of our cement input. For example, we inaugurated a plant in Finland that enabled us to actually substitute cement with other raw materials. So we are quite stable on that. But overall, a stable to slight inflation on raw material as well.

And on your second question, yes, we have in mind. It's a bit too early to say, but we have in mind and our teams are preparing for that kind of price increase around April for roofing. You may have noticed, but we can tell you that we were still positive on Q4 pricing in North America in Q4. So we have been very disciplined that helped also the margin on top of all the cost actions we took in the second half we have been very disciplined on the pricing momentum for our different product lines, it were all exterior entirely positive in the second half.

On France, well, Arnaud, we have seen in the last year that France is not an easy bid on multiple fronts. So I will be a bit cautious because it could change. But for me, if I step back over the last 3, 4 years, clearly, and we have been advocating for it, not only for Saint-Gobain, but just for our overall societies, the housing topic, energy efficiency in the home is becoming more and more as a top political priority.

Even to the point, even to our supplier that the EU Commission, which is not in their -- center decided to take on the housing crisis across Europe. So yes, in France, there are some increased momentum, 400,000 homes and -- we should build in the coming years, more emphasis on social housing. So we see a clear momentum on new build in France as we see, again, a single digit and start double digit in permits. The political willingness is there. We will see a positive momentum there in '25. It's a bit too early to say bullish scenario for housing in France. But yes, the momentum is there. All of the players are pushing for that -- as you said, is back. So energy efficiency is a factor. I highlighted the green value of what it means, for the real estate value, not only the comfort and the purchasing power and the energy build, but also the real estate value. So all those parameters are moving in the right direction. Let's not fool ourselves on the total momentum, but as you have seen, we are turning the corner in France, and I'm confident that we are outperforming in France across new build and renovation, thanks to our full presence, and it should continue throughout the year 6 and beyond, at the beginning of the large housing recovery in Europe because there are big needs. We are on billing of that, which will be a multiyear process.

Next question is from...

Question. First question on -- there is a debate currently in Europe around competitiveness versus potentially a revision of the EU ETS, I guess the carbonization is a big theme for you. What do you think of this debate? And what does it mean for the strategy of Saint-Gobain and your investment plan? That would be my first question. And my second question, coming back to the U.S. pricing, have you announced any price increase in gypsum or insulation? Or is it too early in the context where the volume or...

No, it's too early to say on -- insulation. So see how the year develops, but it's to vary. We started the year slightly above where we were last year because we ended the year on a positive note, but it's a bit too early to tell, on all these topics about competitiveness and carbonation, keep in mind that within big materials, the light side is the solution and all the strategy of Saint-Gobain on light sustainable construction has been to accelerate the rollout of solutions towards low carbon construction and low carbon buildings. We are not the problem. We are the solutions in terms of lowering the carbon content of construction. So we are not part of the C-band scope, and we don't need that. We don't rely on that. We have some quotas of CO2. We are actively decarbonating our plant. We dropped by 35%, our CO2 content within Saint-Gobain, in terms of Supreme 1 and 2. So we are, I think, pioneering on that with only 2 plasterboard electrified in the world, Norway and Canada. So it's not only Europe, it's credible. So we are making nice progress, and it's a competitive advantage for Saint-Gobain, we don't have the volatility of what it means for us because we are not relying on CBAM, and we are on the solution to bring forward low carbon content in materials and buildings, be it new or bit renovation. So for us, it's a good momentum. And we will continue to accelerate and differentiate on that. We have the full scope almost of Saint-Gobain covered with EPD's environmental product declaration. We have the full suite of products, scenario for low carbon gypsum, nor low carbon -- substituting cement -- low carbon insulation. So all this is already commercially available offer for Samba and doesn't rely on CBAM type of measure.

Next question is from Julian, UBS.

Yes. So 2 for me, please. So first of all, can you talk about Europe and specifically Northern Europe. So I remember in summer 2025, you were still assuming positive growth that then sort of turn to flattish. And now it ultimately ended up being negative more than 2%. I mean what was the main driver versus your own expectations here, aside from the market just staying tough? And I guess what gives you the confidence now that, that will turn after the difficult weather in Q1.

Next question -- actually. You said the Americas margin in H1 could be around 16%. So can I just ask, so for that kind of scenario, what kind of volume and price would you need to see to achieve that? And what could be the upside or downside? And then last one, and most importantly, maybe, if I take everything together that you said on this call, weaker first half than second half, the margin comment on Americas, et cetera. For the full year, do you think EBIT or EBITDA should reasonably be up year-on-year in absolute terms for the group? Is that kind of a fair base case.

So on Northern Europe, I answer that. As Mat highlighted, we have been a bit disappointed by the momentum in Germany and in Nordic countries. Sweden was slightly better like Denmark, but Norway a bit down. So that has been the reason during last year. It's improving. We have also keep in mind, divested a business, which was a tough one for us in Germany, which was commodity that was part of the negative like-for-like last year, which we're not going to see going forward. We outperformed clearly in Switzerland. We have a nice growth in Switzerland, we hear from Switzerland. So I'm happy to say that. We have growth in the U.K. We have both in Eastern Europe. So it was the size of the Nordic countries and Germany below the momentum and the expected momentum we had last year. It's again improving and we will see that in '26 on anything -- you would like to -- on the on Americas. Again, I've been clear on how you should compare the margin of all for Americas. We expect, and there is no reason not to say that a normal weather and starting the season, like always, for all the job site, be it renovation, be it new build, be it roofing or gypsum. So that's what we expect, and there is no reason to significantly. We will have this negative impact in Q1, which I highlighted. We have seen that across all the competitors outside of that, we will continue to deliver on a normal year and well on our margin overall for Americas, H1 being lower than what we expect in H2. And the -- year well, we'll we have given a very clear guidance for this year, like we do every year at the beginning of the year. We are ambitious on the margin. We have a very powerful plan for the next years.

You have seen that we delivered every single year, every single year, and it was not working the part in the last 5 years, be it inflation, energy crisis, trade war, COVID, whatever we delivered, so this is what Saint-Gobain showed you in the last 5 years, we delivered on portfolio optimization. We deliver on execution and operational excellence. We have a fantastic growth revenues on nonresidential and infrastructure where we gain share. We have seen that on construction chemicals, clearly in North America and across the board last year.

So happy to continue, and we will have a nice momentum in '26. Keeping in mind that, yes, there is a transition on weather at the beginning of the year, but I think we have bottomed in Q1 in North America because of this weather pattern and no carryover of roofing from last year from there in Europe, in North America, I think we will show some attractive momentum.

So I had 1 question on working capital. And again, you've got another year where the working capital days has reduced by 1 day. So could you help us in trying to get a sense of how we should think about it going forward. I mean, obviously, there has to be 1 range where you're comfortable, but how much lower can you go from here on?

And my second question, sorry for going back to North American roofing and North American margins in general. So I think it's quite commendable that you were able to maintain the margin despite the huge decline in volumes in roofing. And you also highlighted some weakness in the solutions business. So could you help us unpack the offsetting drivers which allowed you to offset the impact of the weaker volumes in some parts of the business so that you were able to maintain the margins.

I take your second one -- will first quickly again on North American roofing because we have a lot of lovely businesses within Saint-Gobain. It's not only North America. We stay with us and stay tuned. We are growing a lot in double digits in Asia and emerging markets and with based on the exchange rate, we have more profit from Asia and emerging markets than Western Europe and then the North America. So tune on how fast we grow double digits in Latin America. No one talked about 7% almost organic growth delivered in Latin America, but I can tell you, it's stellar and way above the market without mentioning the double-digit volume growth that -- has delivered -- very well on volume in India last year.

But coming back to an interesting piece of roofing, we took a lot of actions in the second half. Of course, pricing. We have shown a very strong pricing discipline. As I said, it has been up altogether in H2 and also in Q4, we took some short-term actions that you can take. You cannot take that forever. You're dropping some shifts, working on your maintenance cost. So there are some short-term -- that we took deliberately in the fourth quarter, in the second half to deliver on our commitment. You cannot take that for either because at some point, you have to rebuild the inventory to service our customers.

So yes, there were a lot of the full range of short-term actions that we took across the board in North America last year and not only in roofing. Our siding business accelerated in the fourth quarter. We had a nice delivery on Gypsum. We took some one furnace down in insulation in the U.S. altogether, sometimes I should maybe emphasize that more, but we have taken a lot of cost actions within Saint-Gobain last year. If I were to tell you that we had over the last 2 years, 4,000 head count reduction in Europe, that's the fact, that's how proactive we have been on cost management within Saint-Gobain. Last year, we did shut down 3 plants across Saint-Gobain in the world. We did open '24, but it should be down 20 old plants, including 6 in the U.S. So a lot of those actions are behind the margin protection, the margin focus and all this is being delivered by country CEOs, being proactive, hands-on and incentivized on their margin. So all those parameters helped us to deliver nicely on our commitment in the margin.

Yes. On the working capital, yes, indeed, we improved by one day this year in 2025. I think we are at the range where we can stabilize the working capital operating working capital. It's where we are at least to service the customers in a good way. So clearly, and we have guided during the CMD for a working capital below 15 days at order of magnitude where we will navigate going forward. And from where we are today and navigating within the range of our CMD objective. So that is what you should expect -- but again, as for the margin, remaining ambitious in terms of cash generation and ambitious in terms of how we are able to optimize all our operations, as Benoit explained for -- of the margins. We do the same for the cash. We optimize everything.

Thank you, next question from -- Citi Group.

Yes. Sorry, going back to the working capital again. The given the weather events in the first half, should we expect change in trajectory, at least in the short term on the working capital in terms of holding higher inventory at your sites or at your distributors given the potential kind of bounce back in demand in the second half. So should we see a big or sizable pickup in the first half in terms of working capital versus the second half.

Secondly, in terms of free cash flow and net debt. So basically, your net debt remained relatively stable despite your acquisitions and increased dividends. So again, do you see scope for the balance sheet to be stretched a little bit more in terms of acquisitions beyond sort of the $2.5 billion range that would get you to about sort of 1.7, 1.8x net debt to EBITDA.

Yes, so in terms of working capital, of course, it will depend how the season goes and when actually the weather normalizes, et cetera. So we will see how it evolves. It's a bit early to say. We will manage that very tightly, being a bit strategic as well in building the right inventory so that we can service the spikes in demand that we typically see whenever there are some hailstorms, for example, in the U.S., I mean back to the roofing business. So we are strategic in maintaining the right level of inventory to capture the demand and the spice in demand. So we will manage that very tightly, and you should expect something to be normal. You've seen what we've done last year, and we continue managing that.

In terms of net debt, yes, we have room for acquisitions. Does it mean that because we have room, we are going to go on major moves that -- so again, we have some clear criteria -- we have a good balance sheet. We have optionality to do nice deals. We have a good pipeline, but then again, being very picky on the quality of the company and the quality of the business and what value it brings to Saint-Gobain to the shareholders.

Next question from Bill Jones, Rothschild.

Thanks, morning, sorry if I could, please. First, just generally around synergies. Clearly, you're still integrating some large deals from the recent years. So just whether you could talk a bit more about revenue and cost synergy benefits that might lie ahead this year and where they could be most impactful. Second was on the distribution businesses, France and Nordic particularly, perhaps you could just talk on the performance in '25 there particularly around gross margins and any comments for '26, maybe aside from just the macro? And then maybe just Asia Pacific lastly, slightly stronger volume growth in H2 than H1 at kind of 3% to 4%. Do you think that run rate can continue? And any country-related comments there would be great.

So maybe I take the 1 and 3, you take the second. On Asia and emerging markets, yes, we have seen better momentum, stronger momentum in H2. We have a seller growth in India, and it will continue. We have a good start, a very good start of the year in this part of the world, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, all these countries are strong. So that will continue. In China, we have seen some positive momentum lately. So again, we are with a high added value positioning in China, keeping in mind that we have a sizable part of industrial solutions in China, competing on innovation. So that should bode well.

So yes, I'm confident that the momentum in Asia will be positive and even increase in '26 versus what we have seen in '25 in the second half. On the -- I take the first question, yes, synergies and how we integrate. You have seen the value we created, I take our gypsum position in North America, the first with considerable building products we have seen very good momentum.

Let's take the second half of last year, we were down single digit on gypsum versus the public figures I've seen from peers down double digits when 14 or 15, we were down in volume, minus 6 or minus 7. So I put that on the background of how we can deliver on synergies, not only on plasterboard, but across the full spectrum because every of single of the top distributors in the U.S., you take ABC, they have exterior, they are in interior with L&W. So all of them, they ask for interior and exterior solutions. You take our strong momentum in Latin America, CEMIX, course, has a nice pool effect across Mexico and Central America. I went to Saudi Arabia and Middle East in December, together with [ Thierry Bernard ] we have a 30% growth in the Emirates, and it's thanks for [ South ] the momentum. So all this is part of the -- not only cost synergies and purchasing and all the logistics and the raw materials we can deliver, but more importantly, on the top line.

So yes, we are happy about the synergies we have been delivering on all those acquisitions, not to come because we have now the country platform to integrate well and to accelerate the momentum. Do you want to take the...

Yes, sure. For distribution performance. Well, you see -- you see the margins in Southern Europe in particular and in Northern Europe, which shows that those businesses are performing well in terms of margin despite, again, a tough environment in terms of volumes when you compare to 2019, for example, in France is down 15% in Nordics, more around the 20%. So those businesses are doing well. We had given a bit below what we had said at the previous MD of this range, 6% to 8%. But they are doing well. They are clearly leading on the digital side, and they are providing great insight for the rest of -- great pool for the rest of Saint-Gobain. If you think about AI applications. If you think about digital suite digital tools. Those businesses are really spearheading those topics and we're creating some nice spillover on the rest of the group. So good performance and we continue -- with very mobilized...

Next question from Harry Goad, Berenberg.

Yes. 2, please. If I could just come back to Europe, I have a more specific question with your thoughts on 2026. Do you expect to see positive volume growth in France, Germany and the U.K. in the year? And the second one is just with regards to the evolution of the portfolio and you talk about this 20% turnover of the revenue base. Should we think of that as sort of half acquisitions, half divestments? Or is it right to think it's much more skewed to acquisitions driving that 20% evolution in the next few years?

The 20%, if I understand correctly your question, it's both acquisitions and divestitures, and we measure it like we have done in the last 5 years on turnover. So that gives you the magnitude of you take over -- Saint-Gobain on the exchange rate, that's EUR 10 billion of sales we will have rotated in the next years. And to your first question on '26, yes, we have seen some green shoots moving in the right direction on both countries. So putting aside the weather impact at the start of the year. And again, it will don't be surprised on Q1 organic growth because of this negative effect coming from the weather, let's say, again, you may have seen some pictures at least for the French ones with half of France being totally flooded. So it's not only that you cannot work because you have to dry the billing, but you cannot even access to the job sites.

France, we have 6,000 truck drivers on the road every single day. So that's double-digit impact with the ending of the year, but bearing that aside, putting that aside, yes, we expect the countries you mentioned to turn on positive volumes in '26.

Thank you very much.

Now we move to the questions on the Internet on the website, and I will start with the question from Paul Roger from Paribas. I guess I read your question, Paul. Will not have your perfect accent. It will be my French accent, but keep with us, stay with us, did the group lose any market share in Northern Europe, Germany and Nordics. And why did H2 EBITDA margin decline in this region. I take the first half.

I don't think we lost market share, but it's not regions where we have a clear outperformance. If I take France, Spain, Italy, U.K., U.S., Canada, Brazil, India, all those countries, we beat the market in Germany and in the Nordics, we have been working on the quality of the assets. I take Germany, specifically, as I said, we divested last year. The kind of EUR 100 million of sales. Our great commodity mortars, which frankly was not a high-end part of our solutions. We did also shut down large flat glass facility in -- had in September, October because of overcapacity. So we thought it was the right action to take. So it was not fishing for volumes. It was working on the quality of the assets and therefore, no outperformance in terms of market share, notably in Germany, but I think -- we have now a major portfolio. We have a new manager in place, [ red paco ], who used to be the head of Saint-Gobain marketing worldwide. So we will, for sure, bring a nice dynamic in Germany going forward plus all the expected momentum we see on the infrastructure and the end.

There was a second part of the question, and I'll take it, which was about margin decline in this region. So we talked about it. It's mostly due to -- due to nonoperating costs, which were higher in H2 in that region because of the actions that Saint-Gobain -- mentioned.

Next question from Laurent Runacher, no, sorry, there was another question. With depreciation step up this year as the group increases capacity, you answered that question?

Yes.

Does the group's high market share limit further M&A opportunities in U.S. construction products. The whole answer is no. Of course, with some exceptions. If you take things, as I said, residential roofing, we have only 3 national players, so it's hand to buy one of them but that would be one exception. And as you remember from what Maud presented at the Capital Markets Day, the direction of travel in North America is more towards nonresidential and infrastructure markets because we have a very meaningful #1 position on residential offer, both interior, exterior. So if any target and effort, it's more organically and inorganically towards nonresidential. And in a way, we have plenty of space. This is why we have done some acquisitions on Construction Chemicals in the U.S. and in Canada.

Last year, we will continue to look at that. We have some targets as speak. So that's the direction of travel to expand our Saint-Gobain presence in construction products across North America, U.S. and Canada.

Next question is from Laurent Runacher. With the last rotations of the portfolio, what can we now expect in terms of organic growth for the group over the cycle when we answered that on October 6 at the Capital Markets Day. So I think you have the -- the answer, and we highlighted it region by region and also saying that on non-resi and infra, we expect that to be above the group average.

Yes, and we also highlighted the fact that our acquisitions on average have 4 points of organic growth, additional versus average. So clearly, portfolio rotation changes the growth profile of the group.

Question from Glynis from Jefferies.

You talked about win-win relationships with top U.S. distributors. Can you provide some additional color on this well, there is a bit of commercial insight, of course, behind that. But maybe one easy answer is to say when you are a national player with hundreds, if not thousands of outlets across U.S. and Canada, you want to make deals and bring to top CEOs CEO to CEO across the country. We don't want to have a deal because there is a new plant in Alabama or a new plant in Minnesota. You need to partner altogether. And this is the kind of a top to the national players. And if they can deliver to me not only 1 product category in 50 stores, but 6 different categories across stores, I'll partner with them. So that's the kind of high-level strategic discussion and long-term partnership we have been building with the top distributors. They have been consolidating and when you consider it, yes, you need an even bigger player on the partnership side. So that's what we have been saying.

And one example, I'm not sure we gave it on the -- on my slide, we have increased by 10% the number of stores on those distributors where we are cross-selling. And for us, cross-selling in the U.S., we measure it when we cross-sell more than 6 product lines. So that's true that last year, we increased by 10 points the cross-selling point of sales with the national distributor. So that's the kind of initiative.

Another initiative, they are all working on digital solutions and AI, they partner with the big players that can offer that. So it's important. And they are happy when you can tell them, we invested $7 billion in the U.S. in the last 5 years. That means we are committed to the country, and we are a meaningful player to you. So that's the kind of -- and with those top players, I can tell you, [ macro fill ], myself, we have top to top meetings every single year and deepening the relationship. As you have seen. Continental building products years ago helped to accelerate in retail. The fact that some retail players bought some merchanting businesses will continue to help us accelerate in retail, and we have seen some good initiatives as we speak. So that's the kind of win-win partnership we will continue to move forward.

This is also what we experienced in France, in France, when you are 6x the year on your merchanting business than any other player, you partner with the best players on the manufacturing side, which are the Saint-Gobain manufacturing brands. So that's the kind of win-win snowball effect. We will continue to perform on.

There is a question now from RBC, if I'm correct. Some energy efficiency tax credit programs are expiring in the U.S. this year. Therefore, how are you thinking about U.S. renovation demand and volumes within your Interior Solutions segment going into frankly, I don't look at it like that. I look at it as an acceleration of the climate extreme weather patterns. Take a multiyear view, we have seen that across the board. It could be fire risk, it could be flood. You have multiple states today where there is no more insurance, if you have a fortified home, you have the roof -- because of quarter pushing because siding. So the need for climate resilient building is accelerating in the U.S. So that's clearly an important momentum that should continue because as I said multiple times, sustainable construction just means better buildings, better real estate value.

You take the average statistics in the U.S. and offices, we have 25% higher real estate value when you have the right performance on energy efficiency, regardless of any tax credit. So be it the real estate value, be it climate resilient offer. This is driving the U.S. market, and it will continue. We are not going to rebuild Los Angeles, the same way it was built. We are not to repeat homes that have been destroyed with heavy storms the same way they were built 20 years ago, you need more wind resistant -- course on and on like that, and we'll continue to see that.

I think some last questions from AAV. Can you provide an estimated percentage of revenues that currently related data centers? And how big is the growth strategy?

What you want to take the Yes, it's -- we had highlighted this topic at our CMD, where there had been this study of who is the most present in terms of building material contractors and the -- contractors at 34% was Saint-Gobain. So we have a strong offer with data centers and Benoit just showed it. We are working currently on 600 projects, and we are talking about projects which take place everywhere in the world. And the way it happens is we partner with some consultants. CEMIX, for example, in Ireland is one of them. We developed the offer. We codevelop the offer with those players. And then, of course, we have the ability to provide that offer everywhere in the world because the construction sites are then local in every country when we deliver data centers in Indonesia and Malaysia. It's because we produce in Malaysia and Indonesia part, large part of the offer. And then, of course, we can ship some additions, which make the complete data center. So we are quite uniquely positioned. And I think we had said, Benoit, at the last call that data centers is we can expect to triple sales in that area, and it's some hundreds of millions.

I think we have -- so the last question, no regret...

I'm from JP Morgan.

Mike, I can hear you, Eli, and I will repeat the question for everyone.

So questions from -- JPMorgan is the scope and FX estimate for the full year. And the tango of margins of roofing in North America, where the -- I understand well, where H2 margin will be more H2 '26 will be more comparable with H1 '25 when we said that H1 '26 will be more comparable with H2 '25. So you take the first one.

Yes. So FX, we -- we anticipate at current spot rate because it's a little bit a complex exercise that at current spot rate, about minus 3% on sales for first quarter. H1 would be around minus 2. But again, keep in mind that this is very volatile, and we've seen that last year. And then in terms of scope, if things will move. But as of now, around stable scope effect, negative but around.

And your second question, your whole answer is yes because we expect the weather to normalize in -- starting in Q2 and therefore in H2, let's see how strongly the momentum will develop, notably the proportion of the additional business we could get from these new eye storms we have seen at the beginning of the year because we will not have the carryover that we had in H1 '25 from '24. But I'm confident that H2 will be a normal year for roofing, and we should see that in Q2. So in general, high-level answer is yes to your question.

Thank you. I think we are sharp on time. Last question from Jean-Christophe if you like -- and then we will finish.

[Foreign Language], many thanks. To come back to U.S. insulation and plasterboard. We -- the main issue for your competitor, Owens Corning was not roofing. But this business line, gypsum and insulation, what was the case for an over the second half, -- was the margin strongly down as it was the case for your competitor? Or are you able to maintain it many things?

Well, we have delivered a flattish margin in the second half in North America. So we could not have done it if one of the big businesses, be it exterior or interior would have been down. So the overall answer because I'm not going to give you the details on all this that we delivered well on the margin, both exterior and interior across North America in the second half with some cost actions. So insulation was tougher, and we decided to shut down one furnace in Kansas City. So there has been some ups and downs, but we hear quite well on the margin overall being broadly stable in the second half in North America.

So I think we covered all your questions. Thank you again. As a conclusion, again, a big tank and big congratulations to all the Saint-Gobain teams for another year of very strong delivery, consistent delivery like we have shown in the last 5 years of growing impact and happy to say that we have nicely concluded -- impact, and we are opening a very exciting leading group. I can tell you the teams are running and didn't wait for January 1. We have been running since we launched it in October. Lead and Grow is simple, powerful and simple. It's depending our solutions, which have proven to be very relevant, expanding those solutions on infrastructure and nonresidential markets where we have a lot to play and to win, protecting the portfolio. We are active and we have been -- that we can deliver well on that in terms of value creation, and we have clear plans and clear projects as we speak to do some meaningful moves in '26 and of course, continue to rely on Super Engage powerful operating model of Saint-Gobain driven by country, CEO.

So many thanks to all of them, many thanks to all of you, and we will deliver a strong performance in '26. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good evening, everybody. I hope that you have received our press release, and you have been able to go through the highlights. So together with Maud, our CFO, we will present our Q3 2025 sales performance.

Saint-Gobain delivered plus 1.3% sales growth in local currencies in the third quarter. Like-for-like sales were stable, driven by good dynamics in Asia Pacific and Latin America and the return to growth in Europe despite the decrease in North America. We have seen a strong dynamic in construction chemicals, which, as you know, has been one of our target areas for growth investment. Sales were up 18% in local currencies in the third quarter. This was driven by an outperformance in like-for-like sales, which were up 2.6% and also double-digit growth from our recent acquisitions in construction chemicals, notably Cemix in Latin America FOSROC in India and the Middle East, contributing to the strong growth. The integrations are going well, and synergies are on track.

Many of you participated in our Capital Markets Day earlier this month, and I hope you enjoyed your discussions with the country and regional heads and the rest of our executive committee. I can tell you that internally, our teams are excited about this next stage of profitable growth for Saint-Gobain. In each of our country platforms, the teams are already rolling out their growth plans to take advantage of their unique local positions and also the breadth of Saint-Gobain solutions offer with more upselling, cross-selling and specified sales.

Our Lead & Grow strategic plan that we launched for '26 to 2030 is focused on fully leveraging our full solutions offering that delivers clear benefits for our customers. Building on our strong positions in residential markets, we are increasing our exposure to nonresidential and infrastructure markets, where we hold key advantages, including from the strong construction chemicals position that we have built. The focus is on growth and value creation, and we have set an ambitious financial trajectory for '26 to 2030, with a new step-up for sales growth, EBITDA margin and ROCE as well as an attractive shareholder return framework. So our internal road map is clear. The buying from our teams is strong, and all our teams are engaged to deliver.

I will now hand over to Maud, who will discuss our third quarter sales in detail.

Thank you, Benoit. Good evening, everyone. I am very pleased to give you some more details on our Q3 sales release. Starting with Q3 sales growth. First, to get the technical effects covered off, we had a negative currency effect in Q3 of minus 2.6% due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and many emerging market currencies against the euro. We currently expect Q4 to have a more significant foreign exchange impact of around minus 5%. This would mean a foreign exchange impact for the second half of close to minus 4% on sales and around minus 6% on operating income. The impact is in particular on the Americas region. And remember that foreign exchange is purely a translation effect for Saint-Gobain.

Now turning to local currency growth, reflecting the true dynamics of our business. This was up 1.3% in Q3. In Q3, we had a positive scope impact of 1.5%, mainly reflecting our recent acquisitions of Cemix in Latin America, FOSROC in India and in the Middle East, which are perfectly in line with our strategy to focus our investments on high-growth countries and construction chemicals. Like-for-like sales stabilized, driven by good trends in Asia Pacific and Latin America with a return to growth in Europe despite the decrease in North America. Volume showed a sequential improvement compared to the second quarter at minus 0.9% versus minus 1.8% in Q2. Prices were up 0.7% in Q3, thanks to disciplined execution from our teams and the value added that our solutions bring to our customers. This is despite the inflationary environment softening. We still expect the full year to see inflation, but this will be very slight driven by H1, where the inflationary environment in H2 would be broadly stable. We are on track to deliver a slightly positive price cost spread in H2 and for the full year 2025 as planned.

Now let us look by segment. Overall, Europe returned to growth in Q3 for the first time since Q1 2023, we saw a clear sequential improvement compared to Q2. Northern Europe was stable, excluding industrial solutions. The U.K. continued to grow, thanks to its complete solution approach for residential and also nonresidential, where it offers energy efficiency, fire resistance and productivity benefits for buildings. Activity remained mixed in the Nordics with signs of improvement in renovation, but not yet in residential new build. We saw growth in Sweden and Denmark, with the latter benefiting from several important infrastructure projects. Eastern Europe grew apart from Poland, which was impacted by lower industrial solutions sales. And we are still seeing some wait-and-see attitude in Germany ahead of the upcoming stimulus plan.

Now turning to Southern Europe, we saw growth of 2.8% in local currencies and like-for-like growth of 1.5%, a clear sequential improvement compared to Q2. France showed a good sequential improvement, stabilizing at comparable working days in Q3 and leading indicators are positive pointing to continued improvement in the absence of any new major political instability. Spain and Italy showed growth and continued to gain market share, particularly in renovation.

And finally, the Middle East and Africa showed strong growth, driven by the successful integration of FOSROC in construction chemicals and contract wins for large infrastructure projects, including bridges in Abu Dhabi, a subway line in Dubai. We also won projects in residential towers and tourist resorts in the UAE.

Now moving on to the Americas. The Americas region decreased 1% in local currencies and 2.9% like-for-like in Q3, given the slowdown in North America, partly compensated by good growth in Latin America. North America decreased 6.5% like-for-like due to 2 factors: First, the continued softness in new construction linked to high interest rates and the lack of significant climate events compared to previous years, which affected roofing sales in Q3. Apart from this, the renovation market remains resilient. The operational performance remained strong, and we expect to maintain a flat margin in the region in H2 2025 versus H2 2024. This is thanks to our strong strategic positioning, as we have seen -- as you have seen during the CMD. We are the partner of choice for distributors in America, in North America, and that's thanks to our complete offer. In Canada, we recently opened the first zero-carbon plasterboard plant in North America.

Latin America showed strong growth of 12.8% in local currencies and 6.4% like-for-like despite the comparison basis getting tougher in Q3. Industrial solutions were up double digits, contributing to the good growth. Brazil continued to show -- to grow, thanks to its unrivaled solutions, enabling cross-selling and specified sales, to accelerate. We showed you during our CMD, how we do this in detail. We also launched in Latin America, the first low-carbon glass in Brazil. Mexico and Central America saw spillover benefit from the good integration of Cemix in construction chemicals, and Cemix itself showed strong growth in Q3, up 18% in local currencies.

Lastly, moving to Asia Pacific, which grew 8.4% in local currencies and 3.4% like-for-like in Q3. India delivered another strong performance with double-digit volume growth and market share gains, leveraging its complete innovative and sustainable solutions. We won new projects in nonresidential and infrastructure, thanks to the leadership of construction chemicals in India and our reinforced position from the FOSROC acquisition.

China improved in the construction market, which is stabilizing at a low level. Southeast Asia continued to grow, driven by Indonesia and Vietnam, where we specified and delivered 15 solutions for a new airport. The integration of CSR is going well, both in operational performance and in the enhancement of its range of solutions for the local market. The Australian market, construction market continues to remain lackluster, but leading indicators are improving.

So to sum up the third quarter, total sales were up 1.3% in local currencies. Europe returned to growth for the first time since Q1 2023 with a clear sequential improvement. North America saw some weakness due to the softness in new construction and the lack of major storms, while Asia and Latin America are showing strong growth. Prices were up 0.7%, and I am confident that we will deliver a slight positive price cost for H2 and for the full year. And we remain focused and continuing to deliver very strong operational performance.

And I now hand over to you, Benoit, for the concluding remarks.

Thank you, Maud. So let me make a few comments to conclude. So for Q4, we expect a continued sequential improvement driven by Europe recovery. As you have heard from Maud, France has stabilized at comparable working days and leading indicators are moving in the right direction, pointing to an improvement. For Q4, therefore, we expect volume growth in Europe for the first time in 4 years and overall volume growth in H2.

In North America, renovation is resilient, but we didn't see major storms this year unlike in previous years for the third quarter. We expect continued softness in new construction. However, the market is structurally healthy with a significant housing shortage and interest rates as well as mortgage rates are starting to decrease. Elsewhere, Asia and Latin America should continue to do well, benefiting from recent acquisitions for selling and specified sales as well as an increasing presence in nonresidential and infrastructure markets. So that's on the macro environment.

I can tell you that our regional organization is very robust. You have seen the power of our country platform during the Capital Markets Day. And it's a real strength in the current geopolitical context based on our local value chains. Our country managers are proactive, very focused, hands on. They have a small set of priorities, pricing discipline, cost management and of course, accelerating growth, thanks to our solutions in order to continue to outperform. In this context, 2025 will see another strong operating performance for Saint-Gobain with an operating margin of more than 11% in 2025, which is a great way to successfully finish our last plan, Grow & Impact, which, as you know, was for '21 to 2025.

So thank you for your attention. And now, Maud and I are happy to answer any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Ben Rada Martin, Goldman Sachs.

I just had 3 questions, please. My first is on the second half margin outlook. Noting some of your expectations around the gradual recovery in Europe, your comments around a less inflationary environment. Is it right to think that at a group level, the EBIT margin expansion that we should see in the second half will be slightly better than the flat result in the first half of this year?

My second would just be on North America and the third quarter like-for-like performance, a negative 6.5%. I wonder, could you just talk to what kind of benefit you saw within that geography from the new production coming online? And then finally, at a group level, I'd just be interested in any October trading commentary that you have seen relative to the performance in the third quarter?

Well, thank you for all your questions. So on the -- let me recap a bit on the different moving pieces on the margin for the second half. So we expect some positive with volume progressively recovering in Europe and a slight positive price/cost spread and of course, the effect of good acquisitions. Asia as well should continue to do well. We expect some negatives with a stronger negative foreign exchange impact around minus 6% on profit in H2 like Maud highlighted. Some mix effect also between regions with Americas expected to maintain the margin flat and overall, of course, delivering less in mass of margin in the Americas, but being flat in overall margin, be it North or Latin America. So that's a bit the different moving pieces, some technical and some better volume environment and strong resilience on our margins in the Americas for H2.

On the third quarter in North America, no, we have started, but there is always a few weeks to ramp up technically the plant. So there is no impact coming from our roofing Peachtree new line in Georgia yet in the third quarter and the same for plasterboard in Florida. So those 2 new investments will help us lower the cost base going forward. And I would say, technically speaking, they are on track with what we expected, but there has been no impact on the third quarter.

A few comments maybe on the third quarter in North America. We have been very cautious and conscious on price. Our prices are up in North America for the third quarter, be it on Gypsum or be it on roofing. I would say year-to-date, when I look at the statistics, we are gaining a bit of share in Gypsum. We are gaining a bit of share also in roofing. On the third quarter, specifically in roofing, we are in par with or slightly below the ARMA statistics specifically on roofing, better in Gypsum in the third quarter, better overall for both year-to-date, but I think we have been a bit more conscious on pricing, maybe versus the rest of the market in the third quarter. So that's a bit the moving pieces as well in North America.

And regarding October, Maud, I would say nothing specific to say. We see exactly what we told you regarding France, regarding the progressive volume recovery in Europe. So that's in line with what we said and what we have seen for the last months of September and October.

Next question is from Anna Schumacher, BNP Paribas.

It's Anna, on for Paul Roger. We have 2. So the first one, are you still confident that the full year group volumes will be broadly flat? And have trends in October confirmed the implied acceleration needed in Q4? And secondly, what were U.S. volumes specifically? And is it possible to quantify the impact of fewer storms in the quarter?

The impact of what?

Of the storms. Yes.

Sure. Maud, do you want to take the first one?

Yes, sure. So in terms of volume, what we are expecting for Q4, as you said, Benoit, is further volume improvement in Europe. And all the other segments should be similar to what we have seen in Q3. So all in all, of course, there is the -- and related to your second question also is the uncertainty around the weather-related demand, but we should be more or less flattish in terms of volume for Q4.

And maybe with a sequential improvement versus Q3 -- in Q4 versus Q3. Maybe to give you the picture, notably because it's only for roofing. In roofing on a normal year, you had roughly 50% renovation driven, 20% new construction driven and 30% related to weather. You have 10 out of the 30 which are related to extreme weather patterns. And this is the impact we have seen in the third quarter because for the first year in more than 10 years, no hurricane landed in the U.S. on the ground. Of course, we had a bit of hailstorms in the first half, but a bit less than last year, actually. And there has been no major landing of hurricane for the first time in 10 years. So that's a bit this 10% type of volume I would highlight for extreme weather pattern in the third quarter.

All in all, again, the roofing is still a very, very resilient and important business and well -- and they are doing well in that regard with the complete offer. And we are the partner of choice of all the major distributors. If you think of the consolidation that happened in North America, when you look at Home Depot, they bought SRS. We are the #1 roofing partner of SRS. After that, bought GMS, if I move to plasterboard, and we are the #1 supplier of GMS. So we are very well placed to continue to outperform on those various building materials.

Next question is from Ebrahim Homani, CIC Market Solutions.

I have 3, if I may. The first one is about the Q3 price effect is still positive on the price cost spread as well. Does it mean that profitability in Q3 has improved compared to the Q3 2024? My second question is on France, which is now stabilizing. Are the volume and price effects comparable to the group level with a positive price effect and slightly negative volume effect? And my last question is on Asia Pacific...

Sorry, could you repeat the second one because you seem to be a bit of an echo, so it's a bit hard for us...

Just on the volume and price effects in France, are this volume and price effect comparable to the group level with a positive price effect and negative volume effect? And my last question. So on Asia Pacific, could you give us more flavor on India's contribution to the organic growth, please?

The last question is on India. So maybe, Maud, you will take the first one, and I will take the -- start with the third one. So Asia Pacific overall is doing -- yes, there is a bit of echo. So I hope it's not uncomfortable for everyone. So Asia Pacific, India is doing very well with ongoing double-digit volumes. I will speak slowly because there is echo. So there is some -- could you put yourself on mute because I think if you stay -- could you put -- okay. Super. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, put please your mic on mute so that there is no echo. It seems good now.

Okay. Sorry. So Asia Pacific, yes, India is doing well in terms of double-digit volume. That's a strong performance. We had also a good performance in Southeast Asia. As Maud mentioned, China has been recovering in the third quarter. So all in all, a pretty good evolution. There has been some deflation of raw materials, et cetera, in Asia Pacific. So there is a bit of price deflation for us in Asia Pacific, but again, on a very good price cost spread arbitrage. So that's on Asia Pacific.

On your second question related to France, we have seen a stable volume at constant number of days -- of working days in France. So that's again moving in the right direction. And we expect France volumes to be positive in the fourth quarter. So ongoing positive evolution like, of course, for Europe, but also for France. We have a bit less pricing in terms of absolute price evolution in France. But overall, volumes, as I said, moving in the right direction, stable but same number of days and moving and turning positive in the fourth quarter.

And maybe, Maud, on the...

Yes, on the price/cost spread. So we -- as I said, we are expecting a slight positive price/cost spread. You've seen our pricing, which is up 0.7%, really is a reflection of our pricing power. Inflation is softening. We will -- we expect a very slight inflation for the full year, mainly driven by H1 and inflation to be nearly broadly stable in H2. And that's why we should again continue to see positive price/cost spread, but in the context of a softening inflation.

Next question is from Elodie Rall, JPMorgan.

Just some follow-ups. First of all, on the volume expectation for Q4. So you're quite clear that you expect a positive volume development. Can I just clarify if this would be the case as well without the working day impact that we expect in Q4?

Second, to come back on the U.S. and the pricing deceleration that we're seeing. I was wondering if you could give us some color on what's going on in the roofing segment, in particular, where pricing looks maybe weaker even. And if you could give us some color of where margins are trending in the U.S. overall? Could you give us a flat margin for Americas, but not for North America?

And lastly, I was wondering if you could give us some color on price and volume and regional performance for your construction chemicals, which seems to be doing very well, not necessarily in line with what we've seen elsewhere. So that would be helpful.

Thank you. So maybe I'll start the third one, and you might take the first one,. Overall, we have a good like-for-like performance on construction chemicals across all regions. Across all regions. I think we are clearly outperforming. For me, it's a clear -- and we are 2.6% like-for-like, and it's both positive volume and price and across all regions. And for me, it's a clear showcase of the benefit of having solutions altogether because there is a pull effect from other solutions to construction chemicals or vice versa. So clearly, this is a positive, and we see that happening in construction chemicals overall.

So all our regions are growing. And again, the demonstration of the power of the full range and also the leadership position that we have established with Chryso, GCP, FOSROC. And FOSROC is by far the leading brand in India and in the Middle East. We have won some major infrastructure projects. So again, that's a good performance. And of course, we'll continue to push for that, and we have now all the technologies and all the different positions. So that's on construction chemicals.

On U.S. pricing. So it's positive on roofing when I compare Q3 versus Q3 last year. We had, as you remember, a price increase in April that did stick. And we have been, as I said, conscious on price for roofing in North America. So that should continue for the end of the year.

So overall, margin, as I said, flat in North America. So that's, I think, a reflection of a very good cost management and pricing discipline. So that's despite, again, a weaker volume support in the third quarter because of the lack of storm and because I think the arbitrage that we have taken on price versus volume. So that's the picture in North America, a very healthy business that should continue. And as I mentioned, we are the partner of choice of all the major distributors in roofing/also Interior Solutions in North America.

On volume in Q4?

Yes. So Elodie, Q4, we will see -- we'll continue to see the volume improvement in Europe, and we expect that all other segments should be similar to Q3. So all in all, that -- and of course, again, we have a little uncertainty about the weather-related demand, but it should be more or less flattish in Q4 in terms of volume overall for the group.

Sorry to follow up. You said flat margin in Americas or in North America?

Both, Elodie. Both -- for the second half, I'm commenting on the margins for Americas. And specifically, you asked about North America for the second half, yes. And keep in mind that very often, we try to do our best to give you the impact of working days. Of course, we are entering now in November, December, which are lower months versus the month of September, June or during the high season. So an additional day in late December doesn't have the same impact in the daily sales versus an additional day in September, for instance, just to be a bit more precise on the technical effects of days. We prefer to have one additional day in September than one additional day in December.

But it will help for sure.

Yes, it will help.

Next question is from Arnaud Lehmann, Bank of America.

A couple of questions on my side. Firstly, regarding France, you highlighted the volume recovery for the second half. Could you give us a bit of color whether it's coming more from distribution or more from manufacturing or maybe both? And could we, therefore, expect the margin to expand a little bit in the second half for the Southern European region? And secondly, have you announced any price increases for 2026? Or what's your take generally on the price/cost outlook for next year?

Thank you, Arnaud. So overall, the evolution in the right direction in France is for all product lines. So I would say both. And as you know, they are intertwined, but it's -- and it's both. And we play as a team in France and we win and outperform as a team. I would say the meaningful margin impact because we are not talking that double-digit volume increase in France in the fourth quarter. So the margin impact, I think we'll see more of that in '26. Of course, there is a positive leverage. But in terms of meaningful impact, we'll talk about it more in early '26 for '26. But yes, both are benefiting from market share gain, and I think the better momentum.

On '26, yes, we are thinking of some price increase. It's a bit too early to say and to tell. But yes, we have been preparing some price increase, and there should be some moderate price increase going into 2026 overall.

Yes. And we expect slight inflation going into 2026, and we will adjust according to what is indeed happening.

Next question is from Pujarini Ghosh from Bernstein.

I have some follow-ups remaining at this point. So on France, I believe Q4 might have some extra working days. So given -- taking that into account, do you expect the volumes to be flattish or more on the positive side? And one question on construction chemicals and your medium-term guidance, which you provided at the CMD. So we think -- I mean, the growth expectation is more than 7% CAGR. Could you give some -- a bit more color around how much of that you think is going to be organic market share gain, underlying market growth and then so on?

So I'll take the second and Maud will answer the first. Well, if you take construction chemicals, in local currencies, we are up 18%. So it's well above the 7%. And what is important is that in a difficult market environment with 2.6% like-for-like and growth -- organic growth like-for-like in every single region, we are, again, I think, outperforming the underlying market. So directionally, as you know, it's a market that has still a large potential of consolidation in terms of M&A, in terms of bolt-on.

So in the 7% CAGR, there is -- and there are some targets for bolt-on acquisitions. Again, not the majority of it because this construction chemical business in a normalized environment, it's more in the kind of 5%-ish, 5% to 6% like-for-like growth. After that, you can always add 1 or 2 points of bolt-on acquisitions without considering any major move like the big ones we have done with GCP in the past or FOSROC recently.

So yes, it's -- there is a portion of it. And we have now the platforms being in 76 countries on construction chemicals, if I remember well, we have the platform to add some technologies and to have a snowball effect and also to leverage what we highlighted at the time of the Chryso and GCP acquisitions to leverage the large manufacturing footprint of Saint-Gobain. We did open in Finland Chryso plant in 7 months, not in 3 years within an insulation plant. So we have multiple examples of that, be it in Latin America, in North America, or elsewhere where we can accelerate also the organic growth and leverage the existing footprint of Saint-Gobain now that we have the technologies. So that's on construction chemicals, and we have the teams and everyone aligned for that.

Maud on the...

Yes, for France in Q4, we will definitely see volume growth in France, including the extra working days, of course, and that comparable working days as well. So we will see the growth here. Knowing that as Benoit highlighted, those working days having a lesser impact because they are more on December, which is a smaller month.

Next question is from Ephrem Ravi Citigroup.

Just one question left. Can you give some breakdown of your growth in Asia Pacific, specifically looking for China, where you said the market is stabilizing at a growth level, but China improved. So does it mean growth or just less decline? And then on Australia as well, the performance is lackluster, but leading indicators are improving. So again, can you give us a sense of the volume growth in Australia as well?

Yes. So Australia, indeed, we have all the leading indicators moving in the right direction. Interest rates have been cut also. So it's, I think, a good sign for 2026, and we had some average daily sales being up in certain months. So it's more in the mid-single digit so far down in Australia, and that should turn positive. And we had already seen some of that, and we expect that to turn positive in '26, but not yet in the current environment in Australia.

And on the rest of Asia, Maud?

Yes. So China, specifically, I think you were asking about China. Like-for-like is slightly down for over the 9 months, but we have turned positive and slightly up in Q3 in China, including Industrial Solutions. So in both markets, we have turned positive.

And I think it's a strong reflection of the conscious decisions we have taken over the last years to have a heavy presence on the renovation in China. We didn't go after the large projects of new construction, but we had made a conscious decisions, notably for our plaster and plasterboard business to have a larger share on the renovation market, which, as you know, has been moving much better and even turning positive in China. And that's something even on sustainability where you have new guidelines and plateau plasterboard substituting some heavy building materials in China is something that I think will support us going forward.

Next question is from Julian Radlinger, UBS.

Just one left for me. On the weather-related demand in roofing in the U.S., I think it usually takes a few months for the industry to deliver product after a storm. So I'm just wondering, with the storm season now slowly coming to an end, how long would you have a negative volume impact from that normally? Is it just Q4 and then we've kind of flushed that through? Or would this go into next year, Q1, maybe even Q2?

I tend to think that it's just Q4, if I take the weather related. You still have this 20% of new construction, which will turn positive. And I'm confident that North America will turn positive in '26 on new construction and the sentiment and what we hear from the market, it will turn positive at some point in '26, but that's for the 20% of new construction. On the weather impact, again, at the end of the year, I think it's done. What is important also that on the residential roofing, we have not seen any impact of the distribution stocking, destocking, whatever. You have seen a bit of some players, I guess, trying to deliver on their gates, on their threshold in terms of rebates and volume targets for some distributors in Q3. But then when you hit that in Q3, you don't get it in Q4.

So I think we will get more in Q4 than in Q3. But you have a bit of those end of the year dynamics of distributor by distributor, making sure that they hit their volume targets for the different roofing players. So some maybe got them a bit earlier in Q3. We will get a bit more in Q4. And again, we are against a strong comparison in '24 on roofing in the second half. But -- so anything should be ended by the end of the year on those renovation and weather related.

And remember that if I stay on roofing, we had a very strong performance in the first half. Year-to-date, as I said, when we benchmark with ARMA statistics, we are delivering a bit better than the market, again, on roofing, but also on Gypsum. So you have always a bit of those swings. One competitor in Gypsum released some figures earlier today. We are doing better than them in the third quarter, but you have those swings.

We do much better on Gypsum in the third quarter. We do a bit less on roofing in the third quarter. But year-to-date, that's what matters when you take the 9-month picture versus 3 months because you could have those stock outs and one distributor buying a bit more than what they sell out. So on the quarter-by-quarter comparison, I think we need to step back on the year-to-date, we are in good shape.

Next question is from Yassine Touahri, On Field Investment Research.

I think I've got a follow-up on roofing. So roofing distribution was on allocation last year in the U.S. Has the drop in demand changed this situation? And also on the distribution situation, we've seen QXO acquiring Beacon Roofing Supply. I think [ Carlisle ] was suggesting some changes in buying pattern. Have you seen any disruption or any opportunities in this change in ownership? I think Beacon is probably one of your big clients for shingles.

And then maybe a question for next year in an environment where there is a bit more capacity where the volume are soft, do you see opportunity for more price increases in roofing shingle in 2026 to offset a potentially uncertain volume environment?

Thank you. So I will take those questions. It's a bit -- I would say, a bit too early to say because usually in roofing, you have a price round in March and April. So we are 6 months ahead or 5 months ahead. It's a bit too early to say. If there is a bit of input cost inflation, be it asphalt or elsewhere, there should be a price increase. It was moderate in April 2025. I think the value chain of roofing is used to that as long as it's moderate, where I think it should be because -- so I'm not calling out any price increase for roofing in March, April next year. It's a bit too early to tell. But I would say in a normal environment, which I think we will see next year, we should have -- we could have some normal pattern on the pricing dynamic.

On your second question on [ Carlisle ], I think you have to differentiate clearly what is commercial roofing versus residential roofing. We don't have direct sales in residential roofing. And we -- I mean, it's the industry. It is very different than commercial roofing, where some players have up to 30%, 40% of direct sales because you sell directly to the contractors, you train the contractors, you give the guarantee with the contractors. So this is where some at least manufacturers bypass distribution. So we don't have that in residential roofing, and I don't see any space for that, and I don't see any benefit for that because residential roofing, it's a lot of small jobs, home by home, house by house, you need distribution...

I think my question was more about like the acquisition of Beacon Roofing Supply by QXO...

Yes, I was coming to it, but I wanted to distinguish because notably QXO and Beacon Roofing was doing commercial roofing themselves. So they were competing with some of the manufacturers of commercial roofing. So this is why you have a bit more, I would say, disruption or a bit more both in the year on commercial roofing versus residential roofing because I've read, of course, the [ Carlisle ] comments and others.

On QXO, for residential roofing, no, we don't see any change on the overall industry with residential roofing distribution with QXO. We were a strong partner of -- and we are a strong partner of Beacon Roofing, now QXO, and we have good discussions with them, be it on siding, be it on residential roofing or other building materials. So no disruption from this evolution. And as I mentioned, the bigger moves were related to retail, Home Depot and Lowe's on either roofing, SRS and GMS or even Interior Solutions with [ FBM ] and all those big names, SRS, FBM, GMS, we are the #1 partner. And for us, it has even been an entry door, I would say, to get stronger in retail.

I think we highlighted at the Capital Markets Day that we want to roll out our solutions, our cross-selling initiatives, not only in the merchanting channels, but also on retail and across all channels. So that's an opportunity that we have with the big names of Home Depot and Lowe's, but no change of behavior or whatever on residential roofing.

On your third question, sorry, I don't want to be too long. Yes, I think up to July -- June, July, our plants were on allocation and the distributors were asking to get ready with the right inventory in case of a major storm. It didn't happen. So today, they are not on allocation anymore, sometimes a few exceptions, some very specialty high-end product, but not material.

So no, they are not anymore on allocation. What will happen, they will end up the year, and then they will make sure that the start of the season, March and April, they restock to be ready for the seasonality, the normal seasonality of 2026. If I stay even on the renovation and weather related, the hailstorms and traditional renovation, the reroof, remember all the aging of homes that we have in the U.S. So all this will restart normally in 2026 for renovation and weather-related patterns. But as of now, they are not any more on allocation from us, and I don't see that from the market from other players.

Next question is from Paul Roger, BNP Paribas Exane.

Paul Roger, your line is open.

Sorry, go ahead, Paul. We can't hear you. Sorry, you were on mute maybe. So take your time and go ahead.

Sorry to pop on the end. So a couple of questions. Firstly, on Americas pricing policies come back to this. I know you -- obviously, you put HPS in the regions now. But is it possible to just give us some idea of what HPS pricing in the Americas did in Q3? I'm just wondering to what extent that might have basically compensated for some of the pressure in Roofing. And then secondly, just talking a bit about Northern Europe. Clearly, volume is still weak here. It looks like Germany is the culprit. Do you think there's any signs of turnaround in that country going into 2026?

Maybe I'll take the second one. So your question was specifically on Germany. In Northern Europe, yes, because indeed, we have seen a bit of stop and go and wait-and-see attitude. You have also on Northern Europe, a negative impact from our industrial solutions. The industrial markets in Europe are not in a super strong shape. And there has been a negative impact beyond the construction market in Northern Europe in the first quarter. So including in Germany, of course, including in Germany, where the Industrial Solutions have been slow. And so that's the picture year-to-date.

I continue to see a positive signs of what's coming in Germany for next year. I was in Germany 2 weeks ago, right after the Capital Market Day 3 weeks ago. I was in Austria last week. We continue to see some good signs, notably on some public buildings, on some infrastructure markets. So I'm optimistic for that to turn positive into next year. Our teams are ready, but it's true that so far, we have been in this wait-and-see attitude and a bit of extra negative coming from initial markets in Germany because we know that manufacturing in Germany has been quite depleted with a lot of restructuring plans announced, et cetera.

On the first question, what's...

Yes. On the first question, Paul, so HPS is -- in terms of pricing is in line with the group pricing. So you don't have any -- and I think Benoit mentioned before that our -- on the construction market in North America, we have -- we are positive in pricing.

Yes. And so just to try and be a little bit more specific. So when you say in line at group level, does that comment also apply in the Americas? So was HPS price in the Americas consistent with the regional average or the group average?

Yes, yes.

Next question is from Will Jones Rothschild & Co Redburn.

A couple from me, please, if I could. First, just extending that prior question around Northern Europe, and you talk more generally about the lead indicators in France and how that gives you confidence for next year. But I think some of the lead indicators in Nordics on new build starts to look better even if you've not seen it yet. Do you agree with that and how you're feeling about the Nordics, I guess, potentially in '26?

And the second was when we look at pricing in Southern Europe, it looks like it's got steadily better from Q1 to Q3 and a slight positive in Q3. How do we see that in the context of the kind of easing in inflation? And I wonder when we pull together Europe as a whole, you've given us a view on the Americas 2H on 2H, which is helpful. But would you be drawn on how Europe might do at margin 2H versus 2H?

I will take the first one, and Maud will give you some color on the pricing in South Europe. So Nordics, what we see turning positive is clearly Sweden and Denmark, not yet Norway. So today, I don't have a positive feeling that Norway turning positive in the near future. But Sweden and Denmark, yes, it should continue and it should continue into 2026. Norway, I think will -- I'm afraid, will take a bit more time. Finland was better in the first half, a bit softer recently. But -- so yes, 2 out of 3 should turn positive. Norway, I will be a bit more cautious.

If I take Northern Europe, we had a good dynamic, and it has been ongoing now for several quarters in the U.K. I think we are clearly outperforming in the U.K. with our full set of solutions. So U.K. should continue to move in the right direction. And we have seen also a good dynamic in Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Romania, all that we have good indicators and a good dynamic, and it should bode well for 2026.

So that's for Northern Europe. Maud, you want to take the pricing?

Yes. So pricing is incrementally increasing indeed in Southern Europe, but that's -- I mean, it's a small increment. Looking at -- and we are driving the price/cost spread, which is what really matters. And in terms of margin, of course, we see some progressive recovery in volumes, as Benoit highlighted, but it needs to be a bit more substantial before we see more of that impact on the margin, and that we probably [ go into ] 2026 when we really see the uptake in the volumes at Europe level.

In South Europe, one thing which we didn't talk about it, but I can tell you in Spain and Italy, we are clearly outperforming. So I've been very happy about the performance, multiyear performance and outperformance for us in Spain and Italy, both in volume and price and gaining share. So yes, we are French, so we spent a lot of time on talking about France, but Spain and Italy have been strong drivers of performance for us and should continue into next year.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Bazin, Ms. Thuaudet, there no more questions registered.

We have one further question from Martin Flueckiger, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I've just got one left, and I'd like to get back to the topic of China. It's quite extraordinary performance there considering the market data that we have seen coming out of the property market in China. So I'm just trying to better understand the structure of your performance or the key drivers, I should say. Could you talk a little bit, firstly, about the -- your exposure towards the property market, but also towards the infrastructure, construction market, how those weights pan out in China?

And then secondly, I'd be interested in particularly your construction chemicals performance, not just -- not the overall country, including building materials and industrial solutions, just construction chemicals alone, that will be of key interest for me in China, of course, in Q3.

In China, first, if I take -- we have roughly half of our business on industrial solutions with a very specific positioning on technology, on high-end innovative products, be it ceramics and also auto glass. So we are performing well, thanks to this high-end approach. And on the construction space, the bulk of our presence is on gypsum, so plasterboard and plaster. We are very small on construction chemicals because we always found it difficult to gain traction on the renovation market in China.

So yes, you can be on large projects with big developers, but we always -- we looked at it several times, and there was always a bit of even a credit risk and long-term payment, so not very good on working capital. And we didn't find the software, I would say, the presence to grow in that space. So we have been consciously defining our presence on renovation, plaster or plasterboard. We have also the benefits. We have a very strong Chinese team. We have this country platform in China, and we have a 100% digital approach on how we deliver to our customers. So it's very specific. They can tell you exactly how to upsell, how to cross-sell multiple products.

And I just benchmark, for instance, we have a plasterboard competitor, BNBM in China, and they published double-digit down performance in China in the third quarter. We are up. So yes, we have been, I think, outperforming with also being rather small, we have the ability to gain share, but we do it on a nice profitability level. So that has been, I would say, not a massive volume-driven strategy, but I think something which is resilient and good for the long term and well positioned, notably on low carbon solutions, light solutions, i.e., gypsum, and that's something we will continue to push. And we don't have a meaningful presence on construction chemicals. And when we bought GCP and [indiscernible], they didn't have a meaningful presence in China, and we didn't want to accelerate on it or build up on it because it was not an easy road.

I think we have taken all your questions. So thank you very much for all that. Again, we have been very engaged like all the teams of Saint-Gobain to launch our Lead & Grow plan. And I think it's a very important plan for Saint-Gobain to accelerate growth, leverage our leadership. Clearly, I think the outperformance of our solutions, we see it on the ground. We see it whether we take a construction chemicals view or whether we take a country view, we see that. So this mindset of outperformance is there, developing and deepening our approach on solutions, expanding that into nonresidential and infrastructure markets. All this is well in the minds and in the targets and the objectives of our team.

So I'm confident about what we have in our hands and for the years to come within Saint-Gobain. Of course, we'll continue to work on the -- as you have heard, on the optimization of the group in terms of asset rotation that we expect by 2030. We are very ambitious on the margin. You highlighted and you questioned, of course, the margin, but I'm happy that we finish the plan going back to -- the top end -- above the top end of the margin above 11%, and we are ambitious on the financial targets of Saint-Gobain that we raised for '26, 2030.

So I don't want to take too long tonight, but I can tell you all the teams of Saint-Gobain and the local organization are spot on delivering extremely well what we control and continue to deliver a strong performance. We have our next meeting for the full year 2025 results, which will be on February 26, 2026.

So thank you again for participating on this call with Maud and myself, and have a good evening to all of you. Thank you very much.

Welcome to you all. We are four of the country CEOs, and we are delighted to be kicking off the Capital Markets Day.

Hello, everyone, in the audience and online. I'm Carmen Bodden, President of CertainTeed's Roofing Products Group in the U.S.A. In North America, we are building on our strong momentum. I actually had the pleasure of hosting some of you at our Norwood Roofing plant 2 years ago. Since then, we have grown our market share, cross-selling with siding and adding GCP waterproofing membranes. We have invested in state-of-the-art technologies to support our customers. We take full ownership and employee engagement is at a record high.

I'm Mike Chaldecott, the CEO for Saint-Gobain in the U.K. and Ireland. I also had the pleasure of welcoming a number of you to a rainy or sunny Manchester when you joined us to see what we were doing in terms of specifications and systems with our largest residential customers and commercial customers with co-development. In the U.K., we are the leader in light construction. We are indeed at the forefront of innovation. We made the first plasterboard at our British Gypsum factory with 100% recycled plasterboard, performance and sustainability, all in one.

Hello, everyone. I am Joanna Piechowiak, CEO of Saint-Gobain in Poland and Ukraine. In Poland, we lead and win with one Saint-Gobain spirit. We increased our sales of high value-added products by 80% in 4 years. And we supplied our Saint-Gobain solutions to 29 large-scale iconic projects in just 2 years. We have the best offer to outperform our markets year after year.

Welcome, everyone. I am Marco Corrales, CEO of Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Ecuador. I led the acquisition of Cemix last year, and I'm happy to say that after 9 months, we have a great integration and a very nice addition to the group. In Latin America, we moved fast, 5 new countries in the last 3 years, outperforming our markets and accelerating growth for Saint-Gobain. Back to you, Mike.

Thank you, Marco. So you can see that we have everything it takes to lead and grow.

[Presentation]

Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to our Capital Markets Day. Today, it's all about our midterm strategy for the next 5 years, not about 2025. I'm happy to say that we delivered well with a solid performance in 2025, which will be a good conclusion of our successful Grow & Impact plan. I confirm to you our full year guidance, operating margin above 11%, and we will talk about our Q3 sales at the end of the month.

You just heard from our top country CEOs what it means to drive the success of Saint-Gobain, today and tomorrow. I'm very confident to open a very exciting new chapter to accelerate profitable growth, lead and grow. It's perfectly aligned with our purpose and our strategic vision. Saint-Gobain is today the world leader in light and sustainable construction. We are in every single large geography, the #1 in light building materials. We are leveraging the perfect governance by country that we have established local for local, well adapted to our local construction markets and very robust in the deglobalizing world of today. And we have a unique ability to grow not only in mature markets, but also in emerging markets.

So with this strategic plan, we are truly leveraging our leadership to unleash the full growth potential of Saint-Gobain by scaling an unmatched breadth of value-enhancing solutions for customers that we have built systematically and successfully over the last years of Grow & Impact, by expanding not only on the residential market, which we master, but also on nonresidential and infrastructure markets where we are going to gain share. And by executing all this with strong local leaders, very strong country platform that are compounding growth for Saint-Gobain and very well focused on execution.

We are stepping up our financial targets, mid-single-digit sales growth with a clear outperformance versus our markets, 15% to 18% EBITDA margin, all this being fueled with strong free cash flow conversion. We are ahead of vast growth opportunities, growing markets with untapped opportunities. Light and sustainable construction is at the crossroad of very powerful megatrends, be it population growth and urbanization, reshoring in some important markets. And all the climate topics are even more salient than they were 5 years ago when you think of adaptation, resilience of buildings and infrastructure against climate change, when you think of energy efficiency renovation. Let's hear some insights from experts.

[Presentation]

What is important to us is that all these megatrends, they translate into vast local growth drivers region by region. You take Europe, we have ongoing market recovery to address a large housing crisis. And as you know, we see green shoots in almost every single country. We have energy efficiency that brings green value for better buildings and well adapted to climate change, and we have the upcoming investment for infrastructure and defense.

North America, a huge housing shortage, 4 million homes. We have this must-have renovation to adapt for climate change and extreme weather patterns and all the investments for reshoring, including on infrastructure markets. Asia, high-growth countries, emerging markets, large population growth and big urbanization trend, aspiration from a large middle class population towards economic development and good quality buildings. And of course, all the infrastructure related to those urban development programs.

To answer these megatrends, Saint-Gobain is the only provider of comprehensive solutions that bring performance and sustainability for buildings and infrastructure. If you take the building envelope, we have everything it takes. It's simple, the roofing, the facade, cladding, glazing, the flooring, the partition and all this with thermal comfort, acoustic performance, visual light, air quality, productivity on the job site.

When you think of a building, we are with a crucial competitive advantage. Products in a building don't stand on their own. They are part of a system. They are part of a facade. They are part of the overall performance of the building. The fact that we have this unique ability to take everything and deliver that to our customers, measure the benefits, measure it to the architects, the occupants, the owners, the contractors, it's a crucial advantage for Saint-Gobain to take the most of those megatrends. And this comprehensive offer of solutions, we have a unique ability to leverage local leadership positions to push our competitive advantage and to gain market share across multiple product lines.

Take the example of Mexico. You heard from Marco Corrales. We were very strong in glass exterior solutions years ago. We moved into interior solutions, plasterboard. And more recently, we accelerated on construction chemicals so that we have now a meaningful offer across all the envelope of the building. These solutions, our customers ask for it in the residential market. And more and more, we have broadened our access, our breadth of offer towards nonresidential and infrastructure markets with all the moves, all the acquisitions we have done in the portfolio in the last years. So now that we have broadened our reach, we have addressable market of EUR 500 billion.

When you think of nonresidential and infrastructure market, where we have been historically a smaller player than residential, we make already EUR 15 billion of sales. And we have a lot of room to gain market share with relevant offer on education, on hospital buildings, on all the infrastructure, everything we have done on construction chemical was on purpose. It's a fantastic gateway to be meaningful, credible necessary in the eyes of customers on infrastructure markets. So across all those segments, we have a lot of expansion and growth opportunity.

So I gave you the framework of the megatrends, how they will support our growth going forward. Let's look now at how we are steering the growth profile of the group. First, we do it by geography. In Europe, we will take the most of the recovery, and we target 3% to 5% sales growth in the coming years, leveraging the strong positions in every single geography. Take our top country platforms and seize the European recovery on which, again, we see that it has succeeded everywhere.

Second, we will continue to prioritize our capital allocation towards country platforms in high-growth geographies to increase our exposure there, North America, Asia, emerging markets where we target mid- to high single-digit growth. Already in '25, we are ahead of the target that we did set in '21 towards a target of 45% of our sales in those markets. We are at close to 50%, depending on the exchange rate. And our long-term ambition is to get 60% of our sales between North America, Asia and high-growth geographies.

Besides the geographic exposure and evolution, how we steer the group, second is how we widen our reach to all construction end markets, notably increase our presence on nonresidential and infrastructure markets where we target high to -- mid- to high single-digit growth, gaining share on those markets where we are now a relevant, meaningful player.

As I said, what we have built in terms of platform of construction chemicals, EUR 6.5 billion is a fantastic gateway notably into infrastructure. We target to be above EUR 9 billion by 2030 in construction chemicals with a good combination of bolt-on acquisitions, CapEx and also leveraging the innovation of Saint-Gobain.

By geography, by end market, everywhere, we constantly want to enrich and continue to enrich our business profile in light and sustainable construction to make sure that in every single country, we have the best solutions approach for our customers. We'll continue to do that with a very strong focus on value creation country by country to constantly enrich and take a bigger share of wallet for all our applications customer by customer, country by country. So we'll be actively steering the portfolio optimization of the group to strengthen our group profile. We target a bit more than 20% sales rotation by 2030, continue to deliver a strong value creation, ROCE above 13%, accelerate the mass of value creation of the group, keep the same criteria that has proven to be very successful for the group, consolidating leadership positions, high-growth countries and construction chemicals.

On all the steering of the group portfolio, we will remain extremely focused on value creation and quality of execution. So you have seen the framework on the megatrends and the huge opportunity for growth, how we steer and we are going to steer the group profile in order to take the most and benefit the most from those megatrends. Now day in, day out in the field on the ground, we are accelerating value and growth through solutions.

Solutions is something that we have pioneered 5, 6 years ago and that we have systematically been ramping up since then. It's one of the 3 growth levers that we will be using to accelerate our growth to mid-single digit and outperforming the market. When you think of solutions, it's basically answering, even anticipating customer needs. On performance, again, the products don't stand by themselves. They are part of the system. They are part of the performance expected from the end user, from the contractors. When you survey customers, contractors, and I know some of you have been doing that, a vast majority of them ask for a preferred partner delivering solutions, integrated systems.

We will hear from one important customer. It's one of the largest customer of Saint-Gobain in the U.K., Barratt Redrow. It's a large builder. They built 20,000 new homes per year. And with them, we have built the largest of its kind in the world climatic chamber where on Scale 1, we can test all kinds of weather conditions and see and measure the benefits of the performance of the Saint-Gobain solutions. Let's hear from Barratt in the U.K. And by the way, some of you with Mike Chaldecott, I think have visited this site in July '24 in [indiscernible].

[Presentation]

So customers ask for performance. They also ask for sustainable solutions and sustainability where we have been innovating a lot. We are pioneered with a full suite of connecting products, low carbon [indiscernible] for sustainability. When you take green buildings corporate headquarters, on this one, we have 2x more sales because we are unique on how we can differentiate and offer that to the customer 2x more than average of a building. So truly a differentiator on sustainability solutions.

If I put myself in the shoes of a homeowner in France, willing to drop my energy bill, improve my purchasing power and get more thermal comfort, will Saint-Gobain have the one-stop shop, the perfect solution for global renovation that brings value to me, value in terms of energy performance and therefore, real estate value for my home, saving on the energy bill, a good payback and trained, reliable contractors.

If I move to Canada, with everything we have, we guarantee the quality. It's even our brand, quality made certain, satisfaction granted because from the roof to the ground, we can provide the guaranteed solution. So that the ceilings, the steel profile, the plasterboard, they don't point fingers at each other. If they are 3 different providers, we are the go to contact. And by doing so, we have 4x more sales than where we were 5 or 10 years ago.

So solutions brings a lot to customers. They bring a lot to Saint-Gobain. They increase our value, and they increase our share of wallet. There are 3 metrics, 3 metrics with which we measure our solutions, cross-selling, upselling and specified sales. Cross-selling, you take the example of Brazil, we doubled our sales towards the top 20 customers over the last years by cross-selling all the different products, all SKUs possible. But scaling upselling, when we do it, we have on average on the high added value products, 8 points more margin.

So it's more a margin enhancement than sales growth like cross-selling. And when we move towards more direct sales, specified sales, on average, if I take the example of France, we have 10 points of more added value products and therefore, more margin. So those are the 3 metrics with which we track country by country our solutions. Then there are 2 ways on how to expand in each country through solutions approach. One is broadening and enriching our offer for the entire building envelope, do well what we know well, so low execution risk across the whole portfolio of Saint-Gobain; and second, deploying our comprehensive solutions across all channels, all routes to market.

If I take the first way, we do it country by country. Take the example of India, where we have broadened our offer. And of course, we will take this example, and we are taking this example to replicate it elsewhere. We started 10 years ago with 2 families of Saint-Gobain, glass and plasterboard. Since then, 85% through organic growth, leveraging the know-how of Saint-Gobain, investing on CapEx, 15% through bilateral transactions. We are now #1 in every single of the solutions of Saint-Gobain. We have multiplied our sales by 4 and our profit by 6x. Low execution risk. We know it well, and we have a fantastic leadership in India.

So by country. And also, we take our value-added products and we roll them out country by country. You take Exterior solutions, solar control, coated glass for solar control, which is very important in emerging markets. It's in Brazil, in Egypt, in India, in Mexico. It's a EUR 2 billion business, more than 20% EBITDA and very strong growth. You take our full set of interior solutions, EUR 12 billion of sales, quite a strong presence of added value products -- high added value products, HAVP, much higher than most of the peers that we benchmark, 20% EBITDA.

You take construction chemicals, you know the platform, EUR 6.5 billion that we have built, 18% EBITDA, 15% growth in the last 3 years. And just in 3 years, we almost doubled our share of added value products of admixtures, very innovative one to help concrete and cement players decarbonize, which is the #1 problem today, lower the carbon content. So that's also low execution risk, but adding a lot of value for Saint-Gobain on the solutions.

Second way, as I said, deploying our solutions approach through all channels. On merchanting, historically, that was the major by far channel of Saint-Gobain. We do it in Indonesia, 2x more points of sales in Indonesia with active actions on the ground versus 5, 6 years ago. Retail, we are now most of the time, the #1 partner for the large retailers around the world. More direct sales with specification. You take this example of a residence in Dubai, 18 solutions of Saint-Gobain with cross-brand specification teams, direct sales specifying with the architect and increase the share of wallet of Saint-Gobain. And you take digital, it's also a very important avenue for us in terms of how we promote our solutions such as 35% in the Nordics.

We track all these solutions deployment country by country, cross-selling. Our best-in-class is North America, above 60%. That means in every single point of sales of our customers, we measure whether we have multiple SKUs from roofing to siding, from plasterboard to insulation, ceilings, et cetera. In Germany, we are below 40%. So upside potential for growth. You take upselling and some of you may have exchanged with our CEO for Italy during the lunch, we are above 50% of high added value products. In the Middle East, we are below 20%, 18% exactly. So here again, a good way to upsell and improve and continue to enhance our margin.

Specification, the best-in-class sticky specification, sticky margin is in the U.K. with Mike Chaldecott. Mike was on the stage to start our Capital Market in Australia. We are moving up in India as well. But again, we can learn from each other. So in every single country, we have metrics to track our solutions and how we can continue to increase growth and increase margin.

We are leveraging the same approach for differentiation and growth on Industrial Solutions. They are really best-in-class in terms of HVAP added value products in terms of specified sales. And we leverage the innovation across all the group, innovation on glass, coated glass between mobility and buildings, chemistry, all the know-how that we have on polymer is very beneficial for construction chemical and vice versa, and our ceramics innovation and knowledge for process decarbonization, of course, that we use for Saint-Gobain. So that's the first growth lever, the first leg on how we accelerate growth and value for Saint-Gobain rolling out our solutions.

The second is to expand and continue to expand in nonresidential and infrastructure market. As I said, we are already a meaningful player, EUR 15 billion in sales, accelerated in the last years with our move in construction chemicals. And the way we look at those markets, nonresidential infrastructure is very often, we have what we call 0 products, products that are very specific, highly technical, not easy to replicate and truly door openers for us to win in those projects.

Take the example of this hotel in Dubai, we have the best-in-class in the world fire safety glazing, very important in the high-rise buildings of Dubai. Thanks to these hero products, we have been able to leverage 25 other products of Saint-Gobain with a full set of solution, not easy to replicate big share of wallet for Saint-Gobain.

If I switch to another market, data center. Data center, we have a lot of hero products, technical ceilings, the best admixtures for low-carbon slabs, which is one of the critical components to decarbonize the buildings. We have a catalog for that, including our waterproofing membranes. And according to external market study, 34% of the owners and contractors of data centers use Saint-Gobain products. This is 2x more than any other building materials competitor. 20% of the cost -- full cost, including IT hardware, et cetera, of data centers is related to the building envelope and building materials. So here again, hero products, and we are winning on those markets.

Infrastructure markets, as I said, construction chemical has been a fantastic accelerator in terms of gateway to the whole infrastructure market. Just to recap on how active we have been, 37 acquisitions over the last 4 years, 43 new lines and plants, very successful ones. We have the leading brands. We have the leading experts in our teams and some of you had a chance to interact with Frederic Guimbal, Steve Williams also during the lunch. We are very meaningful in areas and markets where 10 years ago, you would not expect Saint-Gobain. When we sell 10 solutions on a bridge close to the M5 in the U.K., 10 solutions on a metro tunnel in [indiscernible] in India. We have a leadership, thanks to notably construction chemicals and infrastructure markets.

And on those markets, we have put together the foundations to win them. What do I mean by that? We have dedicated catalogs by end market, dedicated offer. Second, we have all the technical capabilities, the R&D, the building science of Saint-Gobain. We have also, commercially speaking, cross-brand specification teams, experts. When we win these large airport in Vietnam, it's more than EUR 20 million of sales for us, 15 solutions for admixture and construction fabrics on the runway, fire safety glass, solar control, acoustic partitions, flooring solutions, you name it. So we are recognized and trusted on those flagship projects, snowballing effect, more to gain, more to grow, more market share.

On those markets, we are also leveraging -- they are demanding. We need to be sharp. We are leveraging our digital and AI capabilities along the value chain, starting with R&D to accelerate our time to market, analyzing with AI thousands of tenders on those nonresidential infrastructure jobs and also using IoT, for instance, for concrete monitoring and verify and multiple other examples where AI virtual reality is a game changer and a differentiator for the solutions of Saint-Gobain.

Let's hear now from one very iconic project. This is the hospital in Nantes. I didn't pick it up because it's in France. It's because it's the largest project in terms of complexity and size of its kind in Europe. Let's hear from the hospital in Nantes.

[Presentation]

So expanding in those nonresidential infrastructure markets, we target high single-digit growth. We have identified country-by-country growth opportunities. Of course, they are not the same, depending on the country, be it transportation infrastructure, critical infrastructure on energy or data centers, hospitals, education, every single of our large country platforms has action plans, growth opportunities to gain market share and win on those nonresidential and infrastructure markets.

So you have seen how we are accelerating through solutions, how we are expanding in nonresidential infrastructure market. All this is done by leveraging strong country platforms as growth compounders. You know our country-by-country model, well adapted to our markets, robust in a deglobalizing world, we have put in place 6 years ago. We have not been static in the last 6 years. We have nurtured it, optimized it, fine-tuned it.

Our country platforms, they are designed to capture profitable growth. They leverage deep local anchoring in terms of customer intimacy, agility with our teams. They leverage the group expertise. They own and optimize their resources and how they allocate to the best growing opportunities. Ultimately, it's a selling machine, a selling machine full cylinders on the Saint-Gobain offer across all channels.

Very interesting point, our country platform, they catalyze growth with compounding M&A. What do I mean by that? They are very often the origination of our acquisitions. Out of the 126 acquisitions we made since '21, 80% of them have been bilateral after years of discussions with family owners to join us because we have the right strategy by country with local leaders. This is what Marco Corrales did in Mexico and doing it successfully in impact, it was a natural move and natural welcome for Cemix to join Saint-Gobain, not others.

On top of the origination advantage, they have execution advantage because they own the synergies on the ground, the streamlined integration, they deliver, they are in charge of delivering what they bought, of course, keeping the key managers, and we have multiple examples. The General Manager of Cemix is with us. He's running all construction chemicals. You have seen that Thierry Bernard that bought to us all the construction chemicals in '21. He is now leading France and South Europe. So retention of key managers is critical to Saint-Gobain.

Execution, what does it mean? India, we bought insulation 3 years ago. We were not in insulation. We doubled the margin in just 3 years. Our country CEOs and platform, they also shape their market, leveraging the Saint-Gobain brand. It starts with training of customers, big customers, small customers, advocacy on sustainable construction during national or international events and also very pragmatic local campaigns on the ground like the roadshows of POINT.P every single region in France. So we shape and we lead the market.

Our country platform, they are driven by operational performance. And they leverage -- they are not alone. They leverage the group expertise on manufacturing excellence, CapEx and world-class manufacturing to benchmark the plans, on innovation, how they roll out and benefit from all the large regional centers we have in U.S., France, Germany, India, Brazil, China, AI and digital technology platform at scale and of course, commercial excellence for key accounts, sales KPIs, you name it. They also constantly strive for environmental best-in-class performance. You know that we are a well-trusted, well-recognized leader and pioneer on sustainability, not only for the sustainable offer that I mentioned earlier on, but also on how we drive our own carbon footprint with world premier on multiple processes.

We set up new targets more ambitious for 2035 since we have achieved already in '24, the targets we had set up for 2030 on CO2 reduction. And we continue to lead on circular economy to answer the scarcity of resources. Ultimately, at the end of the day, our country platforms, it's a performance-based culture. Incentives totally aligned with shareholder value. 90% of our country CEO, they are local from their country. They are empowered, they are accountable. 100% of their bonus is aligned to their country, their actions on the ground, EBITDA, ROCE, cash.

Second, we have 3,000 managers with long-term incentives on value creation, ROCE, share price outperformance versus the CAC40, long-term incentives aligned to shareholder value. And for me, something which is extremely meaningful is the fact that we have more than 60,000 employees from 50 countries that own EUR 4.5 billion of Saint-Gobain shares. That means the efforts on the ground, the results, the shareholder value, the share price, all this is aligned. So this performance-based culture, this is how we drive the success of Saint-Gobain today and tomorrow.

I now leave the floor to Maud, who will drive us through our financial performance.

Good afternoon to all of you. So we have a plan. We have an exciting plan, and I'm very happy to share with you what it will mean, what Lead & Grow will mean in terms of financial performance.

First, Lead & Grow is built on very solid foundation. We have made a step change in performance. Looking back since 2018, the group has increased operating income by 66%. We have multiplied recurring EPS by 2, free cash flow by 3, and return on capital employed has been increased by 360 basis points. In addition to that, we have delivered on every single CMD 2021 target, be it organic growth, be it operating margin, be it free cash flow conversion rate or be it return on capital employed.

We have also returned EUR 1.5 billion yearly on average to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. And this is the result of a disciplined execution and a result-oriented organization. And beyond those results, we have built an enhanced business profile for the group with more resilience and better quality of earnings.

Starting with resilience. The group has improved its EBITDA margin by 150 basis points between 2021 and 2024, despite the difficult volume environment over those years. In addition to that, we have made a significant shift in the group mix of businesses. We no longer run significant businesses below 5% of EBITDA margins, but we have tripled the share of businesses running above 20% of EBITDA margin to reach 38%.

Last but not least, we have a stronger growth profile with acquisitions, bringing on average 4 points of additional organic growth to the group. Again, this is a structural shift for the group. And we will not stop there. We are aiming higher. We are aiming higher with Lead & Grow in terms of growth, targeting over the period 2026 to 2030, mid-single-digit sales growth with market outperformance of 1 to 2 points.

We are also aiming higher in terms of profitability, targeting EBITDA margin of 15% to 18% over the period. And we should note here that we are moving to an EBITDA target that will ease many aspects of us driving the business, but EBITDA is the performance driver that we use when we make acquisitions. We also incentivize our managers on that particular driver, and we normalize our reporting with using EBITDA as a profitability metric.

The step change in profitability, 15% to 18%, will translate in Europe in a 12% to 15% range of EBITDA margin and in other high-growth regions, 17% to 20%. You should remember here that in Europe, we are running businesses with significant lower margins because they run at a lower capital intensity, and therefore, they drive similar level of returns as other manufacturing businesses.

The step change in profitability is coming from -- has 2 legs. First leg is solutions that will drive share of wallet, mix and pricing over the period. And we will leverage the same playbook as we have in the past with managing price cost spread -- positive price/cost spread as well as cost management. Second leg, of course, will be continuing steering the group's portfolio to enhance the margin. And all in all, delivering when you add profitability -- stronger profitability to stronger growth -- strong growth in EPS.

You remember that cash management has been crucial to the success of our previous plan. Well, we will continue because cash management is a part, is deeply rooted within our culture. We're talking here about 36,000 managers of the group and employees of the group trained to cash management. And I'm not talking about people from the finance community. Of course, they are. I'm talking here about warehouse employees. I'm talking about sales reps. I'm talking about purchasing managers. They are all trained and drive day in, day out the cash performance of Saint-Gobain. And I'm the first of them, of course, to be focused every day on the cash generation of Saint-Gobain.

Going forward, we will -- we will keep that free cash flow conversion rate above 50% with nonoperating costs below EUR 250 million. CapEx in the range of 4.5% to 5% of sales, starting from the low side of the range at the beginning of the plan and operating working capital below 15 days. We are driving the operating working capital with enhancement plans for our existing businesses and strict integration plan for our acquired businesses.

Moving now to capital allocation. In terms of capital allocation, first is strong balance sheet and credit rating. We will maintain a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.5 to 2x, EBITDA to 2x, ensuring a strong investment-grade credit rating that gives us attractive access to capital markets and gives us as well the flexibility of implementing and rolling out the strategy. Again, a strict commitment to that investment-grade credit rating.

Then looking at how we will allocate and what capital we will deploy over the period. We will deploy around EUR 20 billion through attractive and value-creative capital allocation. Starting with returns to shareholders with around EUR 6 billion allocated to dividends, sustainably growing over the period and a EUR 2 billion share buyback program that will be used as a value creation tool, enhancing EPS, obviously, and a regular benchmark for capital allocation versus our own trading multiple.

We will then allocate or dedicate around EUR 12 billion of growth -- to growth investment, either through growth CapEx or net M&A. And we will prioritize those who bring higher growth and higher profitability, namely North America, Asia, high-growth countries and construction chemicals, while at the same time, applying strictly our value creation criteria, meaning for M&A WACC -- return on capital employed above WACC and value creation in year 3 and for CapEx -- growth CapEx, IRR above 20%. Of course, all those growth investments will be in line with our group target return on capital employed of above 13%.

If I zoom now on growth CapEx, we will allocate 2% to 2.5% of sales on growth CapEx, leveraging 2 main opportunities. First, offer enrichment country by country, and you have here a great example of offer enrichment in India with great returns and leveraging existing footprint to implement new product lines on a given campus. Again, another example of Finland, where we implemented construction chemical line on an insulation site, saving by the few years of time to market for construction activity.

Now moving to M&A, where we track systematically the value creation of our M&A., and I know it's very important to you all. For acquisitions which were done more than 3 years ago, we have, as planned, created value. Continental Building Products, where we doubled market share in gypsum in the U.S. has been a fantastic acquisition in terms of value creation of growth, sales growth. We're talking about 10% CAGR -- sales CAGR. And even most importantly, it has been a platform for growth because it gave us access to major DIY to sell the full breadth of offer of Saint-Gobain.

In Construction Chemicals, the combination of Chryso and GCP was the backbone for our Construction Chemical platform, on which we have plugged our various acquisitions since then and Cemix and FOSROC are 2 of them. We have there, again, created value with great CAGR -- sales CAGR over the period.

Looking at acquisitions that we have performed more recently, we are on track for value creation with combined EBITDA in line with the group or above, and with synergies in line or above.

Going forward, obviously, we will continue having that discipline, leveraging on our growth compounder model to reach that target of 20% of sales rotation by 2030 with 3 criteria for acquisition, consolidating leadership position, high-growth countries and Construction Chemicals, value creation by year 3, as I explained to you. Keeping in mind that discipline on the price paid is nonnegotiable, and we have no issue saying no to an acquisition that will not create value, and of course, synergies and cultural fit.

We will be very selective as we have been selective, knowing that we have 80% of M&A done through country platforms, bilateral discussions.

On the other hand, in terms of divestment, it is a routine, and it will remain a routine. We will do 3 criteria, strategic alignment with the group and value and creation of synergy with the group, financial performance and maximizing value creation in terms of timing for divestment.

So these are our targets. These are our figures for the plan. They are attractive targets. They are ambitious targets. And you can be sure that beyond those targets is the commitment of all of the Saint-Gobain management team. We have built those targets with the top 150 managers of the group, and you can be sure that they will be all -- all will be dedicated to more profitability, more growth, more cash for more value creation for the shareholders. And as a group CFO, you can be sure that I will make sure that those targets remain in the minds and in the actions of everybody throughout the organization.

And I will now hand over to Benoit for the conclusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Maud. It's time to wrap up and conclude. We are delivering strong value creation for our shareholders. EPS doubled in the last years, 14% on average per year progression. We had a total shareholder return well above our peers and above the CAC 40. At the same time, our price/earnings ratio improved, but we still have a nice significant upside versus our light side building materials peers.

Lead & Grow is the next growth ambition for Saint-Gobain with strong value creation for all stakeholders. As I said, taking the most -- making the most of large growth opportunities supported by megatrends, even more salient than they were 5 or 10 years ago. Compounding growth with our country platforms. Very good on execution to deliver value-enhancing solutions where we have been pioneer, we are leading versus any other peer. And we'll continue to do that not only on residential markets, where historically we have been super strong, but expanding and gaining on nonresidential and infrastructure markets. This is our growth ambition for the next years.

We are supported by a very strong governance. Saint-Gobain has a new face. You have seen it in the last years. We have a new Board. Almost all the Board has been renewed in the last years to reflect the international presence of Saint-Gobain from North America to Asia to multiple countries in Europe. 100% of the Board members are independent, excluding me, of course. And they have a wide expertise. So a very solid Board to move around and succeed again in the future.

I have around me a fantastic management team with strong credentials, deep experience. I'm, of course, biased, but I think we work extremely well together, extremely well. We are all committed to the success of Saint-Gobain.

In a minute, you will see from our 5 regions CEOs, Mark from North America, David and Thierry for Europe, Camille for Latin America and Sreedhar for Asia Pacific. What it means for them, drive profitable growth, take their attractive growth opportunities in every regional market and fully lead and grow in the region. This plan, of course, we build it together as a team. It has been built bottom-up with our country CEOs some months ago. As Maud mentioned, we shared it at length with our top 150 managers 3 weeks ago. And I know that all Saint-Gobain teams are with us. The engagement of the teams of Saint-Gobain to show you the journey went up 70%, 7-0, versus where we started 5, 6 years ago.

A lot of the teams and employees of Saint-Gobain, they want to show you their commitment. They want to show you that they are there to drive success and they ask me if they want and if they could, to show it to you live.

Let's see. We have teams all over the world. That's my team in U.S.A. Hello US. That's US. Thank you, Carmen. They have been watching. I think we a team now in S o Paulo in Brazil watching and wanted to show to you their commitment, their passion and how they have built this plan. Thank you, S o Paulo.

I think we have a team in Aubervilliers. That's our research center in France. Hello France. [Foreign Language] So they are ready to stand up for innovation and lead Saint-Gobain in the future.

After that, I think we have Spain. Hello Spain. Where is Spain? Well, the flag is superb. We are all -- hello Spain. And we have teams all over the world. I think we have a team in India, in Chennai, which is the largest manufacturing facility of Saint-Gobain So that's India. Hello India.

So teams around the world that wanted to show you live their commitment. After that, we have a team in Poland. In East Leake, that's our large gypsum factory in the U.K. Johannesburg in South Africa, so hello South Africa. And also Abu Dhabi in UAE. That shows you because they asked, could we participate? Could we be there to show to everyone the commitment to drive the success of Saint-Gobain.

I can tell you that we are all driven. I can tell you that from the Executive Committee, to the Board, to the teams on the ground, everyone wants to succeed. We have built on the fantastic journey in the last years, and I know that with all these things, everything is possible. Everything can be achieved to Lead & Grow. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Benoit. Thank you, Maud. This is the end of Part 1. Part 2, we'll be hearing from the regional leaders. So focus on regional markets. North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, then Latin America, then Asia Pacific. And after a short break, we will get to the Q&A session, which will start around 4:45 p.m.

Now to start the regional market focus, I would like to invite to the stage, Mark Rayfield, CEO of North America. Mark, the floor is yours.

Really exciting to be here. Maybe not as exciting as my team, but very excited to be here. So I'm happy to be here. I've met some of you in your recent visit to North America a few years ago for our Investor Day. But for others, I'll just offer maybe a brief introduction to myself.

I've been in the group for 26 years, joining in [ 2019 ]. For the first 20 years of my career, I've been a commercial manager. For the 13 years before I joined the group and the first 7 years in the group. It's still core to me day in, day out. I want to get every order. I want to get every last order. I want to outperform the competition. And it permeates through my team. Those of you who are here live, had a chance to see our booth, probably saw our team there and saw that sales DNA and that energy permeates through Carmen and Steve and everybody on the team.

I've had the pleasure of having multiple general management roles in this organization, including 4 years in the U.K. and Ireland, where I worked alongside Mike, before coming to the U.S. back in 2019.

Since 2019, I've been extremely proud to have led the execution of our growth strategy in North America, where we've taken the region from approximately $7 billion in sales and approximately 12% in EBITDA, to over $11 billion in sales and greater than 20% in EBITDA.

This growth journey was driven by being intentional and focused from the very beginning on our SG&A costs to make sure they were sized correctly. On building and exterior product sales team that matched what our contractors and our distributors needed in the field, selling the full products that they used going forward. By having the proper back office for low cost to serve to our customers going forward. And most importantly as well, given the tools to our teams in the field to understand what they did drove margin and let them grow profitably and grow our margin. This has built a solid foundation and the right teams to execute our growth strategy of outperformance in North America for the next 5 years.

North America is well positioned for growth. While there's some softness in new construction right now, the macro trends in residential and nonresidential for growth in the region. We have the platform. You've seen, we have the team. We have the strategy, and we have the products to grow and win in North America. Our scale in North America, our deep commercial partnerships and our breadth of product line cannot be easily duplicated. And we are continuing to grow in exciting area we have runway to grow in nonresidential. And we have built a very solid platform to do smart M&A, to complement our offering in all these categories.

As I mentioned, the fundamentals in North America are very strong. If you take residential, which is 68% of our sales, we are deeply underbuilt in both the U.S. and Canada. The need to build these homes will drive demand for our products in both renovation, remodeling and new build.

In renovation, we have an aging housing stock. Vast majority of homes, a large portion of homes built in the early 2000s are greater than 25 years of age now. And the average age of homes in North America is greater than 41 years. So renovation is driven by many, many different components, but repair, when your roof leaks is nondiscretionary. When your roof leaks, you repair. And this is a big part of our market.

In nonresidential and infrastructure, which is about 32% of our business, the acceleration of onshoring and the investment in new manufacturing is requiring repair and new infrastructure to be driven in our business. You see some numbers here, 20% to 25% growth in data centers and over 10% of our civil projects, driven at bridges and infrastructure. So it's a huge market and that's just going to continue to grow in North America.

And we're so lucky because our country platform brings the best solution for our customers, and we have a nationwide presence. We're the only American manufacturer with a full breadth of solutions. And we have scale. We have 112 plants throughout the country that build products for our customers in the region that they need those products. That's why we've invested in new capacity in the Southeast because that's where the growth is in North America. This gives us a low cost to serve and fantastic service to the customers.

We also have scale and our product breadth. We have a fantastic interior solutions offer, as you see here, and a robust best-in-class exterior solutions offer and huge growth and opportunity in our Construction Chemicals offer, which is growing.

In North America, we are also the brand of the Pro. Why are we the brand to the Pro because we focus on what makes our contractors and our distributors successful. We know that we focus on them. If we make them successful, we become successful.

How do we do that? Through training. This massive turnover, I'm sure in every country, but massive turnover in the trades that work in construction. And nobody sells what they don't understand. So you need to be constantly training the tradesmen on how to use our products, how to use our systems and solutions, how not just to sell shingles and siding, but how to tell the complete systems. We do this with 12 dedicated training vehicles in the U.S. that focus on training our contractors on the job site and in distribution.

We also have large bespoke training events called building business workshops. We have over 300 contractors attendees each time we have them. We train them on installations and products and certification, but we also give them the business tools to succeed. We give them digital tools and affinity partners. We teach them on marketing tools and affinity partners, and we teach them on professional selling skills. We make them successful, and they come back year in and year out.

Many of you know, the channel to this market is distribution, and we have deep relationships with distributors from the top office all the way down the field. This distributor community has been consolidating over the last 2 decades. We've enabled and supported this consolidation. This consolidation is a good thing. It gives us more sophisticated partners that deliver more value to both the contractor and the homeowner. It also gives us more multi-platform distributors that value our broad breadth of line. And these large distributors need a supplier that can supply them regionally across the whole country. We fit all those, which brings us to built to withstand.

I think this is a fantastic metaphor for our business. We are built to profitably withstand the evolving markets. When you take a look at the markets in North America for exterior products, it's heavily driven by renovation and repair and remodel, which is the weather activity. You have increasingly severe storms taking place. So this is a growing part of the market. And as I mentioned earlier, when you get to repair, it's nondiscretionary. Whether it's an aging roof from those homes that are 41 years old or whether it's a roof that's been impacted by hail. When it starts to leak, you repair it. It's a large part of our market.

It's why we focused on this segment of our market for the last 2 decades, and we have the lowest exposure of any of the manufacturers to new build. Renovation and remodeling values quality, values aesthetics and is a higher-margin market in general. It also values resilience.

But resilience is not a one-size-fits-all. I happen to live in New England. If you live in New England, resilience means you have to have the products needed for snow, hail, ice. If you live in Florida, you need underground and aboveground waterproofing. We have the right resilience solutions for every territory. And we lead in these solutions. We lead in the building science that designs these solutions. And most importantly, we're investing and expanding both.

I met some of you at this display, and you probably could have told, I could have spent all day there talking about this. I promised Benoit I wouldn't, so I'll be brief. But when you look at this, we have the complete -- most complete residential offer positioned to meet and really outperform the market. When you look at this left to right, reinforced, climate resilient, full-home solution, there's a few things I want you to look at, mainly the revenue and margin numbers. As you go from left to right, your revenue goes 10x up and your margin 15x up. It's an amazing example of what cross-selling and upselling can do when you have the full portfolio.

This is not margin that we take and doesn't go to the distributor and contractor. They benefit from this margin as well. When they sell these systems, they get better margin, they make better profit as well. And it's not linear for the homeowner. As it explains to the folks outside, when you look at reinforced, climate resilient, a lot of these type products are used when you do renovation, remodeling and new build, but often from multiple different manufacturers. They aren't designed to be used together. We aren't trained on how to install them together. So the piecemeal on the building, which is inefficient and takes a lot of time.

With an integrated system that's meant to be used together, which is designed to be put together, you drop and create great ease of installation and you drop the time of installation, and you improve the performance. And the time of installation is the #1 cost when you're building a home or renovating a home. So it doesn't drive extra cost to the homeowner.

Let's hear some more from Carmen Bodden, our President of Roofing, who you saw earlier today.

[Presentation]

I hope folks got to see that time-lapse film with that building being built, I mean that's a full multi-bedroom home that's built in less than 5 days, weatherproofed, sealed in windows, doors, roof trusses put on top of -- roof systems put on top in less than 5 days. And that person you saw looking at it was the wife of the owner of the building who happens to be an architect. So it's his design. He designed that home. It's his specifications. He can get it weather-proofed in 5 days. It's an amazing feature that we have.

But our country platform also enables us to expand into very exciting nonresidential market. We have a significant opportunity in this market, and we are already quite sizable in this market. We're over $1.8 billion in turnover, almost $2 billion now, with a target of being greater than $3 billion by 2030. We're committed to grow here as we feel this is a market that has met more pathways to profitable growth in the region, is a market that values performance, as we mentioned before, and values systems. We see this when we work on a robust pipeline.

When we focus on our target markets like health care and data centers and education, where 60% of our pipeline is focused, we get in early with the contractor. We specify our products. We understand what the building needs and what we can do for the occupants. And we end up with 70% of the products being value-added products. So high value-added hero products, as Benoit mentioned, which are higher margin and have stickier specifications in the building.

And we focus on innovation and our investments to make sure we can grow here. We already have a state-of-the-art acoustics lab in our Northborough facility, R&D facility in Massachusetts. We will open a state-of-the-art fire lab there later this year. This allows us to design and test and build systems that are value added for our customers going forward.

This is also a segment where targeted M&A will help us accelerate and complete our systems. And this is an example of how we bring those same solutions to life in nonresidential. It's similar to what we showed you in residential, but it has a caveat that codes and complexity in nonresidential building make them even more important. Systems provide real value for the end user and ensure your performance for the contractor putting them in. And they're a margin enhancer, just like they were in residential for ourselves and the contractor.

You see here, we have fire-resistant systems, moisture systems, acoustic systems. So all the systems we need, we're constantly developing more and more winning systems going forward using our fire lab and our acoustics lab.

And I'm excited because we have vast headroom to accelerate growth in infrastructure. We already have a comprehensive solution in North America in Construction Chemicals, and we are #1 in cement additives and concrete admixtures. With 13 plants, 2 R&D centers and 8 application labs, this means in our Construction Chemicals business, we are designing products meant for customer in the region that they reside, with the raw materials that they have that nobody can match. It's an incredibly customer-centric model created by Thierry and his team long ago, so I'm not going to take credit for it, but an incredible customer-centric model that has allowed us to gain significant market share in North America and makes us the #1 partner for the large players in North America.

And we have the ability to use our massive global platform of GCP, FOSROC, Cemix and Chryso to go into other territories like waterproofing for bridge decks where we can take the whole global portfolio and leverage that.

And we have the best-in-class digital tools with Verifi where we can verify that the product arrives on site as specified and will perform as specified, which eliminates all that product being shipped back that doesn't work, eliminates credits, claims and all sorts of issues in the field and gives confidence to the end user. And we have a vast opportunity to grow in the underpenetrated but greatly growing Canadian market.

Let's hear now from Steve Williams, who you might have met, who runs this business for us.

[Presentation]

Which brings us to Canada, where we've had an incredibly good track record of successful M&A that's delivering value in an unrivaled country platform for growth. We're #1 in Canada, with over CAD 2.4 billion in sales. With the addition of Bailey, we have the best-in-class interior products throughout the country. And with the acquisitions we made in the exterior products, we are leading in exterior products in the country, and we have huge headroom to grow in construction chemicals.

Like the U.S., we have 42 plants located throughout Canada. So again, plants local to our customers, close to the needs with a low cost to serve. And like the U.S., we have close and deep relationships in every single channel going to the market. And this offer that we bring to this channel is a huge value to them. The diversity of it, the breadth of it and our integrated sales teams that allow them to have one point of contact and sell the whole solution to their customers. We are truly the one-stop technical shop for what they need across the whole country.

Which brings me to where I began. We have demonstrated that we have the people, we have the agility, and we have the drive to outperform the market profitably. Our strategy and diverse offer gives us a single family solutions that are unmatched and nonresidential solutions that are leading edge. We will continue to leverage the global portfolio and know-how in infrastructure and nonresidential to grow these segments. We will be practical and disciplined in external growth to support all this. This will give us mid-single-digit growth and 1 to 2 points of profitable growth above the market.

So as you can tell, I'm excited and extremely confident for what's ahead as we lead and grow in North America. Thank you.

Many thanks, Mark. Thank you. Now from North America, we move to Europe, Middle East and Africa, together with 2 leaders in charge of this region. David Molho, who is Senior VP and the CEO of Northern Europe; and Thierry Bernard, who is CEO of Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa. So let's welcome David and Thierry to the stage.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm David Molho. I've been working in Saint-Gobain for 16 years with a truly international background. I have worked in Brazil. I have worked more than 6 years in the Nordic countries that I know well being a citizen of Finland. And in the past 4 years, I have led our High Performance Solutions division, working hand-in-hand with Thierry, and I'm very pleased that we share this presentation together today.

Good afternoon to all of you. I'm Thierry Bernard. I joined the group a bit more recently, 4 years ago at the time when the group acquired Chryso, which is a company I was leading for about 10 years, leading and growing it. Since then, I've accelerated alongside with David, the development into Construction Chemicals. As you all know, we have a few very sizable acquisitions, acquiring them, integrating them, and numerous bolt-on acquisitions. I've done most of my career running businesses under private equity ownership. And today, I'm very excited to be part of a growth-driven value-creation journey.

Today, together with Thierry, we will illustrate how our strong country platforms allow us to accelerate growth in the nonresidential. And this is why we chose as an introduction this picture of

[Audio Gap]

zero energy consumption building from the Universit della Valle d'Aosta, which includes 9 Saint-Gobain solutions, from ceilings to facade and partition.

Saint-Gobain is uniquely positioned to benefit from the European construction market recovery. Europe is EUR 29 billion sales, over 12% EBITDA margin. And leadership position in European countries. We are #1 in France, #1 in the U.K., #1 in Poland, as examples. And these strong country platforms will allow us to benefit from the European construction market recovery with a strong operating leverage, meaning over-proportional EBITDA growth.

With Thierry, we will illustrate how these platforms allow us to accelerate growth in nonresidential, infrastructure markets, and we will also zoom on a couple of selected geographies.

We are very confident on the European construction market recovery. And I start with residential. In residential, for new build after years of downturn, the need is still there all across Europe. And we see already some indicators that demonstrate that residential new build is picking up. Look at housing starts, plus 4% in France, plus 18% in the U.K., plus 34% in Poland. And for renovation, which is a less cyclical, more resilient market, driven by strong trends like energy efficiency, here again, it is picking up. Look at housing transactions, plus 10% in France, 20% in the U.K. And we also see the confirmation of a price premium. Sometimes very significant, like in France or in Germany for energy-efficient buildings.

Regulation investment will drive our markets. And we will also grow in nonresidential and infrastructure. These markets already today represent 35% of our sales in Europe. We are confident we will grow in this market because in each country growth plans, we have identified segments, be it hotels, hospitals, schools, offices, some industrial segments, including data centers, where we will leverage our platforms to bring unique solutions to our customers.

And investments will drive our growth in nonresidential and infrastructure. Look at the German infrastructure plan, look at the plant in the U.K., look at the plant in Italy that have been driving our growth already over the past year. Investments regulation to accelerate in nonresidential and infrastructure. And most important, we will capture this growth with a strong operating leverage. Why?

There are 2 main reasons for that. First, over the past year in the downturn times, our teams have done a significant job to adapt our footprint, to adapt our cost base. And we have rotated significantly our portfolio. As a result, with volumes down 13% over the past 5 years, our EBITDA margin has improved 270 basis points. Second reason, we do not need significant investment to capture market growth. We have available capacity, and this is what will drive over-proportional EBITDA growth.

Our teams are ready. They are led by empowered, accountable and native country CEOs who know very well their market, who know very well their customers, and are ready to capture growth. Look at our platform in Europe, we have solid leadership positions in all European markets. We have strong capability to deliver a comprehensive set of solutions to our customers.

And we still have room to enrich our offer. Let's take the example of Construction Chemicals, as an example. We have room to grow. We have the platforms. We have the team. We have the innovation capabilities. It will be a lot, a lot about commercial activity to capture and accelerate growth.

Now together with Thierry, we will dive into the most important platforms, and we will start by the biggest one, France.

Yes. When I commented earlier how I joined the group, you've seen that we've worked hard to build a global leadership position in Construction Chemicals. And stepping into my new job during summertime, I must say that there is one place where I have found a genuine and undisputed leadership. This is in France. We have a tremendous, sizable, powerful business, around EUR 11 billion of sales, profitability at 11% at the trough of the market. This business is made of very strong iconic brands, beautiful awareness, leaders in their respective spaces. Thanks to them, we address more than 400,000 customers ranging from industrial players in the glass industry, in the cement industry, in the concrete industry to small craftsmen, but also large general contractors. We are intimate with the construction market in France.

What does it give us? It gives us the capability to read what is happening in the market to shape it. And we have demonstrated, thanks to that, thanks to the scale, our capability to outperform the market dynamic at one point over the last couple of years.

If I go a bit deeper into how we make the difference in France, let me illustrate 3 elements. First of all, innovation. Sustainable construction is a revolution. This is a revolution because the way we will build in the next years to come, the way we are starting to build now, the way we renovate is totally new. This calls for inventing new solutions, answering unmet needs today from our customers and how do you make the difference here? Again, our capability to read every request from our large stakeholders in the construction market. We can codevelop solution with our customers. Again, either it's about small craftsmen or large contractors, and it is also going fast into the rolling out of these solutions into the market.

Second aspect, I'd like to highlight is circularity. Again, circularity is a strong but emerging -- it's an emerging but strong lever coming from sustainable construction. In some projects, we are being asked to find solutions to reuse the demolished concrete to be reused for the new building. This is requiring, totally new type of solutions and additives or other type of solutions.

We are leading the way in circularity. With Infina , it's a range of plasterboard, which is using today, and we are a leader in that market of recycled gypsum. In ORA , we've been the first to reuse post-consumer glass to make this low-carbon glass.

Finally, digital solutions, similarly to what Mark has commented to you, it's a way for our customers to have a seamless experience with us, ease of doing business. This is how we make the difference, but we are also helping our customers to be more successful. If I take the example of CAP RENOV, a suite solution that we have developed recently that some of you can see in the exhibition just outdoor, we are helping our customers to make the right proposals for the homeowners for the energy renovation projects of their homes. It is part of a suite of more than 10 digital solutions to help our customers do a better job. Again, scale matters. Those solutions are costly, and this is how we make a difference.

Let's hear now directly from Nicolas Godet, our CEO of POINT.P and one of our customers, how we win and how we make the difference in France.

[Presentation]

Let's leave France now for a second and move to a bit south -- a bit in the south direction and moving to 2 of our very sizable countries, very successful. These are -- we are talking about businesses of more than EUR 2.5 billion of sales. They have demonstrated their capability to outperform the market and to deliver over-proportional EBITDA top line growth.

How did they do that? The way I'd like to explain it is the routine of our management practices in terms of commercial and marketing positioning. If I take the example of Spain, and Benoit has alluded to it earlier in the presentation, we talk about upselling. Upselling, again, our capability to go early stage with the stakeholders of projects. Here, in particular, we will focus on projects where there is strong green value because this is areas where we believe we can make a better difference, a stronger difference. And that's how our Spanish team has built, has reinforced its positioning as the best go-to partner for demanding projects.

Today in the Madrid Nuevo Norte, which is going to be one of the largest urbanization transformation in Europe, we are talking early stage to all stakeholders from concrete to facade to energy-efficient renovation. And again, that's our scale in the country, which allows us to do that.

If I take the example of Italy, here, we talk about cross-selling, but I would like to highlight for you, over the last couple of years, we have had an educated, disciplined work of expanding our product ranges to our existing customers, but of course, increasing our share of wallet, but that's also the opportunity for our customers to sell better their solutions. You see the transformation that we've been able to do in Italy over the last couple of years. And this is what has led to this stronger top line growth, over-proportional bottom line costs.

And if we move a bit north towards U.K. and Ireland, we have a very robust platform. Some of you have experienced it last year in July '24 with Mike Chaldecott, our CEO, when you could visit our U.K. facilities. It's a EUR 2 billion business running at 18% EBITDA. And one of the key success factors of Saint-Gobain in U.K. and Ireland is the strength of its specification. Our specification and commercial teams are organized by end market in order to deliver tailored solutions to our customers.

In the U.K. and Ireland, we are already very strong in residential, and we are organized to accelerate in nonresidential and infrastructure. How we will do that? Through sticky specification, full Saint-Gobain systems tested and certified in our own nationally accredited facilities that makes us unique. We will leverage the full offer of Saint-Gobain, as an example, to address the need for school rebuilding with complete solutions, digital design optimization tools and full certification.

We will also grow fast in the data center segment. We are following currently a large number of projects, and we target up to EUR 80 million additional sales over the coming years.

And if I take a broader picture, through specification, we will win in the nonresidential and the infrastructure markets by leveraging the full offer of Saint-Gobain. For each segment, we have identified specific needs, take acoustics for hospitals or schools, take low carbon concrete or fire protection for data centers, take solar control for hotels, where we have in our offer hero products that allow us to enter very early into the project, get through the specifications and then embark the whole offer of Saint-Gobain. This together with our key account management organization is how we will accelerate growth in nonresidential and infrastructure.

And deepening on infrastructure, of course, with the strong development that we've had in Construction Chemicals, this is giving us an edge to accelerate into Construction Chemicals. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, we have a very sizable construction chemicals platform. Now it's over EUR 3.5 billion of sales. You know that Construction Chemicals, especially in the businesses that we've recently acquired, we are getting closer to infrastructure because we deal with concrete related works in infrastructure, not only, but in particular.

And you all know that this world of heavy building materials is faced with the major challenge of decarbonation. We have built a positioning to be the innovative partner for the heavy building materials industry, helping our cement customers, concrete customers to decarbonize, and this is a major challenge for them. When I see these 2 examples here, the high-speed HS2 project, high-speed railway project in the U.K., we have accompanied the large general contractors, the concrete manufacturers with multiple suite of solutions ranging from highly technical waterproofing to low-carbon concrete admixtures to concrete protection solutions.

When I look at this onshore project in windmills, we are accompanying here with non-shrink high-performance growth, a global account doing business in Europe and South America. Construction chemicals is going to be at the forefront of our development into infrastructure. So nonresidential, infrastructure, and now we would like to zoom on 2 geographies that will drive our growth. And I will start with Central and Eastern Europe, which is an area where Europe is currently investing massively.

In Central and Eastern Europe, we have solid leadership positions. We are #1 in Poland, #1 in Czech Republic, #1 in Romania, #3 in Germany. And we will grow with the German infrastructure plan. We will grow with the massive investment in infrastructure and defense, and we will grow if and when the need for Ukraine reconstruction appears.

You are aware of this EUR 500 billion stimulus plan in Germany. In this plan, EUR 20 billion per year are dedicated to housing and infrastructure. Our German organization, our renewed German organization is fit to address this demand with key account managers already in place, with manufacturing capabilities already in place. And this will also have some spillover effect into the neighboring countries.

We are also ready to attend the investments in defense and in infrastructure in all basic countries, in the Nordic countries will be there. And in due time, we are ready -- we are preparing to participate to the reconstruction of Ukraine. We already have a local presence in Ukraine. We already have contracts, especially for water supply. And we are ready to deliver today from Romania, from Poland, from Czech Republic. This will drive our growth over the coming years.

If we move to a new geography, Turkey and Middle East, this is an area where we have built over the last years, a very solid platform. It's a EUR 1 billion business. We believe in this region because there are strong fundamental tailwinds which are supporting the positioning that Saint-Gobain has in these countries, large population, growing population, urbanization that requires need for housing and infrastructure and some economies like Saudi Arabia, which are transforming from oil and gas to new type of sectors such as tourism and hospitality, which are the segments we've commented earlier where we can make a difference.

We have grown in this region through a combination of organic growth in investing in facilities, in glass, in gypsum board, in construction chemicals, but we've also grown through major and bolt-on acquisition to reinforce our local footprint. The most iconic acquisition we've done in the region recently is FOSROC, which you know was still a global construction chemical business with a very strong footprint into the Middle East.

And I'm happy to share with you, as [ Kumud ] has commented, that we are getting closer to the end of year 1 after completion and our synergies are fully on track. So here again, Turkey and Middle East, fast-growing area where we have built very strong position, well positioning us for long-term growth. Let's hear now from Ahmed Rafique and one of our customers, how we do business in this region.

[Presentation]

Let's wrap it. Now, we have [indiscernible]. These are the targets that we have 6 [indiscernible]. We are confident that we will make those numbers. The targets are 3% to 5% growth of sales on average for the years to come. But more importantly, we are confident that we will outperform the markets in which we will operate by more than 1 point over the next years.

We are confident that we will lead and grow in Europe because we have a fantastic setup. We are the largest building materials producer, light and sustainable construction offering in the market. We are confident that we will outperform the market with a strong operating leverage that will transform into overproportional bottom line growth. And we have built the plans operationally to seize all the opportunities in commercial buildings and in infrastructure for the years to come. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Thierry. Thank you, David. We are halfway through the regional focus, and we move now to Latin America. So I'd like to welcome to the stage, CEO of Latin America, Camille Harrissart.

[Foreign Language] Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Camille Harrissart. I joined the group Saint-Gobain 10 years ago, first working on strategy, leading Transform and Grow Program. And building on my commercial background, I was then the head of the largest distribution region in France. And following my second passion, I moved to Sao Paulo more than 3 years ago, leading some businesses in South America.

Since last July, I've had the privilege to be the CEO of Latin America. And I'm very proud to lead such a fantastic team in a strong, profitable growth platform for Saint-Gobain and very excited to share now with you our growth opportunities ahead. And I'd like to start with one figure, 90%. 90%, it will be the urbanization rate in Latin America by 2050. It means 600 million people living in cities, driving a huge need for high-rise building and infrastructure. And at Saint-Gobain, we are the #1 construction player in the region ready to capture this opportunity. Historically, we have strong local team and strong presence with more than 100 plants. And over the last 5 years, we had a strong growth agenda with more than 20 major CapEx and 11 acquisitions.

We are #1 in Brazil, in Argentina, in Peru, in Chile with strong partnerships and in Mexico with new positions in Uruguay, in Ecuador and in Central America. This strategy has already delivered more than 9% growth at 18% margin. And we have action plans to continue to grow in each country platform and expand in nonresidential infrastructure.

Today, I will focus in 2 of them, Brazil, which is our #1 country platform in the region and in Mexico, where we are replicating our successful Brazilian success model. So let's start with Brazil. The strength of our model lies in the largest portfolio of solution with innovation at our local R&D center in Capivari, close to Sao Paulo, a unique footprint of 56 plants, which means in a country which is the size of the continent, a plant close to any of our 40,000 customers and well-recognized brands, which are clear leaders in their markets.

And at the last Anamaco price, which is kind of the Oscar for construction in Brazil, where are representing more than 100,000 point of sales, we were recognized as the #1 supplier across 10 product lines. Clearly, the first one -- the first supplier showing the recognition of our customers as a go-to partner in construction. And we have plans to continue to grow.

First, through cross-selling and specification. Since 2019, our sales team is organized between retail and projects. In retail, with our cross-brand team, we already increased our share of wallet on average 40% when we sell more than 2 brands. We already reached 50% of our sales in cross-selling with further potential as we see example in Italy, but also now that we have the full portfolio, especially in construction chemicals.

And in specified projects, we deliver integrated solutions. I'd like to illustrate with this example at Parque Global, which is an ongoing project in Sao Paulo, where we deliver for residential building, the shopping mall, the university and the hospital. And there, we started specifying at the architect one of our hero products, which is solar control glass.

We then specify to the contractor who was looking for a solution for the overall performance of the building, the fast fab, the lightweight fast fab, which also allowed team to divide its contractor time by 2. And in the end, we provided more than 50 products on this project. This one-stop-stop solution approach is really an increasingly making a difference at project specifiers, architects and engineers. And our objective is to double our specified sales by 2030.

And we are taking a larger share on the value chain, positioning Saint-Gobain as the thought partner to shape the construction market. We sit at the table of policymakers to advocate on building performance, safety, sustainability. Next month, we will be present at the COP30 in Belem to present our action paper on sustainable construction.

We also advocate and engage on our solution. Saint-Gobain will be the first one to prepare and to show the light and sustainable construction at the first fair on the topic in Sao Paulo next month, engaging all stakeholders on these solutions. We engage with architects. Our [indiscernible] price last year attracted more than 2,000 projects. And in the end, we massively train thousands of applicators on our solution. And you'll see in the next video how we do that in an original and impactful way.

[Presentation]

His approach advocating, engaging and training is [indiscernible] and we can see the impact is too tangibly handpicked here. The first one in [indiscernible] where we significantly raised the standard for technical solution in the market. These products allow quicker application with half the quantity of product.

And so with this differentiated portfolio, we capture a 40% price mix premium in the market where we are the clear leader. The second example is on plasterboard, which allow building 2 to 3x quicker than traditional construction. We are #1 on this growing segment. We are taking market share, growing even faster. And when we look at the adoption rate of Brazil, which is 7x lower than France or 10x lower than in the U.S., we see that we have a huge potential ahead of growth. So in a nutshell, we see that Brazil has proven the effectiveness of its growth model that we are now replicating across all country platforms, like in Mexico.

So Mexico. Mexico is now our second country platform. Over the last 5 years, we doubled the sales to EUR 1.2 billion. Through acquisition, we went from a strong position in glass solutions to the full envelope and internal solution with plasterboard, and we built the most expanding construction chemicals platform in the country in residential, counting on waterproofing with Impact, admixture and additives of GCP and recently, mortar and façade renders at Cemix.

We are successfully integrating this company. We saw impact with value creation in the first year. And Cemix in its first year is already delivering synergies and growth above the plan with further potential already identified for the next 2 years. Beyond the number, we also benefit from the strong expertise of this team, which is now unified under the leadership of Cemix.

And the sales synergies are really powerful. They're creating a spillover effect in cross-selling, as we can see in this example of one of the largest retailer in Mexico, where we are adding more products under the Saint-Gobain umbrella. And thanks to Cemix acquisition, we also gained access to Central America. We are now rolling out the full Saint-Gobain portfolio in the countries where we are present in Honduras, Salvador, Guatemala, and we have plan to accelerate in this region through CapEx and M&A.

In Mexico, our high-value solutions, technical mortars and waterproofing, light construction systems, thermal comfort solutions, they're growing as well 2 to 3x faster than the market. And when we combine this compelling offer with specification and building science, we really enter into specified projects. And we'll hear how we can differentiate with this compelling value proposition in one of Mexico's fastest-growing market, hotels.

[Presentation]

So we see in this video how we can expand in new high potential markets. First, in residential, in this example, in Mexican hotel, we see how this market drives a huge demand in terms of energy efficiency, acoustic comfort and thermal performance. So it's a perfect fit for our engineering and account management approach. We also target infrastructure, thanks to our expanding construction chemicals platform. We are now organized to serve new markets. [indiscernible] in Peru and Chile. In Chile, mining is 40% of the all investment in the country. And we also have a strong pipeline of projects in transportation and energy, especially with mills in Brazil.

Our approach includes a tailored offer and engineering expertise per specific end market. It's crucial for this kind of project. So clearly, a clear growth area for Latin America in nonresidential infrastructure for the next 5 years. So to conclude, in Latin America, our ambition is to continue to outperform the market by minimum 2 points of growth each year.

Innovating and rolling out our full portfolio of solutions across every country platform, leveraging cross-selling and upselling through specification and expanding into new markets. And we know how to do it. We have a proven model in Brazil that we are now replicating in each country platform in Mexico, in Argentina, in Chile, in Peru, in Uruguay, in Ecuador, in Colombia and in Central America. I have confidence in our foundation, in our action plan, detailed action plan and especially in the fantastic team I have the chance to work with. I can tell you that we are already organized and highly motivated to lead and grow in Latin America. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Kenny. Thank you. The fourth and the final region that we will be hearing from is Asia Pacific, together with Sreedhar, Senior VP and CEO of Asia Pacific and India. Let's welcome Sreedhar to the stage.

What a pleasure to be back here genuinely because this is something I started missing. So it's now 6 months. I'm in new roles. I've spent a lot of my time on the ground, meeting the customers, visiting the project sites and spending time with the team on the ground.

And I can tell you that my conviction, the fact that Saint-Gobain has a huge opportunity to accelerate the profitable growth has significantly gone up. This region, you will see the construction market will continue to grow, particularly India, Australia and Southeast Asia. We have a huge opportunity to shape the market towards light and sustainable construction, leveraging the strong country platform that we have built over a period of time.

We will continue to deepen the reach, enrich the offer and leverage the construction chemical platform that we have built to penetrate the infrastructure market. We have EUR 5.3 billion sales in the region, 17% margin, and we are #1 in India, #1 in Australia and #1 in Southeast Asian countries. And we have been growing at the rate of 7% in the last few years.

You will see in this region the growth of population. And the growth of population will lead to also a significant investment in the infrastructure market. We will also see the enhanced purchasing power, given the fact that the middle class population is growing in this region. And we have a significant opportunity for light and sustainable construction.

Given the new construction code has been introduced in Australia and the fact that the adoption of light and sustainable construction is at a very early stage in this region. And this is going to be the single largest huge potential for us to penetrate the market. I have spoken to all of you many times the fact that India is an outstanding country platform that Saint-Gobain has built over the years.

Saint-Gobain is the top brand in the country in the construction market. We are #1 in every single product line. And we have an unrivaled footprint in the country, 82 plants in all major states. And this is the single largest differentiating factor because when you are there in all the major states, your ability to serve the customer significantly goes up.

Having an innovation center in India makes a huge impact of our ability to adapt the solution to the Indian market. We are the reference for sustainable construction in the country. If you have to see how we can further level up the India's strong growth story, we have 2 clear levers. One is deepen the reach in Tier 2 and Tier 3 space by significantly increasing the point of sales and also the network of influencers.

We will leverage the construction chemical platform that we have in the country. And India will see a significant investment in infrastructure. With the acquisition of FOSROC, we have a leadership position and comprehensive solution to offer to the market. And FOSROC has got a credibility in the market, ability to give a technical solutions. Let's look at one example where FOSROC has contributed immensely in an iconic project in Northeast Asia -- Northeast India.

[Presentation]

Let's look at the second country in the form of Australia. After the acquisition of CSR, Saint-Gobain has got a leadership position in the country. The brand CSR, the name CSR is an iconic name. It has got a credibility of more than 170 years of serving the construction market in the country. Once again, Saint-Gobain in Australia through CSR has got a significant state-of-the-art footprint, both in terms of manufacturing as well as the distribution and logistics hub.

CSR is known for its ability to sell solutions. They have a very strong reputation of system talent. More than 60% of their sales, if you look at the customer profile, they buy more than 3 products on an average. It's a fantastic acquisition, great addition to the Saint-Gobain family. I'm super convinced the way we are progressing on integration. I think this is one thing which is very clear that we will be on track -- we are on track to create value from this acquisition.

If we have to capture further growth, profitable growth in Australia, there are again 2 areas where we can really make a significant impact. One is increase our presence in high potential markets and segments and the new solutions. We have identified certain product lines where we can significantly increase the market share. And also benefit from the fact that we are -- CSR is part of Saint-Gobain, we have an enriched offer for the Australian market.

One clear example is the construction chemical. CSR did not have in their profile, in their portfolio. CSR, with its ability and the credibility in the market to sell the solutions, they are able to have more than 40% of the cells, which is high value-added and solution cells.

Insulation is going to be one single largest growth driver for CSR given the fact that they have a very compelling solutions. They have been able to demonstrate that you can reduce 80% of the heat loss using the Saint-Gobain CSR solutions in Australia.

And they are very good in specifications [indiscernible]. They are very good in every single market segment, residential, nonresidential. Let's here this Paul Dalton the CEO of CSR, he talking about one of the iconic project where we participated in health sector and you see the impact of CSR brought to this project.

[Presentation]

Let's look at the third country platform in the foremost Southeast Asia. This is a steep growth trajectory we have seen in the past. And this is clearly a one, single another area where we have a growth accelerator. We have a leadership position in this country. We have a broad industrial footprint and also our ability to provide an innovative solutions to the customers.

We have more than 40% of the sales value-added products. If you have to look at the single largest growth potential and the outperformance in the market in Southeast Asia is product offer enrichment. We have identified clear areas where we can significantly increase our market share, high value-added glass, coated glass, insulation products and acoustic solutions and the full range of construction chemicals, especially with all the acquisition we have done in the recent past, our ability to serve the market has gone up significantly in this market.

Coming to China, it's a very different strategy. We have made a conscious decision to be only in attractive and niche market segment. We have 1.2 billion sales, but more than 50% of the sales is in industrial market and more than 80% of the sales is for the domestic market. We have 41 plants across the 30 locations. We have an R&D center in Shanghai, which helps us to keep developing the new products and solutions.

But one important thing in China, which is very nice, is the best-in-class digital service. We have actually invested significantly in the digital tools. In China, we respond to our customers within 70 seconds using chat box. This is just one example. I can tell you, everywhere in all the countries in the region, we are a strong influence on the distribution network because of the digital tool that we use and our ability to track the products, the moments, where exactly what's happening, our ability to engage the different stakeholders in the whole chain -- value chain is very, very powerful.

I am excited in my new job because I have a committed team. I have an engaged team willing to go extra mile get for an additional deliver profitable growth. In addition, I have a leadership team which is native and local with a deep expertise in the construction market. And this is one single differentiating factor as compared to what you see in the marketplace.

To conclude, I am confident to accelerate the profitable growth in Asia Pacific and outperform the market at least by 2 points. By leveraging the strong and proven country platform that you have seen, enhance the reach of Saint-Gobain comprehensive solutions to all end markets, doubling the sales in construction chemicals market and continue to invest value creative investment to support growth in the region. Thank you.

Thank you, and Bravo, Mark, David, Thierry, Camille and Sreedhar. Now you have gone around the world of Saint-Gobain on those very large growth opportunities and megatrends. I think more importantly, you have seen and touched how aligned we are together on our actions, on the strategy forward, how we leverage and accelerate value and growth through our solutions, how we expand on nonresidential and infrastructure markets, and we are a meaningful player.

It's something that we are going to start. It's already there. You have seen movies, example, customer testimony from hotels in Mexico, from construction chemicals in the U.S., also Australia. So all around the world expanding in those markets. So we are extremely driven by this alignment on solutions, residential, nonresidential and infrastructure markets.

At the end of the day, it's all about execution. 5% is the strategy, 95% is the execution. You have seen our commitment on execution in the last years. You can touch and feel the commitment, the drive of our region CEOs to execute well going forward. And you have -- you had some examples of our country platforms. This is where we drive the success of Saint-Gobain.

So I have every confidence that we will lead and grow for the coming years that it will bring a lot of value for our shareholders and a lot of value for all our stakeholders. We'll stop there because you have been patient, passionate, I think about all the presentations. We'll take a short break. So we come back at sharp 4:50 5 -- 0, so 10 to 5 for the Q&A. Thank you. Short break, and we come back online.

[Break]

So back now to the questions. Vivien will be the moderator for the questions in the audience. And after that, we will have some questions on not the Internet, but the app that you have been using. So Vivien, I leave you the floor and who wants to -- multiple questions. So...

The Q&A is open.

Your choice.

At the same time, 5 hands. So we're going to start with Cedar Ekblom right behind, then Arnaud Pinatel and then [ Elodie ] in the same order.

Cedar Ekblom from Morgan Stanley. I've got 2 questions on the North American business. The last margin you delivered in the Americas was north of 20%. And for that region, APAC and Americas combined, you're guiding to 17% to 20% going forward. And I think there's a lot of focus in the market around the margin improvement in that region and whether you are over earning, particularly in the context of new capacity being added in roofing.

So could you help us understand how we should think about that North American margin going forward and whether this is a signal that you actually think the margin needs to fall? And then the second question is linked. Can you talk about how you see the distribution landscape in the roofing market in the U.S. shifting? QXO is obviously talking about trying to lift margins and one of the levers that they are talking to is getting their OEM suppliers to give them some margin. I'd like to hear what your take is on that.

So I will start, but I think it's a lot for Mark, at least the second question, Mark, you will be able to comment on the podium. We are very ambitious on the margin everywhere. And what we wanted to give you is 17% to 20% is the average margin for the 3 categories, Latin America, Asia and North America. You know that North America is slightly over that. Asia is at 17%, Latin America, 18%.

So we are on the best margin in North America. We'll continue to stay ambitious. And after that, Latin America and Asia can continue to improve. So yes, the margin in North America will remain best-in-class for Saint-Gobain going forward. To highlight also what we have done recently on some investment in North America, it's modern plans. So it's very important because it helps us to lower the cost to serve our customers. It's roughly 2% addition in terms of capacity on the total market.

If I take roofing, which was saturated, we were on allocation of capacity for the last years. So it's a minimal addition. And for us, not only it's the best cost to serve, but it's in the best location in the Southeast. So I'm not worried. We have this must-have renovation going forward. We have this housing shortage. So North America margins are going to remain best-in-class, no pressure for Mark.

But clearly, we are driven by profitability and this consolidation of the market that happened in the last years, be it on roofing, be it on gypsum is something which is essential to us. Mark, a few insights on distribution and how they partner. You heard from Mark, when they are a national payer, they need a national manufacturer like Saint-Gobain.

So as I mentioned, commercial manager for most of my life, there's not been a year where there aren't distributors looking for extra margin from suppliers. That's just the way the world works. But we do have solutions that are driven by contractor engagement and homeowner engagement.

So it's not a commodity product. The products we sell through distribution have great stickiness at the contractor and the homeowner who want the right aesthetics and the right performance, and we support that. We also have salespeople in the field that support those contractors and partner with the distributors to make sure we pull that product through distribution. And we do that with our distributor partners that partner with us in each region.

So as I mentioned earlier, when we talked, the distributor landscape has evolved, but the roofing and exterior product distributor landscape has been 75%, 80% consolidated for the last 5 or 6 years with QXO acquiring what they have. It's still 70% to 85% consolidated with no change in share of QXO. So it's the same as Beacon was when they acquired it.

So my answer is we'll continue to focus on partnering with distributors, making them successful through driving contractor engagement and stickiness of the homeowners. So -- and they will not be the first and the last or not the first to ask for discounts based on the size.

And when you look at other players, the fact that Home Depot bought SRS and GMS, we are the #1 partner. GMS was the largest customer of our gypsum interior solutions. So we are now even more relevant for this kind of consolidation. Same with Lowe's and ABM. So it makes us the unique -- you take other roofing players, they don't have gypsum. They don't have ceilings. You take some gypsum players, they don't have roofing or siding. So we are the unique true partner across these channels in North America.

Question from Arnaud Pinatel.

First of all, if I remember well, when you took the role as the CEO, your share price was at 29. Today is at 92. So we had great success and congratulations for that. But it was all about a turnaround story. Repositioning the group savings, restructuring. Today, if I understood well, we are entering into a growth story. So my first question is, do we need really to value Saint-Gobain no more as a cyclical stock, but as a growth stock within the building material sector and how convinced you are about that? And my second question, I was very interested by your metrics where we had the different colors, blue colors. This EUR 12 billion of CapEx M&A, you have not disclosed what is the part, which is CapEx, which is the part M&A. I don't know if you will guide us on that. But is it fair to understand or to believe that you are going to try to complete this metrics, regional and country and make it blue, dark blue everywhere, and this is the growth story. It's a very simple question.

Short answer is yes. And second part of the short answer, you have understood that it's a low execution risk because we know every single of those product lines. It happened that in some countries, you take Mexico, we were not in construction chemicals 5 years ago, but we know how to play with construction chemicals in Brazil, in Argentina. Camile didn't describe Argentina, but we have other platforms, Peru, Chile, et cetera. So we know how to replicate with strong leaders like [ Marco Corales ] to take glass, gypsum and construction chemicals.

So yes, we want the blue to become darker. We had a prior version with the exact market share, but we thought it was better to have light blue, medium blue, dark blue. But yes, in principle, we want to make dark blue everywhere because then you even increase further your competitive advantage and your share of wallet with the customer. So that's the rollout of our offer within the spectrum of offer we know well. We are in the Saint-Gobain [ Tower ], 82 products. Not all the countries of Saint-Gobain have 82 products with 30%, 35%, 40% market share, and dark blue in India.

My first on the CapEx and M&A, I will let Maud answer. I will take the first one. I can even tell you that when we gathered our top 150 managers 3 weeks ago, we gave ourselves the target of the share price if we do all this well, I'm going to keep it for me, but it's ambitious. And we are all driven to make sure that we beat and we deliver on this. In the last year, it was not only what you call the turnaround story, it was truly implement the country platform organization.

Then each of them, they had to either turn around the business, exit, improve that. But fundamentally, it was we turn the organization by country because it's absolutely the best model for the local country market. It happens to be very robust in the world of today, globalizing world, but it was first this structural shift towards country-driven, performance-driven alignment, incentives, share value creation.

So after that, yes, we have done the heavy lifting of the poor businesses or the businesses way far from the strategy that Maud has highlighted in terms of quality of earnings. And yes, we are turning into a growth mode. But again, we don't start from 6th of October. We have started systematically with this in mind to complement the portfolio. When we bought Australia, it was a growth story. And we knew that they were super strong on plasterboard and insulation and Sreedhar with [indiscernible] is going to add construction chemical, is going to add [indiscernible].

So we knew what we have prepared on the construction chemical platform on the Middle East, the investment in Mexico, in India was already putting the pieces of the puzzle so that at some point, we would be ready to lead and grow. So yes, you should think of Saint-Gobain in a different way, not look at the past, look at how well we have executed also in the last years and now the growth story while delivering good value creation for the shareholders. Maybe on the...

Yes, sure. With pleasure. So on the EUR 12 billion of gross investment, you should count about maybe EUR 1 billion per year on growth CapEx. And the rest on M&A, keeping in mind, of course, how disciplined we will be in terms of allocation. And there, there will be no surprise on allocation in terms of returns and also prioritizing on the right areas where growth will be, obviously.

Next question for Elodie Rall.

So I understood the rationale to switching to EBITDA margins in terms of targets versus operating margin. But with CapEx expected to increase as a percentage of sales, I was wondering if that is also signaling an increase in D&A as a percentage of sales. So basically, what I'm trying to get is that where does this EBITDA margin translate in terms of operating margin targets? Is that 11% to 14%, 10% to 13%? A bit of guidance would be helpful there.

Second, I was wondering if you could help us break down your targets in terms of like-for-like growth versus M&A in that mid-single-digit local currency growth, including with regard to the margin accretion that you expect to come from acquisitions versus organic growth? And lastly, on that 20% portfolio rotation, how much divestment would you expect to contribute? And where would they be targeted?

Do you take the first one, maybe?

Yes, sure. So EBITDA, the story is really about aligning our reporting to how we are going to drive or how we are driving the business. Incentives of the managers are already in EBITDA. When we do acquisitions, we do it through EBITDA multiples. And of course, we are not going to increase the depreciation. When I said 4.5% to 5% of CapEx over sales, I said that we would start at the low range at around 4.5% of CapEx, which is where we are today. So no increase in the short term, but we have the opportunity to increase as we roll out the plan basically. So nothing hidden in terms of depreciation with the move to EBITDA for sure. So there, you should look at having that equivalent of 11% to 14% indeed in terms of OP.

On your second question, so we have a 1-ish type of M&A acquisition in the mid-single-digit growth. In principle, all our acquisitions are margin accretive. But now that we run at a healthy margin level, it's not as big as it used to be 5 years ago. You have seen the impact on additional growth and margin from Maud, but that's 1-ish percent in the mid-single digit coming from acquisitions on average for the next years.

20% sales rotation, at least, it's to show that we are committed to continue to make meaningful divestitures and acquisitions. I'm not going to give you precise figures otherwise, you will start guessing the candidate. We have highlighted some of the slides in terms of end markets, in terms of the evolution of certain regions and businesses. So you can cross check what it could be. On all this, it's driven by value creation. Timing is of the essence, and we will continue to do that. But we want to tell you that, yes, we are going to be active on the portfolio evolution to always steer the group to make it even stronger in terms of profit and in terms of growth towards light and sustainable construction.

More meaningful, Elodie than the 2 small divestitures of last week in Belgium and Brazil, if it's behind your question.

Next question for Ephrem Ravi. Just close to you, please.

Ephrem Ravi from Citi. So 3 questions. Firstly, 2 questions following up on Elodie's question. In terms of the 20% rotation, obviously, industrial and distribution kind of goes down as a percentage of sales. Would it be fair to say that the bulk of that 20% asset rotation would come from those 2 parts of the market within the next 5 years? Or would you have a significant industrial exposure at all in 5 years? That would be the first question.

Secondly, on your addressable market of $250 billion, only about $70 billion is infrastructure. Asia itself has got about $3 trillion of infrastructure spend per year. And if I do very simple global calculations, you were defining your addressable infrastructure market is about 1% or 1.5% of global infrastructure spend. Is -- does that kind of just take into account your current product suite? Or would you kind of expand that industrial addressable spend with more acquisitions in adjacent areas in the future? Because it seems to me that that's one place where you are probably underselling yourself a little bit.

And the third, sorry, is on the EBITDA margin. If I take the 15% to 18% EBITDA margin and you look at your current ROCE, the step-up doesn't look proportional. So it looks like the capital employed looks -- goes up a little bit more than the margin increase. Is that a wrong impression? Or are you just being conservative with your ROCE targets?

Thank you for your 3 questions. And maybe Maud, you will take the third one. You have a good guess on what could be the candidates for divestitures going forward. Again, there will be a lot of acquisitions, and the net will be positive. There is no taboo within Saint-Gobain. So yes, we will assess the merits of all the businesses country by country and what do they bring to Saint-Gobain in terms of innovation, in terms of synergies, in terms of financial performance, along with the criteria that Maud highlighted.

On your second question, yes, we have been very precise, not underselling. We want to overdeliver maybe and under promise. But it's because both nonresidential and infrastructure markets and targets and action plans have been defined bottom up with our existing portfolio of know-how and expertise. So we don't want to be in aside. We don't want to be in cement. We provide all the adhesives to decarbonize cement. We don't want to be in aggregates. We don't want to be in China, which is a big market, but commodity and no margin.

So yes, this is the addressable market where we already win and we want to increase our market share. So maybe in 5 years down the road, we will have a bit more adjacencies in terms of product offer. But this is how we consider the addressable market as of today and where we want to win. You take the.

Yes, sure. So in terms of return on capital employed, we have increased the low range. You remember, we were at 12% to 15%, and we are now above 13%. We remain ambitious on that element of value creation. At 13%, we are creating value, obviously, and we creating good amount of value. So the purpose is really to steer the group's profile, enhance the quality of earnings, as Benoit just said. And to do that, we are going to maintain and be into that ambition of growing the return on capital employed, but ensuring as well that we acquire businesses with good EBITDA margins and we divest, we continue to divest and rotate the portfolio. And doing that, for sure, when you acquire, you create value in year 1, 2, 3. And then when you divest, you could also divest activities, which have been already depreciated.

So then you have some kind of effect on the return on capital employed. So that's why you could have that kind of curiosity when you compare our EBITDA ambition versus our return on capital ambition. But be sure that we remain ambitious on both targets.

And we give you a floor, not a ceiling.

Next question. So Ebrahim, so just there.

I'm sorry, you had the mic, so it could have been easier.

Ebrahim Homani, CIC. I have 2 questions, if I may. The first one is about data centers. A lot of your comps are talking a lot and communicating a lot on data centers, but you said that you are maybe one of the leaders in this sector. What's your market share? Are you maybe the part of your sales generated in this segment?

And my second question is on your added value products. What's the part of added value products in your actual sales and in your target, what you target in terms of added value products?

So data centers, it's several hundred million euros of sales. Sometimes it's direct versus indirect through distribution. As we have seen from this external survey, I think it's the best proof of the pudding. We are a meaningful player, and we are a meaningful player because, again, we address multiple functions, be it fire safety, be it low carbon concrete, be it technical ceilings, et cetera, et cetera. So we are ramping up. Of course, if you take Spain, for instance, we are very successful in Spain. You heard it from Thierry Bernard. All the EUR 70 billion of data center spent in Spain, today, they are in the spec. They have not been built, so that's more to come. Sometimes we read big, big numbers about data centers. It's in the project side, not yet in terms of sales, but it's ramping up very actively.

And then I forgot your second question, sorry. Value products, we don't look at it at the total group. We look at it country by country, and we wanted -- I wanted to share with you the metrics that we are using on cross-selling, upselling and specified sales. So some countries, you heard it from -- you have seen it from Italy, it's already above 50%. We gave also the granularity of the different product lines. You take gypsum and insulation, it's 30%. We have some competitors in the U.S. at 3%. So that means we are addressing different markets that they cannot address.

So this is the way we drive it by product line and by country. And we know that if you take glass, we can be above 50%. If you take plasterboard, we know that if countries at 10%, they should be at 30%, if not above because when the average is at 30%, that means others are 40%, 50%. So this is a fantastic way for us to grow our sales and grow our margin. And on average, when we have more added value products, I give you the average for the group, it's 8 points of additional margin.

So the next question from [ Chris Neel ] on the right.

This one is for Maud. I wanted to go back to a question he was asking earlier, a little different about the [indiscernible] [ ROCE ]. Given your expectation for faster growth, better margins, some modest improvements in your working capital, why is your free cash flow conversion still staying at just 50%? And then a follow-up to that is, how do you expect that to kind of evolve over the period? Because I think you've guided for capital intensity to increase. So should we see kind of an inverse experience of the free cash flow over that period?

I will maybe answer on the ROCE and you complement on the free cash flow. The ROCE, again, selling some depreciated assets and buying a bit of goodwill where you create value year 2, year 3. After that, the positive impact on ROCE is the growth. So clearly, accelerating growth will help continue to grow the ROCE. Maybe on the free cash flow.

Yes, on the free cash flow. So the conversion rate here, you should maybe have in mind that we are -- when you look at our conversion rate over recurring net income, you would be around 100%. So that could be a little bit misleading, but I am sure you have that in mind. And then going forward, we kept the same metric because what we intend to do is really accelerate the growth, making sure that we enable -- we dimension our working capital to serve well our customers. We feel that we will continue to work on operating working capital. We will continue to enhance the performance, but we will have also effect of the acquisitions. And at some point, you reach a level where you are approximately stable and you get some incremental improvement, but you reach the point where you best serve your customer that way.

So we will remain ambitious on cash, trying to optimize, and that's what we are doing every day. But in terms of operating working capital, that's where we guided around 15 days, below 15 days. And in terms of cash -- mass of cash, obviously, growth will help us grow the free cash flow over the period for sure.

Just going to ask one follow-up. I didn't know if maybe there was any segments that are growing that you expect to be maybe more negative to the free cash flow relationship.

No, no, that's not the case.

Next question from Pujarini in the middle.

Congrats, and thanks for sharing this presentation with us. So my first question is on your revenue growth guidance, and you've given us 2 ways of looking at that target. So I quite like the fact that you've given the outperformance over your underlying markets. Could you give us your rationale for providing those 2 targets? And is there a possibility that if your expectations of how the underlying markets grow or progress from here on, if that diverges from your expectations, would that lead to some confusion as time progresses as you go towards 2030?

And lastly, on the same topic, basically, I mean, what are you expecting? Or how should we think about how you calculate the underlying market growth? So it's a bit easier outside in?

Well, for us, the outperformance is very important because when we differentiate with solutions, when we know we can increase our market share and push our competitive advantage in non-resi and infrastructure, that's our performance. And we have proven that in the last years, in India, in the U.S., in France, in the U.K., we have delivered in Brazil outperformance. So we want to continue to step a bit up from the 1 point to 1 to 2 points. We have delivered on average 1 point, a bit below 1 point in the last years. And now we target 1 to 2 points.

I think -- and that's the way we manage our teams regardless of the market performance, you need to outperform. We measure it through market data. We have statistics in roofing in the U.S., in gypsum in the U.S. We have statistics in France. We want the teams to have this winning mindset. We benchmark against our peers. We have done it on construction chemicals over the years, and we showed to you what we have done. So that's the way we want to deliver very well on what we can control. And if your market grows by 5% in India, okay, we delivered 10%. That's 5 points of outperformance. So that's the way we drive the market. But we are confident with all the megatrends that we have shown that, okay, it's a bit on the short term, a bit cut here and there around the world, but we have huge opportunities for growth everywhere, recovery in Europe, housing shortage in North America, urbanization and population growth in Asia and emerging markets. So we are confident we will drive on this journey to mid-single-digit growth.

Next question in front of you, Ben Rada.

Ben Rada Martin from Goldman Sachs. I had 2, please. My first is on the divestment portfolio. You had a useful slide in the deck talking about businesses that were below 5% margins. And I noted that, that's kind of gone to 0 now. Is it right to think that the divestment strategy pivots more to businesses that might not be a big strategic fit rather than purely being an underperformer on a financial basis?

And then second question would just be around Construction Chemicals. You provided some good disclosure on the geographic skew for that segment. Some of the regions that were a little bit underweight there being North America and Europe, are those the areas that you'd be looking to bolster through inorganic M&A?

Rest assured that 5%, it's my job to raise to 6% to 7% to 10%. So we will continue to emulate and we are already above that threshold. So yes, your guess is right that, again, all the heavy lifting or the bleeding businesses or whatever from 5, 6 years ago, all that is gone. So it's more the strategic fit towards light and sensible construction, which is one of the main criteria on top of growth also because you have sometimes some good cash out business, okay, if they don't grow, what's the point? And at some point, you could have some trade-off.

On Construction Chemicals, we have a very solid position in Europe across multiple countries. We have a very solid position in the Middle East that Thierry Bernard highlighted in India. In North America, we are #1 already in cement additives and concrete admixtures and [ Steve Williams ], who has done a fantastic job to gain market share with innovation, et cetera, over the years, is there. We are a wide open space in Canada, and we made the very first acquisition Interstar a few months ago. So we are confident that we can grow in Canada from the CAD 2.4 billion platform that we have in Canada. So yes, overall, Construction Chemical is a white space in North America, like also the non-resi infrastructure markets are a big opportunity for us to grow in Canada, in North America.

Mark showed to you that from USD 1.6 billion to USD 3 billion in the coming years. So yes, that's one area of growth. And also outside of India, Asia Pacific, if I take Southeast Asia, Australia, we have large opportunities. Sreedhar highlighted that we want to double our presence on Construction Chemicals there. So yes, we have multiple pockets to grow further in Construction Chemicals. Also Camille highlighted some ideas around Mexico, Central America that we are working on. So yes, multiple growth in terms of technology, market share country by country on Construction Chemicals.

[ Jian Redlinger ] in the middle.

So 2 questions. So first of all, you made it quite clear in this presentation that you want to grow faster in non-res and infrastructure than in residential. And yet in Western Europe and North America, residential is by far the most depressed end market. So does that growth outlook say something about how you're thinking about residential compared to the other end markets? Are you particularly cautious despite the market being so far down? Or should we interpret that differently?

And then secondly, you said earlier that the share buyback will be used as a value creation tool, but also a benchmark for capital allocation versus the Saint-Gobain trading multiple. Can you just explain what that means exactly?

The main topic on your first question is that we are very confident about the recovery in Europe on the residential, new and also renovation. As we said, we have seen, David highlighted all the green shoots in terms of housing transaction, in terms of housing in -- et cetera, across Europe. On average, if we forget about the recovery that will happen, on average, residential in mature markets is growing 3% to 5%. Within nonresidential and infrastructure, it's more a market share gain that is behind our ambition. So it's more this market share. There is not much market share, not massive in Europe to win versus what we can do in non-resi and infrastructure. So it's not so much a reflection on the merits or the benefits of those 2 set of markets, but more the opportunity for us to expand naturally because now we have the perfect portfolio for that.

On the buybacks, well, again, what we highlighted is that we look at the share price, the Saint-Gobain multiple. When we think of an acquisition, Australia was 11, 12x, 6.5x EBITDA after 3 years. So we say, well, Saint-Gobain stock is at 8x. It makes sense to have this acquisition in Australia to build the platform. But it's always a benchmark for shareholder value creation to look at, okay, acquisitions, how do we allocate the capital versus acquisition and buyback. So we are committed to that, the EUR 2 billion in the last 5 years, we did even a bit more. And until and unless the multiple of Saint-Gobain is at a higher multiple, and I'm confident we'll get there at some point, but it's not -- it's for me to drive and work hard with all the teams for that. It's for you to know what's the best appropriate multiple for Saint-Gobain.

But think that we use that benchmark to say, hey, on capital allocation, is it worth making this acquisition or not versus buying back shares? That's the way we use it with the support of the Board, of course.

Next question from [ Jean-Christophe ]...

I have 2 questions regarding the new Construction Chemistry platform. First, you have shown a slide with 20% EBITDA margin, both for Chryso and also GCP . I guess that GCP is still lower than 20% EBITDA margin, isn't it? And secondly, could we have more color regarding the setup of this new business line? Currently, you have 4 different entities, Chryso, [indiscernible], GCP and FOSROC. Will you merge them? Or will you keep them independently?

No, we run everything by country. So it's already done. We had it -- and we had organized like that when we bought FOSROC. So in all the geographies where Chryso, GCP, FOSROC were together, Middle East, India, Asia Pacific, since last fall, it was already like that to prepare the integration country by country on those multiple technologies and brands.

With the deepening of the organization, 100% by country that I announced and put in place on July 1, everything is by country. So you have one Construction Chemical head in France reporting to Thierry Bernard. You have one in Germany. You have one in India reporting to Sreedhar covering all the different segments and applications. And after that, depending on the customer, the technology, making the best use, FOSROC is by far the leading head of India, Chryso is in France, GCP has a lot of know-how and presence in North America. So we use those different brands. But under one umbrella, Steve Williams is our only leader taking care of all Construction Chemicals for U.S. and Canada. So it's already organized like that. And then we leverage the different technologies.

Chryso is the umbrella in France?

It is. Yes, it is indeed. But leveraging under Chryso umbrella and brand, the technologies, the chemistry, the know-how of some FOSROC applications. If you take some specific end market, for instance, we have and we bought with GCP, Stirling Lloyd. It's the #1 leader on waterproofing for high-end bridges, okay? It's also the best bonding waterproofing for tunnel under the sea. It's Stirling Lloyd, well known around the world in terms of iconic reputation, and we keep this brand. It's a worldwide team that takes the big bridges in one country and goes around the world, pulled by the countries when there is a project. So we have all this agility across our multiple technologies and brands and presence country by country to leverage all construction chemicals.

On your question, yes, we have done a very good job to improve the margins of both GCP and Chryso. You know that Chryso has been the brand, the backbone of everything we added to our former construction Chemical Business, which was more renders, tag fixing and concrete flooring applications with adhesives, admixtures, technical waterproofing, Chryso has been, I would say, the leading avenue for that. All the leaders, Thierry Bernard, Steve Williams came from Chryso, but we have inherited since then. If I take India, the leader of our Construction Chemical business in India is the former FOSROC manager. So we take the best of the different worlds. But yes, Chryso has been leading the way to this EBITDA margin.

It's still doing very well. And GCP is below.

It's less and less comparable because we have merged. So at some point, [ Jean-Christophe ], I will not be able to answer your question. What is important is the margin of Chryso in France versus Chryso in Spain versus our GCP/Chryso business in North America. For instance, we gained share in North America. You have heard from the largest concrete player, SRM. It's the combination of [ forces ] and a combination of technology. So at the end of the day, what is making sense is how do we outperform each and every player locally across the different technologies and brands.

So next question, very close Ben right behind you. Right behind there. And then it will be [ Harry Goad ] on the left.

So the first one would be just a clarification on Elodie's question on switch to EBITDA. Can you confirm that the PPA are excluded from your definition on EBITDA? And then the second one would be on your dividend policy. Can you maybe perhaps clarify your strategy here? Because when I look at the EUR 6 billion dedicated to dividend, it means a growth of less than 5%. And it seems to me that your net profit will outpace this growth by far. So that's the first -- second one.

And then the third one, I don't know if you would answer, but I'll try. So coming back on the 20% asset rotation, you mentioned, Benoit, some sizable business. So beyond [indiscernible], would it be taboo to mention [indiscernible], your Scandinavian distribution business as a candidate for disposal? And I appreciate the level of volume now in Scandinavia. So the disposal would not be for tomorrow.

So I will start with the last one because I assure you that there is no taboo. Any question is relevant. In the Nordics, no surprise, the market is down. So we suffer a bit across the board in the Nordics, and I don't think we are the only one. All the different players on building materials, be it on the salary side or elsewhere are a bit below expectation in Nordics. We have a sizable business, which is structurally a good business. So we are happy to benefit from any recovery that we start to see, be it in Norway or a bit in Sweden. So I'm confident that this business will improve.

After that, we always assess on the midterm or the long term, all the merits of having all those businesses together. There is no taboo. But clearly, today, the Nordic market is one of the toughest in Europe. On the dividend policy, what we want to do is to grow consistently the dividend year after year. If we can do more than what you highlighted, we will do it. What is important is we will have this over proportional growth from sales to EBITDA to EPS, and we will grow the dividend accordingly to show you that Saint-Gobain is consistent in terms of delivery. And on the first one on the...

So PPA is excluded, but EBITDA includes the nonoperating costs, restructuring costs, et cetera. So that enables to have a clear view of the operating performance.

So then Harry Goad on the left, please.

Yes. Harry Goad from Berenberg. I have another question on distribution, please. I think you've spoken in the past that one of the benefits of distribution assets is the benefits it brings to the product offering. Can you give us a little bit more color on what you actually mean by that? Are we talking market share? Are we talking margins? And supplementary is, does every distribution asset you own fit that criteria today?

So I think you heard from Thierry Bernard, what we do in France in terms of overall outperformance, leveraging everything. And it's an integrated business from building science to manufacturing, to distribution, to digital services to the craftman, to recycling services. Maybe you had a chance to interact with Nicolas Godet, our Head of POINT.P, but we do all this together in France, and we clearly outperformed the market across the board.

After that, as we have done in the last 5, 6 years, again, country by country, and it's true for any business line of Saint-Gobain in any country. Years ago, it was in 2020, we sold glass in Korea. We have sold a lot of glass solutions businesses. So there is no taboo to sell a glass business. There is no taboo to sell a distribution business like we did last week in Benelux because we had a low market share, therefore, not adding to the rest of our Construction Chemicals and Carrier Solutions in Benelux. So that's the way we look country by country at every single product line, whether they add to each other, whether the connected product lines make the perfect suite of solutions or not. And if not, we sell. So that's what we have been doing. And again, distribution is part of it.

In France, we are 6x bigger than the second player. So we beat them not only on growth but also on margin. And it's overall beneficial for Saint-Gobain including on our manufacturing businesses. So that's the way we look at it. Now it's true today. Will it be true in 10 years, in 5 years? Again, we are super pragmatic to constantly assess that. But in France, I'm very, very confident that we truly outperform the market, and we own the space, thanks to all that.

So one question here from [ Allison ], please.

[ Allison ] from Bank of America. Just one question from my side. So your mid-single-digit sales growth target, can you quantify or maybe roughly what's the split between organic versus merger acquisition impact?

So as I said, we expect 1-ish percent of acquisitions and the rest will be organic. Keeping in mind that we have delivered on the low side of that in the last years, mostly on price, if not anything, it was price. So we expect pricing environment to normalize. That's what we are seeing as we speak. Therefore, acceleration on volumes. But 1-ish on M&A and the rest on organic.

Question at the top of the room. Will Jones, please.

Will Jones from Rothschild & Co Redburn. First was just back on Construction Chemicals and probably really an extension of the previous questions. But are there any particular product areas you'd highlight to us where you're really underweight where you want to be? And do any of those products lend themselves more to the solutions approach than others?

And then the second was maybe if you could just update us on the annual efficiency program, how you're feeling about your overhead ratios generally? Do you still see good opportunities on world-class manufacturing? And is it still the target to broadly offset overhead inflation overall?

So on Construction Chemicals, yes, we have been moving a lot on all the technical aspects and applications of construction chemicals. So technical waterproofing is of interest for us, notably for non-resi and infrastructure. We have ample opportunities still on admixtures and additives in some Latin America, in some Asia, in Canada, as I said. And then there is a space of adhesives where we are EUR 300 million, EUR 400 million of additives a bit in China, a bit in Southeast Asia, a bit in Brazil. That's one space where if and when there is the right opportunity, we could grow. It works well together in terms of bonding, in terms of feeling, in terms of -- we sell a lot of that through some of our merchant arms like in France.

So that's one space within the overall Construction Chemical portfolio where today, we are almost non-represented where if and when it makes sense with the right value creation, et cetera, we could have meaningful synergies. But in principle, it's a lot around concrete repair, tunnels, high-end applications, bridges, technical waterproofing and then the additives and concrete admixtures.

On the annual savings, yes, we are constantly working on efficiency within Saint-Gobain. I think it's not easy to compare apple-to-apple if you were to look at Saint-Gobain 10 years ago versus today because the mix of businesses has changed. When you sell towards specification sales, non-resi infrastructure, you have those technical teams. So you tend to sell more added value products, higher margin, but a bit more SG&A. Of course, we make sure it's not too much, and we streamline all this. We have ongoing actions everywhere it's needed because of the volumes or the current environment to drop headcount. I think I mentioned that, but I don't want to make the highlights. In the last 3 years in Europe, we dropped more than 4,000 heads. So it has been meaningful to adapt versus the difficult volume environment. So we constantly work on that on the SG&A.

When we regionalized all the organization, 100%, of course, the former High Performance Solutions businesses, all their back office are getting merged within the different countries. So that's a source of benefit. And we will continue to drive all the world-class manufacturing actions to benchmark the plants, make sure that we optimize the CapEx. Maintenance CapEx has been dropped in the last 5, 6 years, and we'll continue to have all these efficiency programs around the world.

And if I add as well, it's a great way for -- a great source of synergies when you do acquisitions. If you look at CSR, one of the big areas of synergies is actually implementing within CSR, all our WCM programs that just deliver great savings in terms of manufacturing savings and better efficiency on the market. It's also enhancing our M&A strategy.

Any further question in the room? [indiscernible].

Glynis Johnson at Jefferies. A question on Europe, actually, I'm surprised no one has asked you. Just in terms of your margin, your target is 12%, 15%. You're currently at 12%. How should we think about that uptick? Is it about -- how much is the recovery? How much is essentially taking out costs now you've integrated the HPS into Europe? How much is mix?

You are talking specifically about Europe, so because...

Europe. Yes, the Europe as target...

As David and Thierry mentioned, we are very lean in Europe because we have done all those cost savings actions. So a lot of the margin improvement will come from the operating leverage stay very lean and very sharp on cost and benefiting from the volume recovery that we start to see and that we expect in the coming years. So that's the bulk of the margin improvement coming for Europe without any particular M&A. So it's mostly organic operating leverage from volume recovery.

Next question, the second row, [ Eric ], please.

Just a clarification question on the EUR 250 million restructuring costs, is it within the EBITDA margin? Or is it below the EBITDA margin?

It's within the EBITDA margin, yes.

Any further questions from the room? Ephrem Ravi on the left, please.

Sorry, a follow-up question. Solution strategy, you gave a very useful framework on cross-selling, upselling services and specifications. You gave examples of improvements but if you were to kind of try to calculate for the group as a whole, would you say those examples are at the top end of what you can achieve? Or would you -- can we consider that as representative of what you can achieve? So for example, if you take -- you said 50% of Germany is solutions or thereabouts and then say, cross-selling and double sales.

We are. We have been ramping up this solution journey. There is much more to come. Across all end markets I highlighted to you the countries which are already best-in-class in 1 of the 3 metrics. And of course, sometimes they are not best-in-class in every single of them. So of course, the goal is to raise the bar for everyone on the 3 metrics. But I'm confident that -- and it's not only the next 5 years on this solution journey, which is, again, truly what customers expect. I see now a lot of competitors jumping into that. They don't have the same breadth of offer, and we started 5, 6 years ago.

So it's truly a journey that will capture value growth for Saint-Gobain for multiple years to come for the next 10 years. So it's something which is meaningful, and we are only at the beginning of that journey when North America is at 61% cross-selling to be extremely precise, why not 62% and 65% and why not increasing even more our share with the DIY partner. So that's something we will continue to push across those 3 metrics country by country.

And if you are tracking it on a regular basis country by country, is it a way to kind of incorporate into your targets you've put the chart as a conceptual chart as to how much solution selling can increase your margins by. But for sell-side analysts, [indiscernible] pool feeding would be useful on exactly how much do you expect from them.

Unless you want to join Saint-Gobain, I consider it's my job to drive this metric. We are doing it. It's in the incentives of the country CEOs. What is important for you is that you see this impact on the financials of Saint-Gobain. But after that, I think I consider with humility that it's my job to push the CEO in Italy versus the CEO of Spain and to know how to drive it country by country, application by application.

Is there any further question in the room? Otherwise, we shall turn to the Internet.

So then you will post the question on the screen, Vivien, and maybe I read them. So a question from Paul Roger from Exane. Are there opportunities to do more deals in U.S. Construction Products? Or does your market position cap M&A in this market?

No, the answer is yes. There are opportunities for more deals, not only in the commercial space and infrastructure markets where, again, we are not yet a very large player, but also in residential. When you add the GCP membrane with the underlayment of roofing that Carmen Bodden mentioned, that came from an acquisition, and it's a perfect system. So yes, there are opportunities, and I know Mark is ambitious and eager to grow in U.S. going forward. We have the teams, we have the platforms. We have the know-how. We have the brand reputation. And we have the ask also from the large distributors. I meet with them, Mark meet with them very regularly. I meet with the top of them at least once a year, and they ask us to help them grow because they need national players.

When we invested $7 billion in the U.S. in the last 5 years, they know we are committed to grow in North America. And that's the kind of magnitude they need for them to grow successfully across the region. So that's, yes, an area for opportunity going forward, Paul.

Second question from Paul Roger from Exane. Does a new player entering the U.S. shingles market pose a risk to record high margins in this business?

I think Mark highlighted very clearly and maybe Mark could complement that you need to be a meaningful player. We have 20 roofing plants in North America, adding one plant in the middle of nowhere, sorry, for my U.S. colleagues in Oklahoma and Kansas City. The big distributors, they have already 3 brands on roofing. They don't need a fourth one or a fifth one for just 50 branches around Kansas City or around a city in Oklahoma. They need meaningful national players. So there is no risk that we expect from any new player that could come to the market.

Maybe back to the question that Cedar asked also, there is no new capacity addition before late '26, early '27 from existing players in roofing in North America. So if there is a new one coming with one plant in one state, okay, we will see good luck, but it's not an ask from the current distributors as long as we invest on our side to new products, competitive state-of-the-art facilities, and that's the best loyalty partnership that you can create. When you ask those big distributors to visit what you have invested in Peachtree City or in Oxford, Carolina, that's the commitment we take to them and they take to us.

[ Matthias Volker ] from [indiscernible] Bank. What gives you the confidence to clone Brazil success into other different LatAm regional markets?

Well, first, I have to be extremely cautious because I'm not sure that [ Marco Corales ] would like to be a clone of Brazil. [ Marco Corales ] is a Mexican manager, and they are proud and they should be. We have already done that in multiple countries. Camile didn't present to you Argentina where we have all the platform across the board and #1 position. Peru Chile, where we do it with some partners. And we are confident because we have the right people. We have [ Mariano ], Argentina.

In Argentina, we have [ Marco Corales]. In Mexico, we have [ Nicolas ] with [ Perijan ] in Peru. So we know all those product lines. We have the teams. We have some leading position and then low execution, we roll it out like we did in Brazil in the past, in India as a success in the Middle East recently, in Mexico, from glass to gypsum to Construction Chemical. And those family businesses that we buy, they are happy to join us because of [ Marco Corales ], because of fires of discussion, because of local decision-making process, local for local, making the world a better home in Mexico with Mexican teams for Mexican customers.

So it's not a clone, but because we adapt, we are smart in each market. But yes, I'm extremely confident. And that's for you, shareholders, again, a low execution risk for Saint-Gobain because we know how to do it. And all the teams, maybe I should have highlighted that even more. Our teams country by country, they have been tested. They have been tested in a not so easy environment in the last years, and they have proven that they deliver.

[ Martin Benzene ] from [indiscernible]. What kind of insulation do you sell into data center, the technical insulation and sandwich panels all need to be fire safe. Is it all stone wool?

A good majority of sandwich panels is indeed stone wool that we manufacture. We manufacture the stone wool and also in some countries, the sandwich panels. We have also some elastomeric foam for pipes. We have also some glass wool insulation in the U.S. So it varies depending on the [ different markets ] and the different specs. But yes, we have the full spectrum of insulation offer for data centers if it's specific to insulation.

Next one. We have no further questions.

Any additional last minute questions from the room? If not, thank you. Again, I'm extremely confident about the way forward for Saint-Gobain. We have an ambition growth plan. We are rolling out things we know well, our solutions, and we gave you a lot of granularity on the solutions, on the product lines and what it means, delivering solutions on the ground. We have this fantastic avenue for market share gain and growth on nonresidential and infrastructure markets. We are going to stay dynamic on the sales rotation, on the portfolio rotation. You know that we have done it. We are committed to do it. There is no taboo. Execution is key and value creation on that is key.

And again, at the end of the day, the delivery of Saint-Gobain is done by fantastic country performance. Fantastic CEOs led by the 5 regional CEOs that I think highlighted a lot of impressive thoughts, experience and credentials. So I have every confidence that [indiscernible] will be a fantastic, exciting, successful new journey for Saint-Gobain.

Thank you very much. Thanks for feedback, and thank you for your attention and your time.