Titan Cement International Aktie

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Titan Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first half 2026 results. Please note, this call and presentation is intended for analysts and investors only. The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marcel Cobuz, Chair of the Group Executive Committee; and Mr. John Ioannou, Group CFO.

Mr. Cobuz, you may now proceed.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Good to have you all here. I'm joined by John, our Group CFO; and by Spyros Kamizoulis, our Head of Investor Relations. We are reporting a very good set of results today, and I would like once again to thank all our teams across all our markets for the strong contribution, which is marked by strong sales performance, continued margin expansion and above all, a very accelerated integration of the recently made acquisitions.

Sales were up by 6.9%, thanks to the overall increased volumes and improved pricing in most of our markets. Strong operational performance, cost-saving initiatives, and John will go more into the details, which have offset higher energy costs and allowed for 40 basis points margin expansion. And I think we will spend a bit of time in our Project Prime, which we announced at the last conference call, which is impacting positively our financials in the first half and will continue in the second half, in line with what we have announced at the time of the Investor Day of bringing to the bottom line EUR 100 million in cost savings related to efficiencies.

The recently finalized acquisitions, and I will remind everyone that we have announced 3 transactions completed in 6 months have been now successfully integrated and the results are consolidated in today's results and they have generated for the first half already an EBITDA of EUR 13 million, and we are well ahead our business case for a good contribution for the full year that we will also discuss later today.

We are also presenting today an upgraded 2026 guidance despite continued geopolitical uncertainty. We continue making good progress in the execution of our Forward 2029 strategy on all 3 pillars. First on strengthening the core. And I think here, the fast integration, the margin expansion, the inauguration of our silos in Egypt, which improved the export mix are clear testimonials to that strengthening the core. But also in continue building our platform of alternative cementitious materials. A lot can be said here. A lot is in the motion in -- has been in the motion in the first half, first in terms of securing additional sources of fly ash slag in Serbia, in U.S. in Southeast Asia.

Second, in doing already the engineering for an advanced technology center for alternative cementitious materials here in Patras, but also making good progress in -- on the pre-engineering front for our calcined clay project in U.S. and to be marked as well that our products with higher cementitious content have reached 35%, which is a record level for Titan in its overall portfolio.

On the third one, which is about building new platforms as well as embracing new technologies, we are making progress on our precast presence, both in Southeastern Europe, but also through the normalization of our product in -- future products in the U.S. We do have a number of projects underway and the pre-engineering phase continues for our carbon capture and storage project in Greece.

And we have made a number of transactions on the venture capital front, investing in 2 new start-ups, which supplement well our research and development opportunities, and we have made good progress on digital.

We are also announcing today after the decision of the Board, the launch of a new buyback program, which practically doubles the impact on the market. And we are, again, well positioned for the second half, and therefore, we will present an upgraded 2026 guidance.

Now I turn the mic to John, who will walk us through the key financials of the first half, including the regional coverage. And then I will finish with the outlook before turning to you for Q&A. John?

Thank you, Marcel. Good morning, and good afternoon from my side as well. Let me start with the key performance highlights of our first 6 months. The first half of 2026 was another strong period for Titan. Sales reached EUR 1.42 billion, up 6.9% year-on-year, supported by higher volumes across our core product categories and improved pricing across most of our markets. EBITDA reached by -- increased by 8.7% to EUR 312 million, while EBITDA margin expanded by 40 basis points despite higher energy costs resulting from the geopolitical developments in the Middle East and one-off headwinds in our U.S. operations.

Quarter 2 was a strong quarter with sales reaching EUR 784 million, up 14% reported and 9% on a like-for-like basis. EBITDA reached EUR 174 million, supported by both organic growth and contributions from our recent acquisitions.

Adjusted net profit increased by 16% in the first half, demonstrating the operating leverage of our business model and the benefits from our self-help initiatives.

Earnings per share reached EUR 2.06. But importantly, we completed all 3 strategic acquisitions during the last 6 months, and we are progressing rapidly with their integration. These acquisitions, as Marcel just stated, have already contributed EUR 13 million of EBITDA in the first half.

Our balance sheet is strong. Net debt rose to EUR 877 million, reflecting approximately EUR 700 million invested in acquisitions, while leverage stands comfortably at 1.4x EBITDA. Our liquidity remains robust.

Additionally, we are terminating the current share buyback program, as Marcel stated, and we are starting a new one doubling the size.

Based on this strong first half performance and positive momentum entering the second half of 2026, we are upgrading our 2026 guidance and now expect high single-digit sales growth and over-proportional EBITDA growth with further margin expansion.

Our sales in the second quarter increased to EUR 784 million, representing reported growth of 14% and like-for-like growth of 9%. This marks our 24th consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth, demonstrating the resilience of our diversified geographic footprint, our balanced exposure across end markets and our disciplined commercial execution.

For the first half, sales reached EUR 1.42 billion, up 7%, both reported and on a like-for-like basis, and our growth was broad-based across the portfolio. We benefited from the strong infrastructure activity in Greece, the resilient demand in the United States despite softer residential construction as well as the strong dynamics across Southeastern Europe, Egypt and Turkey.

Moving now to profitability. EBITDA reached EUR 174 million in second quarter, up 6% on a reported basis and 3% on a like-for-like. This was the first quarter that all 3 acquisitions started contributing to the group EBITDA results. EBITDA margins have been affected by an extended scheduled maintenance outage at our Pennsuco plant in Florida and by temporary import logistics challenges resulting from port disruptions in the Mediterranean, which led to substantial delays in our cement imports in the U.S. We expect those impacts to be one-off.

Additionally, the consolidation of our recent acquisitions is temporarily affecting the group margins. While the margins of the acquired businesses are expected to improve progressively and ultimately exceed group levels as we fully capture the planned synergies and the businesses mature within our portfolio.

For the first 6 months of the year, EBITDA reached EUR 312 million, up 9%, both reported and on a like-for-like basis, while the EBITDA margin grew to 22%, a margin expansion of 40 basis points. The key message here is that our operating initiatives more than compensated the higher energy costs and inflationary pressures.

Project Prime delivered approximately EUR 20 million of benefits during the first half, and we remain on track to exceed EUR 50 million of benefits for the full year.In addition, integration synergies from Keystone, Tracim and Vracs de l'Estuaire are progressing according to plan and are already contributing positively to our earnings.

Looking at volumes. Cement volumes increased 7%, supported by strong infrastructure activity in Greece, resilient U.S. demand, improved conditions across Southeastern Europe, solid domestic demand in Egypt, coupled with the impact of the newly acquired entities. On a like-for-like basis, cement sales were at last year's levels following a strong June performance.

Aggregates volumes increased 6%, benefiting from growth in both Greece and Florida with the growth accelerated in the second quarter.

Blocks volumes increased 9%, outperforming the underlying U.S. market. Ready-mix volumes have grown by 1% on a like-for-like basis, mainly demonstrating the resilience of our commercial positioning despite softer residential construction in the U.S.

Alternative cementitious material volumes were temporarily affected by the temporary shutdown of our pozzolan facility for productivity and safety upgrades.

Turning to cash flow generation now. Operating free cash flow reached EUR 192 million compared with EUR 170 million last year. This reflects strong earnings growth and disciplined working capital management. As expected, the major cash outflow during the period relates to acquisitions, reflecting the completion of the 3 strategic transactions announced previously, which resulted in an increase of our net debt by EUR 663 million. Despite this increase, though our balance sheet remains one of Titan's key strengths.

Net debt stands at EUR 877 million at the end of June, and our leverage ratio is at 1.4x EBITDA. While leverage ratio increased following the acquisitions, it remains at very comfortable levels and significantly below our financial capacity.

Looking at our debt maturity profile on the right-hand side, you will see that more than 75% of our debt carries a long-term maturity profile and at fixed interest rates, providing protection against volatility in interest rate markets. We continue to maintain substantial liquidity and financial flexibility to support both growth investments and shareholder returns.

Our capital expenditure reached EUR 160 million in the first half and remains focused on projects that support growth, efficiency and sustainability with the majority of the CapEx directed in the U.S. operations.

Key investment projects are listed on the right-hand side of the page and include fly ash beneficiation projects, quarry expansions, data center-related ready-mix capacity, kiln upgrades, new block plants to name a few.

For the full year, we continue to expect CapEx of EUR 300 million to EUR 350 million with the majority directed towards growth and strategic investments.

Let me turn now to the market performance. Starting with the U.S. In the United States, performance remained resilient despite a mixed market backdrop. Sales increased 3% on a like-for-like basis, supported by strong demand from infrastructure, commercial construction and data center projects. The Mid-Atlantic region delivered particularly strong performance, while Florida benefited from infrastructure and private nonresidential activity as well as volume growth in aggregates and blocks. EBITDA margins were affected by 2 temporary factors, as mentioned before, an extended plant outage and import disruptions linked to the conflict involved in Iran. Despite these headwinds, margins remain strong and Keystone integration is progressing ahead of plan.

In Greece, growth momentum continues as infrastructure projects, commercial construction and residential developments support strong demand. Sales increased 11% on a like-for-like basis to EUR 310 million, while EBITDA increased by 28% to EUR 54 million. The integration of Vracs de l'Estuaire is progressing well and is strengthening our commercial platform in Western Europe.

Southeastern Europe continued to deliver highly attractive returns, and this region is reporting the highest margins for the group. Sales increased by 7% to EUR 211 million, and EBITDA increased by 4% to EUR 69 million despite higher fuel and raw materials costs. Regional demand remained resilient across the region and all countries reported improved sales trends during the second quarter.

We also launched new lower clinker, high-performance cement products, supporting both sustainability and profitability objectives. In East Med region, as the integration of Tracim in Turkey is progressing very successfully and already delivering strong results, East Med was the strongest performing region during the first half of the year. Sales increased by 25% to EUR 151 million, while EBITDA increased by 77% to EUR 41 million and the EBITDA margin expanded significantly to 27%.

Strong pricing in both Egypt and Turkey drove a highly favorable price-cost spread. In Egypt, we completed the first cement shipment to the United States, leveraging a new export infrastructure at Alexandria.

And lastly, Brazil, which is a reminder, we do consolidate on an equity basis, also delivered an excellent performance during the first half of the year. Domestic cement consumption in the region where we operate increased faster than the national average, driven by strong housing needs and infrastructure projects. Sales increased by 23%, while EBITDA increased by 85%, driven by pricing discipline and strong production efficiencies.

This completes my presentation. I will now pass the mic to Marcel to give us the full year outlook for 2027.

Thank you, John. So our guidance for 2026 is, at the same time, reflecting a strong first half performance. And this time, we are confirming to you that we have now consolidated and we are well advanced in the integration of the newly acquired businesses as synergies are also kicking off strongly.

We also have a positive momentum for H2, and that's witnessed by the quality of the order books. Therefore, we aim at high single-digit sales growth as we expect good volumes in the second half, over proportional EBITDA growth, that means margin expansion, and that's the result of contribution both from the organic as well as growth as well as the acquisitions.

Mentioning about the acquisitions, considering the impact on the bottom line as well as on the -- thanks to the early synergies, the contribution is expected to be in the range of EUR 45 million to EUR 50 million EBITDA. And that's a combination of network synergies in some of the cases, of course, reliability, storage capacity expansion, but also efficiencies related also to increased use of alternative fuels, energy mix, but also procurement savings. So a lot in that bucket.

When it comes to capital expenditures, that's again a strong year where we will continue allocating in a disciplined way capital for investments in recently acquired assets that will support the synergies but also in strategic investment projects and growth, particularly in alternative fuel usage, energy mix improvement, but also aggregate improvements and quality of our export mix.

I think John mentioned already that our Project Prime is in full contribution with our self-help cost initiatives well in line to contribute at least EUR 50 million of benefits in 2026 after the EUR 20 million already delivered in first half 2026.

That's our guidance for the outlook of the year, which, again, is built on a strong H1 performance positive momentum into H2 and an accelerated pace of integrating the newly acquired businesses.

Right now, Spyros, I think we open it up for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Ephrem Ravi with Citi.

Both my questions are on the U.S. business. Firstly, in terms of the decline that we saw, obviously, there was the plant outage and import disruptions that impacted margins. But we've been hearing from other players that the pricing was also much weaker than expected. So can you kind of confirm if you have seen any pricing pressure in your core markets of Florida and North Carolina. And was all the year-on-year delta basically due to the outage and import disruptions? Or if you can kind of somehow split that out of the performance in terms of impact in terms of million dollars?

And secondly, on the Keystone integrated synergies, it was obviously an underperforming plant when you bought it. What is your expectation of what you could get from that plant on an annualized EBITDA basis post synergies in let's say 3 years?

Thank you, Ephrem, for your questions. Yes, you're right to point out that the plant outage and some disruption on the imports. I think without this effect, we would have seen a very nice margin expansion in our U.S. business. Plant outage is something which we planned. We do once a decade. It's not a longer one. It's a complicated one. We had 5 more days of outage there, but it's behind us. So we are starting very strongly in the quarter -- for the quarter 3.

The disruptions related to the cement imports, Algeria is exporting a lot of grains. That has produced a lot of congestion in the ports, and it has impacted the cement shipments to our operations. As a reminder, we do import about 1/3 of our volumes. And that has occasions local purchase of raw materials that we have handled without any disruption on the customer experience and in the market. I think the overall impact of that is probably around $7 million or EUR 6 million. Again, that would have impacted positively our bottom line and margins.

I think the pricing dynamics are there. We are much more confident on Mid-Atlantic, where we see segments which are displaying nice growth perspective. And there, probably the pricing dynamics will occasion that in quarter 3 and quarter 4, we will come with better news to you in terms of pricing.

To your Second question on Keystone, again, super positive. We have integration teams running at full speed and in between network synergies, the increased reliability, the early investments for rebricking the kiln, which will also improve the reliability on this immediate quarter, but also the preparation of investments for further capacity expansion. I think that will occasion synergies in around $20 million on a full run rate, which one should add to the results that we have announced at the time of the acquisition of $10 million. So one should expect an EBITDA impact of at least $30 million by year 3.

The next question is from the line of Wim Hoste with KBC Securities.

I have 2 questions, please. First would be on the East Mediterranean zone. The margins -- EBITDA margins progressed very nicely from 19% to 27%. Can you maybe break that down a little bit between the trends in Egypt and Turkey?

And then on Egypt, I'm interested in the growth trajectory going forward. You started exporting to the U.S. Can you maybe outline a little bit what the plans are and the speed of further growth in that market you expect from both domestic growth and export growth.

And then a second question, we touched already on pricing in the U.S. market, but I'm wondering if you can also elaborate a little bit on pricing in the other markets in light of maybe general inflationary context given the Middle East conflict. Can you maybe also elaborate a little bit on that? That would be helpful.

Maybe you want to comment on the first one, John?

Yes. On East Med, our margins, yes, grew very nicely from 19% to 20%, 27%. This is primarily driven by the introduction of Tracim. We came with an accretive EBITDA margin to the group, approximately -- the first year is approximately 30%. And that really is impacting the overall margins of the region. It also helps the fact that we've implemented a lot of our Project Prime initiatives there, cost initiatives and other self-help measures that drove the cost down and improved the profitability versus prior year.

In terms of -- what was your other question on the East Med it was about?

Growth in Egypt.

I think it was about the preparation of -- yes, correct.

Growth in Egypt.

I think we have been very satisfied with the first half. We do see in Egypt in the second half, a good display of growth drivers as this is underpinned by the IMF-backed reforms, a lot of infrastructure, energy, logistics, particularly in the power sector for which we are well positioned with both of our plants, while we continue also exporting at a good rate from Egypt.

We have also had the first -- with the inauguration of our cement silos in Alexandria, we had our first exports towards U.S., and that will continue at a rate which will improve up to 300,000 tonnes exports to internal growth to our -- with our U.S. operations.

I think on the mid-term, as we have announced at the time of the acquisition on Tracim, we are also looking at the opportunity of building a second line in Tracim, a project which we will come back and report more towards the end of the year, which will position all our internal flows being primarily covered by Egypt and Turkey on the mid-term.

Yes. And on the pricing and input cost inflation for the non-U.S. business, if you can quickly elaborate on that as well.

We had a very good first half on pricing over cost in most of our markets, non-U.S. more specifically in Greece and Southeastern region. I think overall, you had a positive price over cost with more than 2% in Southeastern region and a very good one at high single digits in Greece region with a strong contribution of our ready-mix and aggregates as well, so not only in cement. While in East Med, as we said, the adjustments of prices is done almost on a monthly basis, and there we had double-digit price increase on the domestic for both Egypt and Turkey and double-digit price increase also for the exports in the neighboring countries. So overall, very positive pricing environment in all these markets.

The next question is from the line of Iakovos Kourtesis with Piraeus Securities.

My main question has to do with if you have on your back of your mind any potential benefits or additional exports for Titan, assuming that we have a normalization of geopolitical uncertain at the moment, so end of war in Middle East and Ukraine, I believe that you are -- geographically you are very well-placed in order to exploit potential opportunities from this. How should we think about this going forward?

Thank you for your question. I think our operations in Egypt are very well placed to supply not only domestically and increasing volumes and growth drivers, which are in display in Egypt, particularly in infrastructure projects, but also there are very nice projects on the Mediterranean coast in Northeast part of Egypt.

But also the reconstruction of the markets around Egypt, particularly those which have been part of multiyear conflicts like Syria or Gaza. And currently, we are already exporting towards this market. I think on a mid-term basis, we will be looking at opportunities of exports from Turkey towards Ukraine. Currently, we are not exporting. However, we have, I would say, a strong experience already within Tracim in supplying the neighboring markets. And as I already mentioned, the plant is very well positioned, both for land and seaborne trading, and we will have a dedicated line, which will supply our U.S. operation.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. We will now turn over the conference to Mr. Cobuz for any closing comments. Thank you.

Thank you, operator. Thank you all for being with us. I would like to come back to the Keystone synergies and mention once again that we remain very optimistic about the kickoff of those synergies, the pace of the integration, and we expect an annual run rate of more than $35 million from that business alone.

Overall, we are very positive with the set of results we have published today and also the positive momentum into H2, given also the strong order book. And therefore, we are confident that the 2026 guidance takes into account all these dynamics, both in sales, in our self-help, particularly geared into cost savings and supported, of course, by a very good balanced contribution from organic growth and acquisitions.

Therefore, we will continue with our accelerated capital expenditure plan, which is in line with our strategic objectives of achieving return on capital employed on the long-term of between 15% to 17%, and we'd like to over deliver on things. So thank you all for being with us, and we'll see again on November 5 when we will publish the results of quarter 3. Thank you, and have a good summer for those going to vacation.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a good afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Titan Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first Q2026 results.

Please note, this call and presentation is intended for analysts and investors only. The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marcel Cobuz, Chair of the Group Executive Committee; and Mr. John loannou, Group CFO. Mr. Cobuz, you may now proceed.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Good morning, good afternoon. Very happy to be here with John loannou, our Group CFO; and Spyros Kamizoulis, our Investor Relations Head. And happy to share with you record results for a good quarter, although this is a small quarter, marked by weather impact, has shown solid volumes and improved pricing, which led to organic sales growth. And at the same time, the positive price over cost has allowed EBITDA margin expansion by 250 basis points. So I would like to thank all our teams and partners for delivering another record quarter for Titan.

At the same time, this quarter and a couple of days ago marked the completion of three transactions we have announced since our Investor Day in France, in Turkiye, in Greater Istanbul markets and in U.S. Eastern Coast.

So a big welcome to our 450 new employees and their families to the big family of Titan. And I think that illustrates our capacity to identify, deliver and execute in a very disciplined way, cement acquisitions.

This record performance has been also possible, thanks to the cost optimization initiatives and cash initiatives, which are already delivering tangible financial benefits that John will walk us through later in the presentation.

We have announced at the time of the Investor Day that we are tabling on EUR 100 million from the cost base over a period of three years. We are announcing today that this target is anticipated, and we are already realizing it in a large proportion this year.

We will also share with you the outlook for 2026, where we remain cautiously optimistic given the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East war, Middle East conflict and we'll go a little bit more in details on what we expect on sales from EBITDA progression as well as the capital expenditure, both in like-for-like for our organic growth, but also even the impact of the new acquisitions, which are now being consolidated as of Q1, two of them and as of Q2, the third one.

Maybe before we go into the details, the financials of the quarter, let me walk you through these three significant acquisitions, which are front-loading our capital to be spent by EUR 700 million plus, which have been finalized in the first months of 2026.

We'll start with Vracs de L'Estuaire closed in first quarter and already consolidated for 10 months of the year. It's a grinding plant, a grinding cement plant in the Port of Le Havre in Northwestern France with a clinker capacity of 0.6m MT p.a. serving an addressable market of more than 7 million tonnes, one of the largest and thriving markets in France, providing direct access to the Paris metropolitan market.

Integration is going as planned, and we are already creating synergies in terms of direct sales channel with our clinker supply from manufacturing units elsewhere in Europe. So we have, we are internalizing the flows. And at the same time, we are implementing digitalized tools, which are further improving the reliability of the asset.

The second acquisition, which has been completed in the first quarter, and we already have the integration teams on site, and we have launched the new visual identity of Titan Tracim Cement, a very well-known brand in Istanbul market as Titan has preserved its grinding capacity in the same market, and now we have one of the most modern and largest plants in Marmara region with a capacity of 2.5 million tons serving a very vibrant market of more than 15 million people with multiple projects, both in terms of residential, but also in terms of power, renewables, infrastructure and more projects to come on the next 5 years economic planning of the country.

This plant has also a permit for another 2.5 million tonnes production line, which, as we previously announced, would serve our export needs towards U.S. We have started investment there in 100-megawatt solar plant in a partnership, which will further decrease the cost and improve the margin.

Significant synergies are there at stake first in terms of network optimization between the cement plant and our existing grinding plant as well as utilization of cement tissues as we aim at having more greener, high premium, high-margin blended cements in Istanbul market.

Same thing like for the grinding station in France. We are deploying the excellence models in terms of industrial, commercial as well as logistics of Titan, but also the digitalization tools, which will bring upwards the reliability as well as lower the consumptions and improve the overall margins.

Finally, we have announced a couple of days ago the completion of the acquisition of Keystone Cement in Pennsylvania that adds a clinker production capacity of 1 million tons, short tons per year, again, in an excellent addressable market of 6 million tons in the mega regions of East Coast, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware and Maryland.

As we have announced 2 days ago in Titan America analyst call, there are game-changing synergies for these assets, given the expectation of improved operating margins, reliability improvements, again, thanks to digitalization tools real-time optimizers as well as immediate sustaining investments, the network optimization, the raw material cost optimization, but also commercial and energy efficiency plans.

So very happy to report this excellent start of the year in terms of our nonorganic growth, in line with what we have announced at the time of the Investor Day, where we have announced to the community that about EUR 3 billion to EUR 4 billion capital will be deployed over the next 4 years over, between 2025 and 2029, which will bring Titan to a new level of a EUR 4 billion company with EUR 1 billion EBITDA profile and with top of the class Return on Capital Employed, we have announced at the time, 15% to 17%, as you know, we have delivered consistently above that target, both in 2024 and 2025.

With this, John, could you walk us through the results, the financial results of the quarter, please?

Sure. Thank you, Marcel, and good morning, good afternoon, everybody. This was indeed a very interesting quarter in the sense that we, the quarter started soft, mainly due to adverse weather conditions across key territories. Then by the end of February, the war broke in the Middle East, yet we had the strongest March we had in the history of Titan, and that led us to a record performance, as Marcel indicated, for Q1.

This performance was highlighted by good volume performance, very strong pricing execution with positive price over cost. It was also characterized by the launch of our self-help cost initiative program called PRIME at the Group level, delivering already 10% of our annual targeted savings.

On the treasury front, this quarter, we had a very successful bond issuance, raising $350 million to support our M&A activities. And as Marcel explained just now, we completed three major acquisitions, two in Q1 and 1 just 6 days ago, which put us well on our way to deliver our Titan Forward 2029 strategic objectives. The only data point I would probably add here is that all three acquisitions from the moment we announced them until the moment we signed took about three months and just shows the strong execution of the team here and the ability to execute in three very diverse geographies, U.S., Turkey and Western Europe.

So we're very happy with that. Our key financial metrics, sales, EUR 636 million, up 4.7%. Our EBITDA, EUR 138 million, up 16%, both like-for-like. Our earnings per share, EUR 0.86, which is 29%. Our capital investment in the first quarter was EUR 70 million behind maintenance and growth investments. We talked about the acquisitions.

Our leverage ratio stands at 1.1, up from 0.4x at the end of the year due to our bond issuance and our investments. Dividends per share, EUR 1.1, 10% up versus '24. This will be payable on the 7th of July. And we launched our new share buyback of EUR 10 million on April 1, 2026.

The '26 outlook, we're cautiously optimistic for the balance of the year despite the uncertainty due to the crisis, the Middle East crisis. Our acquisitions are expected to provide additional growth in line with our strategic objectives. We expect stable volumes, improved price over cost positions and margin expansions and our CapEx investments estimated around EUR 300 million to EUR 350 million, supporting our growth projects.

If we move to sales, we had a robust top line growth, adjusting 2025, which is our base year for scope, which is Adocim and translational for it's, mainly the U.S., we grew our sales by 4.7% on a like-for-like basis, driven by strong pricing and healthy volumes. And on the right-hand side, we can see already in the light blue color, the impact of our two acquisitions in Turkey and France.

Moving to the next slide, our EBITDA performance, very strong performance, marking a plus 16% growth on a like-for-like basis, driven by top line gains, as explained just now, positive price over cost management, which led to our margin expansion by 250 basis points from 19.2% to 21.7%.

On the volume front, we had a sustained performance in Q1 despite adverse weather conditions in the beginning of the year.

Cement grew by 1% with solid performance in Greece and Egypt and for the most part, in Southeast Europe as well, while U.S. stayed at prior year levels due to subdued residential demand and persistent economic uncertainty.

Aggregates grew by 5% with continued growth in Greece and in U.S., fueled by investments in Florida business unit.

Our ready-mix on a like-for-like basis, removing the Adocim impact from 2025 was minus 1%, driven primarily by the weaker residential demand in the U.S.

Blocks grew by 10% in Q1, lapping a low comparative in Q1 of last year, but this is following a plus 10% in Q4 of 2025. So, we noted that the trend is improving and is driven by the retail channels and sales to contractors in the U.S.

Moving on to our cash flow. Our operating free cash flow improved. We delivered EUR 53 million in Q1 versus EUR 49 million last year. Our net debt increased by EUR 462 million, reflecting our investments in CapEx and the two M&As in Turkey and France that were completed in Q1.

Despite the increase in net debt, our leverage ratio remains at low levels, currently stands at 1.1x to EBITDA. And our debt maturity profile is healthy, as you can see on the right-hand side. At the end of Q1, more than 90% of our debt is long term. We're actively working though with our relationship banks to renew most of our loans maturing in '26 and '27 and push them to 2031. So, this picture by next quarter will improve even further.

Moving now to market overview. Solid performance in the U.S. despite the increased macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty and the subdued residential demand along with adverse weather conditions in the Mid-Atlantic region. This performance is attributed to the strength of our vertically integrated operations, our targeted cost initiatives and self-help program and our ongoing strategic investments.

Sales in the U.S. grew by 2% and EBITDA grew by 2% as well, both in U.S. dollar terms. In Greece and Western Europe, we continue our robust performance, with healthy price increases across products early in the year that led us to double-digit growth rates and to robust margin expansion.

We also note the contribution of our newly acquired grinding plant in France. And, but on a like-for-like basis, sales grew 7% and EBITDA by 22%.

In Southeast Europe, we had improved revenues and profitability despite headwinds from imports. The market there remained overall flat, but resilient pricing across most of the region led to an EBITDA growth of 6% on a like-for-like basis and expanded margins by 130 basis points.

A very strong growth in East Med region, driven primarily by Egypt, where domestic demand momentum continued, supported by large-scale projects and residential construction activity. The country remains a leading export supplier, albeit in March, export momentum eased due to the Middle East crisis.

In Turkey, Tracim acquisition was completed in Q1, and we already see the results in our figures. Sales on a like-for-like basis grew by 29% in this region and EBITDA tripled, leading to a very strong margin expansion.

Finally, in Brazil, the market grew by 1.8%, but in the Northeast region where we operate, consumption grew by 10%, driven by housing and infrastructure projects. Sales grew by 16% and EBITDA doubled, leading to again strong EBITDA margin expansion.

Moving on to the outlook. As we look into the 2026 outlook and given that energy is the biggest victim of the Middle East crisis, we wanted to share some data points regarding our energy cost profile with you.

Energy is one of the five key cost elements along with raw materials, labor, logistics and third party and represents approximately 20% of our cost structure. And the key question is how exposed are we here? On the left graph, one can see that energy cost in absolute terms, despite volume growth has been declining mainly due to increase of alternative fuel usage, our hedging activities and surcharges programs that we have in place.

As such, energy as a percent of sales, the blue line is reducing year-on-year, while alternative fuel usage, the orange line is growing. On the right graph, one can see that we are gradually improving the profile of our energy cost exposure. Fuel and oil represents 11% of our cost structure, out of which 70% is in the U.S. where surcharges are in place.

Electricity represents 45%, out of which 45% of that is in Greece, where 50% to 60% is hedged and 15% is in the U.S. where electricity is cheaper than the rest of the world. In Southeast Europe, we're also investing in PPAs with solar plants to mitigate our exposure there. We don't see a huge impact of that yet, but it's coming. Finally, on thermal fuels, which represent 44% where in Greece, East Med and Bulgaria, we are increasing our alternative fuel usage. While in the U.S., we use natural gas not exposed to that.

So, with that, we move to the last slide of the presentation, where the geopolitical uncertainty and its impact on macro is a concern, of course, to us. We're vigilant and we continue to monitor the developments closely, and we are working on cost and self-help measures to mitigate the impact.

As I've mentioned earlier, we launched PRIME, our cost optimization initiative that is targeting EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million of cost savings and self-help measures this year, out of which 10% have already been realized in Q1.

So, following a strong Q1, we're cautiously optimistic for the balance of the year, but we see stable volume growth, improved pricing over cost performance and margin expansions. We estimate our CapEx to reach EUR 300 million to EUR 350 million with a higher share allocated towards growth projects. And at this point, we complete our presentation, and we are happy to receive any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Stathis Kaparis with Axia Ventures.

Congrats on a good set of results. I've got three questions, which are actually interlinked. The number one is, what do you see on the ground? Heidelberg yesterday indicated some positive inflection point on, especially in April. I was wondering if you see something similar on the ground.

And then regarding the different wording in guidance versus last quarter, can you give us a bit more color? I mean, what does it mean changing from low single-digit top line and mid-single-digit EBITDA growth to the new guidance in Q1?

And finally, on CapEx, this EUR 50 million reduction, does it indicate lower CapEx needs for the acquisitions? Once you got them on board, you realize you need less CapEx? Or this is, this indicates some cautiousness for the year, hence, lower CapEx?

Thank you. Very good questions. We'll start on the first two, and maybe, John, you will give some examples of CapEx on the third one. So, what we see status on the ground is positive. Very good order books, very good backlog. We are very happy with the way in Greece, both the price increase realization, but also the volumes with the four large contractors are coming on stream.

We are very well exposed to very large projects, iconic projects, not only Ellinikon that we mentioned in the past and the Thessaloniki flyover, but also new projects again in the ports, new projects in the airport in Athens. So very happy with the way we see the year here in Greece and also in a couple of markets in the Western Balkans. Very good growth also in Istanbul markets as well as in Egypt, where both the pricing environment and also the volumes are positive in April.

And of course, we also see volume stability in U.S. and sequential price increases compared to the last quarter in U.S., and we have given more color on this two days ago in Titan America call. So positive inflection in April.

Now what we have said is that particularly for U.S. as the elevated mortgage rates are still weighing on the housing affordability and residential activity and taking into account also the American Cement Association latest forecast, the recovery is still expected early 2027.

However, currently, we see good stable volume there. Guidance, so we gave a couple of elements of guidance a couple of weeks ago, in fact, when we published our full year results. We are, based on what's happening around us and the energy crisis, and I think we demonstrated our exposure, but also the good profile to mitigate those risks.

We remain optimistic for the year. And in fact, sales, if we indicated low single digits, we see middle single digits. EBITDA, we said that it will be margin expansion. So, if we indicated middle single-digit growth, we expect high single-digit growth. And that's from the organic activity of our business.

So, the amount of synergies and the additional sales and EBITDA coming from Tracim, Titan from the French unit and from Keystone will come on top of this.

CapEx, it's mainly deferrals, not that much cancellation of projects and John will give a couple of examples. But again, we commit to a higher CapEx than last year, and that goes hand-in-hand with the optimism we are showing for the year results. And this does not include the CapEx, which will be allocated for the synergies that we mentioned for the newly acquired businesses.

Yes. That's correct. On the CapEx, Marcel. Some of the projects do spill over into 2027 into next year, hence, the lowering of the CapEx this year. We are really focusing on M&A-related CapEx. In other words, as we acquire the companies, I can give you some examples in Turkey, for example, we are investing in a new solar plant and some of the funds will go out this year. It's a 2-year project as well as in new transformers at the substation to ensure the good safety and maintenance of operations there and the palletizer in Marmara that is more of a logistics play for us there and also a lot of savings and reducing cost and increased operational efficiencies.

We continue our alternative fuels CapEx investment there across the board in Greece, Southeast Europe, Egypt and the U.S. with a key objective, obviously, to reduce exposure to energy price volatility and reliance on coal and petrol. Specifically, in the U.S., we have an investment in a new multi-fuel burner technology at Roanoke and a process engineered fuel capacity at Pennsuco. Here, we aim to get fuel flexibility, resulting in lower production costs and improved CO2 profile at the two main manufacturing plants.

And last but not least, we continue our digital investments, the deployment of our AI-driven real-time optimizers. We aim that by the end of the year, almost all of our plants will be, will have the RTO digital technology and the benefits are huge, and we've been experiencing those lower energy consumption, higher throughput, reduced downtime versus predictive and preventive maintenance and so forth.

So, we're very committed behind our capital investments. And yes, there is an element of caution. We take, obviously, each quarter as it comes. but we feel pretty confident behind our investments.

And you are right, John, to mention, this is a level of CapEx, which is a record level for Titan, definitely higher than the previous years. And we are fast tracking here, the energy-related CapEx, alternative fuels, waste heat recovery. We continue allocating CapEx to our projects, lighthouse project of carbon capture and storage, where we are progressing towards financial close next year and then other growth projects related to capital, to capacity expansion. So, Stathis, we are firing from all the engines on this one.

The next question is from the line of Wim Hoste with KBC Securities.

I have three, please. The first one would be on the regulatory landscape. I'm referring to CBAM ETS. Is there any change in reasoning or discussions with the authorities or impact you see from that on the ground?

Then the second question is on the pipeline for further M&A. You were very active with M&A recently. Does that mean that you are now kind of going into a bit more pause to integrate what you acquired? Or is there still possibility to see further sizable deals in the short term in the coming quarters?

And then third question would be on Egypt specifically, given its proximity to the Middle East. Is there any impact you see from the conflict on the Egyptian business and maybe export plans or order books in that respect, if you can also clarify that? Those were the questions. Thank you.

Very good questions. I like your business lenses. So on the regulatory landscape, look, I was together with our Head of Region Europe in Brussels at the beginning of the week, and we constantly spend time with the regulators as well as with Cement Europe as we prepare for the ETS revision, which most likely will be tabled to the European Parliament by European Commission sometime in July after a consultation period.

So, we are actively involved. We do have our own advocacy for the way the phasing out of CO2 rights, the mechanism for carbon pricing, the export allowances are currently shaping up. So, we monitor this. There are no new elements as all this is in discussion. But we remain positive that they will be largely in line with the current ETS probably with some alterations towards the end of the interval.

That means 2032, 2034 going forward. But that doesn't change anything significantly for us. We have a limited number of assets and markets under ETS. It's practically only Greece and Bulgaria. And as you probably remember, we do have a large portfolio of CO2 rights, which allows us to, at the same time, to engage into high decarbonization projects, including financing of our CCS project, but also to weather any negative impact if that goes that direction. So far it is rather positive.

On the pipeline of M&A, you are right to point out that we have been very successful in signing transactions, identifying realizable transactions and also closing them in record time. These transactions are value accretive. And as we spend more time in these businesses, we will give you more color on the amount of synergies, but we remain highly optimistic.

Now, this is the result also of a very disciplined capital allocation. And you may remember at the time of the Investors Day, we did not announce just the capital to be deployed, but also the targets and what is expected in terms of EBITDA growth over proportional, but also Return on Capital Employed, which needs to stay between 15% and 17%. So, we remain highly disciplined capital.

Now there are smaller transactions which have been realized as well over the past few months, a joint venture in Mortars in Greece, the acquisition of additional sources of cement tissues in Serbia and a joint venture in Precast with Cementos Molins and a local partner in Bosnia and parts of other markets. And we continue pursuing a number of transactions of a smaller size in line with our strategy.

So disciplined capital allocation, a pipeline, which is active and Titan was absent from the market for almost a decade. We have now a machine which is working nicely, both in terms of origination as well as in execution, and you will see in the next quarter in terms of integration and delivering the synergies.

So, we remain with our intact firepower given the strength of our balance sheet, and we pursue a number of transactions, and we will announce in due time. Regarding Egypt, we have just completed an important project of building additional silos, which in our plant in Alexandria, which gives more ample opportunities for our export capabilities. We are practically sold out, and we also have Egypt for the first time supplying our part of our U.S. needs, which shows not only the strength of our delivery capability, but also the quality, the uniform quality of our products. And around Egypt, as you pointed out, there have been zones of conflict or areas under restructuring or reconstruction, whether it's Libya, Israel and Gaza and other markets. And we are actively exporting in these markets.

The next question is from the line of Marios Bourazanis with Eurobank Equities.

Just a couple of questions for me. Most have been already answered. So yes, just starting with the first one. I understand that Q1 was largely unaffected by volatility in energy prices. But if you could give us any early indications on how costs are evolving in Q2 and particularly in Greece in the Balkan and East Med.

That's my first question. And my second one, if you could also comment on pricing trends in the U.S. so far this year? And if you still see any room to push through price increases across the key product lines there?

Thank you for your question. So, John has provided more information on our energy profile. I think, again, we are much better off than in the past, and we are advancing at a very rapid pace in using more alternative fuels and waste, which is reducing our thermal fuel needs and therefore, volatility. And we are increasing also our electricity hedging both in grid or to hedge contracts or long-term PPA hedge contracts or through our own captive solar power plants.

And you heard that we are also investing now 100 megawatts, which will cover a large part of our needs and also make us a trader of electricity in Turkey. So, these are very positive trends weathering us from any large spikes. As we look into Q2, I think, John, you made an estimate of what could be the impact and how we mitigate that. Can you give more color on this? On pricing, while John is preparing his answer on pricing in U.S., again, sequentially and what we have announced in Titan America call, sequentially, we see price improvements between Q4 and Q1 of this year.

We also have in U.S. the energy surcharges, which for our ready-mix business are automatically passed through. And we will announce at the end of Q2 more on the pricing realization in the quarter.

Again, we have positive news on infrastructure spending and construction technology, which is driving the growth. As you know, we are well placed in Virginia, which is a capital of data centers. 40% of these data centers are using our Titan product. We have recently launched TriForce, which is a dedicated project for complex projects. So we are aiming high on nonresidential and commercial projects. We are also optimistic about the reconducting of the infrastructure funding overall in U.S. And we have already announced that the recovery in the housing and residential activity, we expect it in early 2027.

Sure. Yes. On, so as I've stated before, we are monitoring very closely the market, and we're focusing a lot on the cost impact that relates to electricity across each region, solid fuels, diesel oils, ocean freight and general other costs. We are estimating for the second quarter, the impact to be around, on the cost inflation to be around EUR 10 million.

We have identified the initiatives already for this quarter and some of them relates to pricing that will be, obviously, we're taking now will be rolled over to the other quarters as well. And some, as I mentioned before, our program PRIME that goes in detail into cost initiatives and self-help measures to mitigate that impact. So we feel confident that we will cover all of the inflation and our price over cost will still be positive in Q2 as well.

The next question is from the line of Auguste Deryckx Lienart from Kepler.

Congratulations for the good results. My question is on the U.S. You are forecasting stable volumes for 2026. Does this mean that the residential part should decline further given that infrastructure segment is performing well? Or is there a potential upside risk on the current forecast?

Thank you for your question. So on the residential, in fact, we even see ZIP codes or micro markets where cement is going up. That has to do also with the resilience and durable building trends, which is in U.S., given the fires, the replacement of wood by cement-intensive products. I think John mentioned that, for instance, our block, which is the concrete block, the business line has recorded a very nice double-digit increase. That has to do with residential, the walling, the facades in multifamily housing. And there we see positive trends.

Again, residential is marked by the affordability and also by the mindset linked to the high mortgage rates. More is expected in terms of how the Federal Reserve Bank will address the inflationary impact later in the year, also how the housing bill will be shaped by the current administration. So more on that, we will see in the later quarters. But for now, we expect a higher, an inflection point in 2027.

Now in some of the markets, we are with residential at 45% of our sales. In some other markets, we are at 30% or lower as infrastructure and commercial projects as we go into Virginia markets or New Jersey market, they have a dominant position. So from market to market, the impact of residential is also varying.

The next question is from the line of Nestoras Katsios with Optima Bank.

Gain on the outlook front. So you're guiding for stable volumes this year. Is it like-for-like or including the recent acquisitions? And also a follow-up on the acquisitions. I think you said in the previous conference call that you expect an additional EUR 40 million EBITDA from the Tracim and also the acquisition in France. Do you, where do we stand with this estimate?

And also third question regarding Keystone, is there an estimate for the contribution from this year? Thank you.

So the guidance we mentioned is like-for-like. So volume sales or EBITDA from the newly acquired businesses and consolidated, as we mentioned, 10 months for France and Turkey and 7 months for Arabia will be on top of that. The figures you quoted for as an impact, EBITDA impact, full year impact for Tracim and France, we reconfirm, yes, they should be in that range. And in fact, we are quite positive after the first few months of integration that this can be exceeded.

And I think Spyros Kamizoulis in a subsequent call can give you more details on that. Keystone happened 6 days ago. So you would appreciate that as we speak, we have teams there. We are very happy with the quality of people we have found in Keystone, and we have already started discussing about the synergies, the reliability of the assets and marking a good start. So more details on this at the end of quarter.

The next question is a follow-up question from Marios Bourazanis with Eurobank Equities.

Actually, my question was answered.

There are no further audio questions. We will now accommodate any written questions from webcast participants.

The first question is from Mike Bed with Database analysis. And I quote: "Keystone's profit was low in 2025, and I think it has been weak for several years. I also hear that it's been for sale off and on for many years, but a buyer was not found until now. I am wondering what you see in Keystone that others missed? Or was it a case of just waiting for the right purchase price? I can see the opportunity, but what are the greatest risks around the transaction?"

Thank you, Mike, for the question. We think a light, we see the opportunity here. So you're right to point out that the profit was low in 2025. This was an asset on sale for quite some time. It's indeed exactly because the profit is low that has attracted our attention and we see a lot of opportunity out there Again, we are, we remain very optimistic on the level of synergies.

And these assets will be part of a network, while in the past, this asset was pretty much of a singular asset. So the synergies here are the network synergies, the synergies here, transferring our model of excellence from our other plants, which are at reliability levels of 98%, 99% and also access to high-level technical expertise to realize the necessary CapEx and increase the reliability.

Then it's raw material cost optimization, energy efficiency, but also there will be commercial optimization of commercial synergies with our other activities of sale in the region. So very optimistic about the level of synergies. We have always proven in the past our ability to make plants at levels to our performance, not far from this asset we have with the plant in Roanoke, where we have a good mastery of our cost. So more on this at the end of Q2 is in the making as we speak.

The next question is from Isaac Ocio with, OnField Investment Research. And I quote, three questions: "What has been the level of price realization from your April price increases? Could you provide a split between volumes and prices in the main parts of your European operations, Greece and Southeast Europe? And what impact from higher freight costs do you expect on the group's trade flows in the U.S."

Yes. Thank you, for your questions. We have markets where we are already at the second price increase, and we will not spare any opportunity for our strategy of the year to have a positive price over cost. As John mentioned, positive price over cost, which has drove margin expansion. I think, John, you announced that it was EUR 21 million in price increases and EUR 7 million from volume.

So that is already pocketed in Q1. As for April, as I mentioned, good backlog, good address book and already price realization. We will comment more on this at the end of Q2. The fleet volumes and prices you gave already. And on the impact of freight costs, John, do you have the figure or Spyros will come back directly to you?

Yes. So Spyros will come back specifically on the freight cost. for now, I would say that we have already contracted prior to the crisis, a number of vessels. So that's a hedge, a quantitively hedge we have provided. And we also have a number of flows which are inside the group with predetermined freight costs. So we do not expect here high impact.

For third party, that's, so the impact of the freight cost is around EUR 9 million. This is, we also have our own vessels and it's kind of a hedging exercise that we have now as well. So that will reduce it by EUR 2.5 million to EUR 3 million because of the increased freight we have there. On the pricing, I think you've indicated here the split between Greece. Greece was able to pass on early on healthy prices across all the categories, some double digits, some high single digit.

And in Southeast Europe, especially in Bulgaria, we had double-digit price increase there as well. Where else in the rest, in North Macedonia, we also have a high single-digit price increase, where in the other countries because they were impacted heavily by imports, they kept the prices at the prior year levels in Q1.

So, as you can see, I said we are really acting simultaneously on all fronts, paying attention to the pricing realization, the cost savings. I think I would like to reiterate this. We have announced at the Investor Day EUR 100 million cost savings by end of 2029. We are bringing forward that objective with an objective of EUR 50 million for this year. We have already pocketed a bit above 10% of that already in Q1.

So, you would expect a better cost base, which at the same time is mitigating for any adverse impact from war and Middle East energy prices.

So good price over cost, we're expecting margin expansion and at the same time, investments, which will bring our energy cost further down, particularly in use of alternative fuels, waste heat recovery, and overall the energy consumption.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I'll now turn the conference over to Mr. Cobuz for any closing comments. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you for the very good questions with a very strong business head. And you can be assured that we will continue feeding you with the latest information. Of course, Spyros Kamizoulis is at your disposal for any other questions you may have.

But again, it has been a very good quarter, record quarter for the group, both in terms of sales and EBITDA over proportional EBITDA growth, margin expansion and it's marked specifically by the completion of three transactions, which are value accretive for the group. And for two of them, we have provided already guidance for the year. And for the third one, at the end of Q2, we'll give you more news.

Thanks again, and we'll see each other on the 30th of July for Q2 results and more positive news on Titan. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Titan Group Conference Call and Live Webcast to present and discuss the full year 2025 results. Please note, this call and presentation is intended for analysts and investors only. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marcel Cobuz, Chair of the Group Executive Committee; and Mr. John Ioannou, Group CFO.

Mr. Cobuz, you may now proceed.

Good afternoon. Hello, everyone, and welcome. I'm Marcel Cobuz, I'm joined here by John Ioannou, our Group Chief Financial Officer; and by Spyros Kamizoulis, our Investor Relations Head.

John will take you through the financials after my opening remarks, and then the three of us look forward to your questions.

Let me start with TITAN Forward 2029, the strategic framework for everything we are reporting today. November last year, at our Investor Day in Athens, we discussed, we unveiled Titan Forward 2029, fully endorsed by our Board and our long-term core shareholding family.

Building on our growth 2026 strategy delivered 1 year ahead of schedule. Titan Forward 2029 has three clear priorities: one, above market growth in core cement and aggregates, particularly in the U.S.; second, scaling an integrated global alternative cement issues materials platform; and third, innovating on low-carbon and digital technologies, scaling precast in both Europe and U.S. and advancing our zero-carbon clinker through projects in Greece and U.S., all this underpinned by a decentralized, agile operating model built for execution.

The financial ambitions we have presented at the time, sales to EUR 4 billion by 2029, EBITDA to EUR 1 billion, margin improvement of 250 to 300 basis points over the period. Earnings per share of EUR 5 to EUR 6, return on capital of 15% to 17% through the cycle and approximately EUR 500 million of cumulative returns to shareholders.

Since November, five material moves in 4 months, showing that our TITAN Forward 2029 strategy is in full execution suite. Tracim Cement growth in Greater Istanbul already trading positively, and I will come back when we discuss the outlook.

Vracs de l Estuaire in Northwestern France, close to Le Havre already performing well. Keystone Cement signed in Pennsylvania, serving a greater than 6 million-ton of addressable market on the East Coast with compelling Mid-Atlantic synergies with our existing footprint, a transaction, which is subject to customary approvals by the antitrust authorities.

And a 10-year fly ash agreement signed with Electric Power of Serbia, which is adding to the five other geographies where we operate currently with our cement issues footprint. And on top of that, we have announced also a strategic partnership, launching Advanced Motors in Greece and in Europe. That is the tempo of TITAN Forward 2029.

Now to the 2025 results, they are strong, 5 consecutive years of growth, record earnings in 2025, record return on capital, record operating cash flow. We delivered our previous strategic plan 1 full year ahead of schedule, entering, therefore, the year with strong cash flow, a solid balance sheet as of January this year.

What makes this result particularly satisfying is the combination, driving its leading positions in high markets -- high-growth markets a truly integrated business model and a culture of disciplined long-term execution and, of course, a growing engine of innovation and digitalization for Titan and all four are working together.

Group sales in 2025 and John will go more into details, EUR 2.67 billion, up 6.4% like-for-like growth in every region. Earnings at EUR 606 million, a new group record ,60 basis points of margin expansion to 22.7%, the best margin since 2010. Return on average capital employed at 18.2%, a new record and top tier in the global building materials sector, a standard we are committed to sustaining.

Operating free cash flow at more than EUR 500 million, up from EUR 414 million in 2024. The margin expansion came from a positive price over cost dynamics across every region, pricing outpacing input cost inflation throughout the portfolio. And volume growth was also broad-based.

On shareholder returns, last year, in July, we paid a total dividend of EUR 3 per share, including the EUR 2 special component linked to Titan America IPO.

Today, we have proposed to the General Meeting of Shareholders, EUR 1.1 per share for 2025, up 10% with a new buyback launching end of March in a total amount of EUR 10 million. Since 2021, the combination of growing earnings, dividends and buybacks has delivered substantial value for our shareholders, a track record that we are committed to expand through TITAN Forward 2029 with approximately EUR 500 million of committed cumulative returns over the period.

Very quickly on the regions and more specifically on the United States, our biggest market and largest contributor, Titan America delivered an all-time high revenue, earnings, net income and operating cash flow. Earnings margin expanded to 22.6%, up 80 basis points and approximately 50% of infrastructure investment Jobs Act funding still to deploy over the next 3 years, which would serve our supply positions.

We supply approximately 40% of data centers built in our served market, including the Amazon Web Services delivering high-performance solutions under our Titan Edge range.

Florida is also a standout with earnings margin at 27.2%, up 220 basis points. Just to mention some of the iconic projects there, the Kennedy Space Center expansion, PowerHouse 95 Data Center campus also in Virginia, the largest foundation for in Florida history at the Bentley Residences in Miami. All this defines our market position and technical credentials in the markets we operate.

In Greece, we are also the sole supplier on the Thessaloniki Flyover, supplying also the Ellinikon, one of the largest urban regeneration project, the new Crete Airport project, every major project in the country and Greece's like-for-like sales were up double digits. In Egypt, our earnings more than quadrupled.

Egypt's exports, as you are following more than 11 million tons of cement in 2025 from near 04 years ago. Our Alexandria plant is at the center of this multiyear growth story, and we are investing there to extend that advantage.

On Alternative Cementitious material, our supply platform is now operational across five countries, pozzolan in Greece and Turkiye, reclaimed cementitious materials project in its way in U.K., fly ash in India and Serbia, slag from Indonesia and other countries to be added early this year.

Capital expenditure is on our fourth consecutive year of accelerated growth investments, EUR 285 million. We've mentioned only a few of the key projects where we see already positive impact. First of all, is the Roanoke, quarry mine life extended, but also investments in trucks across the U.S., the new ready-mix plant in Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, including then quarry capacities in Crete and cement storage, particularly for Egypt export market in Alexandria. So they are already generating real returns this year.

We have included in the deck also update on our technology, artificial intelligence that we can go more into details at the Q&A. And on sustainability, where our CO2 emissions are now recorded at less by 12% compared to 2020 baseline, alternative fuels at a record for the group at 22.3%, while we continue advancing on development of critical projects as well as new technologies, including zero-carbon clinker project here in Greece.

And we made it to the list of CDP A, as well as recognition by Financial Times and Times as a Climate Leader of the second year in Roanoke.

Once again, a big thank you to all our partners and to more than 6,000 women and men across our '25 markets, who built these results. Safety first every day before any other conversation, but also their commitment of this company, which is nearing 125-year of entrepreneurial culture that makes Titan work at its best.

I will come back for the outlook. And now I hand over to John Ioannou to walk us through the financials of the year.

Thank you, Marcel, and good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Now before we dive into the financial results and building on the tempo that Marcel referred to earlier, I wanted to share with you a time line that summarizes our key portfolio developments across the group in 2025 and early 2026.

We began the year with the formation of a JV in India, focused on low carbon building materials and the expansion of our ACMs platform with a particular emphasis on fly ash utilization. In February, this was followed by the successful IPO of Titan America on the New York Stock Exchange, raising close to $400 million and significantly strengthening the group's financial flexibility.

In March, we expanded our footprint in Greece through the acquisition of LATEKAT, a family-owned quarry business in Thessaly, securing high-quality reserves for more than 100 million tonnes. Later in the Spring, we committed to a strategic investment in the U.K., where we will build and operate a fly ash processing and beneficiation facility following an agreement with [indiscernible] further scaling our low-carbon materials platform.

In May, we completed the divestment of Adocim in Turkey, in line with our portfolio optimization strategy. During the summer, we made our first move into free cast partnering with Molins and through a JV acquiring Baupartner in Bosnia, a leading precast concrete and steel structure specialists with a strong regional presence across Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.

In July, our North American operations received Miami-Dade Counties notice of acceptance for more than 40 lintel product SKUs, expanding on precast offering and reinforcing our vertical integration model.

In August, we further strengthened our Greece business with the acquisition of standard [ pozzolan ] in Crete, a ready-mix and aggregates company, enhancing downstream integration. In September, we signed an agreement to acquire VD in France, a grinding unit located in Le Havre supporting our presence in key European markets and advancing the use of low clinical cement.

In October, we agreed to acquire Tracim in the wider Istanbul region, cement plan with 2.3 million tonnes of annual cement capacity and strong export capabilities, strengthening our position in Turkey. Before year-end, we also launched a new strategic partnership in Greece in the field of advanced motors, expanding our value-added solutions portfolio.

Moving into early 2026, we continue this momentum with an agreement in the United States to acquire Keystone in Pennsylvania, a cement plant with closed 1 million short tons of annual capacity and significant synergies. In January 2026, we further accelerated the expansion of our ACM platform through a 10-year agreement with electric power of Serbia, securing access to approximately 5 million tonnes of fresh fly ash.

In parallel, there has been strong acceleration in Titan's ventures, our venture capital platform. We partner with Carbon upcycling to pilot carbon utilization technology at industrial scale. We expanded our collaboration with Ecosen to advance next-generation low-clinker cement solutions. We committed capital to Zacua Ventures second fund, reimposing access to early-stage innovation across the sustainable build environment ecosystem, and we scale the deployment of concrete AI and its AI capabilities on concrete optimization across ready-mix plants and new geographies.

This has been a busy year indeed, but as you can see, our initiatives are fully aligned with our TITAN Forward 2029 strategic priorities around growth, decarbonization and vertical integration.

Moving now to our financial highlights for 2025. A good finish to the year with quarter 4 posting an 8.1% sales growth which pushes full year sales to a new record of EUR 2.67 million, which is a 6.4% like-for-like growth versus prior year.

EBITDA in Q4 was impacted by cost pressures and was held at prior year levels. However, for the full year, we achieved record EBITDA of EUR 606 million growing by 9.3% on a like-for-like basis.

EPS stood at EUR 3.2 per share. And on a like-for-like basis, the growth is 7.4%. And finally, our return on capital employed reached a record high of 18.2%.

Liquidity, supported by healthy cash generation, proceeds from the U.S. IPO and [ Apache ] disposal is strong with net debt at EUR 214 million at year-end and a leverage ratio of just 0.4x. On the back of this robust financial position, and an improved credit rating of BB+ with positive outlook, we had a very successful bond issuance in the first week of February 26.

We continued our investments. CapEx reached EUR 285 million, the majority of which was invested in growth projects. And as discussed in the previous slide, we extended three offers for acquisitions, and we also completed three bolt-on acquisitions in Greece and one JV in Southeast Europe.

The 2026 outlook is masked by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which creates geopolitical uncertainties with macroeconomic implications. We're monitoring the impact on our cost structure to mitigate all risks and we remain cautiously optimistic.

Our guidance for the year, excluding inorganic growth from M&A, sales is low single-digit growth like-for-like, EBITDA mid-single-digit growth like-for-like, and CapEx, EUR 350 million to EUR 400 million, but to be confirmed later in the year.

Moving to the next slide. Our reported sales growth is 0.9%. However, after adjusting 2024 sales for scope, the [indiscernible] sale and for translation ForEx our like-for-like sales growth stands at 6.4%. Growth is driven by improved volumes in the core materials and firm pricing across regions.

We achieved a record EBITDA of EUR 606 million in 2025, and this is a growth of 9.3% on a like-for-like basis. This came from volume growth and a positive price over cost management, and we also increased our EBITDA margins by 60 basis points.

When we look at volume performance, overall, we had growth across all product lines, with cement growing at 1%, ACMs by 20% updated from a low base. Ready-mix by 6% and aggregates by 9%, while block volumes, although rebounded in Q4, for the full year were soft due to weaker residential demand in the U.S.

Moving to our operating free cash flow. Our operating free cash flow is strong. We generated over EUR 500 million and this was further supported with inflows from the U.S. IPO and the Adocim disposal.

While outflows included our capital investments and the returns to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. This resulted in a decrease of net debt by EUR 409 million.

Our cash flow generation led us to a robust and healthy balance sheet position at year-end. Our net debt stood at EUR 214 million and leverage ratio at 0.4x. With a very comfortable maturity profile as at year-end, we were more than 80% of our debt was long term. The strong debt and liquidity profile provided ample funding capacity, and we tapped into the debt market early in 2026 with the successful eurobond issuance of of EUR 350 million at a very attractive investment-grade coupon rate of 3.5%, and the maturity of that is February 2031.

In 2025, we continued our CapEx investment across all our regions and deployed $285 million with U.S. in Greece absorbing the lion's share of that. Our CapEx investments are aligned with our long-term growth strategic priorities and include projects such as expansion of quarries and cement storage, acquisition of new pumps and mixed trucks new fixed and portable ready-mix plants as well as new block plants.

Our CapEx purchase also include logistics improvements to enhance operational efficiency and throughput investments for increased alternative fuel usage and investments to develop Type 1 T cement with the use of ACMs. Last but not least, we are progressing with our [indiscernible] carbon capture storage project.

In addition to our CapEx and our bolt-on acquisitions, three strategic acquisitions are worth highlighting in this page. I've already mentioned them quite a few times, so I will go a bit faster.

Tracim Cement, a plant close to the port serving the Istanbul area with cement production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum a grinding plant in the Port of [indiscernible] with clinker capacity of 600,000 million tonnes per annum and a cement plant in Pennsylvania with clinker production capacity of 1 million short tonnes per annum.

Moving now to the overview of the markets. I wanted to start with this slide to show you some photos -- this slide illustrates Titan's positioning as a supplier of choice of iconic and strategic projects across our footprint, spanning infrastructure, real estate, industrial, logistics and energy.

The point is to show the diversity of demand drivers in the quality of project exposure across our regions. I will not go into the details of this because you are quite familiar and Marcel mentioned most of them before.

The regional performance at the glance. Sales and profitability grew pretty much across all regions, while Southeast Europe faced significant cost headwinds and intense pressure from Turkish imports. That put pressure on volumes and margins and recorded a drop in EBITDA against record comparables in 2024. Despite the Southeast Europe maintains the highest margins in the group.

Moving to the U.S. In 2025, Titan America operations -- as Marcel stated in the beginning of our call, delivered record levels of revenue, profitability and operating cash flow despite the market backdrop marked by softer demand and economic uncertainty. Infrastructure and large projects drove sales, while residential continues to be soft due to affordability challenges.

We increased sales in aggregate and fly ash while ready-mix kept at the high levels of 24%. Cement and lock volumes slightly softened due to the residential market downturn. Prices in cement broadly at last year's levels, while prices increased in aggregates, ready-mix and fly ash.

Finally, operational efficiencies from investments unlock further value. sales were up 2%, while EBITDA was up 6%. In 2025, Titan operations in Greece sustain their upward trajectory, delivering robust double-digit revenue growth underpinned by favorable market conditions and enhanced operational performance.

Bolt-on acquisitions and strategic alliances in Greece in France, aimed at broadening geographic reach and securing a leadership position in a rapidly expanding market. During the year, alternative fuel usage increased, thanks to a plant in commodity, reaching record levels approximately 60%.

In addition, higher alternative cementitious materials usage and process automation improvements unlock further value. Sales increased by 13% and EBITDA reached EUR 61 million, growing by 10%. I Titan's operations in Southeast Europe maintained stable revenue year-on-year as broadly unchanged volumes and pricing offset competitive pressures, particularly from import activity. Residential construction remained the primary demand driver across most markets, while infrastructure investment played a more prominent role in cement consumption in Bulgaria and Serbia.

Sales were flat year-on-year, while EBITDA impacted year-on-year due to higher raw materials, energy and labor costs and heightened import pressures primarily in Albania. EBITDA reached EUR 149 million versus the record $16 million in 2024.

In Egypt, improving demand conditions, regulatory oversight, along with a gradual rebalancing of supply and pricing dynamics drove growth. Egypt domestic cement market grew by 13%, supported by ongoing mega projects, also rising cement exports have positioned Egypt as a major regional export hub.

In Turkey, the group divested Adocim in 2025 and completed the Tracim acquisition in Q1 2026. Overall, East net sales reached EUR 251 million, up by 44%, while EBITDA quadrupled reaching EUR 62 million, driven by Egypt's performance.

Finally, in Brazil, domestic cement consumption in Brazil grew by 3.7% in '25. However, in the Northeast region, where we operate consumption rose by 7.2%. This performance was supported by strong housing activity and infrastructure projects.

In 2025, Apodi prioritized margin expansion by optimizing its product mix, geographic allocation and sales strategy. Our sales reached EUR 109 million, an increase of 7% like-for-like, while EBITDA reached EUR 32.8 million, an increase of 17% like-for-like.

Let's now take a look at the progress we have made in our digitalization transformation journey. In 2025, the financial impact of our digital deployments was around EUR 28 million. Some key milestones included digitization of more than 80% of our cement manufacturing assets, the rollout of ready-mix cement logistics solutions, Cypress in all Titan America, the launch of new pilots for quality prediction and mix design optimization, the successful proof of concept for robotic solutions at our cement plants and the gain of our first external customers for real-time optimizers by our digital business, AI.

On the customer experience front, by the end of 2025, we have digital customer portals live in all our business units with more than 90% adoption in BUs with mature solutions.

Looking at the 5-year plan, the investments to digitalize our business end to end are estimated to be more than EUR 60 million cumulatively by 2029, driving a margin uplift of 50 to 100 basis points.

Turning to ESG and looking at some of our sustainability metrics in 2025 and the group further advances its capitalization, SBTi validated targets by reducing its specific CO2 emissions to 594 kg per tonne of cementitious material, which is 12% down versus 2020 levels. This was driven by a record high alternative fuel thermal substitution rate of 22.3%. It's worth noting that a couple of key plans achieve thermal substitution rates levels above 50%.

Clinker to Cement ratio closed at 76.9%, a slight increase versus prior year. mainly due to a much higher cement exports from Egypt in 2025 versus '24. CO2 emissions per unit of revenue also fell to 3.51 and absolute net CO2 emissions decreased by approximately 500,000 tonnes. Notably, during the year, Titan received strong external recognition from leading ESG rating agencies.

Let's now look at some of our recent investments in innovation, in new product platforms and next-generation technologies. Starting with our entry into precast, as already discussed, in Western Europe, we acquired a leading precast concrete solutions provider based in Bosnia through a JV, while in the U.S., Titan America started its expansion into precast and prestressed Lintel after securing key approvals for more than 40 lintel products SKUs. All targeting to expand our portfolio of value-added concrete-based structural solutions.

During the year, in Greece, we have also created a new product platform for the building renovation segment with our expansion in the field of advanced motors and thermal insulation systems. Our ISO flagship carbon capture project, progress into advanced development in 2025 with feed studies underway and environmental permit secured.

In Patras, Greece, Titan is preparing to implement the Mekala technology for the first time, where the Titan Center of Advanced Technologies is being established for the design of high-performance next-gen materials following a partnership with decent policies.

On the digital innovation front, we have partnered with Citrix at the University of California, Berkeley to advance the development of digital twins for cement plants, an AI power technology that creates virtual models for processes systems and entire plants helping us stimulate and optimize our operations. At the same time, we're exploring new frontiers in robotics for plant monitoring and Gen-AI enabled smart maintenance.

At this point, I'll pass it over to Marcel to share with us the outlook of 2026.

Thank you, John. So I think if we go market-by-market before looking into the geopolitical elements of the context and then the guidance. U.S. remains a strong market for us. Construction market remains broadly stable in 2026 with elevated financing cost and persistent input inflation.

The growth drivers remain federal and infrastructure spending as well as manufacturing onshoring. And as I mentioned earlier, good exposure we have, particularly in Virginia, on data centers as well as Virginia is also the states where we have the majority of our sales in infrastructure projects, the demand drivers remain strong.

Of course, mixed residential markets expected to start growing in 2027. I think the supply shortage, we have announced it at the time of the Investor Day that is somewhere between 4 million and 5 million of housing shortage in a country with very strong demographics.

When we move to Greece and Western Europe, the absorption of recovery funds investments in construction and renewable energy that should continue driving sustained growth in construction market. We also see an increasingly strong private consumption and in the context of rising real wages, declining unemployment and fiscal discipline support growth.

And of course, the hospitality segment is a growing segment continue driving. Southeastern Europe, high comparables in the past, broadly positive resilience outlook in this region. Again, construction sector has momentum. Growth is driven by domestic consumption, increased public and private investments fueled by the foreign remittances Inflation should stabilize, supporting purchasing power and business confidence.

Finally, Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt economy is expected to grow driven by the reforms with moderate inflation. Our investments in silos and export capacity will boost the competitiveness of our exports. The fee economy is also expected to grow with structural reforms are on the way and of course, with post the Earthquake construction, multiplier effect, including in the region, we have recently made the acquisition in Greater Istanbul.

Easter. Let me also point to two things before the guidance, further geopolitical context. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East creates uncertainties with macroeconomic implications. Titan has no exposure to the affected regions. However, this confection implications including higher energy prices may impact market trends and increase inflationary risk, which we are constantly monitoring and we are focused on both mitigating the risks through hedging actions to mitigate any potential impact, but also for custom costs, cash flow, discipline, procurement as ramifications may appear.

Second is how to read our guidance precisely. Our like-for-like growth guidance is stated on constant scope and currency, it excludes the contribution of our recent acquisitions. As mentioned at the beginning of our call, we have already closed the transactions on Tracim and [indiscernible] which are already contributing positively to the results of the the contribution is real, funded and incremental to the like-for-like guidance, which is considered in sales at low single-digit EBITDA growth at mid-single digits, while we continue our CapEx program as per TITAN Forward 2029, all this to be reconfirmed mid-year.

Maybe to finish also on the note taking into account the first 2 months of 2026 are ahead of the prior year on a like-for-like basis, with February showing particular momentum is and Egypt are leading and again, Tracim and our operations in France are already contributing a positive early integration the integration signal.

With this, we can move Spyros to the questions. Yes, maybe you want to to take this one, differentiated investment proposition, which you have shared with more than 74.

Sorry, the phase. Yes, exactly. So basically, this is a chart that we would like to share with you where basically it shows how Titan is a differentiated investor proposition, where strong cash flow, general strong cash generation with a robust balance sheet. We are investing in our acquisitions, and we're focusing on our growth CapEx. We have a very good return to our shareholders with -- in the form of dividends and share buybacks.

All in all, it's a very balanced approach to our business, and we've been very confident with that.

Let's move to the questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of [ Kapadistatis ] with Axia Ventures.

I'm trying to -- can I clarify something before I ask the questions. Did you say that the organic expected organic like-for-like growth includes the closed acquisitions. It's a bit unclear whether Turkey tranching and France are considered like they're contributing to that low single-digit growth?

So yes, I repeat, they do not include the the non-organic growth. So as of end of February, we are consolidating our acquisition in France. And as of March, we are consolidating the tracing acquisition. So their contribution is to be considered on top of the guidance, which is like-for-like. That means that constant ForEx and foreign scope.

And it's in line with our Forward 2029 strategy estimate.

So on the guidance, I've got a couple of questions. So on the organic part, the question is, can you help us understand exactly what are you blending in, in terms of even in conflict, how does it affect post FY 2026? That's number one.

Then on the organic part, it's quite clear that, of course, we are consolidating those two acquisitions, particularly on touching you have expectations of [indiscernible] EBITDA in 2020. The question is, is 2026 going to be pro rata 2027 pretty much? Or there is some ramping up of production to be done in 2026? And it's not going to be rather than out of 12x [indiscernible]

And then if you could give us an indication of the timing -- expected timing for closing Keystone acquisition in U.S.?

And also last one because I'll end -- it's too many questions. And pretty operational question. Is the plan to move away from or partially move away from the agreement with the third-party distributor in [indiscernible] and optimize volumes? Are you locked in some part of agreement regarding that?

Could you repeat the last question, please?

And last question regarding Keystone. I understand you have a third-party agreement for distribution to Youngstown -- is that locking you in? Can you break out -- I mean, is your intention to divert volumes and where you expect to optimize operations? Is there any lock-in contracts with them?

Thank you. Quite a number of questions. So again, the first 2 months of the year are ahead of the prior year when it comes to the like-for-like basis, February is showing particular momentum. Again, we have good volumes in both in Greece and Egypt. U.S., the February volumes were a bit softer due to wet weather, but that's a timing effect. However, we see in aggregate flyer blocks already good growth year-on-year and a strong backlog very good pricing in Greece and some of the markets, and we have also announced price increases in in U.S., which we will monitor the dematerialization more in the next month.

So in this context, we are guiding sales growth for the year now on EBITDA growth we say mid-single digits. Of course, that takes into account some headwinds from the current crisis. We have estimated them particularly in terms of freight, which may impact our seaborne trading, the ramifications, which would be on the the energy cost. But given the fact that we are not we are not exposed to the affected regions that we have for our electricity, I just give an example of Greece. We are hedged that 50% of our consumption the fact that we have a large number of our vessels already contracted. We expect very limited impact based on the current estimates.

Depending on what will happen on energy prices as well as the duration of the conflict, this crisis could also result in other pricing actions, which we would be evaluating later in the year. So very limited impact for now in the EBITDA of the quarter of the first half.

Too your question, if it's pro rata. I have already mentioned. So the two operations in Istanbul and in France, they are working. They are firing from all the engines. So we already see a positive trading result from both operations as of March, and we'll give you more details in the quarter 1 results. So they will be consolidated for months, respectively, 10 months of the year with a positive impact in the group, which will be in excess of EUR 40 million EBITDA for the year.

In terms of closing of Keystone, we have communicated previously. This is subject to customary approvals of antitrust authorities we are in the middle of that process. We could expect more to say in the second half of this year. And we will not comment on any specific decisions on the commercial policy or industrial policy of Keystone. Just remind you that this this acquisition presents multiple synergies with our positions in -- on the East Coast.

So once we will have the antitrust approvals, we will provide the full account of the synergies but we have already indicated that this will be EPS accretive of year 2.

The next question is from the line of Bourazanis Marios with Eurobank Equities.

Hello. Thank you for your presentation. I hope you can hear me Yes. So I just wanted to get a sense of what your view was on the outlook for pricing in the U.S. in 2026? And more specifically, if you believe that a lower CO2 price here in Europe could significantly improve margins for cement exports from great to the U.S.? That's my first question.

And also a second question, if I may. If you can please comment on the view around the potential changes in the ETS ruling. If you expect any potentially lower CO2 price environment to have any meaningful impact on margins and cement either in Greece or Bulgaria?

So look, let me separate the things. In U.S., the headlines, cement price numbers in 2025 was flat, but that marks meaningful mix effect across our geographies and product channels. So on a like-for-like basis, the pricing has not going into 2026. We have announced price increases across every product line, [indiscernible] cement, then on ready mix on aggregate, markets where we operate, we have an integrated business model, so particularly Florida and Virginia. So that gives us significantly more pricing latitude.

So taking into account these elements of geography, packaging, delivery needs, we estimate that the like-for-like price increase in U.S. will be low single digit. These are pushed to April, and we will report more on the quarter 1 results.

On the impact of CO2 prices, as I reminder that we are long on CO2 right. And we do not -- we are not guided by the CO2 prices in the pricing of our products, particularly in markets which are under or in European union, we have already operated price increases in both markets. You mentioned in Greece and Bulgaria, more details will give you at quarter 1, but we are we are precedent and happy with the pricing resilience in this market.

When it comes to ETS, indeed, this year, there will be a wide consultation on the new phase of ETS. This is a very laborious process, which will take several months. For sure, there will be changes, but we do not expect radical changes, the predictability will offer again, the opportunity to be specific about the profitable decarbonization process that that we will continue.

Again, we are running a number of projects with with high decarbonization at stake, including a project, which is an engineering phase here in Athens. In Kamal, this project, the go-no-go decision and the financial closure is estimated to take place next year. So by then, we will have even more viability on the product mix, depending also on the ETS changes.

The next question is from the line of [indiscernible] On Field Investment Research.

Thank you for the presentation, first. I just want to come back to the price increase in the U.S., like how confident are you to pass the low single-digit price increase in April. Then what price increase did you announced in January in Greece and Bulgaria and how much are sticking? And then just on the outlook, what energy cost inflation is assumed in the 2026 guidance? And what is the volume and price split for 2026 in target for sales, please?

Yes. If you could repeat the last question, please?

It's just about the split between volume and prices for the 2026 to single-digit growth target for sales.

In which markets you are -- in general?

Yes, in general, just about the outlook.

Yes. So again, the environment in U.S. is positive after 2 months in the year with a strong backlog. And we'll comment more on the price increases and the way they materialize in the market at the publication of the first quarter results we see positive price increase already in the market when it comes to aggregates and ready mix.

And in April, we will communicate more on how we see that in cement. Again, pricing is a function of mix of deliveries of products and geographies and will provide the full account on this, in line with what we have already announced in the past.

On the -- on the price increases in recent Bulgaria, they have a bit high single digits, and they have been successfully implemented already sticking in both markets. On the volume and price split for the low single digits, again, -- this is the like-for-like excludes the acquisitions, and it goes it goes almost at 50%-50% for each of them on a low single digits. So you could expect pricing in line with inflation and volumes, again, slightly higher.

Okay. And just last question about the energy cost inflation. Like what energy cost inflation is assumed in your 2026 guidance?

Our 2026 guidance, given the fact that we keep improving our use of alternative fuels. We have -- we are on a full swing after investments over the past few years in particularly our plants in Greece and Bulgaria where -- we have reached an average of more than 60% with, I would say, crude speed of 80% at the end of the year. So we will have a very nice total substitution rate there very attractive prices. So that brings flat fuel cost. And as I mentioned for the other energy component, particularly the electricity part, we are already hedged at 50% and we have considered in line with inflation increases, which again will result in a price over cost being positive.

The next question is from the line of [indiscernible] with Optima Bank.

My question is already answered.

The next question is from the line of Rolf John with Crescent Capital.

I appreciate all the detail. Just a few more questions on energy. What does energy represent as a percentage of your total cost of goods?

And then secondly, you mentioned that in Greece, you were hedged about 50% of your energy consumption. Is that hedge ratio similar across other markets where you guys are active and typically how far out are you hedging? Is it sort of for the current fiscal year?

Thanks, John, for your question. So look, we operate in a very diversified portfolio of geographies where our fuels are our energy costs in total costs are varying. Just to give you an example for fuel for our klin if at the group level is 8%, that represents only 4% in North America and 18% in Southeastern Europe. If you take electricity, that represents 9% at the group level in in total cost, which is 19% in Europe, and it's only 2% in North America. So because you are calling from U.S., our total energy cost is only 9% of our cost in North America.

So that explains also partly the -- what I'm going to say on your second question, so we have hedging agreements in a very limited number of markets. Greece is rather the exception on the other markets, we are attuned to what's happening on the spot market, which gives us also the flexibility of applying a very agile pricing strategy.

Great. And then just one other follow-up with respect to the 2029 targets. I don't know if you guys have talked about this before, but the sales growth target of 6% to 8% per annum -- have you talked about how much of that you would expect to be organic and how much of that would be driven by M&A?

Yes. So at the time of the Investor Day, and we have published the numbers. We have announced that 2/3 will come from volume, price and mix effects on the the existing scope and 1/3 will come from the new businesses, including M&A.

And we have the last question for today. Yes. The last question is from Hoste Wim with KBC Securities.

I have two, please. Can you maybe first comment on the Turkish growth plan, given that there is a potential for building a second line? Can you put some or give some comments on potential timing, potential contribution you expect from both first line when fully optimized and then the second line?

And then the second question I have is on -- and partly related to that maybe is the CapEx envelope for the group is EUR 350 million to EUR 400 million for this year. Can you elaborate what are the biggest projects in that CapEx and [indiscernible]

Yes, I will take the first and then John, please on CapEx -- we are very excited about the investment in Turkiye and Istanbul. Istanbul is the driving market with more than 10 million inhabitants and a very vibrant housing and infrastructure market with large infrastructure products, which are currently being financed by public investments, mainly on transport infrastructure, but also on energy infrastructure including near by large power plants, including new nuclear -- civil nuclear power plants.

So that will create a multiplying effect high cement intensity in the market, which is currently running at a slight deficit in terms of supply. It's a plant, which is running at 100% of its capacity utilization rate. So a lot of synergies are affected in the short term. We are already working with an integration team on site projects on alternative fuels, on product mix in using lower cost cement issues, improving the thermal and electricity consumption.

So all this will yield in good synergies for the year. And at the same time, we are looking into developing the engineering of the second line as we discussed, as we are permitted, we expect more to say on this towards the end of the year. So value accretive from year 1 and a priority investment for us is to finalize by September in a joint venture solar power plants, which provides almost 40% of the needs of the plant, which will already have an impact of plus 10% on the current EBITDA of tranching. So that is an expected EBITDA in the range of EUR 40 million, EUR 45 million.

On CapEx?

Yes, on CapEx, our guideline is EUR 350 million to EUR 400 million. approximately about EUR 100 million and $125 million normally per year goes to our maintenance CapEx just to maintain a world-class and safe asset base. And the remaining EUR 200 million and EUR 250 million will focus again on growth initiatives. And as I've mentioned earlier, this will be behind expansion of quarries and storage and acquisition of new trucks, new pumps and new plants as well as some of the funds will go towards some cost efficiencies, either logistics improvements, digital digitization to basically drive efficiency, throughput and more cost savings.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your questions and for your interest, and thank you for acknowledging our great start of the year and a very strong finish of the past year. We will see, again on the 7th of May when we will be discussing the first quarter 2026 result.

And yes, Spyros is also telling me that on the 27th of March, we will have the integrated annual report published, which will provide more color to the results of 2025. Thank you again. Have a good day ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me well? Very good. Lots of energy in the room. So good afternoon, everybody. It's a pleasure to welcome you to Titan's Investor Day here in Athens, Greece, on this day. We're delighted to host today a wide universe of audience. We have analysts, we have investors, we have representatives from banks and the whole finance ecosystem. So thank you very much for being here today. We also have members from our Executive Committee and also have BOD members. So thank you all for your support, and your presence is greatly appreciated.

By way of introduction, I'm Spyros Kamizoulis. I'm heading the relation -- Investor Relations here at Titan. And we have planned for you today a quite packed agenda. It's going to be close to 3 hours. So please be mindful of the timing.

When I was -- when you had a rehearsal yesterday, let me share a thing. It was raining cats and dogs. And when we had the previous Investor Day back in 2023, on the day of the event itself, it was shiny. But the previous day, it was raining cats and dogs. And the share price at that time, it was EUR 18. So if you're looking for a pattern given today's sunny weather, I hope there is one.

Now during that last time, we've done a lot of things. We've delivered solid performance. We've seen meaningful actions across all the pillars of our strategy. We've strengthened the business fundamentals. We're advancing decarbonization, accelerated digitalization, but eventually, all that help us into capturing growth opportunities.

So what do we plan for you today? Again, we're going to start by some presentations that's not going to take much long before we go to the break. We start by a welcome speech. Then we deep dive into the characteristics of the U.S. region as well as of the Europe and the East Mediterranean. Then we're going to have a break, 15 minutes. Please be spot on that. And then we're going to follow up with some sessions on sustainability, ACMs, alternative cementitious materials. You're going to be listening to that acronym many times today, but also many times in the future. Then we're going to follow up with a deep dive on digital and technologies, how all these technologies are shaping the future and how do they help Titan?

Then we're going to speak for something that I think most of you in the room care about, numbers. So it's going to be the finance part. And then we're going to have some closing remarks and a Q&A session. What is going to follow after our exhibition booths. Most of you have seen them outside. There is a number on your name tag. You can all see the name or the group you're allocated to. And then we're going to be split into 3 different groups, and we're going to be switching those 3 different booths. More to come later on.

So you can see the presenters in the screen, but you can also see them on the printed booklet that you have in front of you, which is the presentation. You can also find the CVs of the presenters at the appendix at the end of the booklet. Now let me ask you for one thing before we go to the main content. Let me ask you to make sure that your mobiles are on mute. And then before we begin, I'd like to thank everybody who contributed to this event. And also I'd like to thank our investors and partners for their continued trust and also the engagement we've been having for the last couple of years. Then I think we're ready to go. So before we go to the first speech, let's take a moment to capture how Titan is moving forward. Let's see a little bit the progress of the people, but also the vision that we have for the future.

[Presentation]

Welcome, welcome [indiscernible] all. it's great to see familiar and new faces. On behalf of the whole Titan team, the whole Titan family, we're so happy you joined us. Thanks for taking the time. And we hope you -- you'll see that it's going to be useful and insight building. So with this, I give the floor to our Chair, Dimitri.

Hello, everyone. Over the next couple of hours, Marcel and the team will take you through the nitty-gritty of what is, in my mind, a pretty compelling growth strategy for the next 3 or 4 years as we look ahead. And in terms of introduction, Alexandra and I, who have spent the better part of our professional careers shepherding this company through good times and bad over the last 30 years, we'd like to zoom out just a bit and look at the broader picture. So any company that has been around and has survived -- indeed thrived for 123 years has developed a certain -- has learned how to develop a certain number of capabilities that allow it to grow, to adapt and to evolve. And it's easy to underestimate how important it is to create the context in which it is possible to create and sustain those capabilities.

And having a sense of purpose and clear set of values to drive behaviors is a very important part of that. At Titan, we have explicitly articulated a purpose that says that we want to make the world around us a safe, sustainable and enjoyable place to live. And yes, we do believe that a cement company can help make the world more enjoyable as hard as a team sometimes.

Now that sense of purpose is underpinned by 4 core values, which we have refreshed recently: we care, we dare, we build to last, we walk the talk. We care about safety. We care about our customers. We care about our people. We care about the communities around our plants. We care about the environment. We dare to take on challenging jobs. We dare to innovate and take risks and think out of the box. We build to last by focusing both on the long term and the short term, by collaborating inside the company and outside the company and by striving to continuously improve. And we walk the talk by keeping our promises, by delivering results by leading by example.

Now for some, all that may sound a bit soft and wishy-washy. And for some, it might even engender a sense of cynicism in today's world. But for us, it's the bedrock of our culture. And although we are far from perfect and we have stumbled in the past, and we will no doubt stumble many times again in the future, it is this set of values and purpose that allow us to pursue long-term sustainable value creation for our shareholders, which is, after all, the reason we are here.

Now this set of values in turn, drives a culture, a culture that as some say, eats strategy for breakfast, a culture that allows a company that has been listed since 1912 and responds to the day-to-day of the stock market, but also is still controlled by a core shareholder group that is dedicated and passionate about the business. And those 2 allow us to combine long-term value creation with short-term performance. It is a culture that allows us to demand meritocracy while at the same time having a human face and being able to be caring. It is a culture that allows us to view decarbonization or digitalization as an opportunity, not a threat. It's a culture at a time of radical transparency in which we can be transparent because there isn't much to hide. And it's a culture that in our complicated business allows us to have continuity and resilience, but at the same time, agility and innovation. It is that culture, in my mind, that has played a crucial role and allow us to navigate the various phases of our history.

Our first phase, first 60 years of the business, the business was basically the [indiscernible] plant. That was it. A business that early on learned to export since the '20s, a business that survived world wars in occupation and near destruction, which allowed us to move to the second phase, one of national expansion as Greece industrialized in the '60s and '70s, we expanded across the country and also developed our particular distinctive approach to what later came to be called corporate social responsibility. And then in the '90s, we were finally allowed to look outside the borders and that led to international expansion to our current multinational footprint around 4 continents, and allow us to also vertically integrate Beyond cement into related businesses. And that, in turn, is leading Alexandra to this decade with a new phase,.

Thanks, Dimitri. And coming to the present and the future, we truly believe we're on the cusp of a new era that's going to prove to be transformational for our products and our markets. And those who know me know that I don't really use that word. I think it's often used in an exaggerated way, but give me a minute to tell you why we think that our markets are on the cusp of a transformational era because it will give the context to a lot of what you're going to hear for the rest of the day. We've been blessed with products with a super long life cycle. So super steady returns, super steady markets. And over time, there's been megatrends like urbanization or like infrastructure development or like need for affordable housing that have developed our markets. But the current megatrends, be it the imperative for decarbonization, be it the demand for new high-performance concrete, these are quite transformational. These are going to change our product radically and not just our product. At the same time, the advent of AI is changing our process. It's changing the way we operate our facilities, the way we interact with our clients, the way we manage our logistics. So it is no exaggeration to say that we are in a transformational era, and we're going to capture that era at scale, at speed.

In short, I think if there's a message and it's going to permeate every speakers, I think, address to you is that at Titan, we embrace change as an opportunity for growth. And I'll just take 2 minutes to guide you why we think we're also well positioned to capture opportunities along 3 lines. First, our geographic markets, right, our presence. And starting with the U.S., which is by far our largest market. Those of you and many of you here, I think, follow our results reporting. Titan America in what has been a relatively soft market because of weak housing demand, residential demand, has outperformed markets in recent years. And we're here as we're standing to say that trends looking forward, the outlook is quite positive, right? On a national level, we have sort of interest rates expected to start declining slowly. This should bring a rebound in residential. Infrastructure will continue to be strong. So all in all, we expect the nationwide trends to be super positive. And at the same time, we are present in some of the highest growth markets in the country. But what's more important is our network of assets, a network of assets that with huge capabilities that's vertically integrated, able to deliver the best product to our customers. So we expect for us to -- for our performance to keep exceeding the trend as we move into this next phase in the U.S.

Similar story in Europe. There, too, maybe it's national borders, but we're talking about a network of tightly run assets with significant operational capabilities and synergies amongst them. Not only that, but we are leaders in most of these markets. We have a strong brand name. And above all, we're super local. We're very close to the local communities, local markets, local customers. So in Europe, you'll hear much more about our delivery of low-carbon cements, of alternative cementitious materials, this word you're going to keep hearing, our drive for new product technologies and new products. At the same time, East Med, clearly our lowest performing region until recently is rebounding nicely. The macro backdrop is improving. Demand in the local markets is improving. But more importantly, we continue to think about these markets as long-term growth potential markets, the demographics underpinning this, the economies. And more to the present, these are very cost-competitive markets.

So it's a basis where they can start expanding their export potential and be very complementary to our other 2 businesses. In short, throughout the 3 regions, we expect to keep exceeding the market growth trend. Now that's our geographic markets, the materials. You're going to hear a lot about how we're broadening the product portfolio. Clearly, we're going to keep investing in our core heavy building materials. This is where most of the cash flow will come from in the coming years, and we're going to keep being very disciplined in how we execute on investments in this domain. What you're going to hear a lot more about is the future value pools, the future growth pockets that we see, namely alternative cementitious materials, new high-performing concrete products, pockets of growth like precast, all these new products that we're going to deliver to the market at speed. And what will become evident is we're going to use innovation to drive a lot of these new products. So that's going to permeate again every speech you here, not just here, but also in the moves, how you'll be showcased with a lot of case studies of how we use innovation and it will become quite clear what innovation means in our industry.

And finally, coming to our operational model -- our model of operation. We have always prided ourselves in being world-class in terms of our operational performance. And we've done this through some pretty systematic and disciplined, well-executed industrial and digital investments. On top of that, we have some pretty unique core capabilities that we built on. And it goes back to operational excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, being close and very local in each market, coupled with some pretty unique capabilities. And just to name a couple that you're going to hear for the rest of the day. One is our proprietary ash beneficiation technology, which allows us to bring to market cementitious materials in a way that other competitors will find hard to replicate. The other one is our digital -- our sort of broad digital tools that we develop. Now this is a journey we started 10 years ago, but now we're going faster at scale, and we're pioneering this in our industry, whether it's the real-time optimizers we use the predictive maintenance tools. So a lot of efficiencies to be driven out of that, which brings me to the new operating model. We're going to look to leverage all of these capabilities, driving innovation, developing new technologies, and providing true commercial excellence.

And this is the best way to segue into presenting the next speaker, the Chairman of our Group Executive Committee, Marcel Cobuz, who's going to guide you through the new operating model and a 5-year strategy. Marcel?

Good afternoon. Hello, everyone. Thank you, Dimitri and Alexandra. Big thanks to our core shareholder group for your passion, your commitment and your endorsement of our Titan Forward 2029. Thank you to all investors in the room. Thank you for having Titan as your preferred investment. And thank you to all those who cover us on equity or debt markets day in, day out. This is your event. And what a nice setting we have found and how blessed we are with this weather. It's unprecedented to see just a few steps away so many cranes in one of the project, which is the largest urban regeneration project in Europe, 2 million square meters, EUR 8 billion in investments. And I can tell you that we have 2 state-of-the-art ready-mix plants there. And I call concrete a liquid stone. So every second liquid stone, which is poured in high-rise infrastructure or housing comes from Titan. And not far from here, maybe tens of kilometers away, we have a cement plant, which is a testing bed for the newest technologies in cement. It's a flagship plant, the Kamari plant for Titan, where we are also exploring these days, one of the newest technologies, a breakthrough technology, which is carbon capture and storage. All this in a perimeter, not far from where our Investor Day is today.

Let me walk you through the 6 messages of today. The first one is that consistently over the last 3 years, quarter in, quarter out, Titan has outperformed the markets it's operating in and the peers it's compared to. This is the strongest proof that execution capabilities are there, and we are ready for the next interval. The second message, and we'll provide you more details, is about achieving our 2026 targets 1 year in advance, at the same time, investing in growth, which is a proxy for the years to come. And you know that we have also delivered a top total shareholders' return. Last time I checked, it was close to 260% compared to 1st of January 2023.

That brings me to the third message. Being listed on 3 European exchanges, Athens, Euronext, Brussels and Paris and more recently, on New York Stock Exchange for our U.S. business, that gives us the opportunity to look at the sum of the parts, looking at the market caps of our various parts of the group, which shows today significant value upside. Practically, with the multiples applied to peers, with no discount -- trading discount, Titan deserves twice as much the market cap of today. Third, value growth is to come in Europe and U.S. We are seeing it as a multiyear growth cycle for the decade. And we are well positioned, and I will go to that in a moment, leveraging on 3 value drivers. Alternative cementitious materials, let me decrypt it. It's time. These are materials that we started using a couple of years back, both for high performance, but also for decarbonizing our footprint. They can replace clinker, which is a byproduct of our manufacturing process, which is highly carbon charged. So they can replace clinker in cement and they can replace cement into concrete. So these alternative materials is a key strategic direction for us. We have it Pozolan. That's the way Coliseum was built many millennia ago and not for decarbonization reasons, but for proximity reasons.

Technology and AI, that's our proxy for continuous improvement of our cost base as well as of our interactions with the customers, our logistics and premium services and the financial strength. The fourth message, and today, we will give you enough directions and enough information for all the models of equity analysis to be rebuilt. We will be deploying EUR 3 billion to EUR 4 billion in capital over the next 4 years, mainly on growth, growth CapEx and M&A. The fourth message is that we are ambitioning to build -- to take the company for its current level of close to EUR 3 billion in sales to a EUR 4 billion company in sales, with margin expansion of 250 to 300 basis points, targeting double-digit profitability and top returns in the 15% to 17% top of the class. That's what Titan Forward 2029 is about. That's our commitment -- shared commitment of the 6,000-plus team strong for the next years to come, building a future ready Titan, delivering top-of-class growth and returns top of class to shareholders.

But it's a team sport. And behind the early achievements of our 2023 strategy, which we delivered 1 year in advance and pushing the targets for 2029, it's a team which is highly diverse, powerful, international. And the top team is bringing more than 700 years of experience in the industry, including transformative years, the decarbonization years or the high-growth years, but also an agile team, which knows how to manage through the cycle.

We have most of our markets managed with locals, with various nationalities, people coming from the markets. with more than 20-plus market-specific experiences. And we have a nice blend of having together veterans as well as 1/3 of the top team joining from outside, technologists, sales and marketing specialists, business developers, M&A specialists or new materials.

Where is Titan today? Just in a nutshell, close to EUR 3 billion company. We will go into details later on how we topped our earnings per share, a true measure of long-term value creation as well as 17.7% for the second year in a row in terms of return on capital employed, one of the highest in the industry. The sum of dividends, share buyback and extraordinary dividends post IPO, they bring the shareholder returns to more than EUR 350 million.

The credit rating recently reassigned by Fitch and Standard & Poor's at BB+ with positive outlook. But Titan is changing. And I would point out 2 metrics there. One is that out of the 6,000 people we have, 3,000 have joined since December 2022, since early 2023. That shows how much Titan is transforming itself, not only in entering new markets, but also in rejuvenating its teams, in creating capabilities and the strategy is there also to have a common direction forward. But also the second metric is the number of bolt-ons or mergers and acquisitions, the number of strategic partnerships or joint ventures we have built over the past 3 years, starting with 2 in 2023 and ending with almost 4 in the last quarter, including the one in Northern France for which we just signed an executive -- an exclusive negotiation.

Over the period '23, '25, we have also deployed EUR 700 million in growth CapEx which is the proxy for the growth expected this year and next year as most of them went into capacity expansion, downstream channels management, but also additional storage and additional reserves of alternative cementitious materials. You've seen from the video, we praise ourselves for keeping the flag on being one of the most sustainable companies in the world as an accolade from time and also walking the line as a publicly listed company on multiple exchanges offering itself as a preferred investment.

When it comes to the portfolio, those of you who follow us, you know this by heart, but I would like to leave you with 3 messages. One is we have a well-balanced geographical portfolio, within U.S., a strong growth engine, but also Europe where the carbon management initiatives are paying off or Southeastern Europe, which has an infrastructure-led growth, but also with peripheral positions, which are excellent for low-cost delivered cements, low-cost delivered exports as well as cementitious play. The second message is that we are present in these 2 pillars of growth with all our business lines. We have cement and alternative cementitious materials at 40% to 76%, depending if you look at U.S. or Europe. We have a strong vertical integration, how we bring those products to the market and offering premiumized services with presence of ready-mix on both sides, on both pillars.

We have an increasing exposure to aggregates, which is, I would say, countercyclical given the infrastructure push now for 2 decades in the row to continue. And we have an increasing number of smaller activities. So we are increasingly sophisticated with a strong brand equity on all our markets. The third message is about our exposure to the end markets. We are not exposed only to one segment, be it residential or be it commercial. We are almost equally depending on like our CEO of Titan America says ZIP code by ZIP code or our CEO of Europe says, follow the customer where the demand is. We can follow at the same time, infrastructure, commercial and residential. And you will find when you compare us with our peers that this is a rather unique strength that Titan has in its markets.

We'll not spend more time on the noise, the signals and the mega trends. Just to say that the signals are positive. Yes, we face -- we are facing headwinds on the macro and geopolitical volatility, be it on the interest rates, on trade policy, on energy costs, but at Titan, we know how to mitigate them. We are operating in markets with high energy costs. At the same time, we have doubled our investments in using renewable energy or using low carbon fuels, which have offset part of these costs.

The regionalization of supply chain is music to our ears. Thanks to our operating model, local for local, we are managing local assets for local customers with local teams with unmatched local logistics, we can navigate the shorter supply chain. And we will seize the opportunity of the U.S. onshoring, and, for the decade to come, the EU enlargement, thanks also to our great exposure to the Western Balkans.

The increasing demand of the [indiscernible] type of materials, the pozzolan or the alternative cementitious material is a fact. And having added more than 150 million tons of reserves positions us well to face that demand for the years to come. Partly is regulatory. 1st of January 2026, the carbon border adjustment mechanism will enter into force at the borders of European Union. We are prepared to face the further reduction of CO2 emissions, regulatory base by improving our materials offerings to the customer.

We are prepared given the supply-demand dynamics and the fact that U.S. is a net importer market to bring these materials from outside U.S. to complement our positions of clinker and cement in the market. The tech revolution, AI-driven demand, we are embracing it early at all levels in the interactions with our customers, in the demand of our customers. I think [indiscernible] will mention what's our share of wallet in the data centers in U.S. We are present in Virginia, the capital of data centers. But we also have data centers and AI infrastructure here in Greece, where we are supplying our liquid stone to one of the projects here. So the hyperscalers and data center is one of our key segment. And I invite you all after we have the plenary session to spend time, we have a booth here with our marketing teams and innovation teams, and they will walk you through how we look at the market differently, starting with the end user needs in mind, and therefore, we are tailoring offerings for marine construction, for hospitality, for waterways and highways, but also for data centers, and there are some very nice proof points that you will see there.

But AI and tech is also impacting our next-generation manufacturing, and we will provide you today more proof points on how the return on investment is 500% by investing, sensorizing and sweating our assets. Finally, the fundamentals of the business are stronger than ever. The EU and U.S. have an infrastructure stimulus. The underbuilt housing on the Eastern U.S. side or on European side is in millions of units. And the postwar reconstruction, be it in Syria, in Ukraine, is not far from the markets where we can supply these markets as the time evolves.

So shaping those markets at different paces and riding those trends is something that we plan to do.

We'll come just for a second on the achievement of our targets. Just to leave you with 2 messages here. Sales growth, close to EUR 3 billion. We had some portfolio optimization. We are there. We have reached overall a 7% annual growth rate. EBITDA over proportional, which shows also the margin expansion of more than 200 basis points over the next -- over the past 3 years, and we have doubled EBITDA compared to 4 years ago. At the same time, a true measure of long-term value creation is the return on capital employed, where we had a target of 12%, we have over delivered and we are consistently at 17.8%, more than double of what we used to have and earnings per share almost tripled compared to 3 years ago. And you will see we have even more ambitious targets to come.

More importantly, our net debt-to-EBITDA level has reduced divided by 5, which shows the strength of our balance sheet going forward. But it's not only numbers, it's the whole foundational capabilities that we have built over these years, unlocking funds for growth, thanks to the IPO on Titan America and a strong generation of free cash flow, invested already EUR 700 million, which brought the results of 2023, 2024, 2025, but also as a proxy for the years to come. The 15 bolt-ons and joint ventures and 13 venture capital investment in technology shows the appetite of us working with partners across the ecosystem, but also the appetite of others working with Titan.

Overall, a replenishment of our product portfolio, almost 1/3, mainly low carbon, high performance and around cementitious, but also the entry into precast. And I hope today, we will excite you about the merits of being in precast for faster construction, affordability, dealing with the labor scarcity on sites and also another decarbonized way of diversifying our revenue stream.

That brings me to the strategic priorities for capturing growth for the next 4 years. No surprise. We remain focused on heavy materials on our core businesses of cement and aggregates, where we will continue investing in order to deliver superior growth, above market growth. The second is to double down on alternative materials platform. We have added 150 million tonnes of reserves. We plan to add another 100 million over the interval, and pivoting our business model with an end-to-end, managing the source, but managing also the time to market of these materials, both in cement as well as in concrete and creating accretive value. The third is investing in and scaling up on technologies and innovation, including new platforms like precast, but also platforms which could expose us increasingly to renovation and refurbishment market. So we can be at the same time on the new build as well as on the renovation market, capturing that growth value pool. And all this based on a strong operating model where commercial excellence, new ways of selling and a market-based performance model is going to be strengthened.

Let's zoom on each of them for a few minutes. On the core heavy materials business, cement and aggregates, we plan to allocate up to EUR 2 billion. That is in growth CapEx and M&A, mainly bolt-ons, but we will not shy away from bigger moves as they present to be attractive. First, we will continue having the house in order and managing the cost at a leading level. Our industrial cost, decarbonization cost, digital efficiencies, we plan to have them at EUR 100 million, which will be immediately into the margin expansion, mainly on energy decarbonization using lower carbon fuels or renewable on the materials using less carbon materials or digitalization of the assets. On the footprint, what you can expect from us is that we will work hard to manage the supply-demand dynamics in U.S., where we are a net importer and increase the cement capacity in U.S., taking the advantage of value upstream, but also investing in the export mix assets in the Eastern Mediterranean, in Turkey, in Egypt, where we do have capacities, which can be put on the market at low delivered cost.

The commercial transformation and leveraging our newly launched branding family, Titan Edge for high performance of Titan Premier for premium services. That's going to accompany the introduction of the low clinker materials and new markets. And I already mentioned about our approach to segmentation, which is end markets users in view.

And finally, it's about doubling down on aggregates, countercyclical with -- taking the advantage of large infrastructure stimulus projects everywhere where we will continue investing in bolt-ons. We have just added over the past year, thanks to 4 acquisitions in Greece, close to 200 million tons of aggregates, again, in an infrastructure-led growth market. Second, deploying EUR 0.5 billion capital in reserves and M&A to boost our alternative cementitious materials. This is a real source of diversification of our revenue. We plan to have it at 10% or more of our sales by 2029, selling the product at different levels across the value chain, upstream, replacing clinker, downstream, replacing cement while creating value. With the creation of 3 to 4 new multi-material hubs in U.S. and Europe and the transaction we have entered into an exclusive negotiation in France is one of those beginning of proofs for this adaptable delivery model. And the last one is leveraging our proprietary technology. Again, I invite you to see outside in the booth. We have brought a model of one of our machines, which is unique and which allowed us recently to win a project in U.K., a decommissioned power plant, which had material -- waste material for years, landfilled. And thanks to our investment and leveraging our proprietary technology, we are reclaiming that material, we are putting back in the market at a premium value and replacing high carbon material.

Last, if it goes, it is about innovation and new technologies. So here, we will -- we have already announced a number of hubs closer to the market in terms of innovation. And we are also inaugurating a center for advanced technologies here in Patras in Greece, which will be an opportunity to showcase new technologies, including activation of cementitious, so the new generation of what will follow after the Pozolan and others, but also the carbon capture and storage that will happen in Greece. So it's here.

EUR 100 million allocated to innovation. And EUR 400 million in total for product adjacencies platforms, precast, but also exposure to building renovation segment as well as new technologies for the next-generation manufacturing. Again, this fellow over here, you can see it outside. That's physical AI. It's a robot, which would revolutionize the way the primary inspection and the maintenance is done in our plants. This allocation of investment, a primary, it's mainly the key buckets, will allow us, again, to remain a preferred investment in the sector, bringing the company to a EUR 4 billion level of sales, the result of a sales growth of 6% to 8%, an overproportional growth or a margin expansion of 250 to 300 basis points, which primarily comes from price over cost, but also from cost efficiencies, digital efficiencies as well as a number of bolt-ons.

Earnings per share and ROCE will continue to improve, doubling the level of today in terms of EPS, moving from 4% to almost 6% and ROCE remaining at the level of 17%, while [indiscernible] remaining at BB+ or investment grade with a net debt to EBITDA less than 2x, while investing EUR 100 million in innovation, creating operational efficiencies of EUR 100 million and maintaining our trajectory of reducing CO2.

In summary, that's our commitment as a team to build a future-ready Titan delivering top-of-class growth and returns and focusing our investments on value growth markets in Europe and U.S. while maintaining top returns of 17%.

With this, I hope you will all get excited with more granular news market by market, and I will hand it over to our CEO of Titan America, [indiscernible]

Thanks for joining. I'm proud to represent Titan America is a leading supplier of construction materials services and solutions in the U.S. And we believe that as a member of the group, but also as a listed company in the New York Stock Exchange, we believe we are the right choice for investors that want to participate in the new era of growth of the construction industry in the U.S. We have a unique vertically integrated business model.

We have a hard to replicate logistics network. We have the capacity and the capabilities to capture the growing demand for our materials, and we have an experienced management team with a proven track record of outperforming the market. I would like first to introduce Titan America for those of you who are not familiar.

We are a supplier in the construction material across the Eastern seaboard markets of our country. Our markets include 3 out of the 11 economic mega regions in U.S., which are powerhouses of growth, productivity and innovation. They represent about 25% of the population, the GDP and the consumption of construction materials. We have leading positions in these very attractive markets. Looking at our key markets, we have 30% market share, taking cement as a proxy, 30% market share in Florida, 32% market share in Virginia and North Carolina and 24% market share combined in Metro New York and New Jersey.

So we have leading positions in very attractive markets. Let me just talk just a bit about the success story of Titan America. The purple line is Titan America sales volume since 2013. And the green line is the consumption of cement in the markets where we operate. As you can see, the Titan America team consistently outperforms the market. Our annual growth rate has been 7% in a market that grows at 2%.

So we outperformed the market by 500 basis points. On top of that, the Titan America team has been delivering an unmatched financial performance. Over the 11 years, our revenue has quadrupled to $1.7 billion in the last 12 months. Our EBITDA has grown 10x to $380 million, and we delivered a return on capital employed, which is above 20%. So the Titan America management team has a consistent performance of outperforming the market with high quality of earnings. And this brings us to 2 key competitive strengths that I would like to share with you. The first one is our unique vertically integrated business model.

Over the years, we have built a comprehensive, vertically integrated, complementary and interconnected portfolio of product lines, whereby our downstream product lines are mostly self-supplied by our upstream product lines, which have high margins, product lines like cement and aggregates. In every market where we participate, we have -- we serve many parts of the value chain with our vertically integrated portfolio of complementary products. So when we sell downstream product lines, we take advantage of a compounding effect, growth on top of growth because indirectly, we also bring to the market our upstream high-margin product lines. And this key competitive strength that we have explains and contributes to our ability to grow faster than the market consistently with a very high quality of earnings.

The other key element, which is important to understand in terms of our competitive advantage and the moat we have built around our business is the importance of logistics in the U.S. construction market. This hard to replicate comprehensive logistics network that we build. And let me explain a key element for our customers for selecting suppliers for major projects is time. Time is the biggest cost. So for them, as they operate very complex job sites with time-sensitive workflows, it is important to have security, reliability of supply and also timely supply.

Another key element that we need to understand is that the logistics are very important because heavy construction materials do not move well. The logistics cost pretty fast becomes very high and can really shrink the margins because as we try to serve from our production sites, remote customers, the logistic cost can become as important as the product cost itself. In order to address these key elements, we have built a very comprehensive logistics network. We have taken in our regions where we operate, we have bookended with 2 major sourcing hubs.

On one hand, on one side of each region, we have a major production hub producing all the upstream products. And on the other side of the region, we have strategically placed a major sea terminal, which is a hub for reported upstream product lines. Strategically, we have placed these hubs on top of railway lines, which is the cheapest and fastest way to move heavy consumption materials. And on top of that, we have invested to build a logistics network interconnecting the hubs with our downstream production sites all the way to our terminals to the last mile to the customer. This way, we offer to our customers from multiple sourcing points and through multiple routes, security of supply and timely supply. We become the supplier of choice, and this contributes to our ability to be -- to growing faster than the market.

On the other hand, the fact that we have the strategic flexibility and we can reach with our products, the job sites of our customers through multiple sourcing points and through multiple routes allows us to choose the most optimal one that leads to the lowest total cost to serve, which makes us, we believe, the lowest cost to serve supplier in the industry, which explains also the high quality of earnings of Titan America. So these are 2 key very important competitive strengths that we have. Let me just talk about why we are so bullish about the new era of growth in the construction industry in the United States.

First, the transformative investment in infrastructure, it's $1.1 trillion, roughly 50% of this has been already invested. And we expect next year, the investment package to be renewed into 2031. So a lot of tailwinds, major tailwinds in terms of infrastructure. On top of that, we have manufacturing reshoring, reindustrialization of the U.S., which gives a boost to the consumption of construction materials. Another key tailwind, which I'm sure all of you know is the residential underbuilt.

Recently, the Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. has estimated the housing deficit in U.S. at 4.7 million units. or about more than 1 million units of deficities in the markets where we operate. And finally, there are key transformational themes that create value pools of high growth, high margin for high-performance materials, ultra-high performance materials, resilient urbanization and climate adaptation and also in new applications. So overall, our markets will be the beneficiaries of this once-in-a-generation tailwinds in the United States construction market that Titan America is best positioned to capitalize on this new era of growth. And this brings us to our blueprint of 4 key strategic priorities.

First one, as Marcel mentioned, is investing in continue to grow in our core business, our leading market positions, our comprehensive product portfolio and our logistics network. The second key priority relates to accelerating our top line growth and our margin expansion by developing and introducing new technologies, new materials, smart products and new solutions into the market and also going into parts of the value chain where we don't participate with products new to Titan America.

The third key priority is an obvious one. We're going to capitalize on the value-accretive opportunities for acquisitions. There are many opportunities out there. So far, the 11 years, we have been growing predominantly through organic growth, and we have now opportunities to grow inorganically. And finally, digitalization is a major investment for Titan America, and we're going to talk about that. Let me give one example about core growth strategies. I cannot not mention something that we discussed last time. We're already investing in increasing our cement production capacity by 1.1 million tons.

Today, I'm going to mention about our aggregate investment. We're investing already in our existing aggregate sites in order to increase both reserves and production capacity. We did that last year in Penssuco and perhaps you heard our results this year, we're growing in terms of revenue in aggregates in double digits and in double digits growing in operating profitability. On top of that, we have in progress investment in novel, low-cost extraction technology that allows us to recover aggregates where we couldn't do that economically feasibly in the past. We have in Penssuco, you are in detailed engineering right now with a project that will increase our production by -- in the next years by 125 million tons that we will beneficiate with this new extraction technology.

And finally, we will invest both in greenfield opportunities and in acquisitions, both domestically and offshore to increase our reserves and our production capabilities. So overall, very excited about our growth in aggregates. In relation to accelerating our top revenue growth and our margin expansion, I'm going to refer to 2 examples. One, where we develop and introduce into the market, new technologies to the market, new products to the market, proprietary products, which is in relation to data centers and one example where we're going down the value chain in places where we don't participate today with products that are new to Titan America. And let me start with the data centers. You know that Virginia is the data center capital of the world. This is one of our key markets and it represents 35% of the global hyperscale data centers in the world. Just the northern part of Virginia around Washington represents 13% of the global data center capacity.

We have developed over the past year, proprietary new technology, new products assisted with artificial intelligence design, and we have brought to the industry, especially the hyperscalers, high performance and ultra-high performance with very low carbon profile that help them with the construction of these data centers. Between 2022 and 2025, we have supplied this innovative proprietary materials to 40% of the 250 data centers in our regions. An example in relation to adjacencies, existing parts in the value chain where it's existing markets with existing products where we don't participate today, but we have a competitive advantage and synergies in order to do so.

A key example that showcases our strategy is precast lentils. Lentils is the structural part above every door, every window. So it's a very fast-growing application. And we have the technology, the know-how in order to produce this. And we have tremendous synergies. We participate today in this industry with different products. We have the channels to market. We have the customer relationships. And we have 4 complementary products that are being sold today, our precast block -- we have our concrete, masonry and stack. So we are actively in this market, and we're going to add the lentils. And this way, we will accelerate, as I said, top line growth, margin expansion, return on capital employed in a way that we can have a fast entry into a new market for us and quick scale up. And this is the pattern for us, the blueprint to continue growing in other adjacencies. And you can see in the slide some of the examples in other adjacencies that we're looking right now. I just want to mention that recently, we achieved a major milestone in relation to our project investment in lentils. We got certification for 40 new lentfill designs that meet the most stringent structural requirements. And this now opens the gate for us to do detailed engineering for a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that we build in Florida.

And finally, our investment and are going into value-accretive acquisitions. There is great opportunity in the United States. The industry is still fragmented. There are opportunities for consolidation. We have the skills, the capabilities, the experience, the firepower. We have a strong deleveraged balance sheet. We have the generation of cash flow, and we have the hard currency of a public company in order to do value-accretive acquisitions. We have clear strategy. We have a structured process, and we prioritize bolt-ons and also selectively adjacencies with strong synergies for value creation. The actionable universe is aggregates, cementitious materials, you heard a lot about that, adjacencies, precast and also even regional admixtures. I just want to mention an example.

Last December, we acquired DM Connors, which is an aggregates business, relatively small, but we also secured decades of reserves of clay that will help us produce and introduce into the market a new cementitious materials calcined clay. So we're meeting more both of our targets to grow in aggregates and also in cementitious, novel cementitious materials. In relation to digital transformation, we are very strong. We are recognized as a leader in digital transformation in our industry. And we see it not only as a lever in expanding our cost competitive advantage as a low-cost supplier in the industry, but also as an opportunity for us to develop new business models and new service models. Antonio Kirkos is going to relate to that in detail.

So I'm just going to summarize the key takeaways about Titan America, a leading player in fast-growing markets, best positioned to capitalize in this once-in-a-generation tailwinds for a new era of growth in our market. We have core strengths, core competencies that allow us to capitalize on this, like our vertically integrated product portfolio with complementary products, our hard-to-replicate logistics network that allows us to be the supplier of choice and also the low-cost producer. We have the capabilities and the capacity to capture the growth ahead, a management team and an overall team that is experienced and delivers consistently above the market.

So we're very, very confident that we can deliver a powerful performance in a very attractive market. Thank you. And with that, I want to invite Jannis for Europe and East Med, which is a key supplier also to Titan Americas.

So thank you, Jannis.

Wow, Bill, what an exciting story for the U.S., really, really impressive. And I do hope, ladies and gentlemen, that I will be able to show you another equally exciting story that we have developing here in Europe and the East Med. The overall patterns are now hopefully becoming a bit familiar. We have macros providing strong opportunities, and we have assets and people who are helping us. We are well placed to capture these opportunities.

So let's dive into Europe and the East Med. You have seen the list of where we have assets, how many and so on. We are present in 11 countries in the whole range of products from cement all the way through to new products like the precast that was mentioned already. What I would like to do is to invite you to take a step back and look at this from more strategic perspective and see how these assets are actually configured to help us position ourselves and get the opportunities that we are going to mention in the macro trends.

So the first thing to look at is what is happening in Greece, where you can see that we are very well established, vertically integrated to be able to serve what is still a dynamically growing market. Then if you look at our cement plants and our cementitious sources, these are a base for creating the cementitious materials that are needed to decarbonize in Europe, and we have the terminals in Western Europe through which we can supply that. Then if you look at the East Med, you can see that we have a very strong hub that is based there, having -- serving a populous local market, but also an ability to export both into Western Europe cement issues to the U.S. being our key customer and beyond. And then if you look at the Western Balkans, this is a cluster that we have mentioned quite a bit in the past. This is a region that is growing, is catching up with Europe, is integrated into Europe, and we have a network of plants that are able to serve that. So overall, this is a well-configured platform, and this is already delivering results.

You can see we have already crossed the EUR 1 billion market in terms of sales, and we are delivering almost double our historic EBITDA with EUR 275 million per year. So let us look a bit into what are these macro trends that are creating our opportunities. First one, what is happening in Western Europe? And here, the green deal is still driving the need for sustainability, but also competitiveness. What does this mean for us? It means a push for energy-efficient buildings for refurbishment. It means a big need for lower carbon products. It means need for infrastructure to be built. It also means European Union funds coming to serve innovation projects like the one we mentioned in the beginning, our flagship project, Efestoamari. Looking into the Western Balkans, there's a market that is being fueled by EUR 20 billion per year coming both from remittances through individual remittances and foreign direct investments.

The East Med, keep in mind that the East Med with 120 million tons, just Turkey and Egypt. This market is almost as big as the whole of the European Union. So a very substantial market, which is now coming into a period of lower economic volatility. And finally, seaborne exports. Here, in addition to the global patterns, let's not forget that there is hope that we're moving into an area of post-war reconstruction.

That is going to create a market of 100 million tons in the near area where we can serve from our export hub. So these are the trends. how are we, as Titan positioned to take opportunities and grow through these trends? Let me give you some examples. The first one is here in Greece and in Bulgaria. We see that we have a market of infrastructure projects currently running at more than EUR 12 billion. And the key point here is that with our ready-mix plants and our quarries, we are very well placed strategically to serve these projects. We're already serving them today and to keep serving them in the future. And you can see that the market, looking at the next 3 years, still has quite some way to go. We see Greece and Bulgaria going from about 7.5 million tons of cement per year up to approach 9 million tons. And this is looking at the global environment, looks like a big number. If you compare it historically to the 15 million combined that these 2 markets have achieved, we see that there's still quite a lot of room to grow. If we look into the Western Balkans, here, we have the position of the clusters.

You can see that there is still a lot of development coming through, both for infrastructure as European Union is trying to integrate the supply chains, the markets to serve the needs for AI, energy and so on, but also to create a convergence. So what we have here is a very high level of per capita demand with 8 million tonne market, but still room to grow. If you look at the GDP per head, you can see what is the distance that still needs to be covered through this convergence. We are in the Western Balkans, we have grown, but we are still, as countries at about 1/3 of the European Union average. And we have plants in every one of these locations, serving both the big infrastructure projects flagship projects like Mediterranean Games and Expo Serbia and also the residential buildings that are happening through the remittances that are coming back.

Now in Western Europe, this is something that was mentioned already, and that's a fundamental change that is going to happen from next year. We have the introduction of CBAM, practically a charge on CO2 on products imported. At the same time, a reduction of the free allowances it produces inside the European Union. This is going to drive up CO2 costs. It's going to drive up prices, but it's also going to give a very big incentive for innovation and for new products. And again, here, we are well placed with our access to cement issues, with our technology. We are already producing these products and can develop them even further to supply the Western European market. Egypt and Turkey, and this is a market that is led by my colleague, Christos Panagopoulos, has proven to become an export champion. You can see that we are already in Egypt, we are exporting 30% of our production. And if you can see the map, it's very easy to visualize how close we are to serve the reconstruction markets that I mentioned to you as well as going beyond the Eastern Mediterranean basis into Western Europe and beyond.

So you see the market trends, and you can see that we are really well positioned to serve them. How are we going to do that? This is by now the familiar pattern of our 3-pillar strategy, invest in our core, expand mainly in alternative cementitious products and invest in adjacent businesses. There are 2 types of projects shown here, initiatives. Some of these are market facing, and I'm going to give you some examples going forward. And then there are some that are more operational or technology-based. And for example, our work on improving our operational efficiency is something that my colleague, Samir and Adonis Kirkos are going to explain more.

Our investments in new technologies is something that Leonidas will cover, while the middle segment, the alternative cementitious material is going to be presented by Jean-Philippe. So let me stay on the market-facing opportunities of our strategy and how we're going to deliver. You have heard a lot about vertical integration. Just as a note, vertical integration for anybody who has not picked it up, I'm sure you're all familiar, is moving beyond serving cement to the market to selling products that are closer to the customer, such as ready-mix concrete, adding the aggregates into the concrete or going into mortars and so on.

So vertical integration is very important because it brings us closer to the market. We have already delivered on the strategy. We have developed several new facilities some were mentioned already by Marcel. Perhaps those of you who flew in today or yesterday have seen that the airport in Athens is under reconstruction, parkings and so on. That's another area where we are getting closer to the customer by setting up mobile units. And Elinico, it's next to you. But in case you've missed it, here's a picture of where we are supplying right now. This model, together with aggregates where, for example, we made an acquisition in Thesly, very well timed because those of you who follow the news, there's been a very big demand for post-floods reconstruction and flood protection works.

This is the model that we are continuing to do in Greece, but also expanding further in north, for example, in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia. In terms of targets, you saw that earlier in our slides. Right now, we are doing about 1/4 of our business is coming through this vertical integration. Our objective is through the planning horizon to get this number to about half of our business, half of the business to come from vertically integrated activities. The second area of our strategy is continuing our building the portfolio of value-added products. And here, we have 2 pillars we're working on.

One has to do again with decarbonization, but again, offering products that are sustainable. On the other hand, are performing very highly, both in terms of durability and on strength. And this is all what our TITAN Edge brand is about. We have already about 40% of our products coming into this category. So the lower carbon category, and we intend to grow this within the planning horizon to 75%.

So the majority of our products within this planning horizon will turn into lower carbon solutions, again, based on our technology and based on our alternative cementitious materials. The second pillar of our products is what -- and we heard it before, what are the customers asking? What are we hearing by getting closer to the customers? What are architects asking for? What are project developers asking for? And here is where we're offering solutions like special flooring with special fibers in it for logistics, very big logistics surfaces or sustainable products, green products for data centers that have a particular sensitivity to deliver the future of AI sustainably or coastal protection works through precast, where we're helping deal with the issue of coastal erosion as part of the adaptability to climate change. These are mainly coming from our concrete business unit. Already 10% of our products are in this high-margin, high-value category.

And what we plan to do is to grow this to 25% of our portfolio. Now we spoke about adjacencies. And this is a really exciting part of our business. This is where we are trying to go into new territories that are serving the same markets, but from a different dimension. One of these is precast. This is something we're really excited about. We believe the time has come for that. There is a need for labor-efficient construction. You can see probably the biggest reason that we are now slow in construction in El Niko and not moving even faster is the lack of manpower.

So having products that are able to deliver with 70% less manpower is very important. Cost savings is critical, as is faster construction. When you're building malls, data centers, hotels, you want them to come quickly into the market. So Precast is going to help in that very much. We have invested in a company called Ba Partner. This is a leader in Bosnia. We're helping them expand beyond their already very strong in Croatia and Slovenia and go further north towards the rest of Europe. But at the same time, we are capturing this know-how in order to be able to transfer it into the rest of our region. And just to give you beyond the macro theory, just to give you an indication of what the growth potential is, bear in mind that in Greece and Southeast Balkans, the rate of penetration of precast is under 5%, whereas if we just look at the average level for Western Europe, we are at 3 to 4x that at 15% to 20%. So a lot of room to develop this market and to grow with this market. Mortars is the other adjacency we are very excited about. This is a product where we're looking closer to refurbishment to insulation. Again, things that are -- needs that are coming up, especially due to climate change and sustainability, but also the needs that are coming from the various architectural demands for our products.

We started this in Titan with practically a single product, cement-based mortars. Now we have more than 250 SKUs, a huge broadening of our portfolio, both by using our own internal production and by trading products so that we can offer a solution to the end customer. We have grown from a low base from an initial base very fast, both in sales and profitability. And we want to continue doing that, both organically, but also through partnership because in all of these adjacencies in our markets, what we can bring in the partnerships is our technology, but also a very strong historic reliable brand name that can bring us closer to the customers.

So I think we've skipped a slide on the financials. I might just tell you that in terms of the financials, what you -- let me just check. So in terms of the financials, we have managed to deliver double the profitability of the last 10 years. So we're at -- if you look at 3-year averages, we're at EUR 250 million. Now this has generated a lot of cash, which a part of that is being reinvested in our own growth. We have invested in the last 3 years, we have invested more than EUR 200 million, both in growth projects, CapEx projects, but also in bolt-on acquisitions. And these investments are what are going to drive our future growth and the next level of profitability from the level that we are so proud to have achieved today.

So let me summarize for the European region, how we see the implementation of our strategy. First of all, we are very confident, very optimistic looking at the macro trends. We're looking at the Western European decarbonization trend. We're looking at the Western Balkans integration. We're looking still at the big infrastructure drive, and we're looking at the stability in East Med and the big demand for exports. We have a model that is very well calibrated, well connected to take advantage of these opportunities. We have achieved a new level of profitability, and we believe we can invest and we can deliver further growth.

Our investment thesis is based on the 3 pillars: strengthen our core, mainly vertical integration and new products, go into cementitious, alternative cementitious materials and invest in adjacent businesses. And just to close, what is our ambition? Our ambition, if we step back, is to look at our business 3 years down the road and to recognize that this business has been completely transformed. More than 50% of our business, more than 50% of our sales is going to be coming from new products and from new businesses. And by doing that, we're going to deliver the growth in revenue and in profitability that we have promised as a group. Thank you very much. I believe I can make now the best part of my speech, which is to announce a break. And if I'm not mistaken, we all need to be back in 15 minutes.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Jani ended his presentation with a good news of the break. I've got bad news for you. The next break is not coming up anytime soon. I'm Leonidas Canellopoulos, Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer, and I'm joined today by Jean-Philippe Benard, Chief Executive of Cementitious Business and Energy. And in this session, we'll be walking you through how Titan is transforming decarbonization into profitable and scalable growth with a sharp focus on, you guessed it, alternative cementitious materials or ACMs, and a powerful innovation engine.

But let's begin with some context, linking it back to the megatrends that Marcel introduced earlier in the day. On the one hand, we have the increasing need for climate adaptation solutions and on the other, more stringent regulation on emissions, all of which is driving demand for alternative materials and new products. At the same time, urbanization, aging infrastructure and housing shortages are pushing us to develop novel solutions for construction and renovation. And of course, we have the digital economy with automation and AI compressing cycle times all the way from design to delivery and installation. Against this backdrop, our strategy doubles down on 2 force multipliers. ACMs, a new business line that we expect to drive a 10% revenue growth by 2029 and investment in strategic innovation, over EUR 100 million, invested not just on experiments, but on industrial pilots and scale-ups targeted on customer outcomes and margin uplift. And critically, decarbonization for us is not a cost headwind. It's a profit lever, and we expect to deliver EUR 120 million in annual recurring savings by 2029 from cleaner energy, process optimization and material substitution.

This is how we lower our cost base, reduce our risk and expand our offering of premium products. And we have already delivered. We've delivered a 24% reduction in our CO2 emissions, consistent with our science-based pathway and with our ambition to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is how we have secured our position among the leaders of Europe in climate mitigation according to the Financial Times and how we got a position in the list of the world's most sustainable companies by Time Magazine. And if we continue along this pathway, we expect by the end of this decade to have reduced our emissions at a rate that is 6x faster than the one we had in the previous 3 decades from 1990 to 2020. And to institutionalize this progress, we are executing a EUR 200 million investment program with over 100 initiatives across geographies, across the value chain, each selected for return on investment, scalability and resilience through the cycle with initiatives that include energy decarbonization through renewable electricity and alternative fuels, where we're targeting over 50% substitution and over 80% in some of our core plants, with a multitude of actions to improve operational efficiency through digital tools, through waste heat recovery, through the introduction of hydrogen as a catalyst in our process, enabling us to further increase the amount of alternative fuels that we can absorb.

And of course, through the introduction of ACMs, with which we expect by 2029 to have over 50% of our sales meeting the advanced criteria for performance and sustainability of our Titan Edge family of products. The economic logic here is compelling. We're talking about a cost-effective energy and raw materials mix, reduced reliance on CO2 allowances, increased production capacity through ACMs with minimal or no CapEx and an ability to serve sustainability-minded customers more effectively and capture the green premium wherever it exists.

And our current trajectory means that we're on track to deliver another EUR 85 million of savings per year on top of the EUR 35 million already delivered, bringing the total to EUR 120 million in annual recurring savings. And most importantly, we're not just cutting emissions per tonne. We are reducing our CO2 per unit of revenue, meaning that we are derisking our P&L against energy and carbon volatility while strengthening our margins.

Now let us connect the dots to net zero concrete. Our hybrid approach means that we prioritize the use and sale of ACMs to minimize the ultimate investment that will be needed in carbon capture. In practice, this means that while the industry as a whole expects over 1/3 of the emissions reduction here in blue and up to half in Europe to come from the capital-intensive solution of carbon capture, we only depend on it for 1/5 of our emissions. ACMs are our first priority for speed to impact and lower cost with targeted carbon capture only where it makes commercial and financial and technical sense.

Now this is how we hit our climate goals while preserving capital efficiency. I will hand it over to Jean-Philippe to give you an overview of how ACMs have an important role to play in construction and how Titan is very well capitalized, very well placed to capitalize on this opportunity.

Thank you, Leonidas. Good afternoon, everyone. So what about SCM? I must confess that now since the beginning of this afternoon, you know everything about SCM, thanks to my colleagues, and you are really expert on this field. What's important to have in mind, nevertheless, is we are facing a sort of revolution for our industry. As a French we know a little bit about what is the revolution, as you know. And for this, we should remind that the ACM is not new things. It has been used in this industry for decades, especially it was materials that were coming from EV industry like coal power plants or steel industry. But now we are entering in a new era where really this revolution will happen, thanks to the CO2 target we all have in this industry to decrease our footprint in CO2. Also because the customers are really asking for a new product with less CO2 in it.

Leading to this, there will be an increase of demand in the SCM. You will see that in the next slide. And you will tell me, okay, this is great. But in this -- in your territories, like in the U.S. or in Europe, the traditional SCM, the slag or the fly ash are disappearing because we are closing coal power plant. And also the steel industry in this area is not going very, very well. This is what I call the ACM availability paradox. As within Titan, we have prepared this revolution for at least 3 or 4 years. And you will see that we have already taken some position to face this shortage and more than that, to supply new markets with this product. So that's why we have decided within the group to have a new dedicated business line. And when I say it is a revolution because until now, we were really dealing with cement, aggregate, concrete.

But what you have seen in the presentation this morning from my colleagues, there will be a fourth one that we will follow, which is exactly this one. So what are the ambitions in terms of SCM, some numbers. We really think that by 2029, we will be able to achieve 10% of group revenue that will be more or less EUR 300 million or EUR 300-plus million per year. For that, the group has already decided to invest and invest a lot. You will see some examples in terms of CapEx allocation. We will -- as Yanni said previously, we will leverage our infrastructure. You will see also a good example about what has been done by Bill and the team in the U.S. With the idea that is really clear, we want to increase the quantity of SCM in the concrete usage. And also, we want to have new added value cement, including SCM that will allow to decrease our CO2 footprint.

So is this only -- let's say, is this only a dream or some figures we have in mind like that. In fact, we have already prepared the ground for this revolution, and we have some good success to share with you. First is being about the reserve. We will not be a credible actors. We will not be among the winner of this revolution if we are not able to secure reserve. And we have already almost 150 million tonnes of reserve secured here in Europe and also in the U.S., as D explained for the clay material. We have this partnership in Greece with GanPlite and also our own reserve in Turkey for 40 million tonnes. This is good, but this is not enough. if we want to make sure that we will make the difference in this market, we need to have the infrastructure to deliver to our customers.

We used to say that for SCM, we are a sort of local company. So global in terms of sourcing and in terms of infrastructure, but also local because as you can imagine, we need to go to each and every market. Yanni was talking about the terminals we have in Western Europe. We have the import terminals in the U.S. also. So these are the second type of projects we have already put in place. A few years back, Titan America has decided to expand its capacity, for example, in Tampa that has released some capacity to import some SCM. We have started with fly ash, and there will be much more to come in the next month through this channel. The second thing that is very important for us is that we are the owner of a technology to reclaim fly ash. As I said, some power plants, all the power plants almost in Western Europe are closing.

Some of the fly ash in the past were directly used in the cement industry, but a big part of these materials were landfilled. And thanks to STT technology, and you will see in the booth an example of that, we are now -- we have a solution to propose to the community and the customer to reclaim this ash. I will not go into the detail. I think Tom Cero will do in a few minutes, but the idea is to -- somewhere to purify a little bit the fly ash so that they are qualified to go to the concrete and the cement market.

As Marcel explained a few minutes ago, we have signed recently a contract with a partner in U.K. so that we will be able to deliver 300,000 tonnes per year of fly ash in the Manchester area. And this will represent almost 6 million tons of fly ash that will be recycled. So it's really impressive, and it's really good for the CO2 road map.

Last but not least, in terms of R&D., we are also trying to prepare the future to increase even more the quantity of segment issues that we can have in cement, and we have signed a few months ago a partnership with the start-up that has already a very good track record in this field. The idea is to go from something like 35% of ACL in the segment, up to 70%. Of course, it's not for tomorrow, but we have good hope that this will happen by the end of the period.

These projects are only example. We have much more in -- much more in the pipe. We were mentioning this exclusivity negotiation we have for [indiscernible] in Northern Europe. You have probably seen in some communication a few months -- a few months ago that we are also entering the Indian market because this market is still producing what we call [indiscernible], and there is an interest to have, let's say, secure this volume for the future need in our territories like in Europe.

So this was in a nutshell briefly how we think we could be among the winner of this revolution and also why we think it made a lot of sense to have this new business line. I will now hand over to Leonidas, and I'm sure he will also talk about [indiscernible].

I will try not to overdo it. So let's talk a little bit about our innovation agenda, which is all about customer outcomes, more resilient, more circular, more efficient construction. And we're investing across these 3 themes. On the one hand, low-carbon binders and nature-based solutions that are especially important in areas which are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Then we have circularity in the built environment with alternative raw materials, alternative fuels recycling and, of course, [indiscernible] with our proprietary technology, essentially turning what used to be waste into value.

And then we have enhanced productivity in construction. We have the use of AI all the way in the value chain starting from our own operations all the way up to concrete mix design. We have modular construction methods, which are now reducing time, cost and risk. The common threat is high performance, fewer emissions, less waste and better economics for our customers.

And we turned the megatrends into launch-ready products with a pipeline that focuses on 4 priority verticals: data centers, industrial buildings, coastal restoration and modular construction, all high-growth segments for sustainability and productivity matter most.

On the left, you see our near-term launches, seamless floors, recycled materials, 3D print and brief modules and next gen [indiscernible] all the way up to 2029. And beyond that, we are advancing new technologies that will redefine construction and resilience.

Each bubble represents a platform-level idea scale for impact. And the pipeline is backed by a robust innovation engine with over 100 projects and 60 scientists on both sides of the Atlantic with advanced capabilities in chemistry, in ACM activation, in data science and material science. And we're doing all that in our 4 innovation hubs: our Titan Global R&D center here near Athens and Kamari, our Titan America Innovation Hub in Miami, the Center for Advanced technologies, which we are developing now in [indiscernible] and of course, our state-of-the-art separation technologies, engineering center [indiscernible] close to Boston.

In these places, we partner with customers, with start-ups and academia, and we turn ideas from the lab into industrial pilots and from pilots into scalable businesses. And our internal innovation culture is vibrant and pervasive with over 350 ideas submitted in our latest Titan Ideation Challenge by over 300 people and with 10% of our workforce involved in the process.

And we're backing our convictions with capital with EUR 100 million to pilot and scale new technologies, leveraging our corporate venture capital arm, Titan Ventures. We have already invested in 6 start-ups and in 2 funds, and we have partnered with many companies in different stages of maturity. We are tapping into technologies all the way from AI and coastal resilience to recycling of construction demolition waste with ever to carbon upcycling, which has a proprietary process for ACM activation and the utilization of CO2 all the way up until energy storage with Rondo, which has just installed the world's largest heat battery ever put into commercial operation. This is about speed and it's about optionality. We place smart bets, validate quickly and scale winners into premium low-carbon revenue pools.

Now we would like you to leave this session with 3 takeaways: 10% revenue boost from ACM, decarbonization that is profitable and the EUR 100 million investment in innovation. At Titan, we're not waiting for the future of construction. We're building it together with our partners. After a short video now, Samir and Antonio will come on stage to tell you more about the digital innovations we're pioneering and the new technologies across the value chain. Thank you.

[Presentation]

Hello to all also from us, myself, Antonio and my colleague [indiscernible] advanced technology and digital. Now I know that in many corporate events recently in the U.S. and in Europe, there have been humanoid robots [indiscernible] single stage. I don't know if me and Samir can pass for humanoid robots, but I can reassure you that will not be dancing on that stage.

In any case, I hope that you are ready for the next few minutes for a technological boost so that you can see how advanced technology and artificial intelligence can shape the future operating model of Titan for a more efficient and more agile company and how advanced technology can generate shareholder value, not only in Silicon Valley, but also in the world of building materials.

Now Titan has been an innovator and technology doctor for decades. And with this foundation of innovation and technical depth, we have developed a strategy of leveraging advanced technologies with 2 main pillars. One is to deliver EUR 100 million of operational efficiencies by the adoption of advanced manufacturing technology and from digitalization of our operations. And two, we will shape the operating model of the future and the customer services through new materials, through carbon capture and green products and through the adoption of even more cutting-edge technologies such as generative AI, physical AI and robotics.

And to explain how we will use advanced manufacturing techniques to drive higher performance, I hand over to Samir.

Thank you, Antonio. I think a few years ago, I met a senior technologist -- actually a Japanese who used to work for Toyota in Tokyo. And he said something which has stuck with me for so many years. It was quite simple, but it's quite profound. And he said, look, all technology transformations begin with a very simple but very demanding question. And the question is, how can we improve the lives of our customers? Either make them more sustainable, make them more profitable, make them smarter, but either way, that's where it starts. Not it starts with the technology.

Now that question is at the heart of our technological transformation. And actually, a question not only asked by the team in this room, but the question which is asked by all our people every day. What is that we can do, which will bring value to our customers? Now we heard a lot of things about acceleration. So the technology is accelerating. Our ambitions are accelerating. So now is the time for us to actually transform that question into real actions. And this is what our whole footprint of our plants. But more than that, the -- I would say, the actions which we have put it into place are going to bring.

Now of course, we start with a very strong foundation. We have been quite successful -- Albania, 99% reliability. That's world class. We have the largest plant in Greece, 85% alternate fuel, wow, that's something. So we have something to build upon. But of course, just producing more, even if it's producing more efficiently is not enough.

What is the next step? The next step is producing optionalities and possibility for our customers and for ourselves. And this is what we plan to do, what Anthony said. How do we marry operational excellence with innovation, mature technologies with emerging technologies? And most importantly, I would say, people with the machines they operate, that's where the crux of it lies.

Now let me put to the heart of operational efficiency in our sector, which is energy. I don't know how many of you might be aware of the stack, which is quite striking. I mean for me, and maybe I'm quite aware but that actually 40% to 50% of the heat in cement is dissipated into atmosphere. Can you believe? It is the fact. And that's what we want to tap into. As somebody said, the best energy we have is green, renewable and free. So this is what we [indiscernible] is all about [indiscernible] installations. Yes, there is a CapEx but big returns.

Of course, we don't stop there. So we had -- we talked about the journey of alternate fuels, which is substituting fossil fuels with something, which is a byproduct of other industries. We have at 25%. We want to accelerate it to 50% in the next 5 years. And why we say that? Because the technology has evolved. So we have hydrogen. We have now a new generation of tries. We have actually high computation models using actually quantum computing for us to be able to model and increase. So that's what this is all about.

But I think I just don't want you to think this is only about cost reduction. This is circularity. This is circularity in motion because not only we solve the problems of our cost but also we are solving a problem of the communities and the societies around us.

Now if cost was the [indiscernible] profile efficiency, especially the energy cost, the materials are, I would say, the heart of our innovation. And I would even go further and say that the new core competency, which material industry has to develop is to master these new materials. And now we, of course, we are not only investing but we are also partnering. So we talked about our [indiscernible] project in U.S. I love this project. 30% reduction in cost. More capacity, 80% reduction in CO2 at a cost CapEx, which is lower than putting a new plant, what more can you want. What more can be want? Of course, we have to make it into a reality, which is where technology comes in.

At the same time, parallelly we are also adapting, and we are working with a number of partners on new technologies to send because activation actually is quite simple. Activation is awakening a material so that it can perform like a cement, very simple. But with that, what we can do is use materials which were unusable before, and we reduce cost. So this is a bifurcation of, I call it, something quite beautiful actually. So you are working on sustainability. We reduced costs. We give to the customers what they want because our customers are requiring high-performance material, and this is what is smarter materials for a smarter world.

Now in terms of technology, a bolder [indiscernible] as yet is, of course, cost. [indiscernible] carbon capture and storage project, as you are aware, is the largest carbon capture project in cement in Europe. 2 million to -- almost 2 -- 1.9. So we'll produce more, maybe it will be 2. 2 million tons of CO2 be captured and sold. This you are aware, [indiscernible] by EU innovation fund. But where are we? I think, look, in nut shell, we are on track. So [indiscernible] engineering studies are progressing. We have been engaging with regulatory authorities with the storage companies. Of course, there are a number of things to be settled, but we are on track on that. The large amount of CapEx on this project will come towards the later half of this decade. What that means is we are not only funding our future and we are creating a future, but we are engineering it with care. Because it's a complex project.

I must say, it's not a slide. It's not a slide deck and something to talk about, it is something which we, as engineers and as a company, take it seriously, hence we are putting in all to make it a success. So we are, of course, very proud of it.

Now I should talk about something that's actually really excites me personally. And it excites a lot of our employees for sure, and is experiential, if I may use the word. What is that? So we talked about new generation materials [indiscernible], et cetera. How should we do? I mean how do we get all these ideas in our mind into something concrete, which we can touch, which we can feel? And therein started this whole idea of creating this advanced center for the [indiscernible] our advanced technologies at Patras.

Now what is that exactly? It is a place where we are going to, of course, incubate. We are going to prototype, going to test. But we are going to scale different technologies with different time horizons and then deploy them in the group. And it is only as it happens at Patras, which is quite close to where actually the old [indiscernible] cement started to be used by Romans, of course, also Greek. So we are quite proud of it. And it's almost for me almost poetic, that the future materials will be developed at a pace, which is quite close to the history of making cement. So for sure, we put the [indiscernible] and Greece on the map of the materials. And of course, we are looking forward to it quite excitedly.

So with that, now I will hand over to Anthony who will excite us more because I did not talk about AI, and that was a promise to me. I will not mention AI, but Anthony is going to. [indiscernible].

Certainly, I will mention AI. So in digital, Titan is often mentioned as a digital innovator and an early adopter of AI technologies for several years now, and I believe part of our success is that we look at AI not just as an opportunity to capture some incremental cost savings, but we look at it much more systematically as an opportunity to scale up [indiscernible] technologies across all our domains. And as an evidence of that, we currently have more 300 people that we call champions. This includes experts like data scientists and data engineers, but also frontline people, engineers in the cement plants in our logistics hubs, in our back offices who use AI tools every day. And we have currently deployed digital technologies in more than 80% of our manufacturing assets, which are giving us more than EUR 30 million in annual benefits, recurring annual benefit and payback of less than a year. And this has positioned us as a top 5% of industrial companies globally from any sector, and we have received external recognition from the likes of Harvard Business Review.

So building on this foundation, our digital strategy is to digitize our company further end-to-end across all domains. And to build capabilities to serve our customers better, to upskill our people, to unleash the productivity and to develop opportunities for new revenue sources, capital-light, high-growth revenue sources by offering digital services. And all of that catalyzed by a data foundation, fully cloud-based, fully secured and flexible to scale up.

But this is not just a strategy, it's not just a set of ambitions. We have some unique achievements that can make this real. And let me highlight some of our signature solutions. I think they were mentioned also in the video just very bigly. In the manufacturing space, we are building the smart cement plant of the future to complement the innovations that [indiscernible]. Our flagship solution, the real-time optimizers currently rolled out to 80% of our assets with Titan being the heaviest user of real-time optimizers globally, delivering more than EUR 10 million of recurring benefits every year.

Likewise, our predictive maintenance solution fully rolled out in all our cement plants already 3 years ago. Combining machine learning algorithms with the expertise of our domain experts, engineers who guide our frontline people on how to prevent breakdowns, currently, this solution is providing more than EUR 15 million of annual benefit to Titan. But more impressively, we have actually prevented more than 33,000 hours of downtime in our cement plants. This is equivalent of a cement plant running continuously for 45 months.

In ready-mix, we're investing now to roll out across our footprint, a solution that is already live across Titan America a dynamic logistics solution that optimize scheduling, dispatching, routing of our concrete deliveries, increasing the productivity of our fleet by over 10% and improving customer experience because all our deliveries now can be guaranteed to be on time.

And as we now strive to provide a seamless experience to all our customers I'm proud to say that today, Titan has an active digital channel in all its business units around the world with very high customer satisfaction wherever this has scaled up. And already, reducing also operational costs, for example, by reducing the volume of incoming calls to our contact centers. And this is developing into a new operating model.

But of course, you wouldn't expect Titan to stay still. And now we're actually investing heavily in the next frontier, artificial intelligence, Generative AI. Titan was one of the first 600 companies in the world among all sectors to be the early adopter of the Copilot Generative AI solution, currently used daily by more than 20% of our white collar staff. We have Generative AI solutions for our analytics and reporting. And of course, you wouldn't expect our developers and data scientists not to use coding assistance. But of course, there's a lot more to do. And currently, we want to aspire to become the first truly agenetic enterprise in the world of building materials.

Let me just highlight we're building currently 4 autonomous agents for customer care, for our production and maintenance people and for our back-office processes. In some cases, already targeting 90% reduction in the handling time of some of our enterprise workflows.

And one word here about our digital business, MAI. You may have heard about it, you can go now on your tablets and type [indiscernible], and you will see a company offering digital services, predictive maintenance solution and real-time optimizers to the cement world. We launched [indiscernible] AI 3 years ago because we realized that there's an addressable market of several hundred million for digital services in our sector. And already [indiscernible] AI is serving customers in 4 continents with 2 dedicated service centers in the Americas and in Europe. And we aspire to be a top 3 service provider of digital businesses to cement companies and to be the first company by the cement sector, for the cement sector, which we believe is a truly differentiating value proposition.

And I will not say a lot about digital innovation. I think Leonidas mentioned quite a bit about our product innovation, but let me highlight a couple of things. Last year, some of you may have noticed that we not -- we launched a so-called digital accelerator in [indiscernible]. This is another effort to systematize the way we do digital innovation by prototyping solutions, developing proof of concepts and then scaling up fast. Currently, our accelerator is developing robotic solutions. I think you will see our robots already probably roaming around in the hallway. It's called Axel, by the way. You can address it after the presentations.

And we're also developing GenAI solutions. And last announcement we did a couple of weeks ago is a collaboration with the [indiscernible] Institute of the University of California Berkeley aiming to develop the most sophisticated digital green model of a cement plant in the world. And building on all of this foundation of digital use cases and our ambitious strategy we aim to become a fully digital, fully flexible, industry-leading company in the next 5 years. And this will make us achieve significant efficiencies, increasing our EBITDA margin by over 100 basis points make for a superior customer experience, stickier customer experience by having more than 80% of our orders going through digital channels. Upscale 100% of our people. I don't know if you have heard of any other building materials company aiming to upskill 100% of its staff on digital dexterity with innovative programs like our Digital Academy now running for 6 years in a row in Greece. And as we said before, aiming to launch a [indiscernible] Generative AI use cases every year for the next 5 years. And this, we are confident we'll develop a superior business case to our shareholders generating EUR 5 for every euro we invest in our skills, in our systems and in our infrastructure.

So with that, thank you very much. I will hand it over to Samir.

So look, I think it's just to say, what does it all mean? I mean, we are talking a lot of initiatives. Actually, they are quite simple. There are 3. So we talk of technology. We talk of operational excellence, [indiscernible] million in the bank and get future ready, and Anthony's talked about fully digital enterprise. Surely, the first one in material industry, not only cement. 5x ROI. But actually [indiscernible] coding, shiny machineries [indiscernible] sufficient.

So what's missing? For me personally, and for us, as Titan, is the people who combine progress with purpose is what will make this happen. It's the same people. Actually, if you remember who asked the question at the beginning of this presentation. So why we are all doing this. We are doing it because we create value. And this is what binds all these initiatives into one story, and that story is what takes Titan into the future. So we are quite excited to be a part of that journey. And I hope you will all be and we will be seeing some good stuff happening in the future.

Sorry, we put more time, but we are all very passionate about what we do. So I hope you enjoyed what we said. Thank you so much. And I'd like to invite some people who are going to talk numbers now, and we'll have John and Michael is coming up on stage too, and they will talk of numbers what you like. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon from me as well. I'm going to present to you the highlights of the numbers over the past 3 years, trying to highlight how we have achieved our main financial targets, starting with sales as the first which -- we're still not at the EUR 3 billion mark. We are at EUR 2.8 billion if we take in account the sale of Adocim. But we do have the target to reach the EUR 3 billion next year through both organic as well as inorganic growth. So the EUR 3 billion mark is not achieved yet but very well on track to 7% hourly growth rate.

Turning to EBITDA. We started from a low base in 2022, which in fact, was much higher than the previous 3 years. But still, we set a target that will grow by 10% average every year. We overachieved the target. We grew by 23% every year, reaching 617 over the past 12 months, which is almost double of the performance of 2022.

Now where did this take place? Was it one region or the other? In fact, all regions have grown in sales. [indiscernible] because Turkey is now out of it. But in terms of profitability, all regions grew by average growth rate of 15%. And in fact, they all doubled the EBITDA from 2022 to 2025 last 3 months. So that was again an overachievement of the goals.

Now in terms of the capital returns performance, we started from 7%, which was from 2020 until 2022, we are moving in the 7% to 8% levels. We set a target of 12%, which was more than 50% above the past performance, thinking that we're already ambitious. But we did manage to overperform with 17% in the past 3 years, around 17%, which translated to earnings per share, again, much higher than historical where we started from, much higher than the target. We had EUR 1.5 earnings per share in 2022. We set a doubling target for 2026 at EUR 3 per share. We are currently running at over EUR 4 per share, and [indiscernible] will tell you later, of course, the future target is going to be much higher.

The high profitability but also our capital reallocation actions, such as the IPO in the U.S. and the sale of Adocim in Turkey have resulted in liquidity for the group and reduced net debt. Our net debt over the past 3 years has decreased by EUR 0.5 billion from EUR 800 million down to EUR 300 million and the net leverage ratio of even below 0.5, it's 0.45 today.

Obviously, this has been recognized by the rating agencies. We had the review from both Fitch and S&P over the last couple of months, who have improved our rating to BB+ with positive outlook. So we're just a headline below investment grade. And of course, when we next come to the market, we would expect it to come with much lower -- at a much better financial terms at [indiscernible].

Now this is not typical of the Titan to translate our success, but I gave into the temptation because I believe the numbers are very convincing of what has been achieved. Over the past 3 years for every single year, but also cumulative from 2022 to 2025, up to 2024, the 3 full years, we have overachieved. We have done better than all our international competitors. In terms of sales growth with 8% is double than anybody else, and that includes all the majors, Europeans as well as American.

And a very similar story with EBITDA, 32% from '22 to '24 in again, much higher than all our international competitors. I believe this is a statistic which underlines how successful the past plan has been delivered.

And to close and pass on -- before I pass on to John, is what have we been doing with the capital that has been generated on the cash? With EUR 1.1 billion of -- EUR 1.6 billion EBITDA coming to net available cash flow, EUR 1.1 billion after paying taxes, working capital increase [indiscernible] in addition to EUR 1.1 billion of net cash, we raised another EUR 400 million by the disposals. So there was EUR 1.6 billion overall to allocate. Close to EUR 700 million has gone into CapEx, and we've had a lot of the capital expenditure of the group in terms of cost efficiencies, energy savings, logistics investments have contributed to the margin improvement.

EUR 400 million have gone to the shareholders in terms of normal dividends and extraordinary dividend as well as share buybacks and another EUR 0.5 billion has gone to the reduction of debt. The shareholders, the EUR 381 million that we received, [indiscernible] in 2025. We have promised a 10% annual growth to the shareholders. Obviously, the result was much higher than promised and we closed this year with the EUR 3 per share dividend that was actually the earnings target for the year. So financial performance has been much better than in the previous plan.

And now I will pass the baton to John, who will tell you about our plans, the financial plans for the next 3 years. So you don't have to use the crystal ball. John will tell you what the targets are.

Thank you, Michael. And I think this performance really deserves a round of applause. Thank you, all. Okay. So building on these outstanding performance that Michael just presented, we're entering now the next chapter of profitable growth. And we're aiming to continue consistently expanding our margins based on this robust financial performance balance sheet that we have and our growth-oriented capital allocation to basically deliver sector to returns and continue to grow shareholder value.

We're raising our ambition. We're raising our ambition high. We're targeting a top line growth of 6% to 8%, aiming to reach $4 billion by 2029. With a balanced financial algorithm between volume product mix and pricing, along with cost initiatives and efficiencies and also growth from new investments and new businesses. We're targeting an EBITDA growth of 11% to 13% and aiming to reach EUR 1 billion of EBITDA by 2029. And we're expanding in this way on margins from 23%, which are today to over 26% in 2029. But to deliver this, we need some firepower.

Our robust financial performance, more specifically, our low leverage, that Michael just explained, our upgraded credit ratings and Michael has just explained as well, but also a long-term bond maturities, along with our strong cash generation over the next 4 years, provide the group with significant financial flexibility and firepower to pursue additional growth opportunities. Our firepower can reach EUR 3 billion to EUR 4 billion to be deployed in '29, '29. And as we allocate these funds, we remain true to our capital allocation principles, which balanced disciplined and consistent dividend policy, maintain best-in-class assets and a strong focus on driving growth through investments delivering attractive return on capital employed.

We're allocating up to EUR 3 billion of growth investments, organic and inorganic, which focus on sales expansion, operational cost efficiencies and a disciplined investment activity aiming to drive -- to strengthen our core businesses and capture synergies, expand adjacencies with new products and technologies and also develop alternatives [indiscernible] materials as a new platform.

And we continue to deliver sector top returns as we have strick assessment criteria for each and every investment we evaluate. Despite the enhanced deployment of capital over the strategic horizon, which will inevitably increase the denominator of our return on capital employed ratio, we still aim to deliver 15% to 17% top-of-class return of capital employed. Creating in this way, long-term value for our shareholders. We target to reach EUR 5 to EUR 6 earnings per share and we continue to return value to our shareholders, and we aim to grow our shareholder returns at double digits.

So finally, the pivotal question, why invest in us? What makes our company attractive to investors? What differentiates us from our competitors. Other than our strong financial position in our growth platforms and the fact that we're currently trading below our value at significantly below value, even though we have over delivered, I guess, [indiscernible] explained, what really sets us apart is a purpose-driven leadership, a clear sense of purpose, a strong culture of trust, which permits across the organization across the globe. And last but not least, the unwavering passion of our people to execute, deliver and outperform.

In summary, as we plan to deploy EUR 3 billion to EUR 4 billion in the next 4 years, we aim to deliver this set of ambitious targets. They're not easy, the stretch, but we're ready, and we are committed to deliver them. Thank you.

So moving on to the next part, so far, it has been all about us speaking to you. Now we're going to move to the last part, which is going to be some closing remarks and then the part of the Q&A. [Operator Instructions]

We can -- yes, as we're getting ready on the stage, let us please welcome [indiscernible] for the closing remarks. You probably want to come [indiscernible].

Thank you. I promised you at the beginning that I will leave you with some provoking thoughts. So as part of my closing remarks, I will come back to our relative benchmarking compared to peers. Michael has gave the granular view. Here, you have a more aggregated view on overperforming peers since 2022 in both sales and EBITDA profitability growth, both the Europe and global peers as well as U.S. peers.

Now if we go back to what I mentioned as takeaway #3 from today is the reality of the capital markets of trading Titan at a significant discount to its sum of the parts. And again, there is no better moment on looking at some of the parts. And when you have both parts of the business in one way or the other, in the market. So this year, we had the IPO of Titan America. Currently, Titan America is traded at 7.5x multiple of its forward 2025 EBITDA, which for the current market cap of 5.1x and EUR 3.1 billion, a bit better since the last 2 days, that leaves for the rest of the group, 2x its earnings, which is a realization of the market, and I hope the equity story we have provided today showing how much intrinsic value is with Europe with our regional hub.

Now if we push the rationale to looking at comparables and implied valuation, this is model that I'm sure most of you are using when looking at businesses like ours. Titan America would deserve 14.5x trading. That's normal to come after one year of IPO as we deliver and overdeliver our quarters, which if we add Titan, excluding America, 7.7x, which is where the global peers are, there is a discount, there is a gap between the U.S. and the European peers, that would bring to EUR 7 billion or 11.7x. No more comments on this other than acknowledging the fact of a relative value showing upside and the trading at a significant discount.

Now for the takeaways before we open for some questions, I'm always reminded in my practice of leadership that businesses do not compete. People [indiscernible] and I hope you have today the opportunity of meeting a very powerful team, a team of high achievers. And behind this team, there are many other things with the same characteristics of making things happen. And at the same time, transforming the businesses we are in. So you have met our key profit and loss leaders, you have met our key transformative leaders, and you will meet more in the booth. The true source of competitive advantage is the people that we have, the capabilities that we have. And I think you met all of them, and you understood that they are playing to win.

I think we all have also demonstrated that we are firing from all the engines, not only outperforming the market and achieving our targets, whether it's on performance, on strategy execution and capabilities building, we simultaneously act on all of them. I hope you like that we gave a glimpse into the future. I hope you like the level of ambitions that we are raising as we are increasingly optimistic into the multiyear growth cycle in front of us.

And I think we have also convinced that Titan as a group has unique strength of giving you as investors the best of both worlds, the infrastructure stimulus as well as the residential fundamentals strong in U.S. with strong carbon management initiatives in Europe, creating new value pools the integrated supply chain, which brings increased top-of-the-class return on capital employed and then all our competency centers closer and closer to the market where we can create new value pools diversify and continue our profitability, double-digit growth in top return.

So we stay excited about the journey and excited to report to you back more achievements and remain a preferred investment for all of you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am [ Gelli ], your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Titan Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the 9 Months 2025 Results. Please note, this call and presentation is intended for analysts and investors only. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions].

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marcel Cobuz, Chair of the Group Executive Committee; Mr. John Ioannou, Group CFO; and Mr. Michael Colakides, Managing Director, Group CFO until the end of October.

Mr. Cobuz, you may now proceed.

Thank you. Thank you, and hello, everyone. Very happy to be here to present once again a very strong set of quarterly results, which confirm our value growth trajectory of Titan.

I'm with 2 CFOs today, and that's another testimony of an excellent continuation and renewal we are doing at the group. Michael Colakides will continue working with me for the next years, particularly focused on M&A projects, as well as on strategic issues, and he remains a very valued Board member. So thank you, Michael, for all these years at the helm of our financial function and for steering with an iron fist the trajectory of the group.

Would you like to say a few words, Michael?

Thank you. Thanks, Marcel. Well, I would like to thank everybody for staying with us. It's been now 10 years that I've been handling the investor calls and having close relationships with many of you, with investors and analysts. And I would like to thank you for that.

I'm very glad that we have picked a record quarter to hand over to John. John, you all have read his CV and you will see him on Tuesday at the Investor Day. I'm very happy to be passing on the baton to him for the CFO role as we have quite a job to do to satisfy to meet the targets that we will be setting on Tuesday.

So thank you all. And now I'm passing on to John.

Of course, and you will all see Michael on Tuesday on the stage as well as mingling with you all at the Investors Day.

So this quarter is in the good tradition of the past 3 years, overperforming the markets by Titan. Excellent performance in delivering growth. Yes, we have been helped a bit by the better weather in U.S. But we have registered a record quarter with positive growth in sales, more than 3.4%, and that doesn't include the ForEx impact. An over proportional EBITDA growth of more than 20% before ForEx impact.

Net profit of more than 35% and that's what is not in the press release is also that the margin expansion is by more than 400 basis points. So we have reached 27% -- 27.3% for the quarter. As well as the ROCE, which remains top of the class in our industry at more than 17% now for the second year in a row.

This quarter is also marked by a lot of activity on the inorganic growth. We have completed 3 bolt-on acquisitions here in Greece, 2 in aggregates, one in ready-mix. The one we have announced yesterday is in Crete. And overall, we have added through the bolt-ons more than 200 million tons of aggregates and essential material, particularly for the infrastructure as well as the concrete works around the country, and channel capacity building.

We have entered the precast joint venture in Western Balkans, which is a very promising market together with Molins, and we have announced our investment in Bosnia Herzegovina with ramifications in all the neighboring markets.

We have announced 1 hour ago after the due or customary announcements to the employees that we have also entered into exclusive negotiation in France for an acquisition in Northern France, a very promising market for cementitious, where we have acquired the business comprising a terminal, a grinding capacity, a state-of-the-art business.

We continue our transformation and capabilities building and the execution of our Strategy 2026 at a fast pace backed by a very strong balance sheet given our low leverage.

Over the strategy execution years, we have strengthened the core in cement and aggregate by promoting low-clinker solutions. We have invested in cementitious platforms and adjacencies, and this is a topic we will discuss more at the time of the Investor Day.

But also, we are among the early adopters of new technologies as we have entered the development stage for our carbon capture project in the plant near Athens. We are progressing at a fast pace with our calcined clay project in our plant in U.S., in Roanoke. And we have announced recently pioneering another revolutionary technology, which is meca clay and activating a new generation of cementitious together with Polysius, where the first pilots will be in Greece.

On the customer innovation fronts, we are well balanced, exposed to infrastructure, data centers, the commercial segment as well as to residential end markets in all our markets. Another element which features our strategy execution is the profitable decarbonization trajectory. As a reminder, we are long on our CO2 rights beyond 2030. And we have, for the first time, reduced the CO2 emissions below 600, reaching 588.

Not to forget, the good results have led to a strong balance sheet with low leverage and a significant dry powder, which we can deploy for further growth CapEx and bolt-on acquisitions.

On the culture and organization, I would like once again to thank you all our teams for the excellent performance and dedication in achieving this result and also to share the news that we have recently set up a dedicated organization for developing at fast pace a business on alternative cementitious materials.

We also continue on innovation front with more partnerships and corporate venture capital investments. Now for more details on the quarterly results as well as granularity on the regions, I'll pass the floor to John.

John, maybe you want to say also how this month of onboarding happened to you, and then please dive into the results.

Thank you, Marcel, and thank you, Michael, as well, and good morning, good afternoon, everyone from my side.

I've taken officially the role on November 1, but I've been on board since July 1, where we had a very detailed and articulate onboarding procedure, the Titan way, and I'm very happy now to stand in front of you, present to you our quarter 3 results.

I'm also very excited because these results and our performance of this quarter are exceptionally good on many fronts. So moving to the highlights page.

The group continued its upward trajectory in the third quarter, delivering robust sales and growth in profitability. For the 9 months sales surpassed the $2 billion mark, up 1.4% year-on-year. EBITDA for the quarter 3 grew by 20%, while on a year-to-date basis, we reached EUR 474 million, plus 8.4% versus prior year. If we were to adjust for the sale of Adocim and the ForEx translation impact, the growth would have been plus 13%.

NPAT for the quarter increased by 35%. And for the 9 months, we closed at EUR 223 million, adjusted for the one-off loss of EUR 52 million from the sale of Adocim, which was recognized in the second quarter of 2025.

Group's liquidity remains strong with net debt standing at EUR 302 million as at September 25, down from EUR 622 million in December '24, a significant reduction primarily driven by proceeds from the U.S. IPO and the disposal of Adocim. As a result of that, leverage decreased to 0.5x EBITDA even after accounting for the dividends paid last July.

It should be noted that in October, Fitch upgraded Titan's credit rating to BB+ with positive outlook from stable outlook, recognizing the group's improving performance.

Our CapEx reached EUR 185 million versus EUR 181 million in the same period last year, underscoring the group's continued focus on key strategic priorities to drive operational efficiencies and cost optimization. On a year-to-date basis, we completed 3 strategic bolt-on investments, as Marcel also shared in Greece and a JV with a precast company in Southeast Europe. And we're evaluating some attractive growth investments.

Our outlook for the remainder of the year is positive, supported by solid volume growth, resilient pricing, cost initiatives and efficiency gains. Moving to the next slide.

At the top, you can see the group's continued upward trajectory in the third quarter, delivering robust sales and profitability growth. Quarterly sales reached EUR 684 million, up 3.4% year-over-year. EBITDA closed at EUR 186.6 million, up 19.9% versus prior year, while NPAT closed at EUR 102.4 million versus EUR 75.9 million last year and grew by 35%.

Supported by this strong performance in Q3 at the bottom charts, you can see the group sales year-to-date increased by 1.4%, driven by increased volumes and overall firm pricing levels in Greece, the U.S. and Egypt. Group EBITDA grew by 8.5% (sic) [ 8.4% ], driven by cost discipline and energy efficiencies, while NPAT for the 9 months closed to EUR 222.7 million adjusted for the one-off loss of EUR 51.9 million from the sale of Adocim. This performance is effectively at about last year's level despite the increased minorities due to the IPO of Titan America.

On Slide 3, you can see the 12 months rolling, our sales and profitability. EBITDA of the last 12 months reached EUR 617 million and reflects improved margins by more than 100 basis points. Our NPAT reached EUR 304 million. This figure excludes scope changes related to Adocim and minority interest due to the IPO.

Looking now at the detailed P&L, you can see that both in Q3 and on a year-to-date basis, we not only grew in sales, but we have also reduced cost of goods sold, enhancing in this way our margins. And we also kept SG&A flat on a year-to-date basis.

On the volumes front, for the 9 months period, domestic cement volumes reached 13.2 million tons, up 1.7% after adjusting for the sale of Adocim. Aggregate volumes rose across all regions with an overall strong growth of 11%. This growth was fueled by strategic investments in the U.S. and Greece. Ready-mix concrete volume grew by 4%. Looking at the third quarter, volumes were higher in all products with domestic cement sales up 5%, aggregates plus 7% and ready-mix plus 2%.

Our strong volumes contribute to serving customers across diverse geographies and market segments. The next slide presents a sample of projects where our products are used throughout our value chain.

In Greece, we participate in numerous infrastructure and construction projects, including the Thessaloniki flyover and the Ellinikon, the largest urban redevelopment project in Europe. In the U.S., we support clients investing in data centers in Virginia, one of the world's leading hubs for data center development. Infrastructure activity remains robust across the U.S. and in Miami, we're involved in a wide range of projects spanning residential, hospitality and infrastructure sectors.

Moving to the next slide. Our capital investments year-to-date reached EUR 185 million versus EUR 181 million last year, underscoring the group's continued focus on maintaining a world-class asset base and supporting key strategic priorities, including capacity and logistics infrastructure enhancements, energy efficiency improvements and digital transformation projects. Year-to-date, the group also advanced with targeted bolt-on transactions and has a strong pipeline of M&A projects.

Looking now at our operating free cash flow. You may notice a difference versus the previous reporting cycles. We have included the finance and tax expenses, while we have excluded from the operating free cash flow, the CapEx. In this way, we want to highlight and emphasize the group's funding capacity for growth investments, organic and inorganic, and return to our shareholders. You can see that year-to-date, the group's operating free cash flow reached EUR 307 million compared to EUR 275 million in '24, reflecting the improved EBITDA performance.

Additionally, proceeds from the U.S. IPO and Adocims' divestments have compensated for the high CapEx levels and the extraordinary dividend paid earlier in July, leading eventually to a reduction of the group's net debt by EUR 320 million.

As a result of this, in the next slide you can see on the left graph that the group's net debt stood at EUR 302 million as of September '25. Leverage decreased to 0.49x EBITDA. And additionally, in October, as I've mentioned before, Fitch upgraded Titan's credit rating to BB+ with positive outlook.

On the right graph, you can see that we have limited upcoming bond maturities in the next 2 years. In fact, more than 80% of our debt is long term. Our robust financial position provides the group with significant financial flexibility and dry powder to pursue additional M&A. I will now provide you with an overview of our market performance by region.

Starting with the U.S., where our operations delivered a strong performance in Q3, and as a result, on a year-to-date basis, sales in U.S. terms increased by 1.1%, while EBITDA hiked by 7.6% to $290.1 million. In euro terms, sales in the U.S. reached EUR 1.1 billion and EBITDA grew by 3.6%, reaching EUR 257.5 million. Volumes in cement, ready-mix, aggregates and fly ash all increased in Q3, supported by favorable weather conditions despite subdued housing market dynamics.

In Florida, robust aggregates performance offset the slowdown in the residential sector. In the Mid-Atlantic, higher cement and ready-mix volumes contributed to the great top line performance. Infrastructure activity remained robust, driven by sustained federal and state investments. And in the commercial segment, data center construction continued to grow, while population migration to suburban areas and trends such as onshoring further supported momentum across commercial categories. Furthermore, in September, our U.S. operations received certification for over 40 new lintel products in Florida.

Moving on to Greece. The Greek domestic market continued to perform robustly, maintaining the strong momentum seen throughout the year. Total sales for the region grew year-to-date by 14.7% to EUR 384.8 million, and EBITDA increased by 19.2% (sic) [ 19.1% ] to EUR 56.6 million. Strong domestic sales volumes were recorded across all product segments with notable growth in ready-mix, reflecting a high degree of vertical integration.

Aggregate sales also grew by double digits as did the group's mortars business supported by the introduction of new products. Sustained pricing strength was maintained across all product lines, offsetting a higher cost base driven by increased electricity and production costs.

Moving to Southeast Europe, where market conditions remain broadly stable throughout the year. Pro forma comps -- performance comps were impacted, though as we were lapping exceptionally strong volumes in the early months of 2024, which created a high comparison base. The market activity has since normalized.

This moderation coincided with increased import competition in certain countries, resulting in heightened pressure on pricing. Despite this, Southeast Europe grew volumes in most markets in Q3 and sustained very high EBITDA margins and profitability. Sales for the region in the first 9 months of '25 stood at EUR 313 million and EBITDA reached EUR 114.5 million.

Overall, regional fundamentals remain solid, underpinned by continued infrastructure and residential construction activity as well as the implementation of major cross-border transport projects. As stated already, Titan formed a JV to acquire an 80% stake in a precast concrete and steel structure business in Bosnia and Herzegovina, operating across Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.

Now moving to the East Mediterranean region, where, as a reminder, the group divested its 75% stake in Adocim in May 2024. Hence, most of the Q3 performance is attributed to Egypt, while we continue to operate in Turkey with a grinding plant and the pozzolana quarry.

Egypt continued on the growth path started this year with higher domestic and export volumes. This, combined with improved pricing led to a significantly stronger performance. Commercial and tourism-related construction remains the fastest-growing segment in Egypt, supported by Gulf-backed FDI. The group is investing in additional storage capacity to enhance flexibility, allowing our operations to efficiently serve both domestic and export markets.

In Turkey, market activity continues to be supported by large-scale reconstruction works in the country's south following recent earthquakes.

Finally, a word on Brazil, which we consolidate on an equity basis. Domestic cement construction in Brazil grew by 3% in the 9 months of 2025. In the Northeast region, where we operate, consumption rose by 6.4%, driven by increased public works and growth in the residential segment.

Apodi posted year-to-date sales of EUR 78.3 million, plus 5.9% in local currency, while EBITDA increased to EUR 20.3 million, which is a growth of 21.2% in local currency.

And now let me pass the word back to Marcel for a couple of words on the outlook.

We remain positive on our outlook. In the U.S., infrastructure and private non-residential remain the key growth drivers, given our unmatched logistics capability and strengthened by the recent investments.

We continue seeing a robust growth in Greece, as John mentioned here, supported by the EU-funded infrastructure, but also a very good balance on the end markets between commercial infrastructure and residential, which is fueled by strong private consumption.

Southeastern Europe, there the story continues with stable growth and high margins, supported by public investment, foreign remittances as well as increasingly EU funding. So construction and tourists remain key value drivers there.

Egypt, it's markedly an improved market where we are equally balanced between domestic market, which is benefiting from increased public investment as well as regional export opportunities in markets which are in a boom of reconstruction.

As well as Turkey, which is still improving its market demand post-earthquake of last year, while economic growth is expected to be moderate. However, we maintain a long-term strategic presence following recent portfolio adjustment. So overall, a positive outlook that also illustrates the profile of the group, which is with an exposure to attractive markets, well-balanced portfolio mix, which now presents a strong backlog, strong order book, resilient pricing, including for aggregates and ready-mix.

We continue our performance initiatives as we prepare 2026 in pricing, but also cost improvements, and these are mainly energy related, whether it's substitution of fossil fuels by lower cost alternative fuels or mitigating increasing electricity costs and lowering consumption.

We continue our growth CapEx and inorganic investments. The growth CapEx goes mainly into grinding, storage. John just mentioned that in the U.S. to increase our exposure to the precast industry in addition to the blocks, we are now having the regulator approval to launch in the market.

Lintels, these are important precast elements used to strengthen the windows and doors and given the favorable legislation as well as the increased penetration of concrete in -- for durability of housing, this is another way of preparing for the housing rebound.

So this year remains another record profitability year for Titan, which is marked by transformative moves like the investment in cementitious, bolt-ons on aggregate. As a reminder, this is the year we also had the IPO in U.S. We had a record shareholder return with a special dividend at EUR 3 per share. We are delivering top-of-class ROCE. We are portfolio reshuffling, including the recent move in Turkey, and we continue the shares buyback as previously announced.

Maybe I will finish to what you should expect from us at the Investor Day on Tuesday. Look, we'll make the case for delivering in advance all the relevant financial targets, 1 year in advance to our Strategy 2026, while we are outperforming the market for -- consistently for the past 3 years in terms of growth.

We will share with you our views in pursuing value growth, our views on strong markets with attractive value growths in Europe and U.S. And we'll spend time together with all executives on displaying the value drivers going forward, our cementitious platform, our advanced AI and adoption of new technologies, which is continuously fueling industrial gains, and of course, our expectations on continuing and building the funnel for inorganic growth and M&A.

And together with our CFO and Michael here, we will also provide you the financial trajectory and the upgraded target for 2029. So this will be a very interesting day. Looking forward to having you all there and discussing all this excitement news.

I think that ends our formal presentation. Happy to take some questions for the remaining time.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Burazanes Marios with Eurobank Equities.

Just a couple of questions from my side. I just wanted to maybe ask for a bit more color on the investment in France that you mentioned, if there is a time line out for that? And also maybe some comments on the size of this deal, if you could comment on that.

And also, I just wanted to ask about the U.S. as well. You mentioned continuous strength in infrastructure and commercial, but a bit more weaker residential trends. Is this something that you also see continuing into 2026? And is this sort of new trend in profitability also expected to continue for Latin America going ahead?

Thank you for your question. So we did not announce an investment in France. We announced that we entered exclusive negotiation for the acquisition of Vracs de L'Estuaire. That's also in line with the regulation in France where employees are consulted, then there are other customary approvals. So towards the completion, if everything goes well, this will take probably between 3 and 6 months, but we will keep you appraised.

We are acquiring a business in Northern France in the Port of Le Havre, not far from one of the markets with the highest growth and profitability and future developments, which is the Greater Paris and the central market of France. This complements our position, which we already have in France, in Southern France, and it's a platform for us to further develop our position by promoting low carbon product, low clinker product, but also directly cement issues.

You may remember that over the past 2 years, we have invested in Pozzolanic-based cement. Pozzolan is an excellent cementitious, which can reduce both the clinker as well as the carbon in a market like France, which has specific regulations on the energy efficiency in the buildings and promotes this. We are not disclosing today the financials of this transaction. We may do it at a later stage, but we are very happy with this move.

Now on U.S., your reading is right. We are happy with the order backlog, and we are happy with the volumes and pricing resilience across all our business lines, cement, aggregates and ready-mix. We are seeing also nice pricing developments in aggregates and ready-mix and fly ash in the market. Our exposure to infrastructure markets, which continues to be a key driver as well as commercial segments, including data center.

And I think at the time of the Investor Day, we provide you more granularity, and you will be happy to hear on how many projects of data centers our teams in U.S. are exposed and they do a new way of selling.

Housing remains a challenging segment. While you will see that some of the housing indexes show a certain rebound. This we don't yet see it in the volumes and probably this will continue for a couple of months. There is always a time lag between the interest rates and the investments -- the actual investment.

So as we have communicated yesterday to the markets in U.S. or this morning to the markets in U.S., this rebound is expected now to be in the second half of next year. However, the margins, to your question, we believe that the margins will continue to be strong, thanks to both self-help measures on the industrial cost as well as on the other cost categories, but also thanks to preparation of 2026 in terms of pricing.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no audio questions at this time. I will now move on to our webcast participant written questions.

The first question is from Auguste Deryckx with KECH. And I quote, "Congratulations on these excellent results. I have 2 questions, if I may. First, EBITDA growth was largely supported by cost discipline and energy efficiencies. Could you provide more details on which specific efficiency measures delivered the largest impact? How sustainable these cost improvements are going into 2026? And is there still potential for further reduction optimization?"

Yes. Thank you, Auguste, for your question. Look, the usual CapEx, and we are doubling down on them. So it's energy and materials. And on the energy is on both fronts, lowering our [ calorifical ] consumption and electricity consumption, but also doubling down in our investments in using alternative fuels. We have reached increasingly in 2 of our plants consistently usage of alternative fuels beyond 80%. The plant near Athens here is at more than 85% on a consistent basis.

Just as a reminder, between 2021 and 2025, the gains from alternative fuels, meaning replacing fossil fuels by waste, shreddy tires, used oils and similar fuels have already brought to Titan close to 100 million in gains. So this will continue.

The second is replacing part of the clinker with alternative cementitious materials as we bring up more pozzolan, more fly ash increasingly, we are securing slag. And in the future, we will have also [ play ].

I'm sure at the time of the Investor Day, since we will spend probably 1/3 of the time with the investors and the equity analysts on the efficiencies. We will provide more details on the industrial cost gains. We will announce a target on the industrial cost gains for the coming years, which will continuously fuel the margin optimization.

And the second question from Mr. Auguste. And I quote, "Do you consider it possible that the residential market in the U.S. will recover by the end of half 1 '26? If not, what measures can you take to cope with this trend?"

I think we answered this question extensively for the live question.

The next question is from Ethan Cunningham with On Field Investment Research. How do the U.S. tariffs work or impact your Greek business? What are the impacts of tariffs on your Greek exports and U.S. imports?

We continue having a long supply chain from our operations to U.S. from Turkey as we used to have it from Greece. And we are building capacities now and the capabilities to start and consistently deliver to U.S. from Egypt. So we maintain an export mix of outlets were delivering good quality and at the same time, at lowest cost is our mission.

Now given the impact of tariffs, today, the impact is rather limited. I think its --

Its $7 to $8 per ton.

$7 to $8 per ton. We have confirmed this morning as well in the Titan America phone call. And this is not more than 6 million, give or take, for the year. So a good mix of export outlets, limited impact for now, and we continuously adapt to the situation.

. So between Greece, Turkey and Egypt, the tariffs are practically the same.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Cobuz for any closing comments. Thank you.

Very well, thank you. Very glad to be here with Michael and John and reporting these great results, which show the strength of Titan Group, the strength of its portfolio, well-balanced mix on attractive markets, which display nice value growth going forward.

More to say on all these topics as well as new strategic priorities and targets for 2029 on the 11th of November for our Investor Day in Athens. This will also be followed by a roadshow with equity analysts in London and Greece in the month of December. So we are creating new opportunities to spend time with all of you and very happy to answer any questions.

And of course, all these documents of today as well as the documents that we are going to publish on Tuesday will be made available to all of you. And at any time for any questions, we have here Spyros Kamizoulis to get your questions and to answer them.

Thank you again and see you in few days.